Handbag brand Lavie’s parent firm closes first institutional funding round

Bagzone Lifestyles Pvt. Ltd, which owns the handbag brand Lavie, has raised $9 million (around ₹75 crore) in its first institutional funding round since it was founded in 2010. The round was led by homegrown private-equity firm First Bridge, which will deploy capital for Lavie via its India Growth Fund.

“Lavie comes with a long track record of building successful consumer businesses,” said Ayush Tainwala, chief executive of Bagzone. “We hope to grow 10x in the next few years and become a multi-category, multi-brand business. We will use the funds raised to enhance our in-house manufacturing capability, deepen our offline presence and grow the brand’s stature and recall," he added.

Bagzone will look to establish a 150,000 sq ft factory. It will also look to expand its offline presence by setting a target to open 300 exclusive outlets, it said in a statement.

Bagzone was founded by Shobha Tainwala. It offers offers products ranging from handbags to wallets and travel accessories through its portfolio of brands – Lavie, Lavie Sport, and Lavie Luxe. It has an R&D and manufacturing facility in Nashik, which is the largest integrated facility in South Asia, spread across five acres.

Bagzone reported a profit of ₹1.6 crore and a consolidated revenue of ₹281 crore in FY22, according to VCCEdge, the data intelligence platform of VCCircle.

“Lavie operates in a market that will benefit from the shift to organised and an exponential increase in women’s consumption over the next few years,” said Vishal Kumar Gupta, managing partner of First Bridge. “We are confident of a successful journey of hyper-growth with Lavie.”