Pop culture startup The Souled Store raises $3 million from RP-SG Ventures

Mumbai-based pop culture merchanise company The Souled Store will use the funds to bolster backend capabilities and for marketing purposes.    

Pop culture merchandise marketplace The Souled Store has raised $3 million in a funding round led by RP-SG Ventures, which is backed by Sanjiv Goenka Group. The company plans to use the capital to bolster its backend and for marketing needs. Abhishek Goenka, Head of RP-SG Ventures, will be joining the board of The Souled Store.

The Souled Store was started in 2013 by three Mumbai youngsters. Rohin Samtaney, Aditya Sharma, and Vedang Patel put their love for Star Wars into a business and built an online platform for everything pop culture.

Co-founder Vedang Patel in a press release said: "Their (RP-SG Group's) vast experience and differentiated approach makes them the perfect partner for The Souled Store. Over the last couple of years we've grown at 2 to 3x each year, and the focus going forward will be to rapidly expand our manufacturing and backend capabilities, introduce a variety of new product lines, enhance our customer experience, and build our offline presence."

In a previous conversation withYourStory, Vedang had said, “We sell fun. Not just products.” The company reported zero cash burn and profit from the very first day.

Speaking on the investment, Abhishek Goenka said, "We are very impressed with the team's vision and execution maturity. The growth demonstrated by the brand through exceptional customer engagement on the back of strong unitary economics is outstanding, making it well positioned to become the number one player in the fast-growing pop culture segment."

The Souled Store sells a wide range of officially licensed products. It claims to be India’s largest online brand for big budget movies (Marvel, Batman, Superman, The Justice League, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Raees), cartoons (Cartoon Network, Scooby Doo, The Flintstones), TV Shows (Friends, The Big Bang Theory, South Park), sports (WWE, IPL teams like Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab, kabaddi franchises), and much more.

The fan merchandise market in India is worth Rs 6,000 crore and is growing at 25 to 30 percent each year - this is something The Souled Store is keen to dominate.  The company is also opening a manufacturing facility in Bhiwandi as it eyes expansion.