Akshay Narvekar and Punit Chokhani were both helping corporates raise funds at their respective jobs at Everstone Capital and Enam Securities. Today, they help corporates find the right fit for their clothing with their bespoke tailoring services across categories like shirts, trousers and suits.

Start-ups in the bespoke segment have an advantage with lower inventory and debt on their books compared to big textile companies, who are also trying to make a mark in the made-to-measure segment.

“We have no middlemen and can afford to be more flexile than big textile companies. With two rounds of funding by the ex-promoters of Patni Computers, today we are ready to raise more funds if required. The market is shifting from the readymade segment to the customised tailoring segment, as the price difference is narrowing between the two,’’ says Akshay Narvekar, Founder, Bombay Shirt Company.

The three-year-old start-up was the first company in the online shirt tailoring space, and also has formats like pop-up stores and kiosks to cater to bespoke tailoring for shirts. The price range of the items is similar to branded readymade ones, which are upwards of ₹2,000.

Punit Chokhani, a former mid-cap analyst at Enam Securities, quit his job a year ago to start 16 inches.com, an online custom clothier for high quality bespoke shirts, with a seed capital of ₹65 lakhs. Having valued businesses for big textile companies like Raymond and Zodiac during his stint at Enam Securities, he realised there was money to be made in this segment as there was a huge mark up in the price of branded shirts.

“Unlike the big textile companies, we do not have debtors, middlemen and bloated balance sheets. Gross margins are better as we make money on every garment we sell and scaling up is easier through the online model,’’ says Chokhani.

It is not just erstwhile fund managers who are raising money to build bespoke tailoring start-ups. When 24-year-old Harssh Chheda returned after completing his studies at Indiana University in the US, he could not find the right fit for clothes. “It was difficult to find my right size as big sizes were small and small was too big,’’ With funds from his business family, Chheda set up Corporate Collars, which has three stores today, along with van services which take measurements at the doorstep and deliver suits, shirts and trousers within 48 hours. “PE and VC funds have been approaching us since we are a debt free company and they like our exclusive tailoring model,” says Chheda, who is not in an immediate hurry to raise funds.

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