Damensch Apparel Pvt. Ltd, which owns premium innerwear brand for men DaMENSCH, on Monday said it has raised $16.4 million (Rs 122.5 crore) as part of its Series B funding round led by A91 Partners.
Existing investors Saama Capital, Matrix Partners and Whiteboard Capital also participated in the funding round, said DaMENSCH in a statement.
VCCircle reported last year that DaMENSCH was in talks with A91 Partners and other investors for the potential fundraise.
The fresh capital will help the company to strengthen and diversify its product portfolio and upgrade its technology, it added. The company also plans to hire more product specialists.
“Our products are addressing a big white space in the wardrobe of the modern man. We have clocked 100 crore ARR in 2021 making us the fastest D2C apparel brand to reach this milestone, on the back of our strong consumer proposition,” said Anurag Saboo, Co-Founder DaMENSCH.
“We are targeting 3x growth in the coming financial year through meaningful product-market and channel expansion," he added.
Gaurav Pushkar, Co-founder DaMENSCH, said the company will deepen its presence in the innerwear, loungewear, sleepwear, and everyday-wear categories this year.
The innerwear company was launched in 2018 by Saboo and Pushkar. Both graduated from IIT-Delhi and have worked at beauty e-tailer Nykaa and homegrown e-commerce firm Snapdeal.
DaMENSCH sells its products through its own website along with other major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart. Currently the company has more than 200 SKUs (stock keeping units) listed across more than 15 categories and claims to have made more than 10 million shipments to over 10,000 pin codes across the country.
The company had earlier secured Rs 50 crore ($6.7 million) from four investors - Matrix Partners India, Saama Capital and Whiteboard Venture Partners as well as venture debt firm Alteria.
"DaMENSCH has become the go-to brand for affluent men who are looking for new age, digital first clothing brands that can combine comfort and style and gives them a chance to upgrade their products and brands," said Prasun Agarwal, Partner, A91 Partners.
Page Industries Ltd, the licensee for the Jockey brand in India; and Rupa & Co, the owner of MacroMan, Frontline and Euro brands, are among the big companies that operate in the innerwear market. Others include Lux Industries Ltd, the owner of the Lux Cozi brand; JG Hosiery Pvt. Ltd, which owns the Amul brand of innerwear, and Neva Garments Ltd.
A few startup brands like XYXX Apparels, Tailor and Circus, and Dashing have entered men’s premium innerwear segment in recent years. XYXX Apparels is backed by early stage focused VC funds Sauce.vc and DSG Consumer Partners.
