Good morning,
Last week we asked you: stores or quick commerce? This week, six brands answered with store announcements. You’ll find them in our new Store Watch.
But the bigger story is about exits. ITC now owns all of Yoga Bar, and the price tells every founder what a winning D2C brand is worth to a big FMCG company. Being bought, though, isn’t the finish line, as two Aditya Birla-owned brands showed this week.
Inside: the exit math, five D2C deals, the $222 Mn quarter, and one week to go for FRONTIER Mumbai.
The Big Story: The Exit Is Back
By the D2C Insider Editorial Team
What happened
ITC now owns 100% of Yoga Bar. On 28 September, ITC paid ₹645 crore in cash for the rest of Sproutlife Foods, Yoga Bar’s parent, taking its stake from about 47.5% to 100%. ITC first bought in back in May 2023, paying ₹175 crore for 39.42%. In that time, Yoga Bar’s turnover went from ₹108 crore in FY24 to ₹200 crore in FY25 and ₹452 crore in FY26.
Do the math, and the brand got about 2.8 times more valuable. The 2023 price works out to roughly ₹444 crore for the whole company. This week’s price works out to roughly ₹1,229 crore. That’s about 2.7 times FY26 revenue. (Our calculation from the two deal prices.)
It isn’t a one-off. In February, HUL bought the remaining 49% of Oziva for ₹824 crore, valuing it at about ₹1,682 crore. Oziva’s FY26 revenue was ₹463.4 crore. And last week, Accel and 360 ONE sold part of their BlueStone stake to mutual funds. The money is coming back to the people who backed D2C early.
Why it matters
Exits are what keep early-stage money flowing. When investors get cash back, they write the next cheque. Two nutrition brands, each worth well over ₹1,000 crore to a giant, give every seed investor a real-world answer to “what’s this worth if it works?”
The other side
Being bought is not the finish line. Aditya Birla’s TMRW owns majority stakes in two D2C fashion brands, and both filed numbers this week.
Bewakoof: revenue grew 40% to ₹243 crore, but losses grew 19% to ₹87.4 crore. It spent ₹1.38 to earn each rupee of revenue.
The Indian Garage Co: growth slowed to 15%, to ₹234.6 crore, after doubling the year before. Ad spend doubled to ₹29.3 crore, and losses rose to ₹28.7 crore.
Our view
Big FMCG is buying better-for-you, and paying for proof. Yoga Bar and Oziva have three things in common: a category the buyer didn’t own, demand built online, and revenue past ₹450 crore. That’s the profile that gets paid.
For founders, the lesson is simple. Build what a giant can’t build in-house: trust in a specific category, and customers who come back. Distribution is the one thing ITC and HUL already have. Fashion shows the risk of the opposite: when growth depends on ad spend, a big parent doesn’t fix the economics.
What to watch
Whether ITC’s distribution can take Yoga Bar into kirana stores and double it again from ₹452 crore. If it does, expect every FMCG giant to go shopping.
The Deal Sheet: 26 September – 2 October
Five D2C brands raised money this week, and one big exit closed.
Funding rounds
Balwaan Krishi · Farm equipment · Series B · ₹100 Cr · Lead investor: First Bridge India Growth Fund
EDT · Consumer tech and beauty-tech · Pre-Series A · $2.4 Mn · Lead investor: Sauce
Bangalore Watch Company · Luxury watches · Seed · $1.4 Mn · No single lead: customers, family offices and HNIs
Primerry · Pediatric wellness · Pre-seed · ₹7.1 Cr · Lead investor: Ashish Kacholia
FIG Living · Home and living · Not disclosed · Undisclosed · Investor: Aman Gupta (SailThru Ventures)
Exits and acquisitions
ITC → Yoga Bar · Nutrition · Full buyout · ₹645 Cr for the remaining stake
Zigly → Prolife Speciality Vet Clinic · Pet care · Acquisition · Undisclosed · Zigly’s third vet clinic buyout in 18 months
Also funded, consumer-adjacent: EV maker Simple Energy raised ₹1,750 crore ($182 Mn) in Series C, led by the family office of Thyrocare founder Dr A. Velumani.
The signal. Three of the five rounds came from people, not funds: Ashish Kacholia, Aman Gupta, and Bangalore Watch Company’s own customers. Founders are raising from those who already believe in the product. And Sauce led a D2C round for the second week running.
The Number: $222 Mn
That’s how much e-commerce startups raised in Q3 2026, according to Entrackr’s quarterly report. AI took $635.3 Mn and EV startups $583 Mn. Indian startups raised about $2.9 Bn in total, down from $3.5 Bn in Q2.
What it means for founders: venture money is chasing AI and vehicles right now, not brands. That’s exactly why this week’s exits matter. For D2C, the strongest pitch is no longer “we’re growing fast.” It’s “here’s who buys us.”
Store Watch
Our answer to last week’s question, in six moves:
SleepyCat opened its 50th store, in Gurugram.
Third Wave Coffee opened its 250th café, in Lucknow, and is aiming for about 320 by FY27.
Anera Silver by Kushals opened its first store, in Bengaluru. It plans six stores in eight weeks and 100–150 in five years.
Estilocus wants to go from 2 to 30 exclusive stores in FY27, while staying bootstrapped.
Interio by Godrej is targeting 1,500 stores in three years, up from 1,015+ showrooms today. D2C is 15% of its business.
Swiss Beauty Select is aiming for a 65:35 offline-to-online split on its way to ₹100 crore in FY27–28.
Silver jewellery shows up again: after Unniyarcha’s quick-commerce model last week, Kushals is betting on stores.
Quick Hits
Ranbir Kapoor enters FMCG. His new shower-care brand, Flux Theory, launches with five body washes, sold on its website, marketplaces and quick commerce. The target: people who still use soap.
A cricket captain for rooftop solar. Freyr Energy signed Rohit Sharma as its first brand ambassador. In a category held back by awareness, a famous face is a trust shortcut.
Mutual funds keep buying quick commerce. SBI Mutual Fund lifted its Swiggy stake above 5% with a ₹300 crore share purchase.
The Q3 scorecard. Consumer brands Milky Mist and Purple Style Labs listed in Q3, among six startup listings. On the other side, The Ayurveda Co was one of six startups that shut down.
Netmeds stays profitable. The Reliance-backed pharmacy posted ₹44.7 crore in FY26 revenue and a ₹5.5 crore profit.
For daily coverage, read D2C Insider Pulse.
D2C Insider Updates
FRONTIER Mumbai: one week to go
India’s D2C AI Summit is next Saturday, 10 October, at the Novotel Mumbai International Airport, Andheri East, from 9 AM to 9 PM. Expect 200+ D2C founders and CXOs, 25+ AI leaders, 125+ brands and 25+ investors in one room.
Two sessions not to miss:
Panel: The Consumer Investment Reset: AI, Capital and the New D2C Opportunity. How investors are rethinking consumer bets, from the people writing the cheques: Nikhil Vora (Sixth Sense Ventures), Piyush Goenka (Prath Ventures), Apoorv Gautam (Atomic Capital), Shuchi Pandya (Fireside Ventures), Chhavi Bhardwaj (ConsumerX Ventures) and Hariharan Premkumar (DSG Consumer Partners). Moderated by Nishant Batra (Dholakia Ventures).
Fireside chat: Game On: The Intersection of AI, Gaming and the Future of D2C. Nitish Mittersain (Nazara Technologies) and Vishal Gondal (GOQii), hosted by Abhishek Shah, Chief Evangelist at D2C Insider.
Special invitees include Anupam Mittal (People Group), Anurag Kedia (Pilgrim), Dhyanesh Shah (Mosaic Wellness), Keshav Biyani (The Good Bug), Pallavi Mohadikar (Palmonas) and Tarun Davda (Z47).
FRONTIER Mumbai is powered by co-partner Shopflo, associate partners MSG91 and ClickPost, and supporting partners Triswan and Techsevin, with our community partners TEAM, TiE Mumbai, JIIF, eChai, The Unpuzzle Project, Headstart and Founders Connect.
Seats are limited. Reserve your seat →
Can’t make Mumbai? FRONTIER comes to Bengaluru on 28 November.
Super Angels Live Pitch Day: 7 October
Five consumer startups pitch live to angel investors through D2C Insider Super Angels this Wednesday, 7 October, 6:00–7:30 PM, on Zoom (invite only):
KRVVY: design-led intimate wear, with 9x year-on-year GMV growth and 65–70% customer retention. Backed by Titan Capital and All In Capital, with a Shark Tank India deal from Namita Thapar.
Foxo: full-body health checkups. 200+ members served, 80% through referrals.
Kharesiya Brands: a multi-brand house across baby care, beauty and home essentials, including Oyo Baby and Gadda Co.
JB Air: HEPA 13 air purifiers built for the mass market.
Filli&Me: the Hugbag, a school bag for pre-schoolers, kindergarteners and primary graders.
If you’re an angel investor or exploring early-stage deals, register here →
That’s the week.
If this was useful, forward it to one founder who should be reading it. And hit reply with one line: if a giant offered to buy your brand tomorrow, would you sell?
See you next Saturday, and hopefully at FRONTIER Mumbai,
The D2C Insider Editorial Team
Daily D2C news on Pulse.