Back in the day, talking about lingerie was a taboo in India. However, times change and so do people!
An enthusiastic MBA student, Richa Kar, developed an online lingerie shopping platform in the year 2011.
The company had so far, raised $ 9 million from IDG Ventures India, Kalaari Capital and Unilazer Ventures. Alongside, Zivame counts Ratan Tata as an investor. Now that is big! Currently, Zivame is India’s leading online lingerie store which offers a variety of 5,000 styles, 50 brands and 100 sizes with a valuation of $100 million.
Zivame is probably the first in the online lingerie platform in India!
From then to now!
Richa Kar completed her engineering from BITS, Pilani, followed by her management studies from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies in 2007.
Later, she worked for SAP Retail Consulting during which she found herself working for the famous lingerie company Victoria’s Secret.
The brilliant idea for her own lingerie business came to light when Richa tracked Victoria’s Secret’s sales, who was one of her clients at SAP. She observed the lingerie sales figures reached peaks overseas but, Indian women were not provided with the similar innerwear. While Richa was studying the Indian lingerie market, she realized the social embarrassment in India surrounding lingerie shopping. It was causing several problems for women as well as retailers.
Richa researched many lingerie stores and found out that women were uncomfortable buying inner wears as the stores had male salesperson.
In order to solve the issues, Richa came up with Zivame!
The name Zivame comes from a Hebrew word radiance. So, the main motive of this young lady Richa, is to help women understand their lingerie needs and purchase them without any kind of embarrassment.
Post the launch of the website, there were questions raised on the image of Richa’s family in the society. Her friends and family members wondered if she had to admit she was selling bras and panties on the web in the typical Indian language. Initially, Richa faced a lot of pressure but that didn’t stop her from achieving her goals!
There were a lot of people who also made fun of her business!
Richa couldn’t even find a place on rent because the landlords asked her what she was doing and she had to tell them she sold clothes online.
Richa says,
If you are strong, focused and passionate about what you want to do, everything falls in place.
Zivame also partnered with several media channels that launched Zivame bra advertisements that created awareness among women!
Alongside, the website also provided customers with the option of returning the products as well! With time, Zivame started getting positive response from its buyers!
Richa’s first client was a man from Indore who bought materials worth Rs 7,000 and from then there was no stopping! Since the inception of Zivame, it grew from a small firm to a company of more than 200 employees. With her dedication toward her idea and work, Richa built Zivame which is now worth more than Rs. 681 Crore.
The online lingerie shopping platform Zivame, claims growth of 300% yearly! The company received its first funding of $ 3 million in May 2012, followed by another funding of $ 6 million in Dec 2013 and $ 40 million in 2015.
Zivame.com, now have more than 5 million followers and more than a million visitors per day.
According to Richa,
Worldwide, lingerie is the most exciting category in the women’s apparel segment. The Indian woman, who is more confident than ever before is indulging herself in lingerie to express her individuality. Zivame is the catalyst of this change; using technology to understand her better and providing her an unsurpassed lingerie experience.
So, If you have zeal like Richa Kar, you can achieve anything and everything!
Article Source: Startup Stories