Caravan Evolved Craft has raised a fresh round of funding of Rs 8.5 crore from existing investor Unitus Seed Fund and others. This takes the total amount of equity raised by the company to Rs 12 crore. Alongside, it has raised debt of Rs 14 crore from National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) from a total project sanction of Rs 42 crore.
“Our seed investment in Caravan in 2013 was anchored by strength of the team, the India retail opportunity and large scale impact that Caravan was intending to create. We’ve seen that play out well over the past two years – the supply chain is now in place and the brand well established. We continue to believe in the team and the opportunity and are excited about the planned retail footprint expansion in India and elsewhere and online,” said Srikrishna Ramamoorthy, partner, Unitus.
Launched by former chief executive of Hidesign Kunal R Sachdev in 2008, Caravan launched as a brand in 2013 with its first retail store in Bengaluru. Since then it has opened two more store in Pune and Mumbai. It will open a fourth in Chennai next month.
The company sells contemporary products across five categories- apparel, jewelery, home decor, gifts and toys with an inventory of 2000 SKUs, tapping into skill-sets of local artisans. It works with artisan clusters, NGOs, family units, self-help groups, a total of 20, and trains them on skills required to meet Caravan’s quality standards. The company’s engaged with about 560 artisans pan-India and trained 7,000, to date.
This month it opened its first concept store in Bengaluru allowing customers to experience different ensembles from catalogue with the option to order online through its ecommerce portal at the store itself.
“We will use money for expansion in India and international markets,” said Sachdev, managing director and CEO, Caravan. It also sells its line of jewelry at Globus, a Switzerland-based department store and is looking to enter other European markets in spring-summer of 2016.
Other investors in the company include Bijou Kurien, former chief executive at Reliance Retail and Narayan Ramachandran former country head of Morgan Stanley in India.