Indian Digital-First Retail Brands Sugar Raise Early Stage Capital

Indian Digital-First Retail Brands Sugar Raise Early Stage Capital

Vellvette Lifestyle, the company that owns and operates cruelty-free, online-first cosmetics brand Sugar, raised $2 million in debt capital as part of the first tranche of an ongoing Series C funding round. The debt tranche was led by Stride Ventures and an undisclosed private sector bank participated in the round. The capital will be deployed to meet working capital and inventory requirements and fuel growth through the peak festive sales season, the Mumbai-based company said in a statement.

“SUGAR plays in a high gross margin category which makes debt a fantastic choice for us… we are excited about working with Stride and their partner private bank and announce $2M as the first tranche of the Series C funding that we hope to close later this year,” co-founder and CEO Vineeta Singh said.

Launched in 2015 by IIM Ahmedabad graduates Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee, the brand targets the younger Indian demographic through its range of affordable premium products. In the financial year 2019-2020, the company said it clocked net revenues at Rs. 105 crore.

“The investment in SUGAR reinforces Stride’s continuing preference for homegrown startups that have shown strong company fundamentals. Apart from a ~6x jump in revenue in two years, SUGAR’s hybrid approach, with a robust online as well as offline presence across 2,400 outlets in over 130 cities and strong brand loyalty makes it an attractive proposition,” Stride Ventures said in the statement.

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