Accel pours in Rs 100 crore in Sachin Tendulkar-backed Universal Sportsbiz

Sachin Tendulkar-backed Universal Sportsbiz (USPL), the owner of fashion brands Wrogn, Imara, and Collectabillia has raised Rs 100 crore from Accel and its Growth Fund, along with NB Ventures Ltd and Alteria Capital.

The fresh capital infusion for Universal Sportsbiz has come within a year when Accel had infused Rs 100 crore in the Bengaluru-based company. Alteria Capital, which recently made the second close of Fund I also invested Rs 30 crore in March in the fashion startup.

The company's current valuation couldn't be ascertained, however, it was valued around $100 million during the last funding round.

Launched by former national level badminton player Anjana Reddy in 2012, USPL operates as celebrity fashion brands. The startup has collaborated with cricketer Virat Kohli for the brand Wrogn, actor Shraddha Kapoor for Imara and actor Kriti Sanon for Ms Taken.

USPL sells its brands across 215 points of sale offline. For online sale, it has tied up with Myntra for Wrogn, while sells other two brands on Jabong and Amazon.

The company added 30 exclusive business outlets this year and planning to add 30 more stores.

In 2012, Sachin Tendulkar became one of the co-investors in a Series-A round in Collectabillia, when the company raised $2.7 million. He also has a significant minority stake in the firm.

Earlier, the youth fashion startup had raised Rs.46 crore from Accel in 2015 and also raised Rs 8 crore of venture debt from Temasek’s venture lending platform, InnoVen Capital India.

Update: The headline wrongly mentioned $100 Mn instead of Rs 100 Crore. The error is regretted.

The development was reported by ET.