Fashion start-up Virgio, set up by former Myntra CEO Amar Nagaram, will pivot from fast fashion to sustainable fashion, according to a LinkedIn post by the co-founder.
On October 7, Amar Nagaram took to wrote on LinkedIn that the start-up, which was founded just a year ago, has reached a ‘crossroad’. His comments were appended with a screenshot of the company’s website that said-“The fast fashion brand you have come to love is no longer available.”
‘No more fast fashion’
“While fast fashion is agile, trendy and caters to the growing needs of the young blood in India, it also promotes over production, over consumption. Fast fashion companies use harmful fabrics and exploit labour to cut corners on pricing and quality fuelling the market with what will be sent to landfills. It’s a global crisis and we all are witnessing it. That’s why we’ve made a conscious choice to move our entire efforts to build a circular fashion brand,” said Amar Nagaram.
The start-up will not need additional capital for its pivot. Last December, Virgio raised $37 million in series A and most of it remains in the company’s bank account and gives the company a cash runway of three years, per Nagaram.
Prosus Ventures, Accel and Alpha Wave had led the series A round.
“That way our clothes can be used for longer,” Nagaram said, adding that Virgio will be a part of a circular economy in fashion.
The pivot would also allow the start-up to appeal to the more environmentally aware GenZ, per Nagaram. He added that now the GenZ are spending more money and thus can afford sustainable fashion.
Founded in 2022, Virgio used tech to design, manufacture and automate purchasing processes and streamline the entire fashion lifecycle. After the pivot, Virgio will manufacture clothes with naturally available materials like cotton and not rely on human-made fabric like polyester.