Lifestyle
Curators

22%

Premium / high-end, conscious luxury brands catering to a niche, more discerning market

Sell slow living + higher order values by elevating art, craft, and focusing on mastery

Most likely to take pride in building a global brand from India

Create an evolved brand universe that does right by artisans and planet

Contemporising craft to offer unique, never-seen-before products + experiences

Associated with prestige, sophistication, and cultural capital; priced at a 5 - 10x premium

Offline experience centres key to propagating a more holistic brand experience

Design-led brands targeting affluent customers

Mostly self-financed

For-profit, lifestyle-focused enterprises
Typically associated with 1-2 creative founders or founders from design backgrounds
Shows a strong women skew with increasing participation from men

7% support 500+ artisans — not always tiny in scale
1 in 10 enterprises likely to have a turnover over ₹4 crore ($500,000)
Recent acquisitions by retail conglomerates demonstrate their significant potential

Business Hardships

Insufficient ease of doing business in India given the complexity, corruption, and high costs
Struggle to show transparency across the supply chain
Find it hard to navigate international markets and understand global tastes
Lack the vision, mindset and drive to build aspirational 'Indian' brands, often preferring to play the role of back-end operators supplying to others

Financial Roadblocks

Tough to find the right investment fit as craft not typically on VC radar and holistic business models take time to scale
Difficult to find investors willing to back creativity, culture, and “Pride of India” story
Hard to find investors willing to have a 10-year investment time horizon instead of the prevailing 3 / 5 / 7 years
Investors' expectations around scale have been skewed by what’s possible with tech startups (these are misaligned to the needs of craft businesses, which take longer to scale)
Lack a ready reckoner for whom to reach out to for investment (region, craft, instrument)

“India still suffers from the inferiority of being a colonised nation. We do exceptional work, have great products, quality, design but have it engraved in our psyche that we are a trading nation. It’s easier to be an exporter for an H&M than to become an H&M.”

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— GAUTAM SINHA, FOUNDER + CREATIVE DIRECTOR, NAPPA DORI

Building a high-end, experiential, offline brand takes time and money. As does doing right by artisans while ensuring consumers receive a higher quality product and experience. Lifestyle Curators' growth / scale trajectory cannot be compared with that of a tech startup. However, if done right, they are well-positioned to achieve a high degree of profitability and influence.

“We struggle to find funds for building infrastructure and buying machinery. We wish to work with new artisan communities but do not have the necessary means to invest in engaging with these artisans and develop prototypes with them.”

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— SIBANAND BHOL, FOUNDER & DESIGN PRINCIPAL, COLLECTIVE CRAFT

Design Distinction

Brand & Marketing

Market Connections

Working Capital

Offline Retail

Customer Acquisition

Government Schemes

Not relevant in most instances when building premium, lifestyle brands for affluent consumers
Founders of these enterprises typically belong to a more privileged “white collar” cohort of Indians where the tendency is to avoid engaging with the government
Experiences or the perception of relying on government schemes is that these will be corrupt, complicated or not worth the hassle

Banks

Disinclined to fund businesses until they have already proven they are viable entities
Demand collateral which most HCM founders are unwilling to provide since it is either non-existent or personal

PE / VC Investors

Do not have sector specific portfolios, tend to view craft as poor investment
Find Lifestyle Curators too niche (which they are but the premium ensures high value and global market potential)
Cannot always offer the right market linkages and support needed for a premium HCM to scale
Offer equity with too many strings attached; terms and conditions that accompany capital investment not palatable and Lifestyle Curators are fiercely protective of their brand identity
Offer very short time horizons, expect quick turnarounds

Institutional Investors

Inaccessible, due to lack of networks unless designer has an established pedigree
Only interested in large ticket sizes

Impact Investors

Do not find “Lifestyle Curators” impactful enough; their potential to drive livelihoods at scale in the CMH sector is seen as small

Patient, Mission-Aligned with Long-Term Horizons

Helps brands to create an experiential offline presence and leverage marketing to communicate brand USP
Enables HCMs to build market linkages and invest in professional hires, certifications and quality assurance, as well as CRM and ERP systems
Allows HCMs to diversify and build multiple revenue streams, bring in more skilled artisans, support more livelihoods
Supports HCMs with building out a strong brand vision and growth story
Offers HCMs flexibility to successfully build global brands and thereby influence economic and export markers + "Make in India' narrative

Capital for Creativity

Allows HCMs to enhance creative output
Enables HCMs to develop and streamline product-market fit by investing in good design, brand and marketing
Empowers HCMs to take greater risk, innovate and experiment with product and process

Collateral Free, Low-Interest Debt

Helps HCMs to address working capital challenges to build a strong and steady revenue stream
Enables HCMs to invest in raw materials and enhance capacity to hold stock

Non-Financial Support

Enables HCMs to identify and access networks (especially accelerators and incubators)
Helps HCMs to build strategic partnerships and help sharpen focus, plan, and vision
Allows HCMs to build a clear and detailed business plan, have clarity around how to calculate capital requirements and its use, outline milestones, and acquire skills to communicate expectations clearly to the investor
Enables HCMs to access mission-aligned guidance, build a better story, and become investment-ready

“The idea is to take traditional know-how, technique and material, and use it in a way which is more relevant to current design needs, pushing artisans to attempt new ways of working and move away from their comfort zone.

Investing in R&D will help artisans in overcoming their fear of failure because they will be compensated well to experiment and encouraged to fail. Funding would help us set up stronger backend workshops where we can have all our artisans working full time for us and train them to reach a high level of quality and precision.”

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— ROOSHAD SHROFF, PRINCIPAL ARCHITECT, ROOSHAD SHROFF ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN