Silver jewellery-focused startup GIVA has raised an undisclosed amount in a Series B round of funding co-led by Aditya Birla Ventures, the venture capital arm of diversified Aditya Birla Group and growth stage investor A91 Partners.
The infusion will be primarily used by the startup to drive sales channel expansion and introduce new product categories.
Sixth Sense Ventures, another of the company’s existing investors also participated in this round. This is the third transaction struck by Aditya Birla Ventures, which was launched in January this year. It has previously backed Bengaluru-based business-to-business (B2B) credit infrastructure fintech FinBox and online retail platform Dukaan.
“In addition to the fund infusion, we will benefit from their expertise in grooming new-age startups and intend to leverage it to drive our retail channel expansion to augment our customer base. As a brand, GIVA has grown in the challenging post-COVID period, thanks to unit economics and a team that is spearheading various initiatives across online and offline retail channels,” said Ishendra Agarwal, co-founder at GIVA.
Founded in 2019 by Agarwal, Nikita Prasad and Sachin Shetty, GIVA offers a range of designs in precious metals like 18 karat gold, rose gold and oxidized silver with embellishments of zircon, pearl, marcasite and other coloured stones.
The company, which had made its presence felt on digital marketplaces and also through its own site, is also bullishly looking at offline expansion. Currently, the brand runs 3 exclusive stores in Bengaluru and has also forged partnerships with retail giants like Shoppers Stop and Reliance Trends for a national footprint.
“We believe silver jewellery, in particular, is ripe for significant growth across both online as well as offline channels. With a strong focus on product, customer centricity and engagement, GIVA is one of the fastest growing silver jewellery brands nationally,” said Aryaman Vikram Birla, founder of Aditya Birla Ventures.
In January this year, the brand had pocketed $10 million as a part of its Series A funding led by direct-to-consumer (D2C) focused venture capital funds Sixth Sense Ventures and A91 Partners.
The company claimed to have raised $675,000 across different seed rounds between August 2019 and July 2020 from investors like India Quotient, Snapdeal ’s Kunal Bahl, and ShareChat Co-founder Ankush Sachdeva among others.
Other players in this segment include Carat Lane, Bluestone, Melorra and Kushal’s, among others.
In May, Bengaluru-based omni-channel fashion jewellery retailer Kushal’s Retail Pvt Ltd, secured $11 million from homegrown private equity fund Motilal Oswal Private Equity.
Earlier same month, Melorra raised $16 million from Axis Growth Avenues, SRF Family Office, N+1 and existing investors, in the first leg of its Series D round.
