Indian sneaker model Comet has raised Rs 100 crore in a Sequence B funding spherical led by world funding agency Verlinvest, because it seeks to develop its bodily retail community and develop new footwear.

Current investors Elevation Capital and Nexus Enterprise Companions additionally participated within the spherical.

The funding additionally included angel investments from City Firm co-founder and CEO Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Snap CBO Ajit Mohan, and Anand Ahuja, founder and CEO of Bhaane and co-founder of VegNonVeg.

Bengaluru-based Comet was based in 2023 by Utkarsh Gupta and Dishant Daryani. It presently gives 4 footwear fashions, every with its personal sole tooling developed by means of analysis and improvement and capital funding. The corporate plans to double its portfolio to eight fashions by the tip of 2027.

Comet raised Rs 42.3 crore in a Sequence A spherical led by Elevation Capital in 2024.

The startup mentioned the most recent funding will likely be used to develop its retail presence and strengthen product improvement, know-how and analysis and improvement. This contains creating its personal sole moulds and the tooling required to carry new footwear fashions to market.

Comet is ready to achieve 10 shops in September and plans to develop to twenty by the tip of FY27 because it builds its bodily and omnichannel presence in India.

“Retail has grow to be a big development driver for Comet, with our shops constantly outperforming the broader athleisure class within the markets we function in. With this spherical, we are able to speed up that growth and construct a a lot bigger retail footprint throughout India,” Gupta mentioned.

The startup can also be getting ready to launch a mannequin designed particularly for girls, which Gupta mentioned had been underneath improvement for a yr and would have its personal sole tooling.

“We wish to proceed pushing the boundaries of what an Indian footwear model can construct, which suggests investing deeply in sole know-how, R&D and engineering,” Gupta mentioned.

Comet designs its sneakers in-house and manufactures them in India. Its merchandise are bought on-line in addition to by means of its rising bodily retail community.

In line with the startup, it had surpassed 500,000 followers on Instagram. Comet has used limited-edition releases as a part of its advertising and marketing technique, with Gupta beforehand saying that some drops had bought out inside minutes.

Amit Aggarwal, companion for early development in Asia at Verlinvest, mentioned the agency focuses on backing founders as their companies attain an inflection level of scale.

“Comet has confirmed {that a} homegrown Indian model can disrupt an area traditionally dominated by world giants. What makes them distinctive is their razor-sharp pulse of the trendy client, merging distinctive enterprise fundamentals with an genuine, community-driven model id that can’t be simply replicated,” Aggarwal mentioned.