Thank You, Sponsors, For Powering Inc42’s D2C & Retail Summit 2026

As India’s D2C and retail ecosystem enters the era of D2C 3.0, Inc42’s flagship, The D2C & Retail Summit, continues to bring the country’s sharpest founders, operators, investors, and enablers into one room to decode what it takes to build enduring consumer brands. 

Over the past seven editions, Inc42 has closely tracked this ecosystem through in-depth reporting, data-led research, cohort-based learning programmes and marquee summits, chronicling how brands move from early traction to scale while navigating shifting capital cycles, quick-commerce economics and evolving consumer expectations.

This August, Inc42 brought together this ecosystem at the seventh edition of The D2C & Retail Summit, held on 19th August 2026 at The Leela Ambience, Gurugram, under the theme ‘Commerce In The Age Of AI & 10-Min Delivery.’

The invite-only summit convened 600+ founders, CXOs, investors and operators, selected from 2,000+ applications, with 70%+ of attendees being founders themselves. The agenda featured 15+ high-impact sessions and 5 hands-on workshops, alongside 60+ speakers spanning legacy brands, new-age disruptors, investors and commerce enablers. 

Over half the brands represented were at ₹15 Cr+ ARR, with Fashion & Accessories and F&B leading the mix, alongside beauty & personal care, electronics, home and retail. The summit also featured 27 booths showcasing brands across categories.

The day’s marquee conversations included boAt cofounder Aman Gupta in an unfiltered AMA on building consumer brands and his new venture OFF/BEAT; Veeba founder and MD Viraj Bahl on scaling the sauces major to a ₹1,000 Cr+ FMCG engine; Snitch founder Siddharth Dungarwal on How Speed, Stores & Community Built A Cult Menswear Brand; Manyavar-Mohey CRO Vedant Modi on phygital retail; and Agilitas Sports cofounder Abhishek Ganguly on India’s sportswear opportunity. 

Investors including Manu Chandra of Sauce.vc, Archana Jahagirdar of Rukam Capital, Aditya Singh of All In Capital and Kannan Sitaram of Fireside Ventures also came together to discuss where consumer capital is headed next. 

In a fireside chat, Veeba’s Bahl said quick commerce can grow alongside other distribution channels, creating broader momentum for emerging consumer brands.

“Quick commerce entered Veeba’s journey relatively late but has since emerged as an important revenue channel and growth driver for the sauce and condiment maker,” Bahl said.

Meanwhile, Vedant Fashions’ Modi shared how data and AI are becoming central to how Manyavar-Mohey makes retail decisions. According to Modi, data helps the brand decide which products should go to which stores, move inventory based on local demand, and protect its premium pricing as it scales.

“Our overall growth is being driven by our ability to turn data into decisions — from product design and inventory allocation to store-level performance,” Modi said. 

Across panels and workshops, speakers unpacked themes ranging from quick commerce margins and distribution moats to agentic commerce, export economics, and AI-led brand building.

But none of these insightful dialogues would have been possible without the support of our sponsors and partners, who helped make The Inc42 D2C & Retail Summit 2026 into a platform for meaningful dialogue and ecosystem-level impact.

Presenting Partner

PhonePe Payment Gateway

PhonePe Payment Gateway is the merchant payments arm of PhonePe, India’s leading digital payments major, enabling businesses to accept payments seamlessly across cards, UPI, net banking, wallets and BNPL.

With a strong focus on speed, reliability and high-conversion checkout experiences, PhonePe Payment Gateway helps D2C and retail brands meet the default expectation of seamless commerce, powering payment acceptance at scale for businesses across categories.

Kamal Lochan Das, business head, PhonePe Payment Gateway, joined a panel discussion titled ‘What Do India’s Shopping Patterns Reveal About The Next Growth Wave?‘, alongside Akash Agrawalla, cofounder of D2C spice brand ZOFF Foods; Ayush Bansal, director at Liberty Shoes; and was moderated by Karan Saraf of PwC India. 

During the discussion, Das pointed to a shift in how Indian consumers approach digital payments, moving from a purely utility-led mindset to increasingly discretionary spending, as part of the broader convenience-led consumption wave reshaping Indian retail.

Co-Presenting Partners

Shadowfax

Shadowfax is a last-mile and hyperlocal logistics major, with a nationwide network spanning over 14,700 pin codes across first-mile, last-mile and sort centres. It serves ecommerce, quick commerce, food delivery and on-demand mobility clients, offering express parcel delivery alongside reverse pickups, exchanges and same-day delivery. The company listed on the NSE and BSE in January 2026.

During the summit, Shadowfax cofounder and CEO Abhishek Bansal moderated a fireside session with Agilitas Sports cofounder and CEO Abhishek Ganguli, titled ‘The $1 Bn Sportswear Bet: Building India’s Sportswear House.’ 

The conversation covered how Agilitas is building an integrated sportswear business, spanning athlete-led brands like One8 and Mochiko’s manufacturing depth to its retail and channel strategy, as it works towards building India’s own globally competitive sportswear house.

Glance

Glance, part of the InMobi Group, is an AI-native content and commerce platform that turns lock screens and connected devices into discovery surfaces. Through personalised, shoppable content delivered at scale, Glance is helping brands reach consumers at moments of high intent, extending discovery and commerce beyond the traditional app and website funnel.

Piyush Shah, cofounder of InMobi and Glance, joined a fireside chat titled ‘How Agentic Commerce Will Change The Way India Shops,‘ alongside The Bear House cofounder Harsh Somaiya and Inc42 cofounder and CEO Vaibhav Vardhan. 

Explaining the premise behind agentic commerce, Shah said, “Consumers no longer need to navigate every stage of the purchase journey, a shift Glance is betting on through its AI shopping agent, which uses signals like a consumer’s preferences, budget, context and appearance to recommend products, create complete looks and enable virtual try-ons.” 

Powered By Partners

Gupshup

Gupshup is a global conversational engagement platform that helps businesses build AI-led messaging experiences across WhatsApp, RCS and other channels. Its tools enable D2C brands to run conversational commerce, marketing and support at scale, turning routine customer touchpoints into revenue and retention opportunities.

Adwit Sharma, senior director – presales & solutions, Gupshup.ai, was also part of a DRS 2026 panel discussion titled ‘Turning One-Time Buyers Into Repeat Customers,’ where he spoke about moving conversations beyond customer support to discovery, education, reactivation and loyalty, and building AI-led conversational flows for recommendations, replenishment nudges and human escalation.

Elements Wellness

Elements Wellness is the flagship wellness brand of Indiashoppe, bringing together Ayurvedic formulations with modern research, quality manufacturing and scalable distribution. Since its 2014 launch, it has grown into one of India’s fastest-expanding wellness brands, with a presence across 750+ distribution centres and a growing digital education push for its distributor network.

Rajesh Chandan, founder of Elements Wellness, was also part of a panel discussion titled ‘Growth Without The Burn: Engineering Profitable Growth,’ where he spoke about moving from GMV-led growth to margin quality and capital-efficient scale, and building repeat cohorts and owned customer relationships as acquisition costs rise.

NITRO

Nitro is a revenue-as-a-service full-stack platform for ecommerce, D2C and retail brands, built to solve acquisition and retention bottlenecks with technology. The platform addresses challenges like anonymous visitor conversion, simplifying complex marketing workflows for growing consumer brands.

Nitro Commerce cofounder and CEO Umair Mohammad joined The D2C & Retail Summit 2026 as a speaker in a panel discussion titled ‘Is Quick Commerce A Margin Trap?‘ alongside 4700BC cofounder Chirag Gupta and Longway cofounder Ritish Garg, moderated by Commercify360 founder and managing director Renu Bisht. 

During the session, Mohammad outlined three metrics: availability, assortment and advertising, or the “3As” that brands should track on quick commerce platforms, adding that returns on advertising spend shouldn’t be assessed in isolation. During the summit, Mohammad also launched Nitro Apps, an AI-powered platform that allows Shopify merchants to build private applications using prompts. 

CashKaro

CashKaro is India’s leading cashback and coupons platform, helping shoppers save on purchases across major ecommerce and D2C sites while giving brands a high-intent channel to drive traffic, conversions and repeat purchases.

At The D2C & Retail Summit 2026, CashKaro cofounder Swati Bhargava moderated a panel discussion titled ‘Growth Without The Burn: Engineering Profitable Growth,’ featuring Neeru’s chairman and MD Avnish Kumar, Elements Wellness founder Rajesh Chandan and The Bear House cofounder Harsh Somaiya, on moving from GMV-led growth to margin quality and using AI to improve operating leverage without slowing growth momentum.

Base.com

Base.com is an ecommerce automation platform that helps D2C and omnichannel brands streamline order processing, fulfilment, and inventory tracking across multiple sales channels. Its workflow automation tools are aimed at cutting operational costs so brands can scale order volumes without scaling manual effort.

Pradeep Sekhar, CEO, India, Base.com, was also part of The DRS 2026 panel discussion titled ‘The Consumer Reset: Winning Gen Z, Bharat & Premium India,’ where he spoke about tracking India’s changing consumption map across Gen Z, Bharat and premium consumers, and reading consumer signals across channels to understand what drives conversion and repeat behaviour.

SafeGold

SafeGold is a digital gold platform that allows consumers to buy, sell, save in and redeem 24K gold in small denominations, backed by fully insured, vaulted physical gold. It works with fintech and D2C partners to embed gold-based savings and investment products into everyday commerce.

At DRS 2026, SafeGold’s cofounder and COO Rhea Chaterji was also part of a discussion titled ‘Turning One-Time Buyers Into Repeat Customers,’ where she spoke about moving conversations beyond customer support to discovery and loyalty, and turning conversational data into sharper segmentation and stronger owned customer relationships.

Loti

Loti AI helps individuals, creators, celebrities and brands protect their digital identity from misuse online. The company specialises in detecting and removing unauthorised content, including AI-generated deepfakes, fake advertisements and impersonation attempts. 

The platform continuously scans the internet for content that misuses a person’s likeness, voice or brand assets. When harmful or fraudulent content is identified, Loti AI helps clients take action to remove it.

Snapmint

Snapmint is a no-cost EMI and buy-now-pay-later platform that helps ecommerce and D2C brands offer flexible, easy-to-access financing at checkout, aimed at improving affordability and conversion for a wider base of Indian shoppers.

Amitt Sharma, chief customer officer, Snapmint, was also part of a panel discussion titled ‘The Conversion Stack For Consumer Brands,’ where he spoke about why high-intent shoppers drop off despite strong product interest, and using flexible payment options as one lever to improve conversion without hurting margins or customer trust.

Stelcore Group

Stelcore Group works with Indian consumer brands on cross-border expansion, treating global growth as an infrastructure problem rather than an afterthought. Led by chairman Bharat Mandot, the group helps brands navigate customs, compliance, warehousing and market entry as they take their businesses beyond India.

Bharat Mandot, chairman of Stelcore Group and cofounder of Globbel, was also part of a panel discussion titled ‘Cracking Export Economics Beyond The Topline,’ where he spoke about choosing the right export markets and navigating the new export reality shaped by changing trade agreements and tariff uncertainty. 

Associate Partners

• Rukam Capital: Delhi-based Rukam Capital is an early stage venture capital firm investing in consumer products and services companies with strong growth potential. Its portfolio includes brands such as GO DESi, Sleepy Owl, Burger Singh, Curefoods, Beco, and Yoho.
• Sagepilot: An AI-powered customer support platform that deploys human-like AI agents to handle customer engagement, sales and support across channels, helping brands automate service operations while improving response times.
• Losung360: A 360-degree ecommerce enabler offering demand generation and demand fulfilment services, including supply chain management from order to delivery, for growing D2C brands and enterprises.
• Amazon Shipping: It allows D2C brands and sellers to tap into Amazon’s logistics network to fulfil orders placed on their own websites and other sales channels, extending Amazon’s delivery reach beyond its own marketplace.
• Ginesys: A cloud-based retail ERP, POS, OMS and WMS suite built for D2C brands, retailers and wholesalers, unifying inventory, warehouse, finance and omnichannel operations on a single platform.
• Similarweb: A digital intelligence platform that gives brands visibility into web and app traffic, competitor benchmarking and market trends, helping D2C teams make sharper decisions on channel strategy and growth.
• Juspay: A payments infrastructure company that powers checkout and payment orchestration for some of India’s largest digital platforms, helping brands improve payment success rates and reduce transaction drop-offs.
• Frameo.ai: Part of the Dashverse ecosystem, Frameo.ai is an AI-native video creation platform that turns story prompts into short, cinematic videos, designed to power high-velocity, low-cost content production for brands and creators.
• Cashfree Payments: A payments and banking-as-a-service platform offering payment gateway, payouts and API banking solutions that help D2C and ecommerce businesses collect and disburse payments efficiently.
• Shopflo: A checkout optimisation platform for D2C brands, offering one-click checkout, address autofill, discounting and RTO tools that have driven reported conversion gains of 15–20% for its merchants.
• Whilter.AI: A platform to run paid acquisition, customer conversations, and personalised retention, instead of separate agencies and tools, operated by AI agents that know a brand.
• Nuvr: A full-stack, tech-enabled ecommerce growth accelerator that helps consumer brands scale rapidly across ecommerce, quick commerce and D2C platforms, combining brand strategy, performance marketing and channel management.
• Truecaller Business: Best known for caller ID and spam protection, Truecaller also offers business messaging and verification solutions that help D2C brands build trust and improve customer engagement via calls and messages.
• Primarc Pecan: An end-to-end ecommerce business solutions provider, helping brands scale marketplace operations across platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra, backed by a pan-India warehousing and fulfilment network.
• StoreSignal: It builds AI agents for ecommerce, Sales, Shopping, and Support that handle everything from product recommendations and upsells to order status queries and returns, helping brands lift conversion rate and average order value while cutting support ticket volumes.
• Rootle: A KPI-first Voice AI platform for enterprise customer engagement, Rootle helps D2C and quick commerce brands resolve order, exchange and refund queries in more than 20 Indian languages directly through their existing support and telephony stack.
• Importerr: The B2B global sourcing and supply platform offers access to 100 Mn+ products from verified suppliers along with procurement and fulfilment tools for D2C brands, retailers and online sellers.

We would also like to thank our giveaway partners: Fix My Curl, O3+, Ningen, DailyObjects, Beanly Coffee, Antinorm, 4700 BC, Arata, Troovy, Blue Tea, Conscious Chemist, Moxie, Bakers Dozen, Phirki Zero, Papa Nata, Nurasoi’s Vyndo and BRB Chips.

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