As global fashion brands increasingly look to India as their next major growth market, two industry veterans—Rajesh Narkar, former executive at Myntra and AJIO, and Louis Coucke, former executive at H&M India—have launched Confluxe, a technology-enabled platform designed to help international fashion and lifestyle brands enter and scale in the Indian market.
The company has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by Wavemaker Partners, with participation from Kriscore Capital.
Headquartered across Bengaluru and Mumbai, Confluxe aims to address a long-standing structural challenge in India’s $130 billion fashion and lifestyle market—the gap between strong consumer demand for global brands and the complex, fragmented pathway required for international companies to enter and scale in the country.
Bridging India’s Supply-Side Gap
While India’s appetite for global fashion labels continues to grow rapidly, the operational journey for international brands—from market entry and merchandising to distribution and scaling—often remains capital intensive and difficult to execute.
Confluxe positions itself as a technology-enabled operating layer between global brands and the Indian market, bringing together market-entry strategy, digital commerce, data-led merchandising and a localized ‘Make in India’ supply chain into a single integrated platform.
The company’s platform model aims to simplify brand entry while enabling more disciplined and scalable growth.
“One of the key learnings for us has been that brands do not just want access to channels in India—they want a partner that brings together local execution, commercial discipline, and the right technology backbone,” said Louis Coucke, Co-Founder and COO, Confluxe.
“The strong response from brands, advisors, and the broader ecosystem reinforces the need for a more modern approach to brand entry. This capital will help us launch our first partnerships, strengthen the team, and build the platform infrastructure that underpins the Confluxe model.”
Building the Infrastructure for Global Brand Entry
According to Rajesh Narkar, Co-Founder and CEO, Confluxe, one of the biggest opportunities in India’s fashion sector lies on the supply side.
“While consumer demand for global brands continues to grow rapidly, the infrastructure required to bring those brands into the market and scale them effectively is still evolving,” he said.
“At Confluxe, we are focused on building that supply layer by combining technology, commerce, and local execution into a single operating platform. Closing our pre-seed round with Wavemaker Partners and Kriscore Capital reflects confidence in both the market opportunity and the platform we are building.”
The newly raised capital will be deployed to launch the company’s first brand partnerships, build its technology and data infrastructure, and expand its core team across brand operations, commerce, and growth.
Investors See a Large Untapped Opportunity
Investors believe the platform addresses a major structural gap in India’s fashion ecosystem.
“India is rapidly emerging as one of the most important growth markets for fashion and lifestyle brands globally, yet premium and global brands remain significantly underpenetrated,” said Phuong Tran, Principal at Wavemaker Partners.
“Global brands account for only about 12% of India’s fashion market, compared with roughly 30% in mature markets such as the US, Europe, and China. Confluxe creates a new pathway for high-quality international brands to enter and scale in India in a capital-efficient way.”
Nilesh Balakrishnan, Managing Partner at Kriscore Capital, highlighted the founders’ complementary experience.
“India is one of the most exciting consumer markets in the world, but for international fashion and lifestyle brands, ambition and access are two very different things,” he said.
“Rajesh has navigated every meaningful phase of eCommerce in India, from early category creation to scale. Louis brings the brand side, having built and operated H&M India. Confluxe stitches together D2C, marketplaces, offline retail and operations on a unified platform.”
Tapping India’s Next Growth Wave
With international brands increasingly looking at India for long-term growth, Confluxe aims to become a cross-border brand operating platform that bridges global ambition with local execution.
By integrating technology, commerce infrastructure, and localized supply chains, the company aims to create a faster, smarter and more scalable pathway for global fashion and lifestyle brands to build a presence in India.
