Healthy snacks - protein bars and protein milkshakes. $2M seed, including Sim&San (law firm), angels. Founders Ankit and Gayatri are the founders of ice cream brands Hocco and Huber & Holly, Gayatri is a nutritionist by training. Comps: The Whole Truth (Sauce, Z47, Sofina), The Yoga Bar (Fireside, acquired by ITC).

Fashion brand, Thiruvananthapuram based. Fun shirts and sarees, here: https://www.mydesignation.com. $1.25M seed, including Dominor Investment Holdings, Green Trunk Ventures. Husband-wife duo Swaroop and Gopika have bootstrapped for eights years, out of college.

Korean/Korea-inspired lifestyle brand, retailing across four stores (BLR, HYD, Pune, Nashik) and online. Caters all things K - beauty, toys, home and more. Expanding via franchisees. ₹5CR seed round, including Arun Venkatachalam (Murugappa Group), Sangeet Agrawal and Navin Parwal (Mokobara), Yogesh Kabra (XYXX). Mohit is from sales (Lentra, Vedantu, Bjyu's); Gaurav was a Master Distributor for Revlon for a decade. Comps: Seela Mart (more grocery focused), Korikart (online) - neither seem funded. Japan inspired MINISO now has 300+ stores in India. As Forbes notes, India has seen "6.2 million posts in the last two years discussing K-drama, K-pop, and K-beauty trends, predominantly among the 19 to 24 age group." Read here: https://www.forbesindia.com/article/leadership/not-just-kpop-indians-are-in-love-with-korean-selfcare-too/94970/1

Sexual wellness products for women. 50K customers till date. Sold through D2C, Q-Com and selective offline retail. ₹6CR (~$700K) seed round. Angels in the round: Bala Sarda (Vahdam Teas), Saurabh Munjal (Lahori Zeera), Kirti Jangra (Animall). Founders: Sachee was a brand strategist at The Brewhouse, Himanshu has been running Creativa, his own agency, since 2010. Comps: MyMuse (Trifecta, Sauce, Saama), Bold Care (Rainmatter).

Smart lockers and smart door locks, with mobile notifications every time these devices are used. Manufactured in-house. ₹2.25CR ($300K) seed round. Thanjavur (TN) based. Viknesh, BITS Pilani, was an engineer at GlobalFoundries and Orbit Technologies (semiconductor manufacturers). Comps: OPEN/Openapp (Unicorn India Ventures, Axilor), Atomberg (Temasek, Steadview). Mygate (Tiger Global, Prime) has also launched a product line.

D2C fast fashion brand, focused on western and party wear for women aged 17 to 27. Launched this Feb through D2C and marketplaces, sourcing from ~30 factories in India and abroad. "Quick react" model - launches styles with low MOQs and scales those which show high adoption. ₹30CR (~$3.5M) seed round. Eight angels participated including Ramakant Sharma (Livspace), Ghazal Alagh (Mamaearth). Founders: Nikhil, ex-Myntra, was the CEO of Styli, a fast fashion brand in the Middle East by Landmark Group; Mani is from Max Fashion (also Landmark Group), Myntra; Justin led supply chain at Styli. Comps: Berrylush.

Homegrown watch brand - precision mechanical watches - ₹8-20K price points ($100-250). Sold only through its website - a D2C brand that earns its label. ₹25CR (~$3M) FY25 revenue, wants to double this FY. India's luxury watch market is ₹10K CR (~$1.1B) - this is not luxury but you can understand the aspirational positioning. ₹6.5CR (~$750K) angel round (investors undisclosed) at a ₹45CR ($5.2M) valuation. Co-Founder Mustafa's only profession: watchmaking. Comps: here is a nice user review comparing Argos and the classic Indian brand - HMT - https://www.watchcrunch.com/siddharthb/posts/a-tale-of-two-indian-watch-brands-one-old-and-one-new-389530

Biofortified grains brand. Parent co. GreenDay works with 15,000 farmers to grow grains (rice, wheat, millets) naturally, albeit with higher levels of essential nutrients - zinc, iron, protein, and calcium. PV Sindhu is brand ambassador and investor. ₹10CR (~$1.2M) seed round, including angels - Namita Thapar, Shantanu Deshpande, Akshay Ghulati, Apurva Chamaria, Karan Jindal. The founders started soon after business school (IIM-A; Jaypee). Competes with traditional brands that artificially fortify - where nutrients are added during food processing.

Mass-premium shapewear brand, alà SKIMS, by influencer Kusha Kapila. 192K IG followers one week after its launch (Kusha has 4M+ followers). Priced 30-40% lower than global competitors. ""Our goal is to be the first brand Indian women think of when they need shapewear, just as SKIMS has done globally". ₹8-10CR (~$900K-1.1M) seed round (exact amount undisclosed), Ghazal Alagh also participated. Comps: Zivame, Clovia, Krvvy.

Pre-launch luxury skincare brand that will be manufactured between France and India. ₹4.5CR (~$500K) seed round. Investors undisclosed - "a Bangalore-based family office". Little to no information available on the founders. Comps: see Antithesis and other comps (below).