Women’s apparel e-tailer, eShakti, with headquarters in Chennai and the US, has raised debt funding to the extent of $2.3 million (Rs 14.84 crore). The investor is an NBFC, BlackSoil Capital Pvt. Ltd. In its previous fund raising eShakti had received $1.3 million (Rs 9 crores) and this was in September last year and the investors then were Infina Finance, and Polaris Banyan Holding.
The fresh funds now inducted will be deployed towards expanding its design offerings as well as gearing itself for the Spring season fashion.
As a venture, eShakti is fairly old, having started operations in 1999 and on its website, the company was offering basic cottons and embellished pieces. From there, it has now evolved into a mainstream dresses and fashion e-tailer and it has a unique model of not stocking the products, but get them made to order. So, customers place their orders, spell out their unique sizes and then eShakti gets them cut, stitched and finished and supplies to the customers.
Buyers can order custom-designed dresses and eShakti’s design teams operating out of New York, London and India. The clothes are then made either in the company’s own units or outsourced. Besides Chennai and Delhi and the other 2 cities mentioned above, eShati maintains a customer service facility near Seattle in US as well. They may now expand their operations from the US market where they have a strong presence to other regions, like Australia and Europe.
The company claims to have grown to clock a turnover of Rs 100 crore and has been receiving funding support from IDG Ventures on a regular basis. Having raised $15 million in equity funding already, eShakti appears to be targeting another $25 million to shore up its capital which may be the series C funding for the company.