BlissClubThe Story
BlissClub, a Bengaluru-based direct-to-consumer athleisure brand, has raised ₹160 crore ($16.8 million) in a Series B funding round led by Singularity AMC. Founder Minu Margeret and her partner Vidit Aatrey also participated, alongside existing investors Elevation Capital and Eight Roads Ventures. The company has not disclosed the valuation at which the round was raised, the equity diluted, or the split of the ₹160 crore between Singularity AMC and the participating investors. It has said the capital will fund expansion into new categories, a larger offline retail presence, product development and hiring. The proceeds are described in terms of growth intentions rather than specific allocations or targets. BlissClub last raised in May 2022, a Series A of $15 million led by Eight Roads Ventures with participation from Elevation Capital. That round was preceded by a $2.25 million seed in May 2021. The Series B is the company's largest round to date and its first with a new institutional lead since 2022, with Elevation and Eight Roads returning rather than exiting. The participation of Vidit Aatrey, the Meesho founder, is as an individual investor and not in any operating capacity. Founded in 2020 by Minu Margeret, BlissClub began with technical activewear for Indian women and has since built an omnichannel business spanning its own website, online marketplaces and more than 40 retail stores, and recently added a menswear line. Its range covers leggings, tops, outerwear and accessories developed through in-house research and sourcing.
Why It Matters
BlissClub sells athleisure directly to consumers, and its business rests on persuading customers that activewear built for Indian women fits and performs better than the alternatives. It designs its own leggings, tops and outerwear, sources the fabric, and sells primarily through its website before reaching customers on marketplaces and, increasingly, in its own stores. The margin in this model comes from owning the brand and the direct relationship rather than from manufacturing, which BlissClub does not do in-house. The operating problem is that activewear is easy to enter and hard to defend. Fabric and cut can be copied, larger labels outspend on marketing, and customer acquisition online has become more expensive across D2C. A brand competing here has to convert first-time buyers into repeat purchasers fast enough that the lifetime value of a customer clears the cost of acquiring her. BlissClub's positioning around fit for Indian women is its answer to that problem, aimed at loyalty rather than one-off sales. The FY25 accounts suggest the model is working better than most in the category. Operating revenue grew 51 percent to ₹131.5 crore, up from ₹87 crore, and the company says it more than halved its losses over the same period, helped by lower employee costs. Revenue growing while losses shrink is the signal that unit economics are improving rather than being bought with spend. What the figures do not settle is durability. The loss reduction is stated but not quantified, FY26 accounts are unfiled, and the company has not disclosed the retention or repeat-rate data that would show whether the brand advantage compounds. The Series B is being raised on an improving trend whose most recent leg cannot yet be independently checked.
The Strategic Read
The market assumption changing behind this investment is that a D2C activewear brand can carry the cost of physical retail and still improve its economics. BlissClub built its name online; the Series B is being raised to put more of its business into stores, and the bet is that owned retail deepens the brand and lifts margins rather than loading it with fixed costs at the point where losses were finally narrowing. Where value is created in athleisure is contested. The category has low technical barriers, and the reason a customer pays a premium is fit, fabric and brand rather than anything patentable. BlissClub's claim is that activewear engineered specifically for Indian women is a durable differentiator, and its repeat-purchase behaviour would be the evidence, though the company has not published retention data. The FY25 numbers are the strongest part of the case: revenue up 51 percent to ₹131.5 crore with losses more than halved is the combination investors in the category rarely see together. The competitive pressure is heavy and comes from above. Nike, Adidas and Puma sit at the top of the market with distribution BlissClub cannot match, and a widening field of domestic athleisure labels competes on the same price points below. The move into menswear enlarges the addressable market but pushes BlissClub into the most crowded part of activewear, where it holds none of the women-first positioning that differentiated it. The largest execution risk is retail itself. Forty stores expanding on ₹160 crore is a capital-intensive shift for a brand whose margin structure was built for e-commerce, and store economics take several quarters to prove. With FY26 accounts still unfiled, whether the offline push protects the improved profitability or reverses it is the open question the round is funding.
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