Startup Deep Dive : Nasher Miles — TV valued it at Rs 200 crore the same year its filings show a loss

In February 2024, five investors on prime-time television valued Nasher Miles at ₹200 crore ($20.8 million, at $1 ≈ ₹96.0 as of 18 September 2026, Trading Economics) — a bag brand that had never taken a single rupee of outside money in its six-and-a-half years of existence. The same company, regulatory filings show, closed that financial year with a net loss of ₹6.26 crore even as revenue nearly tripled.

That contradiction — a made-for-TV valuation landing in the same year as a filed loss — is the real story of Nasher Miles. This is a look at how a Mumbai-founded, marketplace-first luggage brand went from reselling other people’s products to commanding a nine-figure-dollar price tag, what its actual filed numbers say about the business underneath the headline, and where the growth is genuinely coming from.

Quick facts

What they do

Nasher Miles designs and sells travel gear — hard-side and soft-side trolley bags, backpacks, duffels, kids’ luggage and travel accessories — aimed at younger Indian travellers who found the established luggage aisle, dominated by muted greys and blacks, boring. It runs an omnichannel model: its own website, more than a dozen online marketplaces, quick-commerce apps, and a fast-growing offline network of multi-brand stores, modern-trade chains and a handful of exclusive outlets. The company positions itself in the “mass premium” band of the market, priced above legacy value brands but below imported premium names, and has run cricketer Rishabh Pant as brand ambassador.

The origin

Abhishek Daga, Lokesh Daga and Shruti Kedia Daga did not start out building a brand. From 2014, the trio worked as online resellers, listing other companies’ products across categories on Amazon, Flipkart, Tata CLiQ and Myntra. It was through that reselling business that they noticed a specific gap: functional luggage was easy to find, but nothing on the shelf spoke to a generation of Indians who were suddenly flying more — fuller airports, normalised weekend trips, students heading abroad for study — and wanted bags with colour and personality rather than another grey suitcase. In August 2017, they folded that observation into a private-label brand of their own, and Nasher Miles was registered as a company.

The struggle years

Nasher Miles has not publicised a near-death moment the way some startups do — there is no disclosed brush with insolvency or a lawsuit that nearly ended it — but two structural pivots are on the record, and neither was easy.

• 2014 to August 2017: the founders operated as generic, multi-category marketplace resellers for three years before committing to a single, owned, private-label luggage brand — a bet that meant giving up an already-working reselling business for an unproven one.
• August 2017 to February 2024, more than six years: the company built its revenue base with zero outside capital, funding growth entirely from its own cash flow while better-capitalised category rivals such as Mokobara and Assembly raised venture money over the same period.
• Ongoing since roughly 2024–25: a manufacturing pivot away from import dependence. The company has stated its finished-goods sourcing was around 88% import-dependent going into this push, and has been working to flip that ratio — reaching roughly 65–70% India-manufactured within about 18 months and targeting 80–85% (Entrepreneur India, Indian Retailer). That is a real operational risk taken mid-growth: requalifying vendors and tooling domestically while order volumes are climbing, not shrinking.

The turning point

The turning point has a date: 28 February 2024, the day Nasher Miles’ episode of Shark Tank India season 3 aired. It was the show’s first-ever face-off between two luggage brands — Nasher Miles pitched right after Assembly, which had asked for ₹85 lakh for 1% equity, implying an ₹8.5 crore valuation. Nasher Miles asked for far more: ₹3 crore for 0.75% equity, implying a valuation of roughly ₹400 crore. The five sharks in the room — Aman Gupta, Anupam Mittal, Vineeta Singh, Namita Thapar and Ritesh Agarwal — did not accept that number. They countered, and closed, at ₹3 crore for 1.5% equity plus a 1% royalty until the ₹3 crore was recouped: a deal that valued the company at ₹200 crore, half of what the founders had walked in asking for. It was only the season’s second all-five-shark deal. On one side of the turning point: a profitable, six-year-old, zero-external-funding business asking to be valued at ₹400 crore. On the other: a nationally broadcast ₹200 crore mark, and the company’s first outside cheque.

The money behind it

Nasher Miles ran on its own cash for more than six years before taking any institutional or angel money. Two rounds followed within months of each other in 2024, and startup-funding trackers put its total external funding at $4.28 million (about ₹38 crore, per the company’s own figure to Entrepreneur India), across:

• February 2024 — the Shark Tank cheque, formalised as an angel round of roughly $361,000 (~₹3 crore): backers were Aman Gupta (boAt), Anupam Mittal (Shaadi.com), Vineeta Singh (Sugar Cosmetics), Namita Thapar (Emcure Pharmaceuticals) and Ritesh Agarwal (OYO), plus 3 Peaks Ventures — investors who each brought first-hand experience scaling Indian D2C and consumer categories rather than just capital (Inc42/Tracxn funding data; nashermiles.com; Keevurds).
• 24–25 July 2024 — a $4 million bridge round at a $25.3 million pre-money and $30 million post-money valuation, a roughly 5.5% premium to the Shark Tank mark, from more than 40 investors. Named backers include Singularity Early Opportunities Fund, and, in a personal capacity, Narendra Rathi (Investment Director, SoftBank Vision Fund), Sulabh Arya (Executive Director, Goldman Sachs Growth Equity) and Mohit Goyal (former Managing Director, CVC Capital Partners) — a bench of growth-stage operators rather than a single lead fund (Indian Retailer; Inc42).

• What the money was earmarked for: pushing multi-brand retail presence toward 1,000 outlets by that financial year-end, opening 3–5 exclusive brand outlets, expanding quick-commerce coverage, and lifting domestic manufacturing to 70–75% by December 2024 (Indian Retailer).
• Total raised: $4.28 million / ~₹38 crore across the two 2024 rounds, as reported by Inc42’s funding tracker and the company itself.
• Latest valuation: $30 million post-money, per the July 2024 round — co-founder Lokesh Daga has said the round was meant to hold momentum “before a Series A round,” which had not been announced as of this research (Indian Retailer).

How it makes money

Nasher Miles sells the same catalogue — reportedly more than 60 designs and around 2,000 SKUs across colours and formats — through several channels at once, and the channel mix is the crux of its economics.

• Online marketplaces — roughly 14 platforms including Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Tata CLiQ, AJIO, Cred and FirstCry — remain the largest single share of sales (nashermiles.com; Indian Retailer).
• Quick commerce (Zepto, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart) — about 6% of total sales, generating roughly ₹75 lakh a month, with the company expecting that run-rate to double within two quarters (Entrepreneur India).
• Its own D2C website — also about 6% of total sales, the same share as quick commerce, despite quick commerce being a far newer channel (Entrepreneur India).
• Offline general trade — about 23% of sales through 1,300+ multi-brand outlets, expected to rise to 25–30% (Indian Retailer; nashermiles.com).
• Modern trade and franchise — listings with chains such as Walmart, Spar and Spencer’s, plus a small and growing base of exclusive brand outlets (two operating franchise stores as of mid-2026, in Mumbai’s Breach Candy and Vasai’s Capital Mall, with a target of 10 stores by that fiscal year-end) (Indian Retailer).

On the cost side, the lever the company talks about most is where its goods are made. Finished bags and components sourced from abroad are priced in dollars and exposed to shipping costs and the rupee; shifting production onshore — from roughly 88% imported toward a stated 80–85% domestic target — is explicitly aimed at protecting margin rather than just an “India-made” marketing line (Entrepreneur India; Indian Retailer). Neither marketplace commission rates nor a per-channel take rate have been publicly disclosed, and none is invented here.

The numbers

Figures below are as reported to fiscal-year-end (unit: ₹ crore). Nasher Miles does not publish a multi-year results statement of its own; these are drawn from its financial-data trackers and, for FY24/FY23, from the company’s own filed financial statement.

• FY23: net profit of ₹5.53 crore, per the comparative figures carried in the company’s FY24 financial statement. Revenue for the year could not be independently confirmed this session and is not stated as fact.
• FY24: revenue of ₹167.8 crore, as per Inc42’s company financial tracker — the year revenue nearly tripled year-on-year by the same tracker’s figures. In the same year the company’s filed financial statement shows a net loss of ₹6.26 crore, a swing from the FY23 profit.
• FY25: revenue of ₹145.5 crore per Inc42, a 13.3% year-on-year decline; Tofler’s independent tracker shows a near-identical 13.27% revenue decline for the year, placing revenue in a ₹100–150 crore band — corroborating the direction and scale of the drop from two separate trackers. Tofler also reports the net profit margin recovering to about 3.79% in FY25, gross margin of 14.29% and operating margin of 3.12%, alongside net worth up 271.2% and total assets up 49.02% (consistent with the July 2024 equity round landing on the balance sheet) and borrowings down 22.13%.
• A gap worth flagging: founder interviews around the same period (Entrepreneur India, Indian Retailer) describe FY25 as “on track” for ₹120 crore and FY26 as targeted at ₹180–200 crore — lower than the ₹145.5 crore the financial-data trackers report as the FY25 actual. Both figures are named here rather than picking one, per the size of the gap.

Where the money comes from

• Marketplaces (largest share): ~14 platforms — Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Tata CLiQ, AJIO, Cred, FirstCry and others — carry the bulk of unit volume (nashermiles.com).
• Offline general trade: ~23% of sales, through 1,300+ multi-brand stores, targeted to rise to 25–30% (Indian Retailer).
• Quick commerce: ~6% of sales, roughly ₹75 lakh a month and rising (Entrepreneur India).
• Own D2C website: ~6% of sales — matched almost exactly by quick commerce (Entrepreneur India).
• Modern trade and franchise: a small but growing base — two operating exclusive stores as of mid-2026, listings with Walmart, Spar and Spencer’s (Indian Retailer).
• The surprise: a food-and-grocery-style 10-minute delivery channel already sells roughly as much luggage for Nasher Miles as the brand’s own website does — and the company expects that quick-commerce run-rate to double within two quarters, while the owned D2C site’s share was not guided to double in the same interview (Entrepreneur India).

The risks

• Growth-versus-margin swings: revenue nearly tripled to ₹167.8 crore in FY24 (Inc42) in the same year the company’s own filed statement shows a ₹6.26 crore net loss — then revenue fell 13.3% in FY25 to ₹145.5 crore even as margins recovered to a thin ~3.8% (Tofler). The mechanism is a familiar one in Indian D2C: aggressive marketplace ad-spend and discounting can buy topline growth at the cost of margin, and pulling back to protect margin costs topline in turn.
• Import and currency exposure: the company has stated it was around 88% import-dependent for finished goods going into its current localisation push, and was still around 30% import-reliant as of its most recent domestic-manufacturing figure of 65–70% (Entrepreneur India; Indian Retailer). Every rupee of depreciation or spike in freight cost, until the 80–85% domestic target is actually hit, compresses margin on the imported share directly.
• A thin owned-retail base carrying a big offline ambition: as of the mid-2026 interview, Nasher Miles operated only two exclusive brand outlets, with a target of 10 stores by that fiscal year-end, while most of its 23%-and-rising offline share runs through third-party multi-brand stores and modern-trade shelf space it does not control (Indian Retailer). That leaves offline growth more exposed to retailer terms and shelf competition than a company-owned store network would be.

For scale, the category itself is not an easy one to make money in even for a well-funded peer: Mokobara, a direct comparable in premium D2C luggage, reported ₹117.4 crore in FY24 revenue against a ₹4.24 crore net loss — itself an improvement on an ₹8.21 crore loss the year before (Entrackr). Thin or negative margins at scale appear to be a category-wide feature, not a Nasher Miles-specific failing.

The takeaway

A televised valuation and a filed financial result are two different currencies, and it is worth not confusing them. The same year Nasher Miles was valued at ₹200 crore on national television, its own paperwork shows a net loss. Neither number is false — a valuation is a bet on where a business is going, a profit-and-loss statement is a record of where it has been — but only one of them shows up on a balance sheet. The transferable lesson for founders chasing a marquee valuation moment, on a shark tank or otherwise, is that the number investors agree to pay for future growth can arrive in the same year the accounts show the present cost of chasing it.

Frequently asked questions

Who founded Nasher Miles and when?

Nasher Miles was founded in August 2017 by Abhishek Daga, Lokesh Daga and Shruti Kedia Daga, who had run a multi-category online reselling business together from 2014 before launching their own luggage brand.

Is Nasher Miles profitable?

It has not been consistently so. The company’s filed financial statement shows a net profit of ₹5.53 crore in FY23 followed by a net loss of ₹6.26 crore in FY24; Tofler’s tracker shows the net margin recovering to roughly 3.8% in FY25.

How much funding has Nasher Miles raised, and at what valuation?

Startup-funding trackers put total external funding at $4.28 million (about ₹38 crore) across an early-2024 angel round tied to its Shark Tank India appearance and a July 2024 bridge round. The most recent disclosed valuation is $30 million post-money, from the July 2024 round; Shark Tank India valued the company at ₹200 crore in February 2024.

What happened on Nasher Miles’ Shark Tank India appearance?

On the episode that aired 28 February 2024 (season 3), all five sharks — Aman Gupta, Anupam Mittal, Vineeta Singh, Namita Thapar and Ritesh Agarwal — jointly invested ₹3 crore for 1.5% equity plus a 1% royalty until that amount was recouped, valuing the company at ₹200 crore, half of the ₹400 crore the founders had originally sought.

Where does Nasher Miles actually sell its products?

Across roughly 14 online marketplaces, its own D2C website, quick-commerce apps, and an offline network of 1,300-plus multi-brand stores, modern-trade chains and a small, growing base of exclusive brand outlets, per company and trade-press disclosures.

Sources

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

• Entrepreneur India, “Nasher Miles: Packed Up to Clock Rs 200 Crore in FY26,” 2026
• Indian Retailer, “Nasher Miles Target Rs 180 Cr Revenue This Year with Aggressive Retail Push and 80 pc Made-in-India Production,” 2026
• Indian Retailer, “Funding Alert: Nasher Miles Raises $4 Mn in Bridge Round, Company Valued at $30 Mn,” July 2024
• Inc42, Nasher Miles company and funding profile, accessed September 2026
• Tofler, Nasher Miles Private Limited company financial profile, accessed September 2026
• EMIS, Nasher Miles Private Limited company profile, accessed September 2026
• Nasher Miles FY2024 financial statement (comparative FY23/FY24 figures), filed document, 2024
• IANS, “Shark Tank India 3: witness clash between luggage brands Assembly, Nasher Miles,” February 2024
• Viestories, “Nasher Miles Secures Rs 3 Cr Funding on Shark Tank India 3,” February 2024
• Keevurds, “What Happened to Nasher Miles After Shark Tank India?,” 2024
• nashermiles.com, About Us and company LLM-info pages, accessed September 2026
• Entrackr, “Mokobara reports Rs 117 Cr revenue and Rs 4 Cr loss in FY24,” 2025

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