SUMMARY
Founded in 2019, Snitch is a men-focussed fast-fashion brand that offers a wide range of apparel, including shirts, jackets, hoodies, co-ords, sweaters, and innerwear
The startup has raised over $53.5 Mn and counts 360 ONE Asset, SWC Global and IvyCap Ventures as its key investors
Snitch scaled its net sales from INR 11 Cr in FY21 to INR 243 Cr in FY24. The brand crossed the INR 500 Cr revenue in FY25
Fail often. Fail fast. Fail forward.
While all leaders, whether in the corporate or startup world, are expected to fail to learn and move forward, for the 17-year-old Siddharth Dungarwal, this wasn’t a luxury he could afford, even if it meant being slapped with unforeseen risks.
Toiling seven days a week to keep his clothing shop, tucked away in a Bengaluru alley, afloat demanded but one thing — a tryst with failure.
However, it wasn’t until he failed to deliver a large order that proved to be a turning point in his journey, eventually leading to an INR 500 Cr revenue-generating legacy in the form of Snitch, a D2C menswear brand.
So, how did a 17-year-old grow up to become the founder of a clothing brand that today locks horns with names like H&M, ZARA and The House of Rare, et al?
Dungarwal’s Decade Before Snitch
Unlike his many dreamy-eyed friends and acquaintances, Dungarwal never aspired to become the sounding board at a corporate house. His desire was rather linked to running his 300 sq ft clothing store in Bengaluru well.
At 20, he became adept at his trade, which largely revolved around getting hands on surplus factory stock and selling it. During this time, in 2012, he decided to expand his ambit, only to trigger a domino effect that would eventually pave the way for Snitch.
Brimming with valour in his prime, he chose to up the ante. Therefore, Dungarwal started collaborating with textiles to supply cloth to manufacturers, until an unexpected turn of events brought everything to a grinding halt.
A buyer backed out, leaving Dungarwal under the load of unfinished inventory worth INR 25 Lakh and no place to store it.
A frantic Dungarwal began distributing samples of the fabric to find a new buyer, but to no avail, until he stumbled upon a Mumbai retailer, who rather wanted him to manufacture t-shirts of the same fabric. Well, not exactly his cup of tea.
“I received an order for around 200-300 pieces, but it was of no use. I was only a supplier of cloth and not a manufacturer,” Dungarwal said.
This meant two things — either outsourcing the work to a manufacturer or setting up a manufacturing unit and hiring people who could make. Both had their pros and cons. While setting up a manufacturing unit was cost-intensive and an uncharted territory, outsourcing the consignment t-shirt production meant letting go of a large portion of the profit. Also,if Dungarwal failed to secure subsequent orders, the manufacturing unit would become a dead weight to carry, much like the INR 25 Lakh unsold inventory.
Therefore, as the logical next step, Dungarwal remained committed to finding a small manufacturing unit with little appetite for profits and held patience until his stars aligned perfectly.
The next thing he recalled was spending the next few weeks in the factory, learning how to make t-shirts from scratch, quality checking the lot, and eventually delivering the consignment of t-shirts to the Mumbai retailer after two months.
This, Dungarwal recalled, fetched him INR 6.5 Lakh. However, more than that, it laid the foundation stone for what awaited Dungarwal next.
With hands-on experience in the manufacturing of clothes, he eventually got rid of the INR 25 Lakh albatross around his neck. This experience helped him to float a buying house later that year.
In the textile industry, a buying house acts as an intermediary between suppliers and buyers.
Between 2012 and 2019, he designed and manufactured garments for brands like Arvind Fashions, Madura Fashion & Lifestyle (acquired by Aditya Birla Group), and V-Mart.
Snitch Is Born
Dungarwal’s successful run with his buying house sparked a desire to launch his own brand. Each time he saw clothes he had manufactured being sold under someone else’s label, his ambition only grew stronger.
However, it was not until he observed global fast-fashion giants like Mango, Marks & Spencer, H&M and ZARA were gaining ground in India by staying vertically integrated, something that was way up his alley but had yet to be executed.
Dungarwal realised that he already had that operational backbone, and the only thing he needed was a commitment to the trend-first approach to stay ahead of the curve.
Armed with years of experience across retail, trading, manufacturing and a deep understanding of how India’s legacy fashion brands operated, Dungarwal launched Snitch in late 2019 as a B2B brand.
Little did he know back then that his failure to deliver an order worth a mere INR 25 Lakh would trigger a butterfly effect so far-reaching that it would set him on the path to building an INR 500 Cr D2C brand.
Today, Snitch offers a wide range of apparel, including shirts, jackets, hoodies, co-ords, sweaters, and innerwear. The men-focussed fast-fashion brand sells through its own website, offline stores, and ecommerce marketplaces like Myntra and Ajio.
The brand gained national recognition after appearing on Shark Tank India in 2023, where it secured an all-shark deal of INR 1.5 Cr from Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar, Anupam Mittal, Peyush Bansal and Vineeta Singh.
So far, the startup has raised over $53.5 Mn. It counts 360 ONE Asset, SWC Global and IvyCap Ventures as its key investors.
Snitch’s O To 1: A Case Study
After spending years in the manufacturing and fashion business, Dungarwal had already become adept at designing for big brands and running a successful buying house. Having launched a B2B brand in 2019, there was only one direction to go forward.
“D2C was never a strategy, and neither was opening an offline store… I had to rethink my move, given how global giants were playing their cards in the country,” the founder said.
Notably, global giants like Marks & Spencer, H&M, ZARA and Uniqlo were disrupting the fashion space with rapid design-to-shelf cycles, and Indian brands weren’t innovating or evolving fast enough.
“Every brand I had worked with for nearly a decade was following a traditional model, seasonal collections planned 12 to 18 months ahead, with bulk production based on forecasts,” Dungarwal said, adding that he was bestowed with yet another eureka moment.
“What finally made me take the B2C plunge was recognising the gap in the market… I saw that the men’s fashion market in India was underserved when it came to quick, trend-driven styles at accessible prices.”
Already involved in production, Dungarwal took the B2C leap. To make the brand’s name in the market, he ditched the traditional route of placing bulk orders months in advance, allowing retailers to order as few as 25 pieces, with even cash-on-delivery options. This flexible, low-risk model helped the brand scale rapidly, reaching a monthly recurring revenue of INR 2 Cr within just a few months.
The Pandemic Pivot
All hell broke loose when the Covid-19 pandemic dawned upon humanity and made the world come to its knees. Snitch was no exception.
Dungarwal found himself sitting on a large unsold inventory again, but this time the scale was much larger than INR 25 Lakh.
“We were forced to rethink everything. Pre-pandemic, we were also planning our offline foray, but everything changed overnight.”
One obvious option was to liquidate the stock through marketplaces. However, while that might have moved inventory, it would have been no less than committing death by suicide from the brand-building and profitability perspective.
Therefore, the founder decided to take the D2C route amid disrupted supply chains, stuck inventories, and an uncertain consumer demand.
Dungarwal recalled that during the peak of the pandemic, when offline retail was completely shut, most traditional brands didn’t even have functional websites.
In the online space, only two or three players were catering to very different niches. Dungarwal found his edge in building a full-fledged men’s lifestyle brand with a smart pricing strategy, while in-house manufacturing helped the brand scale quickly.
Behind the scenes, the founder was busy burning the midnight oil on realigning operations and ramping up digital marketing.
“It was a rollercoaster ride because we were not just pivoting, we were trying to survive and build resilience simultaneously. That phase taught us the importance of being agile,” Dungarwal said.
The brand finally found its place in India’s D2C realm in July 2020 with 35 SKUs, a four-member team and a modest office. With an initial 60 orders a day, the real journey for the founder had just begun.
As Snitch settled into the D2C model, it quickly became clear that scaling required a sharp marketing engine and not just a competitive product or pricing.
Therefore, the brand partnered with marketing automation platform Wigzo in 2022 to bring structure to its outreach efforts.
With personalised nudges sent across SMS, WhatsApp and emails, Snitch saw a 15–20% boost in retention and monthly revenue growth.
According to Dungarwal, having a website from day one gave Snitch a crucial edge as it allowed the brand to track what customers searched the most and build inventory based on that observation.
“We just kept iterating and understanding how to upsell and cross-sell, how to get into someone’s wardrobe with one product, and then keep adding on to increase our share in that wardrobe.”
Leveraging The Power Of Speed
What has worked for the brand since day one is its agility. The founder said that many brands underestimate the power of speed, which is hardly their trait.
“If they (brands) think of something, we act on it quickly and keep refining it along the way, instead of waiting for a perfect version from day one. This mindset helped, whether it was offline or online expansion,” Dungarwal said. He added that Snitch started small, with low-risk inventory, and doubled down once the team was confident it could scale.
Dungarwal told Inc42 that he had always been focussed on creating a brand that would stand out for more than its price. Besides, he envisioned a brand like ZARA rather than an Allen Solly or a Louis Philippe, which are typically associated with formal wear.
The founder’s second big focus was on ensuring that his product quality is on par with global standards. To achieve this, Snitch began selling boxers first and then forayed into shirts, paving the way for other everyday wardrobe essentials.
Today, the brand has over 5,000+ SKUS, including perfumes, eye accessories, jewellery, and footwear.
Snitch’s INR 500 Cr+ Journey
Holding on to its core focus of being a trend-driven, customer-obsessed brand, Snitch grew its net sales from INR 11 Cr in the first year of its operations (FY21) to INR 243 Cr in FY24.
“This metric almost doubled to INR 520 Cr (unaudited) in FY25,” Dungarwal said, adding that Snitch’s EBITDA zoomed almost 5X YoY to about INR 30 Cr in FY25.
The founder claims that Snitch has been profitable since its inception. The D2C brand posted a net profit of INR 4.4 Cr in FY24. Dungarwal, however, didn’t disclose the bottom-line numbers for the recently concluded fiscal year.
Dungarwal said the biggest expenses in FY25 went towards strengthening Snitch’s tech and digital infrastructure, building a strong team, ramping up marketing efforts and improving the supply chain to support its omnichannel model.
He said that a 50% rationalisation of marketing costs helped scale profitability.
However, what really helped Snitch cross the INR 500 Cr revenue mark was staying consistent with the basics and solving for the customer every single day.
According to Dangarwal, three core principles boosted Snitch’s scale and sustainability:
- Prioritising Speed: Whether design, production or getting products to hit the shelf, agility has helped the brand stay ahead of trends and respond quickly to consumer preferences.
- Staying Customer-Obsessed: Through personalised shopping experiences, loyalty programmes, like Snitch X, and constantly tuning in to customer feedback, the brand has built strong retention and repeat purchase behaviour. Snitch’s current repeat user rate stands at about 45%, while the overall retention rate exceeds 65%.
- Going Omnichannel: Initially, the founder was not keen on going omnichannel. However, in 2023, he took a leap of faith by taking a store on rent. To his surprise, the store became profitable in just a few months. This success gave him the confidence to tap into the offline market. Today, the brand has expanded to over 59 stores.
Snitch earned about 40-45% of its revenue from its retail stores in FY25. The share stood at 30% in FY24.
Currently, Snitch stores span across malls and high streets, with mall outlets averaging 1,800 to 2,000 sq ft and high-street stores ranging between 4,000-5,000 sq ft.
“The capital expenditure to open a new store stands at approximately INR 3,000 per sq ft. At present, 60% of these outlets are franchise-run, while the remaining 40% are company-owned and operated.” However, the founder now plans to move towards a more balanced 50:50 mix.
Today, about 65% of Snitch’s revenue comes from online channels, while 35% is driven by offline stores. The brand enjoys a digital presence, with 18 Mn online sessions per month, and serves nearly 3 Lakh customers every month. So far, Snitch has served over 1.6 Mn consumers overall.
Snitch’s INR 1K Cr Revenue Dream
Looking ahead, the founder has set his sights on taking Snitch public by FY30. In the near term, he’s aiming to hit INR 1,000 Cr in revenue by the end of FY26. As of now, the brand claims to have already reached an annualised revenue run rate (ARR) of INR 700 Cr.
To meet this aggressive growth target, maintaining financial discipline is key. “We’ve always been very strict about keeping our P&L healthy.”
With a sharp focus on omnichannel, the founder plans to scale its 59-store count to 100+ by the end of 2025.
On the expansion front, Snitch is now testing the quick commerce route. “We’ll test it first in Bengaluru, gather learnings, and only then take it pan-India.”
The brand has already set up dark stores within existing outlets in the city and plans to rely on third-party logistics for deliveries. As of now, the founder is not anticipating any major revenue stream from its quick commerce foray
The brand is also doubling down on category expansion. Having already entered perfumes, footwear, jewellery and accessories, Snitch recently launched a segment for plus-size fashion, Snitch Plus.
Overall, Snitch operates in a highly cluttered market. When it first launched, the space was relatively new, but the landscape has evolved. The market is experimental, with many emerging brands like Bonkers Corner, The Bear House, and The Souled Store finding a place in the GenZ closet.
Not just this, Snitch faces strong competition from established global giants, who have an uncompromised base of brand evangelists. Amid this, how difficult or easy it is going to be for Snitch to beat legacy brands is anyone’s guess. Will it stitch a legacy or perish with the tide of time amid a growing competition?
Source: www.inc42.com
