Unlike many D2C fashion brands that prioritised growth through discounts and marketing spends, The Bear House spent nearly seven years focusing on profitability, customer retention and operational discipline
The startup delayed its offline expansion until it crossed ₹100 Cr in revenue, using years of online customer data to identify store locations and reduce execution risks
As it targets ₹500 Cr in revenue by FY27, The Bear House is betting on omnichannel expansion, quick commerce and brand-building while attempting to preserve its profitability-first DNA
When Harsh Somaiya and Tanvi Somaiya incorporated The Bear House
, a Bengaluru-based premium menswear brand, in 2019, they were convinced that India’s D2C boom would give them wings to place them alongside established menswear brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Blackberrys and Arrow in no time.
Little did they know that it would take them close to six years to cross the ₹100 Cr revenue mark and become profitable in a high-octane industry crowded with heavily funded brands chasing growth through discounts and aggressive customer acquisition. The reason? They bucked the trend and took a slower route.
This is how their journey has looked so far:
The result has been a steady but constant growth over the years. After posting a revenue of ₹130 Cr against a net profit of ₹3.7 Cr in FY25, the brand’s operating revenue rose more than 100% year-on-year (YoY) to ₹270 Cr in FY26. Its profits, too, surged 5X on-year to ₹16 Cr, Harsh Somaiya, cofounder of The Bear House told Inc42.
The brand clocked its first crore in revenue within the first year of operations. It reported a revenue of ₹18 Cr in FY22, which tripled to ₹54 Cr in FY23, before rising further to ₹96 Cr in FY24.
“We have been profitable from day one,” Harsh said. The steady momentum has attracted significant investor attention, and the brand is in the process of raising nearly $25 Mn in its Series B round.
Before breaking down the playbook that helped The Bear House scale profitably in a market crowded with well-funded fashion startups, it is worth looking at how the brand first came into being.
The story of The Bear House started much before its D2C journey began. Before launching the D2C label, the founders owned a garment manufacturing business, Bloomcraft, which they started in 2014. The company operated its own factory and supplied inventory to global fashion brands such as Zara and H&M.
“We decided to expand and create our own label,” said Harsh. With this thought, the founders launched The Bear House’s website in 2017.
The founders operated both Bloomcraft and The Bear House for the next two years. By 2019, The Bear House’s profits inched closer to ₹10 Lakh and the brand started showing stronger long-term potential. This was the time the founders took a call and pulled the plug on their manufacturing business to focus entirely on scaling the premium menswear startup.
The next few years proved to be crucial, but their slow and steady approach catapulted them into a near ₹100 Cr revenue trajectory by 2023-24. By this time, shirts and smart casual wear had already become their strongest categories. What also helped was the post-pandemic shift towards premium casual fashion in India.
Unlike many other brands that rose to fame during or after the pandemic on the back of celebrity endorsements, capital splurge, flashy advertising, cashbacks or discounts, The Bear House did not have any breakthrough moment that made it popular overnight.
The success of the brand is the result of a series of deliberate decisions — whether it was outsourcing manufacturing, using consumer data to guide retail expansion, leveraging stores for quick-commerce fulfilment or investing selectively in brand building
“We spent most of our journey focusing on operational discipline, repeat customers and product quality. To accelerate growth, we expanded across offline retail, shop-in-shop partnerships, quick commerce and brand marketing. Our broader strategy was simple: increase brand visibility and consumer access across every possible touchpoint while still maintaining profitability,” said Harsh.
Together, these decisions laid the foundation for The Bear House’s breakout growth in FY26. The brand intends to cross the ₹500 Cr revenue mark in FY27. For this, the founders said they will be doubling down on their key strategies that have powered the rise of the brand.
From day one, the founders were clear that they did not want to build a capital-intensive business. Therefore, they avoided manufacturing ownership, even as they had prior expertise in the segment.
The founders did not disclose the exact reason behind shutting down Bloomcraft to focus entirely on The Bear House. However, it is seen that most new-age D2C brands are not engaged in manufacturing.
The Bear House leaned on third-party vendors for production, which allowed the company to remain asset-light during its formative years and channel more resources towards product development, branding and customer acquisition.
To build credibility, the startup doubled down on product quality, expanded its catalogue gradually and invested in creating a strong brand recall among consumers. The strategy was simple: retention over rapid acquisition.
While several D2C startups relied heavily on discounts and performance marketing to drive the top line growth, The Bear House focused on creating repeat purchase behaviour without compromising on business fundamentals. To solve this, the founders realised that online channels were not enough.
“We had to enter the offline space. Clothing is still a category where most consumers prefer to visit stores to touch, feel and try products before making a purchase,” Harsh said.
But offline retail comes with its own set of challenges. From expensive rentals in premium locations to interior fit-outs, staffing and inventory management, retail expansion is an extremely capital-heavy area.
While the startup stayed away from splurging capital to preserve profitability, the timing felt right in FY25, when the brand crossed ₹100 Cr in revenue and posted a profit of ₹3.7 Cr.
Around the same time, the startup raised ₹50 Cr in Series A funding led by JM Financial India Growth Fund III, giving it additional financial headroom for expansion.
The offline push has now become one of the biggest contributors to the startup’s growth. Offline channels currently account for nearly 25% of the brand’s total revenue.
The brand entered the offline retail space after seven years. By this time, it had spent enough time building a large online customer base. This gave it access to granular data on where orders were coming from and which geographies had the strongest consumer affinity for the brand.
The founders used this data to identify high-potential catchment areas. Nearly 85% of its stores were launched in locations where the startup already had strong online traction, while the remaining stores were opened to test new markets. Today, metros account for 38% of its users, and nearly 62% of customers come from tier II and smaller markets.
In the initial years of retail expansion, the startup also expanded through the shop-in-shop (SIS) format by partnering with Reliance Retail Trends stores. The partnership significantly expanded the startup’s offline reach. Today, the brand is present across 109 Trends stores and more than 272 Reliance touchpoints across formats.
The Bear House opened its first store in February 2025, followed by a second outlet in March. Within a year, the startup scaled its offline footprint to 24 stores.
“You will barely see any other new age brands launching so many stores in a single year. What gave us confidence is the above 60% retention rate of our user base,” Harsh said.
The startup claims its stores achieve EBITDA breakeven within two months of their launch, while the overall payback period currently ranges between 12 and 14 months. The startup now plans to expand to nearly 65 stores across India. To support this scale, the startup has also expanded its warehousing operations with a new 6 Lakh sq ft facility in Bengaluru.
With the unabated rise of quick commerce platforms in 2025, The Bear House founders identified their next inflexion point. However, instead of creating dedicated dark stores for quick commerce fulfilment, the startup chose a far more efficient route. It began using its retail stores as fulfilment hubs for quick commerce orders. The model allowed the startup to leverage existing infrastructure while minimising incremental operational costs.
Today, The Bear House products are available across platforms such as Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, Knot, Zilo and Myntra M Now. The startup works with supply chain and warehousing startup Emiza to manage its quick commerce operations.
Quick commerce currently contributes around 2% of the startup’s total revenue. But Harsh believes this could increase substantially over the next few years. “I feel 8%-10% of revenue will come from this vertical going ahead,” he said.
According to Harsh, the goal behind these partnerships is simple: maximise visibility across all possible retail formats. “We just want our product and brands to be available across the format. This only creates more brand visibility,” he said.
Over the past year, The Bear House has significantly expanded its marketing efforts. Beyond performance marketing, the startup is investing heavily in brand-led campaigns to increase visibility.
The startup now finds itself entering a far more competitive phase. While omnichannel expansion has helped unlock rapid growth, scaling offline retail profitably remains one of the biggest hurdles for Indian fashion startups. Growing rentals, competition and customer acquisition costs continue to pressure margins across the sector.
“Despite this, we plan to stick to our trajectory and cross the ₹500 Cr in revenue mark by FY27,” Harsh said. The startup will ensure this growth by providing high quality products to the masses.
The competition in the country’s D2C fashion space has intensified sharply over the last few years with brands like Snitch, The Souled Store, and several other new-age labels aggressively expanding offline while scaling their online presence.
At the same time, investor interest in the segment has remained strong. As per Inc42’s D2X 3.0 report, India’s homegrown D2C startups have collectively raised more than $10 Bn across 1,400 deals since 2015.
In an ecosystem obsessed with growth at all costs, The Bear House has built its business by doing the opposite. The real test now is whether the brand can scale from a ₹270 Cr revenue generating business to a ₹500 Cr omnichannel player, all while retaining the discipline that got it here in the first place. Is the brand ready for its biggest leap yet?
Edited by Shishir Parasher
Creatives By Varshita Srivastava
Source: Inc42 - Startups
