Nuvah Raises ₹4 Cr to Engineer More Comfortable Heels for Indian Women

Women’s footwear startup Nuvah has raised ₹4 crore in a pre-seed angel round as it looks to build heels around comfort and product engineering rather than treating discomfort as an unavoidable part of the category. The round saw participation from CarDekho cofounder Amit Jain, Bombay Shaving Company founder Shantanu Deshpande and GIVA founder Ishendra Agarwal, among others.

Founded in October 2025 by Avni Jain, Nuvah is targeting working women with heels designed for longer everyday use. At the centre of its product proposition is SteadyForm, a proprietary footbed that the company says is designed to respond to changing pressure across the footwhile walking. Nuvah says it went through 24 footbed prototypes and more than 900 hours of wear testing before launching the product.

The startup currently sells directly to consumers across India, with products starting at roughly ₹4,000. Its online collection includes wedges, stilettos, kitten heels and other styles, while the brand also offers a phone-based foot-scanning tool for size recommendations. Nuvah says its footwear is made using vegan materials.

The fresh capital will be deployed toward research and development, further work on its proprietary footbed technology and testing customer-acquisition channels. Nuvah is also preparing a festive collection around Navratri as it expands beyond its initial product range. Jain previously worked across venture capital, McKinsey and Goldman Sachs and is an IIM Ahmedabad alumna.

The harder test now will come from consumers rather than prototypes. Footwear is particularly sensitive to fit, comfort and returns, making repeat purchases an important signal of whether Nuvah’s engineering proposition works at scale. The company cites an IIFL Securities estimatethat branded women’s footwear in India could grow at around 15% annually over the coming decade. For Nuvah, turning that category growth into a durable brand will depend on whether customers experience enough difference in comfort to keep coming back.