Lyskraft, the omnichannel fashion startup founded by former Zomato senior executive Mohit Gupta and Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal, has raised $26 million in seed funding, positioning it as one of the largest early-stage rounds for an Indian startup amid the ongoing funding crunch.
The funding round was led by Peak XV Partners, formerly known as Sequoia Capital India, Gupta stated. He emphasized that the seed capital would support their efforts to develop an omnichannel marketplace for premium brands. Their initial focus will be on women’s fashion, with plans to later expand into other lifestyle categories.
This significant seed investment in Lyskraft highlights the ongoing interest among investors in supporting ventures founded by returning entrepreneurs and seasoned executives.
Other investors in this round included global tech investor Prosus, Belgian investment fund Sofina, and partners of DST Global. Deep Kalra and Rajesh Magow from MakeMyTrip, along with Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, also took part in the financing, as per Gupta.
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Gupta will assume the position of chief executive at Lyskraft, while Bansal will serve as a strategic advisor and shareholder. However, he won’t be involved in the day-to-day operations of the company.
According to sources, Bansal, who co-founded the fashion e-commerce platform Myntra and the fitness startup Cultfit, is now focused on developing a deep tech artificial intelligence startup on his own.
Following his stint at Tata, Bansal had stepped down as the CEO of Cultfit last year.
A year ago, when Gupta and Bansal joined forces, the aim was for Meraki Labs, Bansal’s startup incubator, to explore raising capital at the holding company level while also securing funds for various startups under its wing. Bansal has supported ventures such as the stock-broking firm Groww and the spacetech startup Skyroot Aerospace.
Regarding Lyskraft, Gupta mentioned that the premiumization trend, noticeable across various consumer categories, guided him and Bansal towards targeting the high-end segment of the market for their venture.
“The premium fashion segment in India requires a distinct approach,” he stated. “He anticipates that within the next 5-10 years, it will grow significantly to warrant being treated as a standalone vertical. Particularly, women’s fashion poses unique challenges, and the solution, he believes, lies not solely in online or offline channels but in an omnichannel approach, which is our objective.”
Gupta exited Zomato in November 2022. He was promoted to the position of co-founder and played a key role in developing and guiding the company’s food delivery business. Prior to this, he spent a decade at MakeMyTrip, serving as its Chief Operating Officer until his departure in 2018. He also worked at the renowned packaged foods and beverages company, PepsiCo, in India.
As per Gupta, Lyskraft has partnered with 15 brands in the premium women’s apparel sector and does not intend to engage in manufacturing itself.
The company will vie with competitors such as Nykaa Fashion, which operates both online and offline stores, as well as purely digital platforms like Myntra (owned by Flipkart), Ajio by Reliance Retail, and Tata Cliq.
Gupta explained that Lyskraft chose an omnichannel approach instead of starting with an online-first strategy because their focus was on solving the problem rather than being confined to a specific channel.
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“When it comes to premium occasion wear, whether it’s Indian or western, the buyer doesn’t care if it’s available online or offline.We are looking at this as a customer and category problem, not a channel one. The greatest solution we found for this was omni-channel, which is why we’re going that approach from the start,” he said.
“The offline piece has to be deeply curated as the brick-and-mortar ecosystem is able to accommodate a certain amount of inventory,” Gupta stated. We don’t think opening up an online marketplace is the greatest solution, even for online platforms, but we’re still very early in the process and will adjust as we learn more. However, curation is our underlying premise.
As per an investor presentation by Nykaa during its October-December earnings, the total fashion market in India is approximated to be $147 billion, with online fashion accounting for $49 billion of this figure.
Gupta mentioned that Lyskraft’s present addressable market stands at a few billion dollars, with projections indicating it could surge to $12-15 billion within the next six to seven years.