Melorra has raised $12.5 million in funding as the online daily wear jewellery maker aims to double down on its marketing spend amid a surge in demand from smaller towns during the pandemic.
Symphony Asia, one of Asia's first private equity firms, led the fresh funding worth $10.5 million. Alteria Capital—a venture debt fund—joined in as a new investor, infusing another $2 million as part of debt financing, Saroja Yeramilli, founder and chief executive officer at Melorra, told BloombergQuint over the phone.
Existing investors such as Lightbox Ventures and family offices of Burman—the private investment arm of promoters of Dabur India—and the Jeejeebhoy family office, too, participated in the fundraise, according to a company statement.
“Over the past four months, they [Melorra] have turned the business on its head, in what's been nothing short of a master class,” Siddharth Talwar, co-founder of Lightbox Ventures, said. Not only the revenue is on track to surpass pre-Covid levels, but the firm has also done it while cutting marketing spend by more than 50%, and achieving positive unit economics, he said.
Founded in 2015, Melorra caters to 1,700 towns and sells necklace and bracelets, among others, with a ‘Zara-esque' fast fashion model—making affordable gold jewellery—aiming to target young women. The startup, Yeramilli said, now aims to use the fresh investments to boost marketing spend, strengthen technology and hire talent.
The online jeweller saw a surge in demand as gold prices surged and people avoided visiting stores amid fears of contracting the virus. “Good monsoon has further aided demand from smaller towns for us,” Yeramilli said, adding the preference for daily wear affordable gold and diamond jewelry has gone up.
These factors, she said, has led to a fourfold increase in customer traffic for the online-only asset-light jewellery platform compared to last Diwali season. The average selling price of its products has also gone up by 40% compared to pre-Covid levels. According to Yeramilli, average selling price is now around Rs 30,000-35,000.
The company expects demand to increase further in the upcoming festive season.
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