Koparo plans to utilize the funds towards building an offline presence, invest in brand building, and drive product innovation
New Delhi: Sustainable home and personal hygiene D2C brand Koparo raised $1.5 million in a pre-series A round led by Saama Capital. The round saw participation from Fluid Ventures and M Venture Partners along with new angels Rajesh Sawhney (founder and chief executive officer of GSF Accelerator), Sridhar Sankararaman (Multiples PE), and Ramesh Menon (Ex-Future Group, Hypercity), the brand announced in a release.
Apart from the new investors, the round also saw participation from existing investors DSG Consumer Partners.
Koparo plans to utilize the funds towards building an offline presence, invest in brand building, and drive product innovation, the release added. The brand further revealed that its revenue has grown 10x since its last funding round in the past 12 months.
The D2C brand raised a seed round of $750 thousand last year from Saama and DSG Capital, and has doubled their investment in the current round.
The brand aims to further accelerate its growth trajectory as it aims to grow its revenues by 8 times in the next 18 – 20 months by focusing on its core range, expanding distribution points, and introducing products in newer sub-categories.
“We are privileged to have witnessed Simran’s growth from 0 to 1 since our pre-seed investment,” Ash Lilani, founder and managing partner, Saama Capital, said.
“Koparo has grown its monthly revenues by 10x since our last investment in November 2021. Saama is excited to support the brand through its next phase of growth,” Lilani added.
Koparo plans to launch variants of some of its top-selling products, building a range of specialty cleaners catering to modern Indian cleaning needs, and introducing complementing kitchen and home cleaning accessories, the release added.
Furthermore, the company plans to expand its laundry vertical which is the largest subcategory in home cleaning and also has plans to launch more pet-friendly products.
Koparo recently launched a kennel wash for pet homes, a selection of cleaning accessories such as biodegradable sponge wipes, and microfiber-dusting cloths designed for modern homes.
“The modern Indian home is ready for new cleaning products that are effective yet not laden with harsh chemicals. Several sub-categories within cleaning are already responding well to our proposition. With the backing of some of the best consumer investors, we feel confident of executing well on our category-defining play at Koparo,” Simran Khara, founder of Koparo said.
Koparo offers over 15 products and more than 30 SKUs (stock keeping units) across segments like core cleaning, speciality cleaning, and accessories. The brand’s products are available through its website, e-commerce portals and also at 70 stores of Reliance Retail and Modern Bazaar, according to the release.
According to an Imarc report, the Indian household cleaners market reached $7.5 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow 18.9% CAGR over the next 5 years. The industry is fast premiumising and the top end is growing in excess of 30% year on year signalling a fast-changing preference of Indian consumers to upgrade to safe and toxin-free products for their homes.
Founded by Simran Khara, who has worked at McKinsey & Co, Star TV, and more recently as chief executive officer of digital media startup Juggernaut Books, Koparo offers a natural alternative to the regular cleaning products available in the market. Koparo was selected to be a part of the Founder Stack program by Accel where they received mentorship from the venture capital firm for three months to help them build and scale a consumer startup.
