Clovia

Clovia is a manufacturer and marketer of women's lingerie, shapewear, sleepwear, and swimwear. The company is backed by Ivy Cap Ventures and Zurich-based Mountain Partners AG. As per a report in CB insights, Clovia is one of the top 10 early stage e-commerce startups to look out for.
History
The company started its operations in 2013 and was started by Pankaj Vermani - an IIT post-graduate and a serial entrepreneur, Neha Kant - an e-commerce expert, Suman Chowdhury - design veteran with an experience of 16 years, and Aditya Chaturvedi - HBTI graduate and a start-up specialist.

According to an interview with Bloomberg TV India in 2015 the founders realised there existed a major gap in intimate wear segment for women in India. Traditionally Indian women have been exposed to few styles and designs and anything remotely well-designed would be priced exorbitantly. Retailers sold what they found easy to stock i.e. limited options in sizes, fits and solutions. In last decade, a woman’s outerwear had changed drastically especially the workwear, but the innerwear had not kept pace. Given this, they saw potential in developing a new brand for lingerie with a range that addresses today’s working women needs with solution based fashionable lingerie. Today, the company is growing over 100% quarter on quarter and ships 2,50,000 units a month. Having started online in 2013, the company opened 10 shop-in-shop outlets at airports as a marketing channel to be closer to customers, reach out to them and get their direct feedback.
Funding
Clovia is backed by IvyCap Ventures, Zurich-based Mountain Partners AG and a group of private investors from across the globe.
Operations
A report in Techportal in November 2015, suggests that Clovia has over 3 lakh registered users and 2.8 million page users and has sold 1 lakh units per month with a month-over-month growth rate of 15-20%. Being a manufacturer, there is a big problem of inventory management for Clovia as about 100-200 designs come out every month which is a huge number. To solve this problem, Clovia uses big data and technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence for manufacturing undergarments, the same article mentions.
An article in TechinAsia in March 2016 mentioned that Clovia’s growth can be attributed to its collection of bras, which contribute to over 65 percent of Clovia’s overall sales. And the company is expanding into newer categories such as swimwear, loungewear and fast fashion.
Clovia presently designs in-house, and outsources the production to over 16 factories, primarily across North India.
Marketing
Clovia awarded its media duties to Havas Media in 2015 for Rs 30 crore. The company also ran a digital video campaign with stand-up artist Neeti Palta. Keeping the ethos of start-ups alive, Clovia has undertaken unconventional routes to reach out to its users such as "What’s your Size" campaign with Ginger Cups in Bangalore. The campaign was aimed at promoting awareness about women choosing the right cup size while picking up bras and promoting their “Fit-Test.”

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