The retail arm of the oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries (NS: RELI), Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) has acquired an 89% equity stake in the full-stack lingerie brand Clovia, as announced by the company on Sunday.
Reliance Retail will invest Rs 950 crore in the operator company of the innerwear brand, Purple Panda Fashions. It is through a combination of primary investment and secondary stake purchase, as per a joint statement.
Reliance Retail has invested in the form of secondary share purchase and primary capital infusion. Clovia’s founding team and management will own the remaining 11% stake in the eight-year-old company.
Reliance Retail, which has acquired online lingerie brands Zivame and Amante in recent years, said its $125 million investment in Clovia includes some secondary stake purchases.
Speaking on the investment, Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, said, “Reliance has always been at the forefront of enhancing choices and offering the best value proposition to consumers.
We are pleased to add style, quality, and design-led intimate wear brand ‘Clovia’ to our portfolio. We look forward to working with the strong management team at Clovia to take the business to greater heights.”
Besides, the partnership is also beneficial for Clovia, as it will gain from RIL’s scale and retail expertise, extending the presence of the brand. It brought together a stronger value proposition through world-class quality, design, and fashion in the intimate wear category, it added.
About Clovia
Launched in 2013 by Pankaj Vermani, Neha Kant & Suman Choudhary, Clovia is India’s leading bridge-to-premium D2C brand democratizing aspirational innerwear and loungewear for millennials women. It commands a strong customer following in the intimate wear space and is known for its design-led fresh styles and sharply-priced offerings to customers.
Clovia’s offerings include 3,500+ product styles, based on its feedback-led design approach and backed by its proprietary “Clovia Curve Fit Test”. Clovia has a strong in-house design process to offer trending designs and innovative styles. It follows an asset-light outsourced production model.
Pankaj Vermani, Founder & CEO of Clovia, said, “Clovia is excited to become a part of the Reliance Retail family. Through this partnership, we will benefit from Reliance’s scale and retail expertise, extending the presence of the brand. It brings together a stronger value proposition through world-class quality, design, and fashion in the intimate wear category. We look forward to making Clovia the most loved brand in this category.”
About RVVL
RRVL is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited and the holding company of all the retail companies under the RIL Group. RRVL reported a consolidated turnover of Rs 1,57,629 crore ($21.6 billion). A net profit of Rs 5,481 crore ($750 million) for the year ended March 31, 2021.
