Mumbai: Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd (USPL), the pioneering celebrity fashion lines company, has secured Rs46 crore ($7.5 million) from existing investor Accel Partners in Series B round of funding. The second round of funding follows the initial investment of Rs17.25 crore by Accel Partners in July 2012. USPL, which has an annual turnover of Rs 25 crore, has a significant presence in the multi-billion dollar celeb fashion lines business with three distinct offerings. It has 15-20 exciting celebrities in its portfolio both from the sports and entertainment segments.
The fledging USPL’s portfolio of leading brands include WROGN, (pronounced wrong), launched in October 2014, a break-away youth fashion brand which is inspired by the distinctive sense of style and the enormous youth appeal of cricketing genius Virat Kohli, and Imara, launched in February 2015, which is all about reinventing fashion classics and creating a contemporary product narrative for ethnic wear with Bollywood diva Shraddha Kapoor as the face for Imara.
Collectabillia, a sports fan’s dream offers tailored limited edition merchandise of sporting icons like Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza, Virat Kolhi, Yuvraj Singh, Vishwanathan Anand, Sir Viv Richards and Adam Gilchrist among others. During the 2015 World Cup, it offered an exclusive range of mobile phone and laptop accessories under the ‘Lionel Messi’ range and celebrated the phenomenon called Sachin Tendulkar with customised, attractive mobile cases, belts and wallets.
USPL founder Anjana Reddy, promises a new collection shot with Shraddha and Virat by the end of July, in a campaign with shots of them never done before. Riding high on the new funding, Ms Reddy expects her company’s turnover to increase to between Rs35 crore-Rs100 crore by the end of this fiscal as the new funding would enhance their foray into new markets and segments.
“The last couple of years have been an exciting period for USPL. We have successfully established three brands and demonstrated market potential for home grown Indian celebrity fashion lines,” she said. “Each of these brands has the potential to emerge as multi-million dollar globally recognised fashion brands having their distinct set of loyal customers. We are in a unique position to capitalise this potential that arises from a confluence of sports, celebrity and fashion culture in India. People are moving towards western fashions.”
Ms Reddy also plans to expand the distribution network for WROGN and Imara across the country from 30 stores to over 75 stores for Imara and from 38 stores to 70 stores for WROGN.
“The next phase in the evolution of fashion e-commerce would be dominated by brands. As the pressure to improve margins in horizontal commerce and market places increase, the good brands will provide the answer. USPL has an online and offline strategy for distribution. They have done an excellent job in building three great brands and have global aspiration in the near future,” said Mahendran Balachandran, partner, Accel Partners India.
