Chumbak raises funding from Blacksoil, looking to expand retail

Lifestyle brand, the Bangalore-based Chumbak Design, has raised Rs 11 crores via equity and debt funding from November 2016 to May this year, as per filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). In May, it had raised Rs 8 crore in debt from Mumbai-based non-banking financial company Blacksoil Capital. The funds will be used to meet its working capital requirements and expand retail network. In November last year, it had raised Rs 3 crore funds while in 2014 it had raised around Rs 30 crores.

Chumbak’ which designer-led consumer products is retailed through 18 EBOs across 11 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi and Jaipur. The buzz is it plans to double the number of offline EBOs to 30 by the end of 2017. Besides, it also has pop-up stores in prominent malls across the country.

Chumbak also retails through its own online platform and other e-commerce portals like Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra. Online contributes around 25 to 30 per cent to the brand’s overall business, while offline accounts for the rest. Its product basket include apparels, home and accessories which they retail over 100 categories across 17 stores pan India. Started in 2009 by husband-wife duo Prabhakar and Shubhra Chadda, with a souvenir store Chumbak has now become a lifestyle brand just five years. It recorded 300 per cent growth YOY and diversified across 100 categories, including fashion and travel accessories, bags and wallets and decor. In late 2015, it forayed into the apparel category.