D2C children footwear brand Plaeto has raised Rs 40 Crore in its Series A funding round from Florintree Advisors, with participation from other investors.
The startup plans to use the funds to expand into new markets and bring new products to its catalogue.
The Bengaluru-based Plaeto was founded in 2020 by Ravi Kallayil, Sara Kilgore and Pavan Kareti, It designs and sells footwear for children. It uses an omnichannel approach and sells its products on its website along with other major ecommerce platforms like Amazon, Myntra, and Flipkart.
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The company also has a B2B2C front to collaborate with schools and educational institutions for uniform footwear.
“As a technology driven D2C footwear brand, we have always focused on science-based shoes and innovation that meets the Indian requirement. While innovations have happened across the board including footwear, children’s footwear, as a category, has remained untouched, without any consumer-centric design or performance built into it,” said Kallayil, chief executive officer of Plaeto.
“The company is seeing a high level of interest from schools and from online channels. We are seeing double digital growth month-on-month online. We would like to serve five million consumers in the next five years,” he added, according to Mint.
The company claims it has an eco-friendly approach to manufacturing its shoes, which is 50% less environmental impact than the average athletic shoe that generates 6.5 kg of CO2 per pair.
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“We already have offline distribution to serve the school market. We have received strong interest from a few of the largest offline players in the Indian market and we are working through that. Our goal is to have an even split between the offline and online parts of our business in the next five years,” Kallayil said.
About Plaeto
Plaeto is a footwear startup that for the first time ever has designed and is offering unique, accessible, multi-purpose world-class footwear for the Indian child to enable ‘Play’, while aiding/caring for growing feet.
