Online lingerie store, Zivame witnessed a rearrangement of responsibilities as founder-CEO Richa Kar will now not be handling day-to-day operations for the platform anymore. The management work has been passed on to Zivame’s Chief operating officer Shaleen Sinha, reports Economic Times.
Sinha, who’s been brought from Aditya Birla Group, was appointed as COO by the online startup back in 2015 to build a stronger technology and data-oriented company penetrating through the nascent markets. One of the members of the Zivame team commented on the reshuffle as under,
Richa Kar continues to be the CEO of Zivame. She works closely with the board on strategic projects for the company. She has moved away from the day-to-day business operations.
Though there has been no comment upon the reason behind the major step taken, the company confirms the news of Sinha taking over the day to day operations from now on. This move from startup founder isn’t anything new. As the company scales, the founder takes on more of a hawk-eye mode as compared to being involved with each decision.
Previously, Zivame grabbed a massive $40 million in its Series C funding round, led by Khazanah Nasional Berhad and Zodius Technology Fund. The said capital infusion enabled the company to build itself as an online brand and thus achieving 60% sales. The lingerie label now plans to release its omni-channel product by tie-ups with over 100 offline store and fitting centers pan-India in the coming years.
Speaking on current statistics for Zivame, the venture reportedly saw 84% increase in net losses estimated at 54 crore for FY16 along with 38% growth in its net sales of approx 62.6 crore. Moreover, inventory costs of the company grew by 35% at 47.8 crore adjacent to two-fold increase in advertising and marketing costs.
Founded back in 2011, Zivame’s operations will now be under the leadership of Sinha and will give tough competition to other lingerie e-stores such as Clovia, Pretty Secrets, Buttercups etc. An industry expert commented on Zivame’s decision as under,
The pivot to becoming an online brand requires a change in key performance indicators (KPIs) for the company as it is an inventory heavy model.
