Women-centric fast fashion brand Libas has raised Rs 150 crore ($18 million) in funding from ICICI Venture, one of the oldest private equity firms in the country.
The alternative investment arm of ICICI Bank invested in Libas from its fifth PE fund, India Advantage Fund Series 5, which wrapped up fundraising last year after securing almost Rs 3,000 crore from its limited partners.
Libas said in a statement it will primarily use the capital to strengthen its omni-channel presence and ramp up its exclusive brand and retail outlets across key metros and tier 1/2/3 cities over the next few years.
"The organised Indian apparel sector is expected to grow significantly in coming years and this investment will fuel expansion across categories, and geographies with a strong focus on omnichannel experience," said Sidhant Keshwani, founder and CEO at Libas.
The company originally started in 1985 but reinvented itself as a direct-to-consumer fast fashion brand in 2014. It company says it offers ethnic wear and fusion silhouettes curated to match the aspiration of modern Indian women.
Libas has a presence on ecommerce platforms such as Flipkart and Myntra. It operates its own brand outlets and is also present in large format stores and multi-brand outlets. A significant portion of its revenue comes from its own D2C channels.
The company claims to have crossed Rs 500 crore in revenue during FY24. It generated net sales of Rs 365 crore in FY23, as per VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle.
Libas is one of several players that have have emerged in the fast fashion segment in recent years. Some of them have also managed to rope in institutional investors. For instance, Snitch raised Series A funding last December. In November last year, Style Icon raised Rs 195 crore from a clutch of family offices.
ICICI Venture was set up in 1988. It invests in PE, real estate, special situations and infrastructure asset classes via separate funds. The firm launched its fifth PE fund in the fiscal year ended March 2022. It raised about Rs 3,000 crore ($362 million), which included a greenshoe option of Rs 500 crore, for the fund, VCCircle reported in August last year.
The firm has struck a few bets over the past year. It joined hands with Infosys co-founder K. Dinesh’s Mirabilis Investment Trust earlier this year to invest in Pritam International Pvt. Ltd, a contract manufacturer of cosmetics and pharmaceutical products under the Wonder Products brand.
The PE firm led a Series E funding round of $35 million (Rs 290 crore) in technology-based small business financier Indifi Technologies last year. In November 2022, ICICI Venture invested Rs 360 crore (around $44.3 million) in consumer houseware company Cello World, marking the first bet from its fifth private equity fund.
