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| Kidloo to raise $6 mn VC fund |
| K Rajani Kanth / Chennai/ Hyderabad Dec 20, 2011, 00:41 IST |
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Kidloo.com, an exclusive online toys store floated by Hyderabad-based Hoorayy Technologies, is in the process of raising a $6-million (approximately Rs 32 crore) venture capital fund to fuel its plans of venturing into the offline retailing business.
“Negotiations with a couple of domestic venture capital companies are under way and we should be able to close the round by the end of March 2012,” Prashanth Gowriraju, founder and chief executive of Hoorayy Technologies, told Business Standard.
The 10-month-old online store, which had earlier raised Rs 30 lakh from angel investors, would set up its flagship kids’ toys destination outlet in Hyderabad – with a carpet area of 5,000 sft and entailing an investment of Rs 15 lakh (including infrastructure and inventory) – by March 2012. The company has plans to roll out 10 such stores across the country in the next one year and take the tally to 90 by 2014.
The kids market in India is estimated to be at Rs 26,000 crore of which the toys segment alone comprises Rs 5,000 crore. About Rs 1,700 crore of this is organised, which is majorly captured by Chinese products, Gowriraju said, adding that the domestic toy market was on a growth path, registering a year-on-year growth of 35 per cent to touch Rs 11,500 crore by 2014.
Kidloo, which currently offers around 5,000 products, from seasonal to hard-to-find specialty toys across 100 brands like FisherPrice, Fun Skool, Disney, Hot Wheels, Tommy, Barbie, LeapFrog, Ok Play, Animal Planet and Wild Republic with the prices ranging from Rs 49 to Rs 15 lakh, recorded sales of Rs 80 lakh so far. It is aiming at a sales turnover of Rs 3 crore by the end of the current financial year.
“We will be adding more than 300 brands to the site by the end of February, with the number of products going upwards of 10,000,” Gowriraju said. The idea is to offer parents, and kids in the age group of 0-12 years a broad selection of products to create magical playtime memories, he added.
Kidloo is also toying with the idea of introducing its private labels, and towards this is already experimenting with over 150 non-branded products. “Right now, we are selling non-branded products just to understand how these toys are doing. We will roll out the private labels once we launch our offline stores,” Gowriraju said.
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