Intelligent apparel company Turms raises Rs 6.3 Cr from Freshworks’ Girish Mathrubootham, others

Turms produces stain and odour-resistant daily wear that need not be washed regularly. It targets busy, working customers with less time on their hands.

Turms, which is India’s first intelligent apparel brand, raised Rs 6.3 crore from Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham and a clutch of other investors. Girish, has to date, invested in over 50 companies.

The other investors of Turms include Reliance Retail Lifestyle President Bijou Kurien, Pepperfry founder Ambareesh Murty, OneAssist founder Subrat Pani and former Flipkart executive Mekin Maheshwari along with angels from LetsVenture & AngelList India. Other marquee angels who participated in the round include Sumit Jain, co-founder Opentalk, Krishnan Akhileswaran, Group CFO at Apollo Hospitals, Prabhakar Sunder, ex CFO - Voonik & Myntra, and Amit Lakhotia, formerly with Tokopedia & Paytm.

The company is founded by former Voonik executive Rameswar Misra and nano-technologist Rohit Gupta in 2016.

Turms offers stain repellent, cooling, wicking and odour-resistant daily wear apparel using its unique IP and technology. Turms apparel do not need to be washed as frequently as normal clothing and require less water and detergent. The Turms merchandise range includes jeans, t-shirts, shirts and track pants for men and t-shirts and leggings for women.

With this current investment the company plans to expand its product range, and invest in hiring, R&D and launching experience centres.

“Globally, most large brands are built around design, price, celebrities, and culture, but never intelligence. Our mission is to offer intelligent apparel at an affordable price. We believe that the world is moving towards functional and low maintenance apparel that can simplify our daily lives. Turms is committed to pioneering that revolution and habit formation in Indian consumers,” said Rameswar Misra, CEO and co-founder, Turms in a press release.

On the investment, Girish said, "Digital-first brands are creating immense value globally. Young brands like Turms are

disrupting the apparel industry and creating a niche market for themselves with their unique offering of intelligent apparel. The company has shown exponential growth in the last one year while maintaining quality and consistency. As a Turms consumer and an investor, I am very proud to be associated with the team since its inception.”

The business

Turms has seen significant traction in the last one year from new and repeat consumers and ison the path to break even in the next 6-9 months.

The company is led by a team of experienced ecommerce, apparel and nanotechnology executives including Vineesh Chadha, former COO, Color Plus, and Brand Head, Louis Philippe and Allen Solly, Alok Sharma, who has 10 plus years of experience in McAfee, Solidcore, and Quikr, Subhraneel Saikia, who is an M.Tech in Nanotechnology, Sandeep Kataria, former VP-Marketing at Voonik and Anil Dhondalay,who has 10 years’ experience in apparel manufacturing & design.

The core target audience of Turms is India’s working youth who are time and resource constrained and cannot wash their own clothes. The brand targets those who commute long distances and work for long hours, but also take care of their daily chores.

The range includes jeans at Rs 1,999-2,299, crew neck tees at Rs 799, Henleys at Rs 999 and polos at Rs 1,199. Shirts are priced at Rs 1,499.