This startup is streamlining textile sourcing and financing for small businesses

Mumbai-based Dukaan Dost hopes to be a one-stop shop for all raw textile needs for MSMEs. Founded in 2019 by Heet Jain and Dhrati Jain, the company also helps garment manufacturers with financing solutions.

Apr 16, 2025 - 02:57

This startup is streamlining textile sourcing and financing for small businesses

In India’s rapidly evolving retail landscape, small businesses often struggle with sourcing, financing, and logistics, among other operations. Enter Dukaan Dost, a Mumbai-based B2B ecommerce platform trying to improve the way retailers and wholesalers operate.

By offering access to textiles, financial solutions, and supply chain support, the company aims to make traditional businesses more efficient.

Founded in 2019 by Heet Jain and Dhrati Jain, the startup addresses two major challenges faced by MSMEs—accessing high-quality raw materials and securing financing.

“When I first started the business, it wasn't Dukaan Dost; it was just me learning how to purchase textile raw materials, such as yarns and fabrics, from local markets such as those in Bhiwandi, near Mumbai. I then used to try and sell them to other territories and make a small commission,” Heet tells YourStory. He started out as a commission agent and a small-time trader and soon got into larger operations.

While Dukaan Dost began with domestic trade and smaller margins, the founders shifted to imported yarns and fabrics for higher margins.

The startup has so far catered to about 5,000 clients.

The journey and challenges

Once the company began receiving requests for imported yarns, Heet found that some suppliers on the ecommerce giant Alibaba were already exporting worldwide and sourced samples from them. However, financing these fabrics remained a major concern.

“I didn't have enough money to run the business. So I used to take a 20% advance (of the fee) from the buyers,” Heet recalls, adding that he would assure them he knew where to source the fabric.

Once it began growing, Heet became much confident in his venture, and bootstrapped the company with Rs 2 crore from family and friends.

Heet, who also runs Bluzen Clothing—a trader of spun yarns and knitted fabrics, saw a growing demand for Chinese, Indonesian, and Vietnamese products, including Cotton Indigo Dyed Siro Compact Yarn, which he was introduced to in Tiruppur.

“Even though there was no proper market in India for this yarn, there was a huge demand for it because people could make denim out of it … That was a turning point where we just grew exponentially from a basic trading company,” the co-founder says.

Tailoring its services

Dukaan Dost combines global sourcing with tailored financial solutions to empower small and medium enterprises to scale and compete with big-box retailers worldwide.

In India, its presence is in Mumbai, Panipat, Tanda, Ludhiana, Gurugram, Noida, Delhi, Bhiwandi, Ichalkaranji, Tarapur, Surat, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Palladam, Salem, Indore, and Tiruppur. It also operates overseas in Taiwan, Vietnam, and China.

The co-founders bet on specialised products to get high returns, which led them to venture into new territories and introduce new products in the Indian market.

“We tried and tested with different types of yarns and fabrics; we tried to mix and create new products which would be significantly different from the others that were existing in the market,” he explains.

The company also set up an R&D team in China with three offices—an operational office, a sourcing office, and an R&D office. Dukaan Dost currently has around 18,000 products under its portfolio, some of which are proprietary and unique to the industry, explains Heet.

“We’ve introduced yarns like Supercool, Vislone, Metallic, and Cool Cotton, along with innovative fabrics such as Everlon, Meta Sorona, and Monotone,” says the co-founder.

Dukaan Dost's Everlon — Dukaan Dost's signature fabric- Everlon

With a team of 40 in India and 25 abroad, the company’s inventory spans the entire textile value chain—from fibre and yarn to fabrics and garments. In 2024, it distributed around 30 million meters of fabric and 2,000 tons of yarn across India.

Dukaan Dost has an app and a website that allows customers to order samples, submit requests for quotes for yarns and fabrics, and the company also provides logistics support.

“All orders and operations are then fed into and streamlined through our proprietary Dukaan Dost ERP system, which manages order processing, inventory, live tracking, analytics, and reporting,” says Heet.

The co-founder claims its signature Everlon fabric outperforms cotton in comfort, feel, breathability, durability, wrinkle resistance, and overall sustainability. It is an affordable alternative to expensive fabrics such as cotton, viscose, and nylon.

“With Everlon, we've tried to give the same look, feel, and durability—the same properties that these expensive products do. For instance, the same cotton fabric would cost you around Rs 700 per kg, while Everlon would just cost Rs 350 per kg,” says Heet.

The company works with big brands as well as vendors supplying to big brands. Brands including Killer, Benetton, Cantabil, Gini & Jony, Siyaram, and Klub Fox have displayed Dukaan Dost’s products in their stores.

It also provides financial support to small businesses. For instance, if a garment manufacturer needs materials, the company will help them access them at global standards and also provide them with tailored credit solutions.

It also offers channel financing, a type of working capital loan that provides funds to channel partners (its clients), who purchase from them.

“We have tied up with a few debt partners such as Stride Ventures, Black Soil Capital, and Indifi. Through these debt partners, we provide credit to MSMEs and help them fund their purchases with us,” explains Heet.

The startup partners with companies including Delhivery, Narang Carrying Corp, Supreme Transport, and VRL for logistics.

Weaving a future

While the company was founded in 2019, it took a backseat due to COVID-19 and became fully operational in September 2022. Following this, in the next six months, it clocked Rs 95 crore revenue, and in FY24, its topline grew to Rs 150 crore. The company said that its FY25 revenue also stands at Rs 150 crore. It aims to reach Rs 250 crore in FY26.

Dukaan Dost operates through its app and website for users to order. It allows ordering for samples of 1-2 kg, meanwhile, the bulk orders go up to 2,000 kg.

It plans to start its B2C offering, ‘Monotone’, a clothing brand, sometime this year. Operating with an ecommerce site, it plans to supply pan-India and further expand overseas.

Dukaan Dost has warehouses in Bhiwandi, Chennai, and Ludhiana, along with four experience centres, and the company is looking to raise funds to expand this to about 20. It plans to raise about Rs 100 crore over the next 12-18 months to expand its footprint across key textile hubs and enter new markets.

It competes with Locofast, Udaan, and used to compete with Reshamandi previously, notes Heet.

The company, which is currently providing services from fiber to fabric, will become fiber to fashion with the launch of its clothing brand and also home furnishing.

Edited by Kanishk Singh