Startup Deep Dive : Bewakoof — the founder exits as losses finally start shrinking

In February 2026, Bewakoof co-founder Prabhkiran Singh announced he would step down as chief executive by 31 March 2026, ending a 14-year run at the company he built from a lassi stall that failed in eight months. He called it the moment Bewakoof moved from a “firstborn” founder-led venture to “a mature market player” under its institutional owner, Aditya Birla Group’s TMRW.

The timing is the contradiction worth sitting with. Bewakoof’s net loss fell 29% to Rs 73.2 crore in FY25 from Rs 103.1 crore in FY24, on operating revenue of Rs 173 crore (~$18 million at $1 ≈ Rs 96.0, 18 September 2026, Trading Economics) — the first real sign in three years that the unit economics were turning. The founder is leaving just as the numbers start to agree with him.

Quick facts

What they do

Bewakoof sells casual fashion — graphic t-shirts, hoodies, joggers and accessories aimed at 16-to-34-year-olds — designed, sourced and shipped through its own app, website and, since 2023, a growing chain of company-run stores. It later added a unisex personal-care line called Cosmos and has flagged plans to move into innerwear and activewear, according to a September 2021 YourStory report on the company’s category-expansion push. The pitch has stayed constant since 2012: pop-culture and Hindi-English wordplay printed on affordable basics, sold direct rather than through a wholesaler.

The origin

Prabhkiran Singh and Siddharth Munot met as civil engineering students at IIT Bombay, part of the 2011 batch. Singh’s first venture was a lassi stall outside campus called “Khadke Glassi”, started in February 2010; it shut down eight months later, in September 2010, per an account carried by StartupTalky. The two had already bought the domain bewakoof.com in 2010, betting on the April Fool’s Day association of the Hindi word for “fool”. They spent the next two years researching what young Indians in college actually wanted to wear before launching the t-shirt business in April 2012, built around campus-humour graphics such as the “Ghanta Engineering” line that first got the brand noticed.

The struggle years

The failed lassi stall was the first, smallest setback. The larger one came a decade later, after the money had already arrived. Bewakoof raised its first big institutional round in October 2019 — $11.2 million led by Bahrain’s Investcorp, reported by both Business Standard and YourStory — and followed it with Rs 30 crore from IvyCap Ventures in March 2021 and a Rs 60 crore round from Investcorp and IvyCap together in August 2021. Instead of a straight climb, the growth wobbled. Operating revenue rose to Rs 160.5 crore in FY22, but the net loss quadrupled that year to Rs 80 crore, according to Entrackr’s April 2023 report on the company’s filings. Inc42’s later restatement, published in January 2024, put the comparable FY22 loss at Rs 30.7 crore — the two trackers disagree on the exact figure, but both show losses widening sharply as spending outran sales. FY23 then brought the opposite problem: revenue fell 8% to Rs 147.1 crore even as the loss narrowed to Rs 12.7 crore, per Inc42. The reprieve did not hold — FY24 losses jumped to Rs 103.1 crore, the worst year on record, even as revenue partially recovered to Rs 161 crore. Three fiscal years of funding had not yet produced a stable operating model.

The turning point

The event that reshaped the company was not a product launch but a change of ownership. In November 2022, TMRW — the digital-first “house of brands” venture the Aditya Birla Group had launched five months earlier — agreed to take a majority stake in Bewakoof as part of a Rs 290 crore push into eight D2C brands, reported by both YourStory and the Free Press Journal. Bewakoof’s own slice was the largest of the eight: Rs 200 crore, described by multiple outlets as a mix of primary equity and a secondary buyout of existing investors, taking TMRW’s stake to somewhere between 70% and 88% depending on the source. Before the deal, Bewakoof was a founder-run company burning through funding rounds every 12 to 18 months. After it, the numbers began to move in a different direction: employee benefit expenses fell 41% to Rs 25.6 crore in FY25 from Rs 43.4 crore in FY24, EBITDA losses improved 38% to Rs 57 crore, and the company opened its first company-run retail stores — a channel it had never operated at scale on its own.

The money behind it

• January 2015 — Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal made a personal, undisclosed-amount angel investment, an early signal of institutional interest (Franchise India, January 2015).
• October 2019 — Investcorp led a $11.2 million round, Bewakoof’s first major institutional raise, earmarked for tech and category expansion (Business Standard and YourStory, October 2019).
• March 2021 — IvyCap Ventures put in Rs 30 crore (Business Standard, March 2021).
• August 2021 — Investcorp and IvyCap Ventures jointly closed a Rs 60 crore pre-Series B round, with the company then targeting Rs 2,000 crore in sales by 2025, a target it has not come close to (YourStory, August and September 2021).
• November 2022 — TMRW (Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail) led the largest of eight D2C acquisitions, putting Rs 200 crore into Bewakoof for a majority stake reported between 70% and 88% (YourStory and Free Press Journal, November 2022).
• Total raised — over Rs 270 crore across the disclosed institutional rounds before the TMRW deal, per PeopleMatters’ February 2026 report; no post-2022 valuation for Bewakoof on a standalone basis has been published, since it now sits inside TMRW’s books as a subsidiary rather than an independently valued startup.

How it makes money

Bewakoof’s model is full-stack direct-to-consumer: it designs, sources, warehouses and markets its own products rather than wholesaling through other retailers, and sells primarily through its own app and website, supplemented since 2023 by company-run stores. The mechanics of the FY25 numbers show where the margin actually sits and where it leaks.

• Gross sales versus net revenue: FY25 gross sales were Rs 264 crore, but Rs 67 crore of that — 25% — came back as returns, leaving operating revenue of Rs 173 crore (Entrackr, September 2025). This return rate is the part casual observers of D2C fashion tend to miss: a quarter of everything sold is later reversed.
• Cost of procurement: Rs 87 crore in FY25, about 35% of total expenditure and flat versus FY24 — the largest single cost line (Entrackr, September 2025).
• Advertising: Rs 48.6–49 crore in FY25, up about 4% year-on-year, needed to keep customer acquisition flowing in a crowded D2C fashion category (Inc42 and Entrackr, September 2025).
• Transportation and handling: Rs 34.6–35 crore, up roughly 10–13%, reflecting the cost of shipping and reverse logistics on returns (Inc42 and Entrackr, September 2025).
• Employee costs: cut 41% to Rs 25.6 crore from Rs 43.4 crore in FY24 — the single biggest driver of the narrower FY25 loss (Inc42, September 2025).
• Unit economics: the company spent Rs 1.43 to earn every rupee of operating revenue in FY25, an improvement on the Rs 1.65 it spent in FY24 and the Rs 1.42 it spent back in FY22 (Entrackr, September 2025 and April 2023).

The numbers

Figures below are operating revenue and net profit/loss in Rs crore, drawn from company filings as reported by Entrackr and Inc42. FY22’s loss figure is contested between the two trackers, so both are shown.

• Revenue has moved in a narrow Rs 147–173 crore band for four straight years rather than compounding, per Entrackr and Inc42’s year-on-year filings coverage.
• FY24 was the outlier: the worst loss of the period, at 64% of that year’s revenue, even though sales had recovered from the FY23 dip (Inc42, September 2025).
• EBITDA margin improved from -59% in FY24 to -34% in FY25, and from -46% in FY22, showing the cost base tightening faster than revenue is growing (Entrackr and Inc42, 2023–2025).

Where the money comes from

Bewakoof does not publish a formal revenue split by product line or geography, but the disclosed facts point to a company still overwhelmingly dependent on its core apparel line and its own digital channel, with two new legs being tested.

• Core apparel and accessories: t-shirts, hoodies and joggers remain the primary line the company describes across every financial disclosure since 2019; this is the segment the Rs 173 crore FY25 revenue is overwhelmingly built on.
• Cosmos beauty line: launched around 2021 as a 43-product unisex personal-care range, with the company targeting Rs 100 crore in sales within 18 months of launch, per Global Cosmetics News — a target for which no independent confirmation of results has been published, so treat it as company-stated and unverified.
• Own digital channel (app and website): the primary route to customers since 2012, and the channel every disclosed financial filing is built on.
• Physical retail (new): Bewakoof had scaled to 22 company-run exclusive brand outlets by December 2025, adding four stores in four weeks across Raipur, Bengaluru, Delhi and Hubli under a “one store per week” push (Apparel Resources, December 2025).
• Quick commerce (pilot): a two-hour delivery pilot in Bengaluru, leaning on TMRW’s logistics stack, reported in February 2026 — too new to have a revenue contribution disclosed yet (DFU Publications, February 2026).
• The surprise: the biggest lever behind the FY25 loss reduction was not new revenue at all — it was a 41% cut in employee costs and a 38% improvement in EBITDA loss, meaning the company narrowed its losses mainly by spending less, not by selling meaningfully more (Inc42, September 2025).

The risks

• Returns erode a quarter of gross sales. FY25 gross sales of Rs 264 crore shrank to Rs 173 crore in operating revenue after Rs 67 crore, or 25%, came back as returns — down from roughly 30% in FY24, but still a structural drag unique to online apparel (Entrackr, September 2025).
• Four years without revenue growth. Operating revenue has ranged between Rs 147 crore and Rs 173 crore since FY22, meaning the FY25 improvement came from cost control rather than demand, and the FY21 pre-Series B target of Rs 2,000 crore in sales by 2025 was missed by a wide margin (YourStory, September 2021; Entrackr and Inc42, 2023–2025).
• Governance and identity transition. With TMRW holding a majority stake reported at 70–88% and founder Prabhkiran Singh exiting as CEO by 31 March 2026, Bewakoof moves fully into Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail’s institutional structure at the same time it is trying to sustain the cost discipline that produced FY25’s improvement — a leadership handover and a financial turnaround happening simultaneously (PeopleMatters and DFU Publications, February 2026).

The takeaway

The lesson in Bewakoof’s numbers is not about virality or clever t-shirt copy, even though that is how the brand built its early audience. It is that a D2C brand can raise money, grow revenue, and still take years to find a cost structure that survives without fresh capital. Bewakoof’s founders got the top line to over Rs 160 crore years before they got the loss line under control, and the sharpest improvement in the company’s history — the 41% cut in employee costs and the 38% narrower EBITDA loss in FY25 — came only after ownership passed to a larger institutional parent willing to enforce that discipline. Building the audience and building a business that funds itself turned out to be two separate problems, solved years apart, by two different sets of hands.

Frequently asked questions

Is Bewakoof profitable?

No. Bewakoof reported a net loss of Rs 73.2 crore in FY25 on operating revenue of Rs 173 crore, an improvement of 29% on the FY24 loss of Rs 103.1 crore, but still a loss (Inc42 and Entrackr, September 2025).

Who owns Bewakoof now?

TMRW, the digital-first fashion venture of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, holds the majority stake, acquired for Rs 200 crore in a deal announced in November 2022; the exact stake percentage is reported between 70% and 88% depending on the source (YourStory and Free Press Journal, November 2022).

Is Bewakoof planning an IPO?

No public DRHP or IPO filing for Bewakoof was found as of September 2026. As a majority-owned subsidiary of TMRW, any public listing would most likely happen at the TMRW or Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail level rather than as a standalone Bewakoof listing.

Why is the founder leaving now?

Co-founder Prabhkiran Singh announced in February 2026 that he would step down as CEO by 31 March 2026, citing a shift to personal priorities and describing the move as Bewakoof’s transition from a founder-led “firstborn” venture to an institutionally governed company under TMRW (PeopleMatters and DFU Publications, February 2026).

What does Bewakoof actually sell?

Graphic t-shirts, hoodies, joggers and accessories aimed at 16-to-34-year-olds, sold direct-to-consumer through its own app, website and, since 2023, company-run stores, alongside a smaller unisex personal-care line called Cosmos launched around 2021.

Sources

Figures are as of September 2026. Currency converted at $1 ≈ ₹96.0 as of 18 September 2026 (Trading Economics).

• Entrackr, “Bewakoof’s growth struggles continue in FY25, but losses narrow”, September 2025
• Inc42, “Bewakoof Narrows FY25 Loss By 29% To INR 73.2 Cr”, September 2025
• Entrackr, “Bewakoof posts Rs 160 Cr revenue in FY22, losses surge 4X”, April 2023
• Inc42, “D2C Brand Bewakoof’s Loss Halves To INR 12.7 Cr In FY23, Sales Dip 8%”, January 2024
• YourStory, “Aditya Birla Group’s TMRW acquires majority stake in 8 digital-first brands”, November 2022
• Free Press Journal, “Aditya Birla Fashion venture invests Rs 290 crore in 8 digital-first brands, includes Berrylush, Bewakoof”, November 2022
• Business Standard, “Bewakoof.com raises $11.2 million fresh funding round from Investcorp”, October 2019
• YourStory, “Investcorp leads $11.2M investment in fashion brand Bewakoof”, October 2019
• Business Standard, “D2C fashion brand Bewakoof raises Rs 30 cr from IvyCap Ventures”, March 2021
• YourStory, “D2C fashion brand Bewakoof raises Rs 60 cr from Investcorp, IvyCap Ventures”, August 2021
• YourStory, “D2C fashion brand Bewakoof plans to diversify in different categories, eyes Rs 2,000 Cr revenue in 4 years”, September 2021
• Franchise India, “Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal back Mumbai-based apparel retailer Bewakoof.com”, January 2015
• Global Cosmetics News, “Bewakoof debuts beauty brand, Cosmos”, accessed September 2026
• StartupTalky, “Bewakoof Success Story”, accessed September 2026
• PeopleMatters, “Bewakoof co-founder Prabhkiran Singh to step down after 14 years”, February 2026
• DFU Publications, “Institutional era begins at Bewakoof as founder Prabhkiran Singh resigns as CEO”, February 2026
• Apparel Resources, “Bewakoof accelerates offline expansion with four new stores in four weeks”, December 2025
• Trading Economics, USD/INR exchange rate, 18 September 2026

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