Zouk Funding: D2C brand Zouk raises $3M led by Stellaris Venture Partners

Fashion brand direct selling (D2C) Zouk claimed to have raised $3 million led by Stellaris Venture Partners and saw participation Sharp VenturesJJ family office, Deutsche Bank India CEO Dilip Khandelwal, Atomberg founder Manoj Meena and Sugar Cosmetics founders Vinita Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee.

Zouk operates in the handbags, wallets and shoes categories and plans to invest in promoting its brand, expanding collections, hiring more people, strengthening the supply chain and opening offline stores.

The startup said it plans to open five outlets this year. It is already present in over 50 retail touchpoints.

Zook last raised a $1.5 million funding round, again led by Stellaris Venture Partners.

The company is known for producing Peta-approved bags and other “vegan leather” products. The startup claims to have grown 10x since its last funding round.

“We have a lot of exciting things ahead of us over the next 18 months,” said co-founder Disha Singh. “We are rapidly expanding our collection of bags and shoes to offer a wider range of Proudly Indian products. Our recent releases of backpacks, baguettes and clutches have been a great success.”

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The deal comes at a time when a lack of funding in the startup space has led to sales problems in the D2C space. Goat Brand Labs, backed by Flipkart Ventures and Tiger Global, acquired Chumbak, along with other D2C brands, in a January sale.Traditional traditional companies such as UnileverAditya Birla Group and ITC also acquired several D2C brands such as Oziva, Wellbeing Nutrition, Yoga Bar and Bewakoof among others.

“We have been impressed with Zouk’s capital-efficient growth. So we decided to double our investment,” said Rahul Chowdhry, partner at Stellaris Venture Partners. “With an expanding range of shoes, an upcoming offline foray, and planned brand building initiatives, we are thrilled with what Zouk has in store.”

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