TiE Delhi-NCR D2C Summit draws 300+ leaders to tap $100Bn market opportunity

With India’s D2C market expanding at nearly 20% annually, the second edition of TiE Delhi-NCR’s D2C Summit concluded on February 25 after a day of high-intensity dialogues, sectoral deep dives, and curated capital conversations that brought renewed clarity to the country’s fast-evolving consumer brand landscape. Bringing together 300+ founders, investors, and operators across lifestyle, beauty, personal care, food & beverage, and Bharat-first brands, the Summit decoded the structural shifts shaping India’s $100B+ D2C opportunity, from open commerce and omnichannel scale to sustainable growth and profitability.

This year’s edition delivered a sharp, insight-rich agenda combining brand-building, technology adoption, scaling economics, logistics innovation, and the new rules of consumer behaviour in a post-personalisation era. The day opened with a keynote by Harish Bijoor, setting the context for India’s consumer-led retail evolution. Anchoring the investor lens at the Summit, Kannan Sitaram, Co-Founder & Partner at Fireside Ventures, offered a sharp and grounded perspective on value creation, capital efficiency, disciplined scaling, and long-term brand building, giving founders a clear framework for building durable, capital-ready businesses. The Summit also brought together a strong cohort of leading investors including Yash Dholakia (Sauce VC), Addison Appu (ThinKuvate), Aditya Arora (FAAD Ventures), Abhishek Kakkar (IAN Group), Bhavika Nijhawan (Vitalis Capital), Ojasvi Babber (Amity Innovation Incubator), Shweta Tripathi (V3 Ventures), Amit Singhal (Fluid VC), and Rishabh Katiyar (InfoEdge Ventures), driving candid conversations around early-stage capital, unit economics, brand–market fit, and building enduring consumer businesses.

India’s D2C growth engine was powered by ecosystem enablers driving fintech, AI, and infrastructure innovation. Yogesh Miglani and Aditi Olemann (Cashfree Payments) spotlighted seamless checkout and payment innovation as key conversion levers, while Swati Agarwal (Zoom) emphasised connected CX as a scale differentiator. Pradeep Sekhar Chandrasekaran (Base) decoded automation-led efficiencies, and Ayush Bindal (Shopify), Richard Eliab (Cloud Ambassadors), and Suryansh Jalan (FarEye) showcased operational AI as a profitability driver. Infrastructure leaders, including Divyashree Bhat (Google), Pankaj Bansal (NIXI), Ankit Kumar (Skye Air Mobility), and Karnika Bansal (Shadowfax), reinforced scalable distribution, followed by Rohit Lohia (ONDC) outlining how open commerce is reshaping market access and economics for D2C brands.

Underscoring the role of checkout intelligence in conversions, Yogesh Miglani, Director, Product Management, Cashfree Payments, noted, “For D2C founders today, payments and checkout can’t be treated as an afterthought. Choosing the right payment partner and an intelligent checkout layer makes a tangible difference to conversions, prepaid adoption, and consumer trust, especially across Tier II and III markets. With One-Click Checkout, brands get the combined power of payments innovation and checkout intelligence, which directly impacts scale and unit economics.”

Category-defining founders Siddharth Sharma (Days Ahead), Akriti Gupta (Loopie), Jatin Mahendru (Kleenest), Jatan Bawa (Perfora), and Rachit Jain (Bruno Milano), unpacked how Gen Z is rewriting playbooks on authenticity, design, and retention. The omnichannel scale conversation was further driven by Neha Kant (Clovia) and Shyam Sundar (DeHaat), alongside insights from Nitesh Singh (Blue Tea), Arpana Shahi (Gabit), and Manasa Garemella (Kindlife.in), highlighting disciplined retail strategy, omnichannel expansion, affordability, and Bharat-focused growth.

Highlighting the importance of distribution depth and cost discipline, Ankit Kumar, Founder and CEO, Skye Air Mobility, noted, what really determines whether a brand breaks out is how well it builds its distribution and enabler ecosystem. Relying on a single channel or outsourced systems limits long-term sustainability. Founders need to understand their cost structures deeply because cost is as critical as marketing and build systems that create value for the brand, not just for intermediaries. At scale, disciplined distribution and cost control are what separate durable brands from short-term growth stories.”

Reflecting on the shifts underscored at the Summit, Upasana Sharma, Executive Director, TiE Delhi-NCR, said, “Founders today are operating in a market where consumer expectations evolve faster than categories themselves. What emerged at this Summit is a shared understanding that winning brands won’t just be digital-first, they will be culture-first, operationally disciplined, and technologically accelerated. By convening leaders across capital, commerce, and capability-building, we are reinforcing TiE Delhi-NCR’s commitment to helping founders build durable, globally competitive brands from India.”

This year’s Summit was supported by Cashfree Payments, Zoom, Masters' Union, Cloud Ambassador, Base, and Skye Air Mobility, whose collective contributions strengthened the event’s focus on technology-led enablement, operational excellence, and ecosystem-scale innovation.

With its deeply curated dialogues, multi-stakeholder participation, and sharp strategic agenda, the 2026 edition firmly positions the D2C Summit as a cornerstone platform for founders navigating India’s next decade of consumer innovation. It not only surfaced the most urgent questions facing digital-first and omnichannel brands, but also outlined the capabilities, capital pathways, and ecosystem collaborations required to answer them. As India’s consumer economy enters a new phase of scale and sophistication, the Summit continues to serve as a defining forum for clarity, connection, and long-term direction.