Ritika Gupta’s Journey: From a ₹50,000 Investment to a ₹3 Crore Women’s Ethnic Wear Brand in Just 8 Months
By Bilal Khan | 04 Mar 2024
Ritika and Gaurav Gupta: The Minds Behind Sanskritam
In 2021, 25-year-old Ritika Gupta, a textile designer from NIFT Mumbai, launched the women’s ethnic wear brand Sanskritam in Chandigarh with just ₹50,000. Despite facing setbacks with two previous ventures, Ritika’s perseverance paid off. Over the last eight months, Sanskritam has generated over ₹3 crore in revenue.
Ritika credits much of this success to her husband, Gaurav Gupta, who joined as a co-founder and took charge of the digital marketing strategy. With his expertise as a marketing MBA graduate, Gaurav helped scale the brand’s sales from ₹50 lakh annually to ₹35-50 lakh per month.
Ritika’s Background:
After completing her textile design course at NIFT Mumbai in 2018, Ritika worked with Skill India, where she trained prisoners at Tihar Jail to stitch school uniforms, enabling them to earn for their families. She also trained artisans during her one-year tenure. Despite earning well, Ritika’s passion for entrepreneurship led her to leave her job and venture into business.
Her first two attempts—manufacturing men’s shirts and launching a handcrafted footwear brand—ended in failure. However, Ritika’s entrepreneurial spirit remained unbroken. With no funds left, she took up a job with WhiteHat Jr during the pandemic and saved enough to give entrepreneurship one more shot.
The Birth and Growth of Sanskritam:
Ritika invested ₹50,000 to purchase women’s ethnic wear kurtas from Jaipur and showcased them at exhibitions, receiving positive feedback. This motivated her to start her own brand, Sanskritam. She focused on leveraging e-commerce and social media platforms, particularly Instagram, to grow her business.
Starting with just 10-12 SKUs, Sanskritam now boasts a diverse product line, including long kurtas, short kurtas, co-ord sets, suit sets, palazzos, pants, and bed sheets. The brand offers size-inclusive options from small to 6XL without charging extra for larger sizes. Today, Sanskritam employs 50 staff members, including 20 tailors, and has grown its product range to include 80 SKUs in the long kurtas category alone.
Overcoming Setbacks:
Just as Sanskritam began to take off, Ritika faced a major setback when her manufacturing unit caught fire in December 2020, destroying all of her inventory. However, Ritika’s resilience saw her through. In its first year, Sanskritam generated ₹50 lakh in revenue. By the fiscal year 2022-23, this grew to ₹1.4 crore, and in the last eight months alone, the brand has already surpassed ₹3 crore.
FAQs:
- What is Sanskritam?
Sanskritam is a sustainable, zero-waste women’s ethnic wear brand founded in 2021 during the pandemic. - What products does Sanskritam offer?
Sanskritam offers a wide range of ethnic wear and home furnishings made from Indian fabrics like cotton, chanderi, mulmul, kota doria, and banarasi. The brand is known for its plus-size inclusivity, offering sizes from XS to 6XL at the same price. - Who founded Sanskritam?
Sanskritam was founded by Ritika Gupta, an NIFT graduate, and later co-founded by her husband, Gaurav Gupta.