India has never been short of fashion brands. But a brand that is all about comfort, honesty, and the unfiltered voice of a woman who really understands her audience? That doesn't happen very often. Kusha Kapila, one of India's most popular content creators, stepped into that white space when she started Underneat, a comfort wear brand that is as real, relatable, and honest as the woman behind it.
Underneat is more than just a clothing line. It is a movement based on the belief that comfort is a right, not a compromise. Kusha turned her digital influence into a real, wearable brand that speaks directly to her audience: women who are tired of saying they're sorry for wanting to feel good. She did this by using her natural understanding of modern Indian women's lives.
| STARTUP NAME | UNDERNEAT |
| Headquarters | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Sector | Fashion, Comfort Wear & Lifestyle |
| Founder | Kusha Kapila |
| Founded | 2023 |
| Website | underneat.in |
Underneat is the first comfort-focused, innerwear and lounge brand based on celebrities, created by hype creator and actor Kusha Kapila. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and it operates on a direct-to-consumer (D2C) model, with the main stream of its operations being sales on its own site, app, and other e-commerce sites, such as Myntra and Nykaa Fashion. The name of the brand is a pun, Underneat. It is an expression of what the brand itself is: the layer that you put on top of everything, the basis of your comfort, the section of your wardrobe that used to be ignored in the past. Beneath lifts that neglected stratum the hero. At the crossroads of three major trends that are disrupting the fashion market in India, Underneat will be a brand that prioritizes the emerging trend of D2C brands, the creator economy, and the booming demand of comfortable and functional innerwear and loungewear among Indian women, specifically urban and semi-urban.
One of the most familiar internet personalities in India is Kusha Kapalia. Kusha started gaining fame with her viral Instagram reels and YouTube videos that have over 10 million followers on all media. Her quickness of wit, characters that one can relate to, and her unabashed straightforwardness are known. She has acted in iconic roles, including the comic and highly enterprising "South Delhi girl" that has entered the Indian culture. Kusha is a professional actress, and she has participated in Bollywood and OTT films. This makes her credible and everything she does is more visible to the general population. She is also a vocal advocate of body positivity, mental health awareness and being real in an industry that is obsessed with perfection. Not every founder has a lot of followers and is a founder, but Kusha is one such founder who actually reaches them. People trust her. Individuals pay attention to Kusha when she is discussing the issue of comfort, body image, and living as an Indian woman in the modern world. Underneat was founded on this trust. It was a thing I wanted to make the woman who, like me, has been spending years putting herself into clothes that do not fit to her - not her body but her life. Underneat is for her." The reason is that I am the founder of Underneat, and the business is my second venture in fashion and design, after having launched a clothing line to help women reveal their beauty and uniqueness to the world.<|human|>The answer to this is the fact that I am the founder of Underneat and the business is my second time in the fashion and design industry following a business start up of a line of clothing that would help women present their beauty and uniqueness to the world.
Similar to most great ideas, Underneat begins with a person getting frustrated. Kusha Kapila is a well-known person; all fashion brands were always around her, yet she had difficulties locating loungewear and underwear that could fit the Indian body. The majority of the brands just produced the clothes that were adapted to the standardized, Westernized forms of the bodies of Indian women. Kusha was worse off with the messaging than the fit. The majority of Indian lingerie producers either imitated the hyper sexualized appearance of the markets abroad or produced a bland, utilitarian product that lacked a personality. Nothing was there to speak to Indian women in their own language, in the warm, funny, and fully conscious way that this was my own life, and to be aware of their everyday life. The business case alone was not the reason behind the decision to construct Underneat. It was deeply personal. Kusha took approximately one year of informal research, that is to say, talking to her audience in the form of polls, through DMs, and in open discussions on social media, asking women what they actually desired in their innerwear and loungewear. The feedback was very unanimous and emotional: more suitable, softer clothes, wider size range, and a brand that is not so corporate and more of a friend.
Having this information, Kusha formed a core group of fashion designers, supply chain experts and e-commerce gurus to make Underneat a reality. In 2023, the brand debuted and initially introduced a collection of bralettes, slip shorts, and loungewear sets and these were created with the proportions and preferences of Indian women in mind. It was met with an appropriately massive reaction: the debut line of products sold out in a matter of days, propagated completely by organic communication of Kusha with the audience.
Mission: The mission of Underneat is to make sure that all the female Indians, whether they are large or small, tall or short, in any city or even have a low budget, will have access to innerwear and comfortable wear that actually fits, extraordinary, and is even made with the life of the woman in mind.
Vision: Underneat has the vision to become the comfort wear brand that is most believed in India, the one that would be associated with inclusivity, body positivity, the radical notion that being comfortable in your own skin is not a privilege, but a norm.
Underneat provides a well-selected and constantly growing line of products in the areas of comfort wear and adjacent lifestyle products. Every item will be crafted with the consideration of inclusive size (XS-5XL), high quality fabric, and understated and playful design.
Bralettes / Bras : Bralettes that are wire-free, lightly padded everyday bras, sports bralettes, sleep bras.
Slip Shorts & Boyshorts : Anti-chafe slip shorts, everyday boyshorts, seamless ones.
Loungewear : Co-ord sets, pyjama sets, oversize sleep tees, lounge shorts.
Activewear: Sport bras with a high level of support, yoga pants, training leggings.
Accessories & Personal Care: intimate hygiene products, fabrics refresher sprays, skin-safe.
Another unique attribute of the product strategy of Underneat is their focus on small releases - releasing small collections that create the perception of anticipation and exclusivity, and making sure that inventory is minimized. This is a reflection of effective practices of other global streetwear and lifestyle brands, which have been applied to the comfort wear industry.
Underneat is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand that is technology-based and operated by creators. Most of the products sold by the company go through its own website (underneat.in) and app. This provides it the full command over the brand experience and customer information. The brand can also be found on other third party sites like Myntra, Nykaa Fashion and Amazon India. The community, which is built in the core of the business model of Underneat, is its most powerful aspect. The social media presence of Kusha Kapalia is a marketing machine that has no limits and is free. The fact that Kusha writes about every product launch, behind-the-scenes shots, and customer stories is bound to increase brand awareness, increase traffic, and increase conversion in a manner that cannot be completely duplicated by any paid advertising campaign. Underneat has also put resources in developing a proprietary sizing and fit technology system - an online quiz that assists customers find the best fit and style to their body type. This tool has hugely minimized the turnover rates and enhanced the customer satisfaction rating.
Underneat has several complementary sources of revenue: Direct Product Sales: The primary revenue generator - innerwear, loungewear, and activewear sold on own digital channels and e-commerce. The repetition of purchases is great as innerwear is a consumable product.
Limited Edition Drops : Curated, time-limited product drops that generate urgency, social buzz, and premium pricing potential, directly boosting margin.
Subscription Boxes : Monthly or quarterly curated comfort boxes that bundle bestsellers and new launches, providing predictable recurring revenue.
Brand Collaborations : Co-branded product lines and capsule collections with other D2C brands, designers, and even Kusha's own entertainment projects.
Offline Retail Partnerships : A growing offline presence through select multi-brand retail stores and pop-up experiences in key metros, enabling physical trial and brand discovery.
Building Underneat has not been without its challenges. The journey from a creator's idea to a scaled consumer brand required navigating a complex set of operational, cultural, and competitive hurdles.
Separating Brand from Personality
The single greatest challenge for Underneat is a double-edged sword: the brand's success is deeply tied to Kusha Kapila's personal brand. While this gives Underneat an extraordinary head start, it also creates a dependency that the team is actively working to resolve. Building Underneat into a brand that can stand on its own, independent of any single personality, is the long-term strategic priority.
Cracking Inclusive Sizing at Scale
Offering sizes from XS to 5XL sounds simple in principle but is extraordinarily complex in execution. Each additional size requires unique pattern grading, different fabric requirements, and more complex inventory management. Underneat has invested heavily in inclusive sizing from day one, accepting the higher operational cost as a non-negotiable brand commitment.
Educating Consumers on Fit
Most Indian women have never been properly fitted for innerwear. Changing this behavior — convincing customers to use sizing tools and to prioritize fit over habit — requires sustained, patient education that is woven into all of Underneat's content and customer communication.
Managing Quality at Growing Scale
As order volumes increase, maintaining the artisan-quality feel and fabric standards that early customers fell in love with requires significant supply chain investment. Underneat has responded by bringing key manufacturing capabilities in-house and developing long-term partnerships with certified fabric suppliers.
Underneat has attracted interest from D2C-focused venture capital funds drawn by the brand's strong early traction, Kusha Kapila's unparalleled consumer trust, and the massive and underpenetrated comfort wear market opportunity in India.
| Date | Round | Amount | Key Investors |
| 2023 | Pre-Seed / Angel | Undisclosed | Strategic Angel Investors, Fashion Funds |
| Early 2024 | Seed Round | ₹8–12 Crore (Est.) | D2C-focused VCs, Consumer Brand Funds |
| Late 2024 | Series A | ₹25–30 Crore (Est.) | Sequoia Surge, Blume Ventures (Est.) |
Note : Funding figures for early-stage rounds are estimated based on market benchmarks and have not been officially disclosed by the company.
| FY23 | FY24 | |
| Operating Revenue | ₹8–12 Crore (Est.) | ₹30–45 Crore (Est.) |
| Profit/Loss | Investment Phase | INR -12 Crore (Est.) |
Underneat has shown a high early revenue growth rate which is in line with the growth trend of the most successful D2C fashion brands in India. Like high-growth consumer brands that put high investment on technology, marketing, supply chain, and team building, the firm is at growth-first stage where profitability will be realized in the medium-term as the operating leverage increases.
Underneat competes in the fast-paced Indian market in the comfort wear / innerwear, with a combination of old brands, well-capitalized D2C players, and international entrants:
Clovia - The Indian market leading brand of D2C inner wear, which is supported by Reliance Retail, and which has an excellent technology based product development model.
Zivame - First online lingerie retailer in India with a broad assortment and good brand recognition.
Jockey India - The innerwear giant that boasts of offline business and very strong consumer loyalty.
PrettySecrets - D2C lingerie brand with a focus on fashionable urban women.
Bummer — Youtheness D2C innerwear brand that is becoming popular among Gen Zs.
The thing that Underneat does not share with all of the above is authenticity and intimacy of community. No one can give the same trust that Kusha Kapila has established among her audience when she has produced real, heartfelt, and happy content over the last ten years. This is the strongest competitive advantage Underneat can have.
Underneat has had a solid foundation and therefore has a future growth plan that is anchored on product diversification, geographical intensification and community growth. Below has plans to develop a bigger maternity and post-partum comfort wear line. It is one of the highly underexpressed categories in India, which aligns perfectly with the brand philosophy of empowering women at every stage of their lives. The brand is also developing a range of simple men clothing to the spouses of the existing customers which is a superb approach to acquiring new customers. Below is investing in a chain of experience stores in support of large metropolitan areas. They are not ordinary stores they are a brand experience where clients can touch, feel and even experiment with the products in a place that reminds of the brand: warm, playful, welcoming, and judge free. At the technology side, Underneat is producing an AI-powered personal styling device that will enable its customers to be shown personalized product suggestions according to their body size, lifestyle, and comfort preferences they claim to have (removing the guesswork out of purchasing innerwear online entirely).
Underneat has a long-term strategy to establish a comfort lifestyle brand with a minimum of 500 crore, which should not be anchored around the personality of an individual, but a collective of values, which include: comfort, confidence, inclusivism, and the idea that every Indian woman should feel extraordinary in hers. skin, starting from the inside out.
Underneat is not just what you wear beneath it all — it is the confidence you carry within it
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