The Paan Legacy, Hemptyful and Polr. Care has successfully raised upto ₹1 crore each via the Elevate Cohort 2 Demo Day, part of D2C Insider’s Early Stage Growth Cohort.
A shortlisted set of 8 brands from Cohort 2 pitched their ideas to a jury of prominent investors, including D2C Insider Angels, DSG Consumer Partners, Mumbai Angels, Prath Ventures, Sauce.vc, Chandigarh Angels, WFC, V3 Ventures, Indian Angel Network, Sharrp Ventures, and JITO.
The event, held in Gurugram, attracted over 50 investors and was followed by the D2C Insider Regional CXO Meet North, which gathered more than 150 founders for power-packed panel discussions and networking opportunities.
Amit Jain, Founder of CarDekho and chief guest at the meet, said, “It’s truly inspiring to witness the efforts of communities in promoting entrepreneurship and shaping Bharat 2.0. The D2C Insider community is a prime example, providing early-stage founders with the guidance and funding they need through initiatives like Elevate. These efforts play a crucial role in helping founders overcome challenges and unlock their potential for the greater good of the society.”
Abhishek Shah, Founder of D2C Insider, said, “With this Demo Day, we’ve empowered over 40 brands through immersive interactions with industry veterans such as Aditya Sharma (The Souled Store), Karthik Reddy (Blume Ventures), Gaurav Khatri (Noise), and Deep Bajaj (Sirona). Our goal is to impart functional knowledge that accelerates their growth journeys while providing them with access to relevant capital for scaling up.”
Participants in Cohort 2 completed an immersive 12-week program that included over 20 live sessions covering various aspects of business development, one-on-one mentorship from industry leaders, and valuable peer networking opportunities.
The program provided participants with over ₹25 lakh in credits from leading enablers and service providers such as Webengage, Shiprocket, Unicommerce, Trumsy, Zaakpay, Naukri.com, Shipyaari, and more, along with the opportunity to secure up to ₹1 crore in seed funding.
Revant Kaza from Hemptyful, a Demo Day winner, said, “The Elevate program was incredibly valuable. We connected with like-minded founders and gained insight into what investors seek to scale brands. The funding will help us with branding and marketing, research and development for a strong supply chain, and building a competent team to execute our sales and operations strategies.”
The next batch for the accelerator program Cohort 3 is expected to start in November end and will again see a great mix of early-stage D2C brands and enablers.
Founded in 2019, D2C Insider has been a key player in the evolution of India’s D2C ecosystem, supporting over 10,000 members, including top brand founders, enablers, and investors.
