A surge in domestic and international travel by Indians has turned India’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) luggage sector into a magnet for venture capital investment over the past few years, even as legacy players struggle under their own weight.
According to data from the tourism ministry’s India Tourism Data Compendium 2025, Indians recorded 2,948.19 million tourist visits in 2024, a 17.5% increase over the previous year, while overseas trips rose 10.8% to 30.89 million.
A host of startups are looking to cash in on this boom. Uppercase, a digital-first luggage and travel gear maker based in Bengaluru, is in talks to raise about $20 million in a Series C round as it sharpens its plans for overseas expansion and accelerates its offline retail rollout, Sudip Ghose, the company's founder, said in an interview with Mint. The startup has raised close to $20 million in total funding since inception, and the latest round would double this.
The five-year-old company, which manufactures entirely in India using recycled materials, expects to turn Ebitda-positive by FY28 as it continues to invest in brand-building and store expansion. Uppercase currently operates about 35 exclusive stores and aims to scale to 50 by the end of the fiscal year, with retail contributing 10-12% of revenue. Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, is a measure of a company’s core operating profitability before accounting for financing costs, tax expenses and non-cash charges.
Uppercase is also evaluating whether to launch its products in select European countries over the next few quarters. Ghose said Europeans’ preference for quality and growing sustainability consciousness make the continent a strategic first step for an Indian luggage brand with global aspirations.
VC rush
The Bengaluru firm is among a slew of D2C luggage startups that have attracted VC funding over the past two years. Others include:
- Escape Plan: $25 million (series A) in January 2026 and $5 million (seed) in July 2025
- EUME: ₹25 crore (about $3 million) in May 2025 and ₹15 crore (about $1.7 million) in June 2024
- Nasher Miles: $4 million (bridge round) in July 2024
- ICON Bags: $1.2 million (seed) in May 2024
- Mokobara: $12 million (series B) in February 2024
Unmet potential
Arvind Singhal, founder of management consulting firm The Knowledge Company, said, “The luggage industry in India is one of those categories that has not matched the potential of the population for years.”
He added that while Indians have increased their spending on fashion and personal care, luggage has lagged as it remains a low-involvement, purely functional purchase. D2C brands are looking to change this by focussing on better design, among other things. “There is still a lot of opportunity for more fashion-forward luggage, backpacks and travel gear,” Singhal said.
While global brands such as Samsonite dominate the premium end, that segment accounts for only about 10% of the market. Nearly 60% of demand is for luggage priced below ₹4,000, and another 30% lies in the ₹4,000- ₹8,000 range, where aspirational consumers want better design and durability but are unwilling to pay premium prices, the report added. This gap has opened the door for a wave of mid-priced, design-led brands that offer a premium look at accessible prices, sparking investor interest.
In a recent report on India’s luggage industry, Motilal Oswal estimated the domestic market was worth ₹20,000-25,000 crore and growing at a compound annual rate of 12-14% over FY24–27, driven by rising air travel, a growing preference for premium products, and a shift from unorganised to organised players.
‘Structural change’
The report highlighted that the Indian travel industry has not only rebounded past pre-covid levels but has also undergone a structural change. It said domestic tourist trips have crossed 2.5 billion a year and that India is now the world’s third-largest aviation market. Crucially, travel is no longer restricted to a single annual holiday, it said. Instead, a rise in short weekend breaks, destination weddings, and religious tourism has led to more frequent trips. This increased usage has shortened the lifespan of luggage, driving a faster replacement cycle and boosting overall demand for travel gear, the report added.
However, India’s per-capita luggage consumption remains significantly lower than that of its global peers, reflecting lower air-travel penetration, longer replacement cycles of 5–7 years, and a still-large unorganised market, according to Motilal Oswal.
With India only now reaching a travel intensity stage comparable to China in the late 2000s, the report said it sees substantial long-term headroom as first-time buyers enter the branded segment and replacement cycles shorten. The organised segment has already expanded to about 60% of the market, aided by GST-led formalisation, better distribution, and stronger brand recall, and continues to gain share from unbranded players, according to the report.
Legacy issues
The surge in venture capital for D2C brands coincides with a period of financial struggle for industry veterans, who are currently facing a slump in both sales and profitability.
In Q3FY26, VIP Industries reported revenue of ₹454.1 crore, down 9.4% from a year earlier, and a net loss of ₹52.9 crore, compared with a ₹12.4 crore loss a year earlier. Safari Industries (India) Limited reported a 15.7% year-on-year increase in consolidated revenue to ₹512.37 crore in Q3 FY26, while net profit rose 5.6% YoY to ₹32.89 crore during the same period, as higher costs weighed on earnings despite strong sales growth.
Singhal said this is partly because legacy luggage makers have struggled to keep pace with changing consumer expectations. “Many established players are out of sync with the market, particularly on product development, innovation, fashion and design,” he said, adding that their products and the way they are communicated to consumers have become uninspiring.
Analysts Shirish Pardeshi, Soham Samanta and Ritik Bansal of Motilal Oswal Financial Services highlighted that the luggage industry continues to face intense local competition, a significant rise in input costs, and prolonged disruptions at their Bangladesh facilities, which have weighed on margins.
In their note, they said while demand recovery remains intact, profitability has been impacted by cost pressures and operational challenges. The analysts emphasised that margin recovery would depend on improved execution, better cost control, and stabilisation of overseas operations, even as companies focus on premium products and strengthening their competitive positioning.
Heavy lift
Singhal said while the growing investor interest in the D2C luggage segment is understandable, execution will prove challenging. “Building a luggage brand is capital-intensive,” he said. “Digital marketing alone is not enough. Consumers want to see and feel the product, which makes a strong physical retail presence essential in a high-volume category like luggage.”
Ghose of Uppercase agreed, saying scaling a luggage brand is far from a quick-returns exercise. Characterising the company's elevated spending on manufacturing, brand-building and distribution as foundational rather than discretionary, he said, “Those are actually not losses. They are investments." He added, “You have to build a brand… put up the factories… put in the people. It’s not a 100-metre dash, it's a marathon.”
Ghose explained his preference for a manufacturing-led approach over an asset-light import model, while acknowledging the trade-offs. “This is a difficult road… but it’s the road I’ve chosen,” he said. He also cautioned against over-reliance on imports, highlighting the currency and working-capital risks embedded in the model, Gross margins are always at risk, and managing imported inventory is "very, very difficult", he added.