D2C sports brand Elevar has raised $2.6 million (Rs 19 crore) in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Kalaari Capital along with participation from Dream Capital (DreamCap), the corporate venture capital and M&A arm of Dream Sports.
The fresh capital will be used to expand Elevar's product portfolio, increasing its marketing efforts and building out its team.
Founded by Kunal Joshi and Aayush Taapuriah, Elevar focuses on Athletic Performance Footwear and Cricket bats categories.
“Cutting-edge materials and technology in sporting goods have always been priced out of reach for several Indians. Our direct-to-consumer business model enables us to offer customers these innovative technologies at an extremely attractive price point,” Aayush Tapuriah, co-founder of Elevar, said.
D2C brands have seen a recent boom in investments, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars of venture firms.
This month, D2C online apparel platform, Bewakoof raised $8 million (Rs 60 crore) in its pre-Series B round of funding led by InvestCorp.
In the same month, New Delhi-based Rage Coffee raised $5 million from Sixth Sense Ventures.
In July, Marico, the maker of Parachute hair oil and Saffola cooking oil, picked up a majority stake in a D2C personal care brand.
During this period, Belgium-based Sofina SA invested around Rs 202 crore ($27 million) in personal care brand Mamaearth.
Lockdown-induced closures of physical stories forced many brands to move to direct-to-consumer channels, it has become the only way to survive during the pandemic.