D2C shapewear brand underneat.in has raised $6 million in a Pre-Series A round from Fireside Ventures, according to public posts by co-founder Vimarsh Razdan and investor-mentor Ghazal Alagh.
The update comes alongside an aggressive growth claim from the founders: the brand has crossed ₹150 crore in ARR, served 2 lakh customers, and expanded to a 30-member team in less than eight months.
While the company has not released a detailed investor note or statutory filing in these posts, both accounts point to the same core narrative: underneat.in scaled by narrowing its focus to a specific product promise, comfort-first essentials “worn underneath” and iterating rapidly based on customer feedback.
From “two people and zero customers” to scale
In his post, Razdan frames the company’s progress as a high-intensity build cycle: “8 months ago, we were 2 people with a dream and zero customers. Today, we’ve crossed ₹150 Cr in ARR, served 2 lakh customers, and built a team of 30 people.”
He attributes much of the momentum to an unusually hands-on feedback loop, claiming the team has had over 6 lakh customer conversations and received thousands of reviews that were “read, replied to, and acted upon.”
The brand’s early months, he writes, involved difficult product decisions, sticking to bestsellers, discontinuing some SKUs, redesigning others and rebuilding customer support after it was “overwhelmed.”
The post also offers a view into internal culture: a small team working through weekends “even on Sundays,” followed by a shift to “better systems” that now allow the company to take weekends off.
The bet: solving for Indian bodies, climate, and affordability
Ghazal Alagh’s post positions the brand as a sharply defined solution to an obvious consumer gap. She writes that underneat.in’s founding insight was straightforward: Indian women needed shapewear “specifically designed for our bodies, our climate, and our price points,” and that the venture began with conviction rather than heavy paperwork.
Alagh also adds detail to the origin story: she says she has known Razdan for years and decided to partner after a single call with co-founder Kusha Kapila, who she says brought clear passion for the category.
“3 Cs” behind the execution
Alagh credits the scale-up to three operating pillars, what she calls the “3 Cs”:
- Content: She says Kapila’s strength in creating “relatable content” helped the brand grow through “honest conversations” rather than pure promotion.
- Community: Alagh says underneat.in built a community of 2,00,000 women, describing it as a feedback-and-advocacy loop where customers don’t just purchase but also share candid inputs and champion the brand.
- Commerce: She credits Razdan with building the fundamentals of the business engine and claims the company stayed “EBITDA positive from day one” by prioritizing quality and unit economics.
These claims are significant in an environment where many D2C brands struggle with repeat purchase economics and customer support at scale. However, underneat.in has not, in these posts, shared audited financial statements or cohort metrics to independently validate profitability and unit economics.
Funding: Fireside Ventures backs again, with a larger cheque
Both posts reference Fireside Ventures as a key backer. Razdan states Fireside believed in the company at the seed stage, around $1 million and then “committed to fuel” growth within six months again via a $6 million Pre-Series A.
Alagh confirms the $6 million Pre-Series A is led by Fireside Ventures, and thanks Kanwaljit Singh, Vinay Singh, and Adarsh Menon for continued support, indicating an ongoing relationship between the founders and the venture firm.
A founder-led, feedback-led brand moment without overclaiming the why
What stands out from the two posts is not just the headline numbers, but the way the founders describe getting there:
- Relentless customer listening as an operating system (six lakh conversations, thousands of reviews).
- Rapid SKU pruning and redesign rather than chasing breadth early.
- Customer support as a scaling constraint and a rebuild when volume surged.
- Founder-led distribution via content that prioritizes relatability and “honest conversations.”
If the company’s ₹150 crore ARR claim holds up over time, it would place underneat.in among the fastest-scaling consumer brands in recent memory, especially within an essentials category that is often built on trust, fit, and repeat purchase rather than one-time hype.
What the founders say is next?
Razdan calls the current point a “special starting point” and motivation heading into 2026, while acknowledging “there’s still so much to do.” Alagh frames the milestone as validation of community trust and says the brand will continue building “rooted in innovation and comfort.”
For now, the most concrete verified updates from the information provided are: the claimed scale metrics (₹150 crore ARR, 2 lakh customers, 30-member team, 6 lakh customer conversations) and the $6 million Pre-Series A from Fireside Ventures, as stated by the founder and investor in their posts.
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