Amazon's venture fund leads Rs 110 crore in Indian innerwear maker XYXX

XYXX, a leading men's premium innerwear and lifestyle brand would use the funding to expand its business

XYXX, a leading men’s premium innerwear and lifestyle brand, has raised Rs 110 crore ($13.5 million) in a Series C funding round led by Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund. XYXX continues to be backed in this round by all existing institutional investors including Sauce.vc, Anicut Capital, DSG Consumer Partners and Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund.

“We've seen rapid growth right from our inception in 2016 and plan to use the investment to keep doing more of the same, focusing on our core product categories and driving efficiency and profitability through greater scale and better use of technology,” said Yogesh Kabra, Founder, XYXX.

On further expansion plans, Kabra said the immediate focus lies on expanding, both in scale and scope. General trade will continue to be the firm’s most important sales channel as it goes deeper within existing markets. “We will launch our Silver Cotton-made range of innerwear in an array of exciting signature XYXX designs across channels opening up the brand to a completely different market and consumer set, backed by our extensive retail and online distribution network,” said Kabra.

XYXX has built a network of over 18,000 retailer partners across India, mapping more than 150 cities and towns.

"Our vision with the $250 million Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund is to empower the next generation of innovative, ground-breaking companies led by visionary founders,” said an Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund. “In a short time, XYXX has created strong brand recall with their relentless focus on product market fit and we are excited to work with them for their next phase of growth."

XYXX retails on 14 key digital marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and Ajio, where they are amongst the top 3 innerwear brands, for 3 years in a row.

Manu Chandra, Founder of Sauce.vc said this round of funding sets the company on a strong footing for the next few years. “We believe profitability emerges from depth in scale and we admire the team’s tenacity in sticking to and scaling its core category,” said Chandra.

In FY 2023, the brand witnessed the launch of XYXX’s first-ever exclusive brand outlet (EBO) in central Mumbai. This soon followed by three more EBO’s in Indore, Bangalore and north Mumbai. The brand aims to open another 6 stores and double the EBO scale in FY24.

Dhruv Kapoor, Partner - Anicut Capital said that men’s innerwear category is witnessing a dramatic shift from being perceived as a mere essential, driven by need to an aspirational fashion-forward category. “XYXX is leading this shift in India with a strong focus on product innovation and supply chain,” said Kapoor.

In April 2021, e-commerce giant Amazon India launched $250 million Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund (the venture fund) to invest in startups and entrepreneurs focusing on technology innovations in SMB (small and medium business) digitization, agriculture and healthcare. The venture fund invests in technology-led startups that are passionate about unlocking the possibilities of a digital India.

For instance, early this year, fresh fish and meat e-commerce firm FreshToHome has closed $104-million in Series D funding with Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund leading the round.