The Pant Project’s Journey From Custom-Fit Trousers to a Growing Retail Brand

The Pant Project began with a familiar wardrobe problem: trousers that fitted at the waist could still feel wrong everywhere else. Co-founder Dhruv Toshniwal has described struggling with an in-between waist size and cuts that were too tight around his thighs. He and his brother Udit launched the Mumbai-based brand in October 2020, drawing on a family history in textiles through Banswara Syntex. The brothers brought complementary training to the venture. Dhruv studied at Wharton and now leads the business as chief executive, while Udit, a School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumnus, is its creative director. Their starting point was specific: make well-fitting pants easier for Indian customers to buy.

The route to market changed before the first store could open. In an early interview, the founders said they had originally planned a physical outlet in Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda district, but the pandemic pushed them towards an online tailoring service. Customers could choose fabrics, fit, waist size and length, including sizes that were difficult to find off the rack. That customisation remains part of the business: its ordering options include different rises, waistbands, hems and monograms. Udit also developed the fashion and lifestyle venture Aanswr, experience that sits alongside his product and creative responsibilities at The Pant Project. The company subsequently added ready-to-wear clothing, allowing customers to buy standard sizes as well as made-to-order trousers.

Its range now extends across formal trousers, chinos, jeans, cargos, stretch pants and other casual bottomwear, including products sold as Malai Pants and Inklock No Fade Black Jeans. The business reaches shoppers through its own website, marketplaces such as Myntra and Amazon, and physical stores. Among its earlier milestones, it ranked fourth in the growth category of Inc42’s FAST42 D2C list for 2023. Its retail footprint has since grown beyond 20 stores, according to Dhruv, who recently identified the opening at Jaipur’s Pacific Mall as the brand’s first in Rajasthan and its 21st outlet. That progression has brought an originally online fitting proposition into shops where customers can try garments and seek alterations in person.

On October 19, 2026, The Pant Project announced a ₹109 crore Series B funding round led by Mirae Asset Venture Investments (India). Existing investor Sorin Investments participated alongside MGA Ventures, B2V Ventures, B&K Securities and angel investor Anisha Saraf, co-founder of Dot & Key. The company also secured separate venture debt from Alteria Capital; the amount was not disclosed in the announcement coverage. The equity round follows the brand’s $4.25 million Series A led by Sorin in 2024, but the new financing marks a substantially larger commitment to the business’s next stage.

Dhruv said the fresh capital would support a wider product catalogue, retail expansion, technology, hiring and brand building. The company aims to take its network past 150 stores across major and smaller Indian cities, using both malls and high streets; contemporaneous reports put the expansion timetable at two to three years. It also intends to develop its jeans, athleisure and casualwear offering and strengthen the connection between online and in-store shopping. These are expansion targets rather than completed milestones. For The Pant Project, the stated ambition is to build a broader menswear business while carrying its original emphasis on fit, fabric and comfort into more products and more locations.