Underneat has reported a major milestone in its financing history, as it has effectively obtained funding of $6 million in a pre-Series A funding round. Fireside Ventures, a well-known investor in consumer brand ventures, led the round, which indicates its high confidence in the position and trajectory of the startup in the market. With this high capital injection, the company will be able to implement its aggressive expansion strategy, which is the expansion to scale its operations and expand its distribution network to major urban centres in India. This increase comes after the brand had successfully raised capital in the past, showing continued investor support in its ability to assume a leading market in the new but rapidly growing shapewear segment of the Indian market.
The most recent $6 million fund raised in a pre-Series A funding round was led by the Fireside Ventures. Besides the lead investor, the round also involved the critical involvement of Ghazal Alagh, co-founder of Honasa Consumer, who is also a current investor in Underneat. Ghazal Alagh, a major player in the industry, continues to invest in the company is a big endorsement of the performance of the company since it started.
Underneat had already accomplished a seed round of $2.51 million before this pre-Series A round. This seed capital was also raised by Fireside Ventures, among other investors. The cumulative capital has now placed Underneat in a good position to capitalise on the huge opportunity that the changing subject of women’s innerwear presents in India, and investor funds can be translated into the large-scale operations and market penetration.
Underneat has developed a clear plan on how to implement the newly purchased $6 million. The two major strategic objectives have been identified on which the funds will be allocated, as stated in a press release by the company. The initial is the first objective of scaling operations. This includes expansion of production capacity, improvement of technological infrastructure, and improvement of internal business operations to accommodate much higher volumes of demand.
The second significant goal is concentrated on the empowerment of the channels of distribution within the big cities of India. The goal of this expansion is to make the product line of Underneat available to more consumers, not just through digital platforms, which need to go beyond digital to encompass physical retail space and thus establish an omnichannel approach.
The strategic investment is essentially linked to the maximisation of the commercial coverage and operational dynamics of the brand so that the firm could be able to promptly capitalise on the ever-increasing consumer interest in the specialised innerwear solution. Underneat is set to handle the demand explosion of the local market by making huge investments in scaling and distribution.
Kusha Kapila and Vimarsh Razdan co-founded Underneat in April 2025. The company’s main product revolves around offering high-quality, specialised, and affordable solutions, which are well-crafted on the anatomy and inclination of the Indian woman’s body. The product line is expansive and covers shapewear, innerwear and their accessories.
The mission that Underneat seeks to fulfil is to go beyond the mere utilitarianism of clothes by creating a blend of fashion, comfort, and affordability. The brand specifically seeks to rebrand confidence wear in India, meaning that it will prioritise the psychological and emotional value of its products rather than their physical value for use.
Going by the extensive market research statistics, the market value of women’s innerwear in India is now an impressive figure at $5.06 billion. This is expected to be an explosive market, and it has been estimated that the market will grow to a valuation of between $9.57 billion and $12.0 billion by 2030-2033 years. Behind this growth trend is a strong Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) that is estimated between 8.4-11.2%. The major factors contributing to this market growth are determined to be the growing disposable income, the long-term tendency of further urbanisation of the country, and the intensified use of e-commerce platforms by citizens.
Since its introduction, Underneat says that it has already managed to achieve a significant part of the fresh shapewear niche in India. Its ability to provide quality products at accessible prices has led to this early success, and it has reached a strong product-market fit. Direct consumer interaction in the digital channels has been a significant boost to the growth of the brand. The firm has reported promising performance figures, stating that it has already reached ₹150 crore Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) with a positive EBITDA position, which underlines its business model of being capital efficient.
The successful completion of the $6 million pre-Series A round, led by Fireside Ventures and backed by Ghazal Alagh, is a key occasion in the life of shapewear brand Underneat. This new infusion of capital shall be tactically directed into the expansion of the scale of operations and strengthening of the distribution channels to match the fast-growing demand in the Indian women’s inner wear market.
As the market is expected to almost double or even triple in the next ten years and considering Underneat’s current boasting of reaching ₹150 crores ARR and positive EBITDA, the brand is in the right position to build on the growing purchasing power and fashion awareness of the urban Indian women. The investment confirms the mass-premium strategy of the brand and its targeted activities to reinvent the confidence wear category through integrating quality, comfort, and affordability.