How Indo Era Became An INR 500 Cr Brand In Just Six Years

Fashion was both a legacy handed down to Srishti Tanwani from her mother as well as a passion that she cradled over the years.  

As a young girl living in Raipur, Srishti didn’t spend her childhood watching cartoons or playing outside like other kids. Instead, she found herself in the midst of fabrics, sketches, and designs. Her mother had been running a boutique since long before she was born. 

“Fashion was always a part of my life, without me consciously choosing it. My mother used to take me everywhere with her. That’s how I spent a lot of time around her work,” said Tanwani, who set up Indo Era, which earned fame for its contemporary and stylish ethnic Indian wear and emerged as an over INR 500 Cr brand. “I saw my mother building her boutique from scratch. I got my inspiration from her struggle.”

In 2018, Indo Era forayed into an INR 16.8 Lakh Cr ethnic wear market for women, dominated by brands like BIBA, FabIndia, and Global Desi, with its wide range of kurtas, kurta sets, dresses, suits, Anarkalis, co-ord sets, and Indo-western fashion that blends traditional Indian craftsmanship with modern silhouettes and aesthetics. The price tags vary from INR 599 to INR 4,000. The outfits are available across major ecommerce platforms like Myntra, Flipkart, Amazon, Lifestyle.com, and Shoppers Stop, besides its own D2C website.

Indo Era reported a whopping surge in net revenue – the company equates it with sales after returns – to INR 214.88 Cr in FY24 from INR 3.11 Cr a year back. Its net profit too jumped from INR 16.4 Lakh to INR 4.14 Cr in this period on the back of higher sales and better operational efficiency. On the expenses side, the company’s total costs surged to INR 208.39 Cr in FY24 from INR 2.92 Cr in FY23, primarily because of higher material consumption and scaling up of operations. Indo Era did not share financials for FY25. 

As per the founder, the company’s gross revenue, which the company equates with the sales figure, stood at INR 210 Cr in FY23, INR 300 Cr in FY24, and touched INR 500 Cr in FY25.

The founder, however, mentioned that the FY23 numbers do not reflect the company’s actual scale, as Indo Era operated as a partnership firm from March 2019 until January 2023, when it transitioned into a private limited entity. 

The brand’s growth strategy is based on two pillars – ecommerce and consumer mindset. Indo Era ensured clarity in understanding what consumers in Tier-II and Tier-III cities actually wanted. But that wasn’t all behind the growth. Its insight in the market and a clear demand-supply gap too fuelled the rise.

“Either the clothes were too expensive to wear every day, or they were so cheap that they lacked quality and finishing. I wanted to build a brand that’s stylish, has good quality, and is still affordable, especially in smaller towns where options are limited,” Tanwani said.

Spinning The Yarn: How The Brand Indo Era Was Created 

Unlike other startup founders who are usually seasoned for years and armed with industry insight, Tanwani had nothing but a dream to chase. She wasn’t sure how to pursue it until her first brush with ecommerce.

Engineering seemed exciting but fashion, her true calling as she says, beckoned her soon. The engineering graduate moved on to pursue fashion management from NIFT. She completed two internships before the course was over. One was with a social commerce platform and the other was with Aditya Birla’s ecommerce platform in the footwear category.

She realised that the apparel industry couldn’t be explored in the traditional way – a tech edge was a necessity. Ecommerce was the answer. Tanwani joined Myntra and served the ecommerce major for eight months to get a closer look at the new-age market dynamics. This gave her a deeper understanding of the ecommerce space and its great potential. 

It was during her days at Myntra when she met Deepak Sheta and Ambrish Miyani, who were vendors to the startup. “We shared the same vision. It helped us team up to explore the market deeper to gain clarity before we decided to build an apparel brand in the ethnic wear space,” Tanwani said.

While Tanwani is the chief executive at Indo Era, Miyani serves as the chief operating officer and Sheta as the chief financial officer. 

After interacting with nearly 60 brands, the founders realised that most of them had not surpassed INR 1,500 Cr in valuation. They realised that while ethnic wear might have its limits, Indian apparel had unlimited potential to scale. 

Tanwani was focussed on her ambition to build an INR 5,000 Cr to INR 10,000 Cr Indian apparel brand. She discovered that consumers in Tier-II and Tier-III cities were seeking stylish products at affordable prices, but they couldn’t find them. This helped her zero in on the target group. 

“We observed that while western wear might be common in metros, a large portion of women in Tier-II and Tier-III cities still preferred Indian wear for daily use – even those who were working. There was a clear need for everyday fashion that was stylish, functional, and affordable, rather than just occasional or impulse-driven pieces,” Tanwani said. 

The founders registered the startup in 2018 and launched the brand in March 2019 on platforms like Myntra and Amazon. Indo Era rolled out its D2C window about a year and a half ago.

The company started the journey with just 120 SKUs and today it runs over 4,800 SKUs. The brand has stepped out of the early-day target segment in Tier II and Tier III markets, making significant penetration in Tier-I and in metro cities, driven by initiatives like faster delivery through Amazon Prime and quick commerce. It has also expanded its customer base to GenZ with items such as spaghetti kurtas and co-ord sets.

Indo Era’s Growth Playbook

Even as a bootstrapped startup at the time of its launch, Indo Era had a clearly defined route to profitability by growing into a sustainable and scalable business. By the time the company turned six, its gross revenue had exceeded INR 500 Cr with a monthly sales figure above 6 Lakh. More than the success story, what is more intriguing is its reliance on purely organic growth. The founders claimed that the company spent zero on marketing till last year.

“Unlike many startups that burn cash to build visibility, we consciously avoided flashy PR campaigns or aggressive branding until last year,” Tanwani said. “From day one, the idea was to let the product speak for itself and turn customers into loyal advocates.” 

Another strategic stand that contributed to the brand’s profitability was its refusal to follow the traditional route. “If we keep following others, we’ll never succeed,” believes the founder. “Like everyone else, we initially thought offline was the only route to success in this space. However, we chose not to follow the conventional path. Instead, we decided to do what we thought was best for us. That’s why we started with ecommerce and only entered the offline segment last year,” she said. 

The brand stays in sync with the evolving taste of its customers. While it started as a workwear and everyday fashion brand, today it serves something for almost every occasion in an Indian household. “While earlier, customers shopped only once or twice a year, today the average buyer shops four to five times annually – across Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Holi, weddings, vacations, and even smaller home functions. Each of these occasions demands a different look and price point,” the founder pointed out. This shift prompted the brand to expand its catalogue to include need-based, occasion-specific offerings.

Another great accelerator for Indo Era has been its strong and efficient manufacturing setup. From the start, the brand’s focus has been on backward integration and control over the entire production process. It used to partner with contract manufacturers at key production hubs of Surat, Jaipur, and Kolkata, where the factories manufactured exclusively for the brand. This ensured quality while maintaining flexibility and agility it needed to meet the constantly evolving consumer demands.

By making these manufacturing units in-house, Indo Era streamlined operations, reduced delays, and improved quality. The entire structure – from procurement of fabric from pre-approved suppliers to embroidery and stitching – everything is handled at the partner factories, which eases operational bottlenecks and ensures high standards. It makes the brand flexible to respond to market trends, besides making it agile to bring in new products faster than rivals.

“Because of our strong manufacturing setup, we can bring new products to the market within 20–45 days, which most players can’t match. This gives us a significant advantage in a category traditionally known for longer turnaround times,” Tanwani said. This has further helped the brand build a stronger relationship with marketplaces like Myntra and Flipkart. 

How Indo Era Cracked The Tough Codes

The business blueprint took the brand deep into the black earlier than imagined, but the way to profitability threw up a host of challenges. 

The womenswear market in India, expected to average a 3.49% growth rate to 2029, is teeming with apparel brands, making it a blend of organised and unorganised players. In such a cluttered market, the challenges are endless. From breaking through in a crowded market to maintaining affordability without compromising on quality, Indo Era’s founders had to navigate multiple hurdles, especially as a young brand competing with legacy players and the ever-growing pool of D2C brands.

For a young founder like Tanwani, it wasn’t a cakewalk to success in a capital-intensive, inventory-led category.

“In ecommerce, you can’t wait for an order to come and then stitch. You have to invest upfront – build the stock, create more than 4,000 SKUs with multiple size options, and just hope the designs get accepted by the market,” she said. 

The unpredictability of demand makes the way bumpier. “You’re placing a bet every time on whether a new design will click or not. And, once the customer receives the product, you get immediate feedback in the form of reviews and ratings. If it goes wrong, it feels like a slap on your face.”  

Quality is the edge for a company to thrive in such a competitive market, believes the founder. “I used to read every single customer review at night. I didn’t know the buyer personally or what occasion she was shopping for, but her comment gave me insights,” Tanwani said. Over time, this feedback loop encouraged the brand to double down on quality control, add extra layers of checks, and refine every detail – from fabric texture to ironing – before a garment was shipped.

Another major challenge that the brand faced was on the operational front. “Given India’s vast diversity in body types, particularly the differences in upper and lower body proportions, selling coordinated sets made it especially challenging, as both the top and bottom needed to fit well. This became one of the biggest pain points in the early days.”

Fast fashion brought its own set of complexities for the startup. “We launched 300 products every month, many of which were experimental. Rapid scaling to trendy styles was often difficult. Some of these involved intricate embroidery or hand-painted pieces, which can’t be launched with speed. So, speed in terms of ecommerce also became a significant challenge.” To address this, the brand began ensuring that it always had a backup plan ready for any design that gained traction.

The brand also faces industry-wide challenges like design duplication. “Ethnic wear rarely features logos, making the originality hard to protect,” the founder noted. To counter this, Indo Era focusses on technically detailed products that are difficult to replicate. It invests in smart fabric blends to enhance comfort and longevity. As a woman designing for women, she has brought a personal understanding of her audience’s lifestyle. 

“Our garments are made to be worn all day – from work to social outings – without compromising on comfort,” she claimed. Every piece goes through thoughtful R&D in fabric and fit.

Weaving A Dream

While Indo Era’s journey has had its share of ups and downs, what aided the effort is the founder’s strong data-driven approach. With a background in IT, she’s been able to tap into analytics to decode consumer behaviour, looking at everything from browsing patterns and search queries to conversion rates and global fashion trends. These insights helped her shape moodboards and seasonal collections that aren’t just on-trend, but also aligned with what customers are genuinely looking for – both in terms of design and pricing.

Backed by over INR 500 Cr revenue, the brand targets 95% of the market that remains untapped in the offline sector. From five stores now, Indo Era plans to roll out 25 more this year, with a focus on metros as, according to the founder, it is gaining a lot of traction from Tier I towns.

The surge in quick commerce also prompts the brand to expand into this space. Available on platforms like MNow and Flipkart Minutes, Indo Era will soon be launched on Zepto. 

As Indo Era pivots on expansion and growth, marketing attains higher significance in this orchestration. The D2C brand plans to embark on more expressive and lifestyle-driven campaigns that will focus on visually engaging content, showing women in real-life scenarios, whether reading a book, enjoying coffee with friends, or navigating daily activities, rather than displaying traditional, posed images. This strategy, as per the founder, is designed to create a stronger emotional connect with the brand, engaging customers and positioning Indo Era as a lifestyle brand.

[Edited By Kumar Chatterjee]