Can fast fashion wave make this apparel cycle stick?

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The fast fashion boom is decisively back on India’s startup map. The segment is projected to account for more than a quarter of India’s retail apparel market by FY31, according to Redseer last year.

Investors are also bullish about a new wave of apparel brands. Venture capital investors backed 28 fashion and apparel deals worth $213 million in 2025, compared with 21 deals worth $172 million in 2024, according to Venture Intelligence data. Since January, over four new apparel brands, like Armaya’s funding by Z47 and Accel India, CAVA Athleisure’s investment by Verlinvest, Sharp Ventures and Spring Marketing Capital, and Krvvy’s recent raise from All In Capital, have already raised $29 million in funding.

“There is certainly more interest in apparel products compared to what it used to be in the past," said Dipanjan Basu, partner and CFO, Fireside Ventures, which has invested in new-age apparel brands like NewMe, Terractive and adjacent categories like shapewear UnderNeat. “As GDP per capita increases, the discretionary income beyond food and housing goes to areas like fashion and beauty." “Apparel contributed to almost 20 to 25% of consumer-related transactions in the last year," said Pritha Jha, co-founder of Pioneer Legal. “More and more new-age brands are coming in." This comes on the back of apparel, once tied to occasions and seasonal drops, increasingly behaving like an everyday consumption category, with younger consumers purchasing more frequently.