Boldfit raised ₹400 crore. Now the fitness brand wants real shops

Picture this. You want a skipping rope, a yoga mat or a new pair of running shoes. You open an app, tap twice, and wait for the parcel. Until now, Boldfit has sold its gear mainly online, on screens like that.

Now that could change. On October 12, 2026, news broke that the Bengaluru fitness brand has raised around ₹400 crore. A big part of the plan is to open shops across India, the kind you can walk into.

So who is Boldfit, where did the money come from, and why does a brand that grew up online want real stores? Let us break it down.

First, who is Boldfit?

Boldfit was started in 2018 by Pallav Bihani. It sells sportswear, sports shoes, sports equipment and other fitness items, according to Inc42. Its home base is Bengaluru.

The company says it serves more than 2 crore customers every year. That is 20 million people.

Boldfit is a D2C brand. D2C means "direct to consumer". It is like a samosa stall that sells straight to you, instead of handing its samosas to a big shop to sell. Boldfit sells through its own website, quick commerce apps and online marketplaces. Quick commerce apps are the ones that deliver small orders very fast.

It also has famous fans. Cricketer KL Rahul is an investor, and the brand is endorsed by him. Former tennis star Sania Mirza is an investor too.

What does "raising ₹400 crore" mean?

When a company "raises money", investors give it cash. In return, they get a small piece of the company. It is like a friend putting ₹100 into your lemonade stall and owning a small share of it.

Startups raise money in rounds, a bit like levels in a video game. Series A is usually the first big round. Series B is the next level up.

Boldfit's Series A came in November 2024. It raised ₹110 crore in a round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, an investment firm. This new ₹400 crore is its Series B.

Here is the simple maths: ₹400 crore divided by ₹110 crore is about 3.6. So this round is more than three times as big as the last one. With it, Boldfit's total funding is now over ₹510 crore.

Who gave the money?

The money came from the Bharat Value Fund. It is run by The Wealth Company Alternates, which is part of the Pantomath Group, as Inc42 reports.

A fund is like a big jar. Many people and firms drop their money into the jar. Then experts pick companies to invest the jar's money in. Grown ups call this kind of jar an "alternative investment fund".

Where will the ₹400 crore go?

Boldfit said it will use the money for four big things:

• Shops across India. Real stores you can walk into.
• New products. Making better gear and new kinds of gear.
• Manufacturing. That means making things in factories.
• Buying other companies. When one company buys another, it is called an acquisition. Inc42 says these buys will be "selective", which means only a few, carefully picked ones.

Here is how the founder put it, in his own words to Inc42:

"We're building a deeply integrated sports business, investing in product innovation, manufacturing excellence and nationwide retail to create the scale and capabilities required to serve India's sporting ambitions." Pallav Bihani, founder, Boldfit

Why open shops when phones work fine?

This plan is not brand new. Back in November 2024, Boldfit said it planned to open physical stores in the next 12 to 18 months.

Shopping online is easy. But some things are hard to judge on a screen. In a shop, you can try on shoes, feel how heavy a dumbbell is, or check if a T-shirt fits before you pay. Selling in shops is called offline retail. Selling on the internet is online.

Want to know more about the brand itself? Here is a short video from Boldfit about the story behind its logo:

Watch on YouTube

How big is the money pot?

To understand why investors care, look at the size of the market. A market is all the money people spend on one kind of thing in a year.

India's fitness and sports goods market is estimated to be worth $16 billion and is expected to reach $35 billion by FY31. FY31 means the financial year that ends in March 2031.

$35 billion is more than double $16 billion. So the pot of money is expected to get much bigger. Inc42 says this growth comes from people earning more, caring more about health, and shopping more through online stores, big organised shops and quick delivery apps.

Boldfit is not the only one chasing this pot. In June, sportswear startup Agilitas raised ₹225 crore. In January, athleisure brand CAVA announced a ₹40 crore Series A. Athleisure means clothes that work both for the gym and for hanging out.

How much does Boldfit sell?

Here is a word you will hear a lot: revenue. It is all the money a company collects from selling things, before it pays any bills. If your lemonade stall sells 50 cups at ₹10 each, your revenue is ₹500, even before you pay for lemons and sugar.

In 2024, Bihani said Boldfit made roughly ₹140 crore in revenue in FY24. The same report says the company's revenue for FY23 was ₹73 crore. Going by those two numbers, sales almost doubled in a year.

Its 2024 funding news also had a big goal attached. Boldfit wanted to become India's largest and most influential fitness brand. The new money is the next step on that road.

And here is a long-term review of Boldfit's Velocity running shoes by a YouTube creator:

Watch on YouTube

The quick recap

• Boldfit, a Bengaluru fitness brand started in 2018, has raised around ₹400 crore in its Series B.
• The money comes from the Bharat Value Fund.
• It will go into shops across India, new products, manufacturing and buying a few other brands.
• India's fitness and sports goods market is expected to grow from $16 billion to $35 billion by FY31.

So the gym gear you have mostly seen on a phone screen is now headed for real shelves. Watch this space.

Sources

• D2C brand Boldfit raises ₹400 Cr from Bharat Value Fund for retail expansion, Inc42
• KL Rahul backed fitness brand Boldfit secures INR 110 crore in Series-A funding, Storyboard18
• Boldfit raises US $13 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Apparel Resources
• KL Rahul backed Boldfit raises Rs 110 crore Series-A funding, BW Disrupt
• Cover photo: A close-up view of a set of heavy dumbbells, by Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0