WOW STORY OF THE DAY: Two Marketers Started Packing Socks From Home in 2021 and Built India's Most Expressive Sustainable Accessories Brand

Harshit Singhal and Manali Sanghvi, both full-time marketers, co-founded Hexafun in 2021 as a side hustle from their home in Delhi. India's Gen Z-focused sustainable lifestyle accessories brand offering 100% organic cotton and bamboo socks, handkerchiefs, stoles, shoe bags, luggage covers, and gift boxes, Hexafun has sold over 10 lakh products, stocked in Regal Shoes, Crossword, and Hamleys, listed on Blinkit, raised ₹4.5 crore from Prajay Advisors, and targets 100,000 customers across three new metro markets by end of 2026.

A Garage Project, a Side Hustle, and a Gap in India's Accessories Market

Born as a garage project, Hexafun was built by two people working full-time as marketers at a leading company who identified a gap that most people walk past every day, quite literally. India's accessories market was dominated by apparel, jewellery, and bags. Socks and handkerchiefs, two of the most universally worn accessories in the country, had been completely overlooked as a category for design, expression, and sustainability.

Manali brought her design background, having previously worked as an Account Director at Elmwood Brand Consultancy, one of the world's most respected brand strategy firms. Harshit brought marketing expertise and operational instinct.

"Hexafun started from our house. Manali used to design, and I used to pack orders and send them myself," Harshit recalled.

That image of two full-time professionals packing socks at home after work hours became the founding spirit of everything Hexafun would grow into.

Organic Cotton, Bamboo, Gender-Neutral Design, and Six Categories Built for Gen Z

The boldest product decision Hexafun made was to position itself at the intersection of sustainability, self-expression, and everyday utility. While most sustainable fashion brands focused on apparel or premium categories, Hexafun chose the most democratic canvas available: the accessories that every single person in India uses every single day.

Every Hexafun product is made from 100% organic cotton or bamboo. The product range spans socks, handkerchiefs, stoles, shoe bags, luggage covers, and gift boxes across six major categories, all designed with a quirky, expressive, vibrant aesthetic built for Gen Z India. Crucially, every product is gender-neutral, encouraging everyone to express themselves freely through the accessories they choose, a positioning that opens the market to every consumer rather than segmenting it.

The brand has expanded well beyond D2C into premium physical retail. Hexafun is stocked in Regal Shoes, Crossword, and Hamleys, three of India's most trusted retail institutions, confirming the brand's mainstream consumer acceptance. It has also expanded into Q-commerce through Blinkit, launching branded kiosks and listing across quick commerce platforms to reach customers within minutes of a purchase decision.

Hexafun appeared on Shark Tank India Season 4 Episode 24, seeking ₹1 crore for 4% equity at a ₹25 crore valuation. While all five Sharks appreciated the mission, they raised concerns about financial structure and marketing efficiency. Kunal Bahl's frank feedback on funding discipline became a defining moment of clarity.

That clarity produced results. In August 2025, Hexafun raised ₹4.5 crore in seed funding from Prajay Advisors. Dr. Prakash Mody and Mr. Jayendra Shah, Founders of Prajay Advisors LLP, said: "The rise of Hexafun signals a new era for everyday essentials." capitalCORN served as exclusive investment banking advisor throughout the round.

The founders marked the milestone with their most powerful creative statement yet: the "Insanely Indian" campaign.

"For years, we've looked outward for style cues, first to the West, then to the East. But there's a creative uprising happening right here in India. The youth today aren't just consuming trends, they're rewriting them. Hexafun was born out of that mindset. This funding isn't just capital, it's a catalyst to take our vision further," said Harshit and Manali.

Scale and Real-World Impact

Business Parameter	Key Metric & Details
Founders	Harshit Singhal & Manali Sanghvi
Founded Year & Headquarter	2021 | Delhi (HEXAFUN PRIVATE LIMITED)
Products Sold	Over 10 Lakh (1,000,000+) items sold across 6 categories
FY25 Financial Performance	Revenue under ₹10 Crore with a CAGR of 105%
Total Funding	$514,000 including ₹4.5 Crore Seed Round (Aug 2025, Prajay Advisors)
Team Size	12 Employees
Distribution Channels	Regal Shoes, Crossword, Hamleys, Blinkit, and Branded Kiosks
Key Competitors	Salty, Joker and Witch, Pipa Bella
Target Milestones (End of 2026)	100,000+ Customers across 3 New Metro Markets

The Most Powerful Brands Are the Ones That Make the Ordinary Extraordinary

The sharpest lesson from Hexafun's journey is this: the most defensible consumer brands are the ones that take an overlooked, everyday product and make it the most expressive, most sustainable, and most joyful version of itself.

Socks and handkerchiefs are not glamorous. They are not aspirational in the conventional sense. And yet Harshit and Manali looked at those two products and saw exactly what India's Gen Z consumer was waiting for: an everyday accessory that was beautiful, organic, gender-neutral, and unapologetically expressive.

They started packing orders from home. They sold 10 lakh products. They earned shelf space at Hamleys and Crossword. They raised ₹4.5 crore. And they launched a campaign called "Insanely Indian" that captures in two words exactly what the brand stands for.

The most powerful things are sometimes hiding in the most ordinary places.

Sources: Indian Retailer, Startup Talky, Marca Money, Retailboss, Shark Startup Product, Tracxn, Crunchbase