Startups are again within the highlight, attracting investor curiosity and securing important funding for his or her enterprise objectives. That is in distinction to the primary half of 2023, when fundraising for Indian attire startups remained a problem. Troublesome market situations, an absence of bigger rounds amid the absence of main buyers, and mass layoffs throughout the ecosystem led to a five-year low in funding for the primary half of 2023.
Sportswear firm Agilitas Sports activities, co-founded by former Puma India CEO Abhishek Ganguly, has raised funding of Rs. 100 crore from enterprise capital agency Nexus Enterprise Companions in December. The corporate has raised these funds at a time when it’s making an attempt to signal licensing offers with overseas manufacturers and is in negotiations to purchase sportswear firms.
Abhishek Ganguly, Founder, Agilitas Sports activities stated a brand new fundraising will permit the corporate to speed up its growth trajectory. “Agilitas Sports activities would be the holding firm that can make giant and substantial investments to construct totally different enterprise strains whereas remaining rooted within the sportswear section.”
“At Nexus Enterprise Companions we’re very excited to associate with Agilitas as they revolutionize the sports activities market with their complete method. “We’re aligned with the imaginative and prescient of the Agilitas firm to advertise a technology by sports activities,” he stated. Suvir Sujan, Nexus Enterprise Companions. Different co-founders of Agilitas Sports activities embody former prime executives of Puma India: Atul Bajaj and Amit Prabhu.
Earlier within the yr, the corporate raised roughly Rs. 430 crores. 30 crore was raised by particular person buyers, and the remaining Rs 400 crore got here from Convergent Finance LLP, an funding administration and advisory agency headed by Harsha Raghavan. Athletic footwear is the quickest rising footwear class, accounting for 16 % of the full market. By 2030, the scale of the Indian sportswear market is anticipated to have quadrupled.
Equally, Bengaluru-based D2C menswear model, Snitch, has secured Rs. 110 crore (roughly US$13 million) in Sequence A funding co-led by SWC World and IvyCap Ventures, with assist from key angel buyers. This funding goals to drive Snitch’s growth in expertise, know-how and offline.
retail initiatives, as famous in a press launch. Based 4 years in the past, Snitch gives a variety of on a regular basis necessities for males spanning formal, social gathering, informal and sportswear. It additionally presents Snitch Plus, aimed toward plus-size males, which recurrently presents new collections and collaborations by its on-line platform.
Having crossed Rs. 100 crore in FY ’23, Snitch anticipates 100 per cent progress in FY ’24. Competing with manufacturers like UrbanClad, DaMENCH, Bombay Shirt Firm and Uncommon Rabbit, Snitch just lately launched its first retail retailer in Bengaluru. Most of its gross sales are generated by its web site, app, offline shops, and third-party marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon. Snitch goals to determine greater than 100 offline shops throughout India by 2028.
Moreover, the Indian vogue and way of life platform, Absolute manufacturers and retail, has raised US$2.5 million (roughly Rs. 21 crore) in a seed funding spherical, led by Capstone Ventures. Different angel buyers additionally participated on this financing marketing campaign. The first objective behind this financing, in response to Absolute Manufacturers’ announcement, is to determine a bodily retail presence and enhance the omnichannel expertise for its prospects.
Began in 2023 by Vishnu Prasad, Absolute Manufacturers focuses on creating a variety of in-house vogue attire manufacturers, concentrating on current and untapped buyer segments. Her first clothes model, Large Good day, focuses on providing high-quality, trendy clothes designed to completely match the distinctive shapes and contours of plus-size individuals in India. Plans are afoot to launch the primary batch of Large Good day shops within the subsequent three months, initially in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.
| “Agilitas Sports activities would be the holding firm that can make giant and substantial investments to construct totally different enterprise strains whereas remaining rooted within the sportswear section.” Abhishek Ganguly, Co-Founder and CEO, Agilitas Sports activities |
The corporate has outlined its intentions to introduce three new vogue manufacturers, with the purpose of satisfying unmet client wants, accessing new market segments and difficult present norms.
By leveraging next-generation applied sciences and establishing a powerful omnichannel retail presence, Absolute Manufacturers goals to redefine the style procuring expertise. Their technique includes providing customized options that resonate deeply with particular particular person preferences, values and desires.
It’s price noting that Absolute Manufacturers might discover itself in direct or oblique competitors with vogue entities equivalent to Aastey, The Mad Dresser, Hilo Design, Snitch, Flyrobe and Bombay Shirt Firm, amongst others.
Buyers are eager to again attire startups this quarter, boosting their progress and growth initiatives.
october noticed B2B showroom, the Indian non-branded clothes platform, introduced a pre-Sequence A funding spherical, elevating $6.5 million (roughly Rs. 54 crore). The spherical was led by Jungle Ventures and included new buyers equivalent to Accion Enterprise Lab, Saison Capital and ICMG Companions. Notably, earlier supporters Attempt, Gemba Capital, Titan Capital and debt companions Alteria Capital and Stride Ventures continued their assist.
Showroom B2B had beforehand raised $1.35 million (roughly Rs 11 crore) in seed funding earlier this yr and an angel spherical of $180,000 (roughly Rs 1.5 crore) in 2021. The newly acquired funds will drive the growth of the corporate’s phygital distribution mannequin and the institution of expertise shops in India’s tier 2 and three markets. Moreover, Showroom B2B will improve its personal labeling capabilities, making premium and inexpensive vogue accessible to retailers in smaller cities.
Abhishek Dua, Co-founder and CEO of B2B Showroomshared their plans to strengthen their personal label provider base, notably coming from Bangladesh, highlighting important margin good points in comparison with the common market.
Based in 2020 by Abhishek Dua and Shubham Gupta, Showroom B2B initially centered on eco-friendly furnishings merchandise however has since advanced into an asset-light enterprise mannequin. Connects retailers with an enormous stock of unbranded clothes from native sources. Showroom B2B has partnered with over 500 attire producers and 3000 retailers, providing an app-based ordering system with house supply.
The corporate at present operates three expertise shops in several areas of the nation, making it simpler for vogue retailers to examine manufacturing samples earlier than inserting bulk orders.
The Indian model of moral handmade clothes individuals dressed, introduced in October that it raised Rs. three.three crore in seed spherical of funding from All In Capital.
Sidhant Keshwani of Libas, Sidhesh Chauhan of Jade Blue and Riju Jhunjhunwala of RSWM Ltd. are different main buyers. The corporate intends to develop its workers, operations, distribution channels and product line with the brand new capital. Aditya Singh, CofounderAll In Capital acknowledged, “Dressfolk’s patented designs and extremely differentiated merchandise are bringing Indian handloom again into vogue.”
“We’re delighted that buyers have seen the immense potential of our long-term imaginative and prescient of constructing probably the most enticing vacation spot for high-quality and opulent Indian looms,” he stated. Nitin Mehrotra, Founder and CEO, individuals dressed.
He added, “We’re happy with the truth that we’re not solely ‘Made in India’ but additionally Made in India.”
Dressfolk serves prospects worldwide and collaborates with greater than 600 weavers and 120 artisans in six states. Prospects can entry merchandise from quite a few offline and on-line multi-brand marketplaces, along with Costume Folks’s personal web site.
A number of angel buyers, together with Vikrampati Singhania of JK Household Workplace; FinFirst Advisors; Apurva Ramesh Damani of the Damani Household Workplace; and Pranav Sanghvi of Petronas participated within the spherical. The cap desk at present consists of the likes of Prabhtej Singh Bhatia, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Falcon; Vidur Kataria, founding father of MasterChow; Arjit Johri of Marshot Ventures; Harbir Singh Banga of Victora Group; Samyak Deora of Deora Group; Adit Desai of Doc Tutorials; and Megha Vishwanath, former enterprise journalist and advertising and marketing specialist.