Handbag brand Lavie’s parent firm closes first institutional funding round

livemint.com:

₹75 crore) in its first institutional funding round since it was founded in 2010. The round was led by homegrown private-equity firm First Bridge, which will deploy capital for Lavie via its India Growth Fund. “Lavie comes with a long track record of building successful consumer businesses," said Ayush Tainwala, chief executive of Bagzone.

“We hope to grow 10x in the next few years and become a multi-category, multi-brand business. We will use the funds raised to enhance our in-house manufacturing capability, deepen our offline presence and grow the brand’s stature and recall," he added. Bagzone will look to establish a 150,000 sq ft factory.

It will also look to expand its offline presence by setting a target to open 300 exclusive outlets, it said in a statement. Bagzone was founded by Shobha Tainwala. It offers offers products ranging from handbags to wallets and travel accessories through its portfolio of brands – Lavie, Lavie Sport, and Lavie Luxe.

It has an R&D and manufacturing facility in Nashik, which is the largest integrated facility in South Asia, spread across five acres. Bagzone reported a profit of ₹1.6 crore and a consolidated revenue of ₹281 crore in FY22, according to VCCEdge, the data intelligence platform of VCCircle. “Lavie operates in a market that will benefit from the shift to organised and an exponential increase in women’s consumption over the next few years," said Vishal Kumar Gupta, managing partner of First Bridge.