The Souled Store to Ramp Up Retail Footprint Across India with INR 135 Cr Funding for 200 New Stores

The Souled Store, an omnichannel lifestyle startup based in India, has raised INR 135 Cr in a recent funding round led by Xponentia Capital, with participation from Elevation Capital and RPSG Capital.

The startup plans to use the funding to expand its operations into new categories and scale its offline presence.

This includes launching 100-200 physical stores across India within the next three years. The Souled Store will also offer a complete buyback of vested Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOPs) with the investment.

According to the startup’s CEO, Vedang Patel, the funding will be used to capitalize on their brand equity and grow their current categories, as well as a foray into other lifestyle products. The Souled Store aims to reach INR 1500 Cr in revenue over the next three years and then go public.

Patel said that the startup is well on its way to closing the current financial year with INR 240 Cr in revenue, reporting an EBITDA of 10%.

He added that the lifestyle brand is well placed to achieve a revenue of INR 1,500 Cr in the next three years, maintaining an EBITDA of 20% at that scale, and would then file for an initial public offering (IPO).

The Souled Store, founded in 2013 by Patel, Rohin Samtaney, Aditya Sharma, and Harsh Lal, started as a branded merchandise apparel brand and later morphed into its current D2C casual wear brand form.

It also sells other products such as backpacks, sneakers, shoes, and socks for customers ranging from kids to late adults. The D2C brand claims to be processing an annualized gross merchandise volume (GMV) of INR 450 Cr+.

Besides, The Souled Store also claims to earn 70% of its revenue from its website and app, while it earns 15% from its offline stores. E-commerce marketplaces account for just the remaining 15% of its total revenue.

India has seen a rapid rise in the number of D2C and omnichannel lifestyle brands, with many percolating deeper across the country’s psyche across multiple segments and niches. The explosion of D2C brands has led to more and more investors eyeing the burgeoning space.

The Souled Store has raised a total of INR 220 Cr since its inception in 2013 and plans to use this recent investment to achieve its ambitious expansion goals.