Bengaluru-based Bigphi Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which sells apparel under the brand Turms, has raised Rs 6.3 crore ($870,000 at current exchange rates) from angel investors.
According to a statement, the round was led by Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham, former Reliance Retail Lifestyle president Bijou Kurien, Pepperfry founder Ambareesh Murty, OneAssist founder Subrat Pani and former Flipkart executive Mekin Maheshwari.
Angel investors part of dealmaking platform LetsVenture and angel network AngelList India also participated.
Turms said it will use the fresh capital to expand its product categories, hire tech talent, launch experience centres in top cities, and further invest in research and development.
"Digital-first brands are creating immense value globally,” said Mathrubootham. “The company has shown exponential growth in the last one year while maintaining quality and consistency,”
Turms’ apparel range includes jeans,T-shirts, shirts and track pants for men and T-shirts and leggings for women.
The firm claims its apparel has special properties such as being stain-repellent and odour-resistant, owing to the use of its proprietary nanotechnology during the production process.
It also says that its apparel does not need to be washed as frequently as normal clothing and requires less water and detergent.
Turms sells apparel on its website and recently launched on Amazon Launchpad. It is also selling its product through multi-brand outlets in Odisha.
The company was founded in December 2016 by Rameswar Misra and Rohit Gupta. Misra, a graduate of Indian Institute of Management-Shillong, had worked at Sequoia Capital-backed startup Voonik, which operates an eponymous fashion marketplace. Gupta is a nanotechnology graduate from Amity University.
Deals in the broader space
A number of companies in the broader apparel space have raised funding over the past few months.
Earlier this month, VCCircle reported that online organic cotton menswear firm Northmist had raised an undisclosed amount from an angel investor.
In August, Ahmedabad-based Nimana Fashions Pvt. Ltd, which runs online womenswear brand Enakshi, raised Rs 80 lakh (about $114,000) in seed money from two undisclosed Gujarat-based investors.
In June, womenswear e-tailer eShakti raised Rs 75 crore ($10.1 million) in fresh funding from private equity firm Paragon Partners.
