Premium menswear brand Rare Rabbit is set to get funding of around $50 million from venture capital firm A91 Partners, valuing the nine-year old brand at around $330 million, sources said.
The discussions, which are at an advanced stage, would entail the venture firm taking a 15 per cent stake in the start-up.
The talks have been on since the beginning of the year, sources indicated. At around the same time, the clothing brand was also in talks with Tata Capital for funding of a similar amount at a valuation of $300 million. But the deal, which was at the due diligence stage, did not go through. Sources said that Reliance Retail was also interested in the brand for a major stake but found the valuations to be too steep.
There was no response from Tata Capital to an email seeking clarification. A spokesperson for Reliance Retail replied, “As a policy, we do not comment on media speculation and rumours.”
The founders of Rare Rabbit, Manish Poddar and Akshika Poddar were not available for comments. Senior executives at A91 Partners did not respond to messages.
Rare Rabbit was launched in 2015 by the Poddars as part of the House of Rare to introduce formal wear for men who wanted to experiment with colours and styles rather than the traditional whites and greys that were standard office wear. According to the blurb on its website, “The brand celebrates the side of men who breaks all the preconceived notions of what a man should and is expected to be.” The brand has grown over the years and offers a range of apparel from shirts, t-shirts, suits, blazers to jackets, trousers, and jeans.
It started off with its first store in Bengaluru and now has over 100 stores across India. There is a women’s brand counterpart to it called ‘Rareism.’ Both brands are under Radhamani Textiles. It reported a net profit of ₹32.2 crore in FY23, up over 70 per cent on year while revenue rose 74 per cent to ₹381 crore, according to data from Tracxn.
A91 Partners, which usually comes in at the scale-up stage, has recently funded companies such as Akshayakalpa, Blue Tokai, Kaar and Healthkart among others.