[Funding alert] D2C Footwear brand Solethreads raises Rs 13 Cr

Open footwear startup Solethreads has raised Rs 13 crore in series A round funding from DSG Consumer Partners and Saama Capital.

The Gurugram based company, focused on youth, is an innovative brand known for its stylish flip-flops.

The company, started in 2018, plans to invest the money to create a better customer experience and strengthening its digital capabilities.

The open footwear category is over $1.5 billion market, growing annually at 15 percent and it is ripe for disruption, said Ash Lilani, managing partner at Saama Capital.

Hariharan Premkumar, executive director at DSG Consumer Partners, said with good product positioning, the brand is well-positioned to be the insurgent brand within the category that has the potential of changing the footwear landscape.

Apart from selling on its own website, SoleThreads products are available at all leading ecommerce platforms, including Amazon, Myntra, and Flipkart.

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According to the startup, Solethreads crossed Rs 50 lakh GMV on Amazon in just four months after launching, and was recognised by the ecommerce platform as an emerging brand.

The founders are also in the process of bolstering their offline presence and recently partnered with premium footwear retailer Metro Shoes.

DSG Consumer Partners is an early-stage venture capital fund that invests only in consumer businesses and has invested over $ 200 million so far in Oyo (sold the stake to SoftBank), Redmart, Zipdial, and Yogurt, among others.

Saama Capital is also an early-stage sector agnostic venture capital firm, investing since 2006. It was earlier backed by Paytm, Snapdeal, Sula Vineyards, Veeba Food, Lendingkart, Chai Point, Raw Pressery, and Fisdom, among others.

Solethreads manufactures its products in Delhi and Rajasthan at units operated by partner firms, some of whom work exclusively with Solethreads. This allows the company to directly employ a lean workforce of 15 people as well as support over 200 skilled and semi-skilled workers at the partners’ factories.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)