Backed by Amit Jain, Shantanu Deshpande, Ishendra Agarwal and others, the Avni Jain-led footwear start-up will invest in R&D, proprietary comfort technology and go-to-market experimentation.
India, September 2026: Nuvah, a technology-driven footwear brand pioneering comfort-engineered heels, has secured ₹4 crore in a pre-seed angel round. The funding attracted a distinguished roster of investors, including Amit Jain, Shantanu Deshpande, Ishendra Agarwal, and others. The company will use the new capital to fund research and development, advance its proprietary comfort technology, and test go-to-market strategies to capture India’s growing premium footwear market.
Founded in October 2025 by Avni Jain, Nuvah adopts an engineering-first approach to solving one of women’s footwear’s most persistent challenges: the perceived trade-off between style and comfort. Before launching Nuvah, Avni’s career spanned venture capital, McKinsey & Company, and Goldman Sachs. She is an alumna of IIM Ahmedabad. The brand crafts heels tailored to the way women move, work, and navigate daily life, aiming to deliver lasting comfort without sacrificing aesthetics.
Central to Nuvah’s offering is SteadyForm, its proprietary footbed technology designed to respond dynamically to shifting pressure across the foot. Developed through an exhaustive process involving 24 footbed prototypes and over 900 hours of real-world wear testing, SteadyForm treats comfort as an engineering challenge, factoring in diverse body profiles and everyday environments rather than treating it as an afterthought. Commenting on the fundraise, Avni Jain, founder and CEO of Nuvah, stated, “Women have long been conditioned to accept discomfort as the cost of wearing heels.
Nuvah was founded to challenge this belief. We are not merely adapting a global product , we are engineering footwear for Indian women, designed for how we move, work, and live. This capital empowers us to invest deeply in product innovation, fortify our proprietary technology, and establish Nuvah on a strong foundation.” Nuvah is focused on serving the modern Indian working woman, particularly those in the country’s major urban centres, with thoughtfully engineered heels designed to bring together style, comfort and functionality. This fundraiser coincides with rising demand for branded and premium footwear in India.
According to an IIFL Securities report (October 2024), India’s per-capita footwear consumption is about 1.9 pairs, compared to a global average of 3 pairs and over 6 pairs in developed markets, signalling significant scope for growth. The report also forecasts branded women’s footwear to grow at a CAGR of approximately 15% over the next decade, outpacing the broader category. Nuvah asserts that this opportunity is bolstered by a wider shift in how working women approach fashion and mobility. As lifestyles become more dynamic, footwear must transcend pure style and meaningfully address movement, comfort, and extended wear.
The company will unveil a new festive collection at the beginning of Navratri 2026, expanding its portfolio while furthering its engineering-led approach. Over the next three to five years, Nuvah aspires to become India’s leading lifestyle footwear brand for working women, setting a new benchmark where women no longer have to choose between looking good and feeling good. About Nuvah Founded in October 2025 by Avni Jain, Nuvah is a technology-led footwear brand reimagining comfort-engineered heels for Indian women. Rooted in the belief that fashion should empower, not restrict, the brand merges contemporary design with engineering-driven development to elevate comfort, stability, and all-day wearability. Its proprietary SteadyForm footbed technology adapts dynamically to shifting foot pressures. Nuvah is available pan-India through its D2C platform, with products starting at INR 4,000.