This sachin tendulkar-funded company, partners with celebrities to create co-branded fashion brands. The portfolio of brands include wrogn, a premier fashion brand inspired by virat kohli, imara, a contemporary women’s ethnic fashion brand with shraddha kapoor and collectabillia, which e-tails rare sports merchandise.
DIVYA M. CHANDRAMOULI
At Anjana Reddy’s Universal Sportsbiz Pvt. Ltd., an apparel business, celebrities inspire clothes. The Bengaluru-based firm in which Sachin Tendulkar held a minority stake prior to its Series-A funding of Rs. 17.25 crore from Accel Partners, is built on a hybrid model where its clothing is sold both online and offline. Universal Sportsbiz began business with its line Collectabillia, which sold sports memorabilia and it has added on two more distinct lines; Wrogn inspired by cricketer Virat Kohli and Imara based on Bollywood star Shraddha Kapoor. In the offline retail space, Wrogn retails exclusively at Shoppers Stop while Imara retails at Shoppers Stop, Central and Ethnicity. In July 2015, Accel Partners invested a second round in the company, to the tune of Rs. 46 crore.
Universal Sportsbiz has grown a 100 per cent in revenues, year-on-year, and currently has a monthly run rate that of Rs. 5.5 crore. As Reddy suggests, its initial success has proven the market potential that exists for home-grown celebrity fashion lines in India. The company’s hybrid business model also allows it the flexibility to scale rapidly. With the latest round of funding, Universal Sportsbiz plans to increase its store tally from 30 stores to over 75 stores for Imara and from 38 stores to 70 stores for Wrogn.
Growing base: It has a customer base of 50,000 people and has a 100 per cent y-o-y revenue growth
Brand potential: The company has established three brands and demonstrated market potential for home grown Indian celebrity fashion lines
Auction platform: Collectabillia launched its auction platform during the 2012 season of the IPL partnering with master blaster Sachin Tendulkar exclusively to auction limited edition merchandise post his historical ‘hundredth hundred’.
