Chennai, October 9, 2011: IDG Ventures India has invested an undisclosed but large sum of money in eShakti.com – backing the unique value proposition of this leading brand of customized women’s apparel in the American market. eShakti.com also plans to launch in India under its brand Zapelle.

B G Krishnan, the Founder and CEO of eShakti.com, says, `To create a fashion brand in America out of India may seem to some like carrying coals to Newcastle. We have succeeded because we realized we could differentiate our brand using the power of the internet. We learnt mass-customization, which means fulfilling individual customer orders with custom sizes and even custom styles across a huge market. Due to the incredibly large size-spread in the demographics, to the majority of women in the USA size-selections and customization are strong felt-needs, but needs that they never thought would be met, until eShakti came along and showed that it is possible.’

Earlier Harish Raghavan and R Parameswaran, two individual investors with a reputation for backing and sticking with start-ups with big ideas – for instance, Sulekha.com – invested several million dollars in eShakti.com together with the Founder. This enabled eShakti to develop proprietary know-how – fashion design, customization, manufacturing facility and a world-class ecommerce platform, to name a few – giving it a strong competitive barrier in addition to a huge, scalable market.

As T C Meenakshisundaram, Managing Director, IDG Ventures India says of eShakti, `Customizing fashion apparel online is a unique value proposition that the company has built. Their know-how and business practices are honed in a very demanding market. Customization is backed at eShakti by a very advanced understanding of international fashion trends, design and styling. We are very excited by the opportunity not only in the USA but also in India where eShakti will soon launch its international brand Zapelle. The design, the customer-friendly retail practices and prices and outstanding quality of Zapelle are essential ingredients of success in online retailing in India. And Zapelle is timed right for the explosive demand that is being seen in India for high-quality, well-priced women’s clothes conforming to global standards. Backed by customization, Zapelle is poised to be a leader in the emerging fashion market of India, while eShakti goes into a high-volume trajectory in the USA.’

IDG Ventures India is a US $150M early-stage venture capital fund investing in technology-related product and services companies. The fund is part of IDG Ventures, a global network of technology venture funds with over $3.7B under management, over 220 investee companies and 10 offices across Asia and North America. IDG Ventures makes investments on behalf of its Limited Partners, including its principal investor and sponsor, International Data Group (IDG), the world’s largest IT media company. By combining the IDG platform – an unparalleled combination of global publishing, market research (IDC), and conferences and exhibition resources – with years of hands-on experience in early-stage company building, IDG Ventures helps its investee companies understand their markets better and penetrate them faster than their competition.

For IDG Ventures India queries, please contact:
Ranjith Menon
Email: ranjith_menon@idgvcindia.com

For eShakti queries, please contact:
BG Krishnan
Email: bgkrishnan@eshakti.com