‘Cover It Up’ Acquires Seed Funding - Uncovers New Business Angles & Highlights growth plans

‘Cover It Up’ Acquires Seed Funding
- Uncovers New Business Angles & Highlights growth plans

15th December 2020, Chennai:Cover It Up, India’s leading pop-culture merchandise start-up has acquired seed round of funding of Rs 3.5 crores. The funding round comes in pursuit of scaling of business from all angles. Founded in 2014, Cover It Up has now acquired its first round of funding by Angel Investors namely, Sanjay Wadhwa, Manish Mardia, MadanLalGundecha, Vimal Jain and NishankSakaria. RonakSarda founded Cover It Up with an intention to tap the bubbling market of smartphone cases with its approach of customisation to make the products stand out. The focus on customisation has helped the brand to carve its niche and establish monopoly in the area of customisation. 
“The company plans to use this round of funding to strengthen operations by bringing in new and creative talents simultaneously concentrating on R&D, development of IT infrastructure, which will lead to an enhanced product portfolio. Some parts of the funds will also be earmarked towards research and development to enhance the existing product range and also create new ones. We shipped about 120,000 products for the year 2019-2020, while this year we are on the path of a sale projectory of 150,000 units,” said Ronak. 
Over the years, Cover It Up has partnered with some leading global brands like Marvel, DC, Warner Bros, FRIENDS, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Disney and Looney Tunes to sell their merchandise. Cover It Up is also the official merchandise partner for Chennai Super Kings, Kaala, Darbar, Robot 2.0 and now has recently tied up with NASA, thus giving patrons a diverse range of products to own and relate with. In order to establish a global footprint, the team also wants to create engaging content on the website by adding features such as Augmented Reality (AR) to enhance the customer Experience. “Customer experience and the relatibity to the merchandise play a pivotal role in this niche area that we operate in. Therefore, our business model relies heavily upon constant upgradation of engineering plus design skills. With this amalgamation, the company aims to touch revenue of Rs 25 crore by next financial year, added Sarda.”
Cover It Up has grown from being a single product offering to a brand with multiple options of customisations. From phone covers to unisex T-shirts, hoodies, journals, notebooks, the brand has simply grown by understanding and tapping into the wants from the market. Likewise, the pandemic has also encouraged the team to cater to the need-of-the-hour products. Cover It Up’s range of products now includes work-from-home products. Cover It up also aspires to meet the increasing demands of customers for variety of merchandise after the rise in the popularity of OTT platforms during the lockdown. With the abundance of content available on the OTT platforms, it is only natural for people to relate with their favourite shows, characters and the meme-culture has definitely dug up a promising road for us. “The round of funding has definitely given the boost for lateral and vertical expnasion, once the immediate milestones are crossed, we will be looking at further rounds of funding to scale up the business”, mentioned the founder.  
Given the gripping market, Cover It Up focuses on ideas that make its products stand out and are yet relatable. The customisation takes away the sense of purchasing a mass product and instils a sense of ownership. With these ideas in mind, the brand aims to cater to all people not just the youth. 
Information on investors:   
Sanjay Wadhwa, of AP International has an experience of 35 years in the media sector and is associated in a JV with Reliance entertainment and Ynot Films LLP. He has also served as a Director of Entrepreneurs Organisation and is a key member of Chennai Angels ; Manish Mardia, a 49-year-old in addition to being a practising chartered accountant is an advisor and mentor to many start-ups; MadanLalGundecha, a Z partner in Orchid Angel Investors LLP, a thorough investor is a member of Chennai Angels amongst other angel networks; Vimal Jain of Levim Capital Investment is also a chartered accountant and holds impeccable wisdom from his 30 years of experience in the finance industry while, NishankSakaria is a young third generation entrepreneur who also holds keen interest in steel industry, real estate and finance & investment. 
Founder’s profile:
RonakSarda used a mere sum of Rs 21,000 to start the business as merely a Facebook page to sell printed phone cases with the idea of customisation. Soon this concept gained momentum and Ronak’s experience and knowledge gained while working in digital agency came in handy in creating the official website of Cover It up. As the founder, Ronak emphasises on design and aesthetics and puts in lot of thought in the product development space.  He has studied from SRM University and DG Vaishnav College, Chennai. 
Company’s profile:
Cover It Up began its journey in 2014 by bringing customised smartphone cases into the market and then steadily diversified towards one of a kind LED cases as well as won hearts with its concept of 3D cases. The company now customises unisex T-shirts, hoodies, journals, Airpod cases, notebooks and yearly planners. The company has received its seed rounding of funding by Angel investors. Since its inception, Cover It Up has shown growth in terms of steady increase of products and volumes despite being bootstrapped. This round of funding will help in business and portfolio expansion. www.coveritup.com
Social Media Links
The company has half a million followers on their social media page
https://www.facebook.com/coveritupcases
https://www.instagram.com/coveritup/?hl=en