Deepika Padukone-Backed D2C Startup Mokobara Secures Funding To Enter New Categories

D2C luggage startup Mokobara has raised $6.5 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Saama Capital and Sauce VC.

Alteria Capital, Panthera Peak Ventures, Good Capital and individual investors including Varun Alagh from Mamaearth, Ashish Goel from Urban Ladder, founders of Licious, Ramakant Sharma from LivSpace, Raul Rai from Good Earth and Chona Family Office participated in the funding round.

Mokobara will use the fresh capital to beef up research and design. It will deploy funds to enter into new categories, expand the team and launch experience centres.

“We are building a brand for the long-term and, to do that, we have prioritised creating a strong financial foundation and a company that solves real pain points of travel through design. What allows us to invest in making exceptionally high-quality products is the fact that we sell directly to consumers without any middlemen,” Navin Parwal, cofounder of Mokobara said. 

Founded in 2019 by Sangeet Agarwal and Navin Parwal, the Bengaluru-based startup offers a host of luggages, travel bags, wallets, kits and sling bags on its online platform. 

Mokobara has collaborated with  London-based Studio Morrama to create cabin luggage, as per its LinkedIn profile. 

Mokobara counts Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone as its investor. Besides, it also secured 

INR 2.33 Cr from Sauce.vc in seed funding round in 2020, according to Crunchbase.  

In the D2C segment, it competes with the likes of American Tourister, Safari, Wildcraft, and VIP.

India’s D2C market, which is poised to grow over $100 Bn by 2025, has been alluring investments for quite some time now. 

Recently, travel accessories brand Acefour Accessories secured $7 Mn from Sixth Sense Ventures’s current fund and Volrado Venture Partners. 

In the previous month, Indian actress Rashmika Mandanna backed D2C startup Plum and consequently, became its brand ambassador. Besides, skincare brand WOW Skin Science secured $48.02 Mn from Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund GIC. 

During the same timeframe, Bare Anatomy’s parent Innovist raised $3.5 Mn from Accel Partners, 72 Ventures, and other individual investors such as Sauce’s Manu Chandra, Patni Family Office’s Arihant Patni, and CRED’s Kunal Shah, among others.