Deivee's workout adds muscle to Indian women's fitness wear

Empowering the Indian woman with exuberence and style, Deivee is set to bring out the ‘goddess’ in every woman as she takes on the world of health and fitness.

As a flag-bearer for fitness, women’s fitness in particular, Milind Soman, along with Allu Sirish and Darshan M, recently announced the launch of Deivee, an active lifestyle brand. Leading with its ‘performance kurti’, the company has launched a range of fitness wear designed for the Indian woman.

“A lot of Indian women are discouraged from sports and other fitness-related activities because fitness wear does not cater to their specific demands in terms of lenght, cut, etc. This has either forced them to resort to uncomfortable clothing while working out, or to withdraw altogether. Deivee bridges this gap by offering active wear in Indian silhouettes,” Deivee Co-founder Milind Soman says.
 The brand is currently available on Amazon and Flipkart, apart from deivee.com.

“We are already witnessing considerable traction for Deivee products, and estimate sales to amount to Rs 5 crore to Rs 6 crore this year,” says Deivee Co-founder Darshan M, adding, “India offers great potential for growth. As of now, every woman wearing a kurti accounts for a fashion customer, however that may not be the case. We want to convert this customer to a fitness customer as awareness increases.”

Picking up pace
While the self-funded startup plans to raise some funds next month, it will raise its Series A round of about $5 million by the end of two years.

On expanding the brand’s offline presence, Darshan says, “As of now, Deivee is available at select stores in Mysuru and Kochi, but going forward, expanding the offline presence will be about finding the right synergies in terms of location as well as vibe of the place,” adding that the company is looking at setting up outlets in Rishikesh, Dharamsala, Goa and Pune, where there are active yoga communities.

With an aim to grow to a Rs 100-crore company in the next four years, Deivee is planning cross-border expansion in the next two years. “While entering the US will be most exciting, with the growing fan-base for yoga there, we will mark our first cross-border expansion with the UAE in about 24 months,” he says. With the launch of swimwear in the pipeline, Deivee patrons may also look forward to shoes from the brand, he mentions.

Explaining how the company will not venture into men’s active wear, he says, “The name Deivee is derived from the Sankrit word ‘devi’, which means goddess. We are keen on catering to the female consumer-base because there is a huge market gap here, and we want to offer specialised solutions.”