Wakefit DRHP: A Look At The Shareholding & Top Leaders

Two weeks after becoming a public entity, D2C furniture and mattress startup Wakefit has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the SEBI yesterday to raise INR 468 Cr (around $54.6 Mn) via fresh issue of shares.

The initial public offering (IPO) will also include an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 5.8 Cr shares.

Through the OFS route, Wakefit’s promoters Ankit Garg and Chaitanya Ramalingegowda along with its backers, including Peak XV Partners, Redwood Trust, Paramark and Verlinvest, among others, will offload shares.

The 478-page DRHP offers a deep dive into the company’s capital structure. At the time of filing, the promoters collectively held a 43.47% stake in the company. Of this, cofounder Garg topped the shareholding chart with 33.38% stake, followed by Ramalingegowda (10%).

Peak XV Partners emerged as the second-largest stakeholder and the largest institutional investor, holding a 22.70% stake through its fund Peak XV Partners Investments VI.

Investment holding company Verlinvest S.A. held a 9.89% stake in the company.

Other key investors include Investcorp, which holds an 9.39% stake through its Growth Equity Fund and Growth Opportunity Fund, SAI Global India (6%) via SAI Global India Fund I, LLP and Elevation Capital, which owns 4.73% through Elevation Capital VIII Limited. Paramark KB Fund I also held a 1.65% stake.

Meanwhile, Elevation Capital purchased more than 2.03 Lakh shares of Wakefit from its employees via secondary transactions. The DRHP also revealed that the D2C brand allotted more than 26 Lakh shares to Garg and Ramalingegowda in May this year.

In addition to the promoters and institutional investors, Nitika Goel, chief marketing officer at global consulting firm Zinnov, owns a 1.16% stake in the company.

Founded in 2016, Wakefit sells a range of products such as mattresses, pillows, bed frames, mattress protectors, home decor and furniture. Competing with the likes of The Sleep Company, Duroflex, Kurlon and Sleepwell, Wakefit has raised more than $100 Mn in funding to date.

As per its DRHP, the startup earns 68.8% of its revenue from online channels, including its own website and ecommerce marketplaces. The remaining comes from its offline stores and multi-brand outlets. The company claims to have more than 3,000 SKUs (stock keeping units).

The company may also raise INR 93.6 Cr via a pre-IPO placement, which would reduce the fresh issue size.

Wakefit On Path To Profitability

Wakefit plans to utilise the fresh capital to expand its retail footprint by opening 117 new stores, allocating INR 82 Cr from the IPO proceeds for this purpose. Besides, it aims to invest further in marketing and advertising efforts to strengthen brand visibility.

On its path to profitability, the company reported a net loss of INR 8.8 Cr during the first nine months of the financial year ending March 2025 (9M FY25). Its revenue from operations stood at INR 971 Cr during the period.

Including other income of INR 23 Cr, the company’s total income stood at INR 994 Cr in 9M FY25.

For context, the D2C company reported a net loss of INR 15 Cr in FY24 on an operating revenue of INR 986.3 Cr. Its total income stood at INR 1,017 Cr.

Decoding The Leadership Deck

Board Of Directors Ankit Garg

Garg is the chairperson, chief executive officer and executive director at Wakefit. The alumnus of IIT-Roorkee has 14 years of experience and worked with companies like Bayer Materials Science and J B Polymers.

In FY25, Garg mopped up a remuneration of INR 85.5 Cr.

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda

Ramalingegowda is the executive director at Wakefit. He has close to 19 years of work experience in consultancy and software engineering. Earlier, he had worked with companies such as IBM Global, Cognizant and Deloitte. He also confounded Purplegull Services and Flutterby Services which have shut their operations now.

Ramalingegowda drew a remuneration of INR 89.6 Cr in FY25.

Sakshi Vijay Chopra

Sakshi V. Chopra is the non-executive nominee director at the D2C mattress startup. She is presently associated with Peak XV as the managing director and joined the VC firm in 2010. She carries about 14 years of experience in private equity funds and started her career in the banking sector working with Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank. She also sits on the board of Purpulle, HealthKart and Head Up For Tails, among others.

Mukul Arora

Mukul Arora is the non-executive nominee director at Wakefit. He is currently a managing partner at Light Ray Advisors LLP and the co-managing partner at Elevation Capital. He also sits on the board of Swiggy, Meesho and Spinny. Arora had worked with McKinsey & Company in the past.

He was appointed as part of the board of directors in June.

Alok Chandra Misra

Alok Chandra Misra is the non-executive independent director in the D2C mattress startup and held the position this month itself. He carries more than 30 years of experience in the finance domain. In his long professional career he has held leadership roles at WNS Global, ITC and Mphasis.

According to the companies act, Misra is entitled to a commission not exceeding more than INR 30 Lakh annually.

Gunender Kapur

Gunender Kapur holds the position of non-executive independent director at Wakefit. He is currently the CEO at Vishal Megamart. In his 40 years of long career, Kapur has held various leadership portfolios in companies like Unilever Nigeria, Hindustan Unilever and Reliance Industries.

Kapur is entitled to a commission of not more than INR 30 Lakh per annum and was included as part of the board in June.

Sandhya Pottigari

Sandhya Pottigari is the non-executive independent director at Wakefit. She carries close to 20 years of experience in the human resource (HR) domain. In her career, she has served in various HR leadership roles in companies such as Sasken Technologies, Siemens and Amazon, among others.

Pottigari currently operates as an HR consultant and advises organisations on people and culture matters. She was included as part of the board of directors this month itself.

Pottigar is entitled for a commission not exceeding more than INR 30 Lakh per annum.

Sudeep Nagar

Sudeep Nagar is a non-executive independent director at Wakefit. Nagar has 14 years of experience in software engineering, sales marketing and customer care. He has worked in various leadership roles at HCL Technologies, Lodha Group and Computer Sciences Corporation India. He is currently the chief operating officer at Bluestone Jewellery and Lifestyle.

He was appointed to the board of directors in June.

Arindam Paul

Arindam Paul serves as the non-executive independent director at Wakefit. He carries 11 years of work experience and has worked with Cognizant as a consultant. Paul currently serves as the chief business officer at Atomberg Technologies and was also the founding member of the D2C home appliances startup.

He is entitled to receive a commission not exceeding more than INR 24 Lakh per annum. He was onboarded as part of the board of directors this month only.

Key Managerial Personnel Navesh Gupta

Navesh Gupta is the chief financial officer at Wakefit and takes care of the financial strategy, reporting, fundraising, tax matters, and enterprise resource planning of the startup. Gupta initially joined Wakefit back in 2021 as the general manager of finance but had to quit for personal reasons. However, he rejoined the startup last year.

Gupta carries close to 11 years of experience and has worked with companies such as Genpact and Daikin Airconditioning. He drew a remuneration of INR 31.1 Lakh in FY25.

Surbhi Sharma

Surbhi Sharma is the company secretary and compliance officer at Wakefit. She is responsible for ensuring secretarial and regulatory compliances at the startup. She joined Wakefit in December last year as the compliance officer and a month later was given the role of the company secretary.

Sharma has worked with Ola Electric, Kerala Ayurveda and BMP & Co. in the past. Sharma received a remuneration of INR 8.3 Lakh in FY25.

Kunal O Dubey

Kunal O Dubey is the chief marketing officer at Wakefit. He takes care of brand marketing, growth marketing, consumer research, media planning and buying, and corporate communications at the startup. He joined Wakefit in June last year.

In his 18-year long career, Dubey has worked with startups like Flipkart, Cleartrip and PhonePe, among others, and also has experience in working for legacy brands like Reliance Industries.

In FY25, Dubey received a remuneration of INR 1.32 Cr.

Dibyendu Panda

Dibyendu Panda is the vice president of retail and takes care of retail sales and expansion of retail operations at Wakefit. He leads the merchandising and learning and development teams at the startup. Panda joined Wakefit back in 2023.

He has about 19 years of experience in retail, operations and customer service. Panda has worked with reputable brands in the past which includes BlueStone Jewellery and Lifestyle, Reliance Industries and Sony India. He received INR INR 74.4 Lakh as remuneration in FY25.

Kunal Chandel

Kunal Chandel is the senior manager of legal at Wakefit and is responsible for leading the legal function at the startup. He joined Wakefit in 2021 and carries five years of professional experience. The alumnus of Nation Law University, Jodhpur has previously worked for Hindustan Zinc and Rahul Chaudhry & Partner.

He drew INR 23.8 Lakh in FY25 as remuneration.

Umanath Nayak

Umanath Nayak is the head of human resources at Wakefit and joined the startup back in 2019. He is responsible for leading the HR function and carries almost 17 years of experience in the HR domain.

Nayak had worked with reputable brands like Freshmenu, Papa Johns and Gionee India, among others, in the past. He received a remuneration of INR 57.9 Lakh in FY25.

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