Participated · Series C · Apr 2023

Founded in 2015 by Abhishek Agarwal, Purple Style Labs (PSL) is an omnichannel luxury fashion platform that enables discovery and purchase of Indian designer wear and operates Pernia’s Pop‑Up Shop and the Stylist. The company has expanded its offline footprint with 15 Pernia’s Pop‑Up Studio experience centres across major Indian cities and an international store in Mayfair, London. PSL has shown rapid financial growth: revenue rose 4x to Rs 174.56 crore in FY22 from Rs 44.05 crore in FY21, and it reports more than 100% year‑on‑year growth over the past two years. The firm closed FY23 with consolidated gross sales above $60 million (Rs 500 crore) and says it has raised nearly $50 million to date. PSL aims to reach $200 million (Rs 1,600 crore) in gross sales within the next two to three years and is eyeing an IPO in 2026. Competitors named in the article include ShopStyle, IndianRoots, Arvind Fashion, FabIndia, and Jivaana. Founded in 2015, Purple Style Labs is a one-stop luxury fashion house for bridal and ceremonial needs that houses jewellery and accessories from designers such as Shyamal & Bhumika, Tarun Tahiliani, Falguni Shane Peacock, Amit Aggarwal, and Gaurav Gupta. The company has delivered more than 100% year-on-year growth for the last two years, closed FY22–23 with more than $45 million in consolidated revenue, and reached EBITDA breakeven. Its March 2023 exit gross sales run rate was around $75 million, and it is projecting a $120 million gross sales run rate by March 2024. PSL plans to deploy new capital into younger labels and continue acquiring mature brands while expanding its retail footprint domestically (Chennai, Surat) and internationally (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dubai, Singapore). Since acquiring Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop in 2018, the company has opened 15 Pernia’s Pop-Up Studio experience centres across major Indian cities and an international store in Mayfair, London, and opened a 50,000 sq ft experience centre in New Delhi in November 2022. It has also launched Pernia’s Pop-Up Studio, Men as an extension to house contemporary, ethnic, and occasion wear. Purple Style Labs runs Pernia’s Pop‑Up Shop and Wendell Rodricks, offering curated luxury and designer fashion through an online platform and 10 retail stores. The company retails roughly 1,000 designers, including Tarun Tahiliani, Anita Dongre, Rohit Bal, Ritu Kumar, and Falguni Shane Peacock. It acquired Pernia’s Pop‑Up Shop in 2018 and says it will use new capital to expand its geographic footprint. Management plans to enter international markets with retail stores in New York and Dubai within the next 12–18 months. The firm raised $10 million earlier in the year and completed a Series B in June with participation from notable investors. Founder Abhishek (Monty) Agarwal stated the Klub funding will fuel growth in the Indian luxury retail segment. Purple Style Labs operates an omnichannel luxury fashion platform and incubator that helps young designer brands with sales, marketing and technical support. Its Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop arm retails over 800 designers and has opened 10 Pop-Up Studio experience centres across major Indian cities plus a global store in London. Pernia’s reports 50x growth between 2018–2022 and claims 75% of online sales come from international markets. PSL acquired Wendell Rodricks in December 2020 and plans to scale that label to a Rs 100 crore run rate within three years. Founded in 2015, the company intends to use new capital to expand its Indian footprint (Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and new cities Chennai and Surat) and launch retail stores in New York and Dubai within 12–18 months. The strategy emphasizes omnichannel and international retail expansion to grow its designer roster and global sales. Purple Style Labs incubates young designer brands, providing sales, marketing and technical support to build a luxury fashion house out of India. Founded in 2015, PSL aims to create a strong multi‑brand retailing platform with an international focus. The company has entered a joint venture with Pernia’s Pop Up Shop to rapidly scale Indian designer brands in domestic and international markets. The recent investment of about Rs 20 crore (~$3 million) will be used to build an omni‑channel sales network for Pernia’s Pop Up Shop and to expand PSL’s homegrown brand. Through the partnership PSL plans extensive retail activity, including 10 editions of Pernia’s Pop‑Up Show next season (six international events) and the opening of 10 multi‑designer stores in major cities including Mumbai and Delhi and three international locations. PSL and Pernia’s aim to become the largest Indian multi‑brand retailer in the luxury category in a short span.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2021

The Money Club built an AI-enabled P2P group savings platform (an Android app described as an artificially intelligent chit-fund cashier) to help lower-middle-class users save, borrow and invest digitally. The startup leverages AI algorithms to underwrite high-frequency micro pooling of funds by studying user behaviors. It was founded by IIT Kharagpur friends Manuraj Jain and Surajit Ray and is based in Noida. The company claims its approach delivers a higher value proposition to savers, investors, and borrowers compared to other available options. The Money Club said it will use the raised capital to bolster its technology platform and operations. Financial operating metrics were not disclosed in the articles.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2021

Coutloot operates a social commerce marketplace where buyers and sellers can bargain while shopping, with sellers listing unbranded local-market products across fashion, electronics, home decor, sports and other boxed categories. The company targets rising consumption from tier‑2 and tier‑3 India and aims to converge online and offline retail, serving a market segment that makes up roughly 75% of India’s retail sector. Coutloot says it grew 11x during the pandemic and has delivered a compound annual growth rate of 300% over the past three years, and is looking to hit a platform GMV of Rs 1,000 crore in 2022. The startup plans product and service expansions including working-capital solutions for retailers, video-stories commerce features, and scaling its B2B supply chain. It also intends to increase hiring across technology, marketing and leadership roles to support growth. Founded in 2016, the company describes its ambition as building a Taobao‑like conversational social commerce experience for India’s local languages and markets. CoutLoot began as a seller-focused fashion service in Mumbai and has evolved into a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) platform for labels and users to list and sell clothing. The company operates an app that has been downloaded over 500,000 times and now services 14 cities after expanding from a one-city presence. CoutLoot runs a 'Celebrity Closet' with exclusive listings from TV personalities including Karishma Tanna, Aditi Bhatia, Niti Taylor and Aarti Chabbria. Management says it will pursue aggressive geographic expansion and diversify into other categories within the C2C model. The company is also piloting offline 'pop up shop' stores to complement its online business. CoutLoot positions itself as a technology-driven re-commerce marketplace focused on a customer-centric experience.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2021

NimbleBox.ai is a full-stack MLOps platform that lets data scientists and machine learning practitioners discover, create, and launch multi-cloud applications via an intuitive browser-based interface. The platform is purpose-built for large datasets and supports all major machine learning frameworks, enabling developers to train and deploy at scale while maintaining accuracy. NimbleBox.ai positions itself as a complete toolkit for developers focused on artificial intelligence and is a Techstars portfolio company. The company was founded in 2018 by Anshuman Pandey, Rohan Pooniwala, and Naman Maheshwari. In August 2021 NimbleBox.ai raised seed funding to support growth. The raised capital will be used to grow the team, deliver on the product roadmap, and scale the existing customer base.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2020

Railofy’s core product offers train passengers the option to reserve an AC bus or flight ticket at a fixed rate on the day they book a train ticket, allowing travel on the alternate mode if the train ticket is not confirmed. If a passenger’s train ticket is waitlisted, the passenger can lock a bus or flight fare and pay that locked price if needed, avoiding surge pricing. The company says it can provide service for up to 80% of waitlisted tickets issued for a particular train. Railofy plans to scale its business, onboard new trains as they start operating, and strengthen its pan-India presence to enable protection cover for all train classes across over 2,000 passenger trains by 2021. The company has also added industry mentors, including former GoAir revenue head Anand Srinivasan and former IRCTC portal joint general manager Sunil Kumar. Financially, Railofy recently raised additional seed funding to support this growth. Railofy offers travel-protection products for rail passengers, guaranteeing alternate transport if tickets remain unconfirmed after chart preparation. For longer distances it arranges flight tickets at a similar price; for shorter journeys it provides buses at nominal rates. The service is available on 153 train routes. Founded in 2019, the company operates a technology-led model to detect and remediate unconfirmed bookings. Railofy plans to use new capital to expand its coverage pan-India and scale its platform. The startup recently closed a seed funding round to support growth and operational expansion.