CHENNAI: For entrepreneur Arpita Ganesh, founder of Buttercups, lingerie is more than just a everyday utility product... it’s a pathway for empowering women with a healthy body image. Winner of Google SMB Heroes 2017 award for impacting change through digital technology, the Bengaluru-based startup ‘s vision is: “For every woman to be comfortable and happy with her body.”
A territory untouched: During her trip to New York, Arpita came across the concept of “bra-fitting” which made her realise that the Indian lingerie market forced women to adjust with whatever was available instead of finding what fit them well. “It pretty much changed my life when I found a bra that fits me well. I came back to India and did research because it made such a big difference to my confidence. I realised that in India we had only 15-20 sizes whereas in US there were about 100 sizes.”
Back in India, Arpita started a retail business of international brands in Hyderabad, which soon had to shut down due to scalability issues. Immediately after that, she started working on launching her own online brand. However, funding was a hurdle... through crowd-funding she raised Rs 4 lakh from 100 women and in 2014, Buttercups saw its inception. Later that year, the startup was able to secure angel funding.
“Indian women have become more aware of what they want. Women would earlier be shy to walk into a lingerie store. Today they walk in and ask what kind they want,” says Arpita. The brand focuses on age group of 28-45 years.
Unconventional and unfazed: “It’s all about the seriousness with which you approach the business,” says the entrepreneur. Nonetheless, convincing an all-male investor team might not have been easy. “There are times when they look down when I am talking. But the investors know me now, so it doesn’t happen that often,” she says. The only challenge, Arpita adds on, has been to make men understand the basic problem concerning the necessity of right kind of bra.
As on date, Buttercups has two experience centers with total 12 members. The company wants to add eight more to this number by next March. Harnessing digital technology and driven by data analytics, online sales will continue to be their area of focus. The company is now in the process of raising
Pre Series A funding.