[Funding alert] Customised apparel brand Alma Mater Store raises $200K from Wazir Advisors’ MD

Alma Mater Store, a Bengaluru-based customised apparel brand, on Tuesday, announced that it had raised funding of $200,000 from Harminder Sahni, Managing Director, Wazir Advisors. 

Harminder Sahni is an active angel investor and has invested in numerous startups including, Capillary Technologies. Mcaffeine, Inkfruit, Burger Singh, Nivaata, YFM Uniforms etc.

Commenting on the investment, he said,

“Customisation is the future of every consumer business and online is the channel's future. Being the pioneer in their field, Alma Mater Store is ready to take up new challenges and we are delighted to be associated with them.”

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Sachin Sahni, CEO, Alma Mater Store, said, 

“With customisation gaining popularity in India, we wish to scale our operations and expand our footprint. Thus, the funds will be used for our expansion and investing in new technology. We have a strong loyal customer base and will continue to focus on building a profitable and sustainable business in the long term.”

Founded in 2009 by Varun Agarwal and Rohn Malhotra, the brand will be coming up with one lakh inventory of T-shirt designs across several categories. It has clients like Google, Amazon, IIMs, IITs, Yahoo, 91Springboard, etc.

The firm said India is one of the fastest growing markets for customised merchandise and is growing at a rate of 15 percent annually. It is currently dominated by local unorganised players but the demand for organised players is on the rise with people looking for hassle-free solutions. The total size of the market for customised merchandise is 110 million customers, out of which 20 million customers are college students, 40 million customers are corporate employees at mid and senior levels, and the remaining 50 million customers belong to the middle class.

Over the years, Alma Mater Store has worked with more than 2,500 schools and colleges in approximately 190 different cities, having customised over one million tees and hoodies.

In 2012, Indian Angel Network infused an undisclosed amount into the company. IAN investors Ravindra Krishnappa, Joe Fernandes, Rajiv Mehta, and Deependra Moitra led the investment round.

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