The women footwear brand aims to make shoes more comfortable by bridging the gap between fashion and comfort


Mumbai, 07th January 2021: Venture Catalysts, India's first and largest integrated incubator and accelerator, has recently made an investment in Monrow, a D2C lifestyle brand. The funding round also saw participation from other leading investors such as Blume Venture , LetsVenture and Angel List.

Founded in 2016 by award-winning entrepreneur Veena Ashiya, Monrow aims to become the new-age comfort focused brand for the millennial generation. The brand is pioneer in launching louseleisure category in footwear in India.

The Millennial team behind Monrow lives by the philosophy of "art of chilling" and creating comfort zones for consumers through their shoes. In its early days the brand caught attention of celebrities like Anushka Sharma to Katrina Kaif and became the most popular brand among fashion influencer community. Monrow's comfort has also grabbed the attention of rapidly growing OTT stars like Sayani Gupta, Kirti Kulhari etc. Monrow's digitally strong business combined with the ability to generate fun quirky content has led to its tremendous commercial success. Strong R&D team with its proprietary ortho friendly shape is building loyalty around the brand. 


Speaking on the investment, Founder- Veena Ashiya – Monrow, said, "90% of existing brands use European/American shape and fittings of shoes which doesn't serve our lifestyle nor do they fit comfortably. Monrow shoes redesigned the whole shape by scanning 3000 Indian women feet to truly understand the shape and come up with one of its kind styles complimenting Indian millennial generation. This 4.8 billion dollar market is largely unorganized. While established retail focused brands have lost connect with mobile first generation leaving this huge white space for brands who are reinventing the product offering and emotionally connecting with their audience through authentic digital voice."

Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & President – Venture Catalysts, commented, "With higher disposable incomes and the increasing preference for e-commerce, the demand for lifestyle brands is increasing. Although the very saturated shoe retail space can appear challenging to new businesses, Monrow has created a niche in the market by focussing on providing fashionable leisurewear at affordable prices. We hope that the investment helps the founding team in the next step of their journey of becoming one of the top players in the women's footwear industry of India."

Sweta Rau and Archana Priyadarshani played role as super angels in this round.

Monrow's rapidly growing business from their mobile site along with exposure to fashion loving audience at myntra and ajio is increasing their consumer base. The brand is gaining trust by partnering with India's largest retailers like shoppers stop, future group and reliance creating sweet spot of Omni-Channel experience for the consumers. Brand sells across 14 locations in India through these retailers.

About Venture Catalysts

Venture Catalysts is India's first integrated incubator. It invests $250K – $1.5 Million in early stage start-ups that have potential to create enduring value for over a long period of time. Over the last few years, it has been instrumental in developing and nurturing the country's vibrant startup ecosystem with a strong presence in Tier 2& 3 markets. Venture Catalysts brings a lethal combination of Capital, Mentoring and Business Network to help investee companies to succeed. Their innovation provides value to start-ups through its extensive angel network, funding, community, services and co-working facility. Venture Catalysts is focussed on providing startups with access to continuous capital from fund, investor network, Tier 1 founders & CXOs, and family offices besides providing them with market access from corporates and global growth programs.
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