Bigphi Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which sells apparel under the brand Turms, has raised Rs 2 crore (around $285,000) in fresh funding from angel investors.
The Bengaluru-based company said in a statement that the individuals who participated in this round included fashion portal Myntra’s co-founder Raveen Sastry and PremjiInvest partners Rahul Garg and Atul Gupta. PremjiInvest is the family office of Wipro chairman Azim Premji.
Former Accel venture partner Sree Unnikrishnan and logistics management startup FarEye’s co-founder Gautam Kumar also contributed.
Turms said it will use the fresh capital to invest in its brand, scale its product and technology team, launch offline experience centres and optimise supply chain.
"Our steady 10-15% monthly growth rate with high repeats gives us the conviction that consumers are resonating with our technology and products,” said Rameswar Misra, chief executive and co-founder of Turms.
“For reaching the next 100 million shoppers, we plan to launch experience centres and be on the top marketplaces,” he added.
The company had raised Rs 6.3 crore ($870,000) from angel investors four months ago.
Turms was founded in December 2016 by Misra, Rohit Gupta, Vineesh Chadha, Alok Sharma, Subhra Neel Saikia, Sandeep Kataria and Anil Dhondalay.
Misra, a graduate of Indian Institute of Management-Shillong, had worked at Sequoia Capital-backed startup Voonik, which operates an eponymous fashion marketplace.
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, Amazon and Flipkart.
Deals in the space
A number of companies in the broader apparel segment have raised funding in recent months.
Last month, Azani Sports raised an undisclosed amount from early-stage consumer-focussed venture fund Fireside Ventures. Azani is an active-wear brand for sports apparel, compression gear and footwear.
In the same month, online-first lingerie and sleepwear retailer Clovia had raised $10 million (Rs 71 crore) in its Series B funding round led by AT Capital Pte. Ltd.
Last October, celebrity fashion firm Universal Sportsbiz had secured $13.5 million (Rs 100 crore) in a Series E round of funding led by existing investor Accel Partners.
In the same month, VCCircle reported that online organic cotton menswear firm Northmist had raised an undisclosed amount from an angel investor.
