Bling Brands Pvt Ltd, which operates direct-to-consumer fitness brand Boldfit, has initiated a process to raise $80-100 million from private equity funds, three people familiar with the matter said.
“Several funds including Sofina, Verlinvest and Venturi Partners are expected to be sounded out to gauge their interest in the company,” the first person said. While Venturi typically writes smaller cheques in the range of $15-40 million, it can take part in larger rounds through co-investments, the person explained.
“Other investors such as Motilal Oswal’s private equity arm and Kedaara Capital are also expected to be tapped as a part of the process,” the second person said. “The company is roughly seeking a valuation of about ₹3,000-4,000 crore based on forward-looking revenue multiples,” the third person indicated.
The people added that Boldfit has mandated Avendus as an advisor to help with the process. All of them spoke on the condition of anonymity as the discussions are still private.
India’s fitness economy has gained strong momentum in recent years across major urban areas and smaller towns. The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15% from $1.9 billion in 2024 to $4.5 billion over the next four years, according to a report by Deloitte India and the Health & Fitness Association (HFA).
“Boldfit and the funds did not respond to Mint’s requests for comment, while Avendus declined to comment.”
Founded in 2019 by Pallav Bihani and Aasshna Guptaa, Boldfit designs, manufactures and sells products across fitness and sports categories, including equipment, sports shoes, sneakers and apparel.
The company last raised ₹110 crore in a funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners in 2024. It also counts KL Rahul and Sania Mirza as investors.
Its product portfolio spans sports such as swimming, yoga and trekking, with offerings including pull-up bars, resistance bands, lifting gear, running and walking shoes, and athleisure, among others.
Boldfit’s operating revenue nearly doubled to ₹139.70 crore in FY25 from ₹73.71 crore a year earlier. Its net profit widened to ₹16.81 crore from ₹15.71 crore in FY24, according to filings sourced by Tofler from the ministry of corporate affairs. The company is yet to file its financials for FY25 and FY26.
Within the health, fitness and athleisure market, Boldfit competes with other new-age D2C digital brands as well as large international sports labels such as Cult.Fit, HealthKart, Technosport, BlissClub, Puma, Nike and Decathlon, as per online reports.
The growth reflects a broader shift in consumer behaviour, with fitness increasingly viewed not as a niche pursuit but as a national movement and way of life. Rising health awareness following the pandemic, higher disposable incomes and a digitally connected population are helping expand the market beyond traditional boundaries, Deloitte report added.
Priyamvada is a Mumbai-based business journalist at Mint. She writes about the public and private markets with a key focus on venture capital, private equity, M&As and private credit. Her coverage also spans startups and emerging businesses.<br><br>Over the last two years, she has uncovered some of the largest deals and interviewed important decision-makers from India’s investment ecosystem. She likes to dabble across different formats like long forms and explainers. Her work has been consistently displayed on the publication's deals page, and she has also written multiple front-page stories.<br><br>Prior to joining Mint in 2024, she worked out of Reuters’ Bengaluru bureau where she extensively covered the travel, transportation, and logistics industries. Across both her stints, Priyamvada has displayed rigour for breaking news and analyzing interesting data-driven trends. She holds a postgraduate diploma from the Asian College of Journalism's Bloomberg programme. In her free time, she enjoys reading books and trying out different cuisines. She is keen to delve deeper into the various sectors she covers and is always up for a chat. You can reach out to her at priyamvada.c@livemint.com.
Sneha Shah is the editor for deals and startups at Mint. Starting off her career in India’s financial capital as a cub reporter for the Mid-day newspaper in the mid-2000s, she later moved on to decode balance sheets and follow the money trail for some of the leading pink publications in the country. She has been covering India’s deals ecosystem for nearly two decades now, closely tracking private- and public-market funding, startups, private equity, venture capital, and investment banking. From breaking some of the biggest deal stories of the past to doing some incisive deep-dives into the latest trends and turnarounds in the industry, she has witnessed the phenomenal growth and transformation of the country’s investment ecosystem from really close quarters. A graduate in journalism, she has worked with The Economic Times, Financial Chronicle, VCCircle and Mid-Day before starting her second stint at Mint in 2022. As a keen observer of India’s startups ecosystem, she aspires to write a book some day, chronicling some of the most inspiring stories the industry has seen so far in its remarkable journey.
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