Indya raises Rs 50 crore from Sangita Jindal and others

High Street Essentials, the makers of fashion brand Indya, on Monday announced a Rs 50-crore fund-raise from JSW Group chairman Sajjan Jindal's wife, Sangita Jindal, and other investors.

Three-fourths of the funding is equity infusion for a minority stake, while the rest is debt, Indya's co-founder Shivani Poddar said. Other investors who have participated include family offices of SRF Group, Krishna Bodanapu of Cyient Technologies and Timmy Sarna from Pure Home + Living.

Poddar said, while there are a lot of opportunities to benefit from the industrial or capital goods-focused JSW Group's businesses, the immediate driver is the synergies that are made possible courtesy the work done with village artisans by Sangita Jindal-headed JSW Foundation. Anurag Murali, also a co-founder of the company, said Indya can benefit from JSW's expertise in celebrity-led marketing and supply chain management in the future. It can be noted that a majority of big conglomerates have investments in fashion brands but nearly all such groups have retail ventures.

The 2012-founded Indya, which delivered operational profit in April this year, will be utilising the newly raised funds for business expansion, and plans to invest up to $3 million in FY25, which will include opening ten offline stores in the country, Murali said.

At present, it has 12 exclusive brand outlets in eight cities, and 150 large-format retail outlets, including Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop, Centro and Ethnicity. Having been active in selling its wares online in the US, the brand is also aiming to open a physical presence either in the US or South Africa in FY25, he added. In a statement, Sangita Jindal said along with the global expansion, the investment will also help the brand widen its market share in the Indian wedding-wear opportunity.

The company's core strength is in its unique designs, she said, appreciating the back-end capabilities created by the founders.