Building a brand from scratch is hard. Building one after losing ₹70 lakh is the kind of grit most people only talk about. Ashima Batra, Founder & CEO of Dorabi, didn’t just bounce back. She built one of India’s rising ethical-fashion powerhouses by trusting craftsmanship, discipline and old-school manufacturing wisdom.
The Founders: Ashima Batra & Vinod Batra
- Ashima Batra, Founder of Dorabi, comes from a fashion background with experience in design and product development. After her first startup collapsed, she rebuilt her approach from the ground up.
- Vinod Batra, Co-founder and Head of Production, brings 24+ years of manufacturing and operations expertise, giving Dorabi the backbone most young fashion brands lack.
Together, they created a system where design thinking meets disciplined production.
From a ₹70 Lakh Collapse to a Stronger Vision
Ashima’s first venture, Neraaya, failed largely due to operational inefficiencies, quality issues and weak inventory processes. The ₹70 lakh loss could have ended her entrepreneurial journey.
Instead, it became her turning point.
She used the setback to understand:
- Proper quality control
- Inventory discipline
- Scalability fundamentals
- Direct manufacturing workflows
And with her father’s deep production knowledge, she started again with more clarity and stronger systems.
The Birth of Dorabi
Founded in 2022, Dorabi is a hand-dyed, small-batch fashion label that blends tradition with contemporary style. The brand champions natural processes, slow fashion and rural craftsmanship.
What Dorabi Does
Dorabi specializes in:
- 100% hand-dyed clothing
- Natural, toxin-free dyes
- Ethically sourced cotton
- Small-batch production
- Artisanal finishing and handcrafting
Each item is crafted by 70+ artisans, most of them women, preserving India’s rich dyeing and textile heritage.
Dorabi embodies the idea that fashion can be sustainable, ethical and commercially scalable.
A Business Model Rooted in Craft & Discipline
Dorabi’s production model is built on intentional small-batch manufacturing, a sharp contrast to the mass-produced chaos of fast fashion. Every collection is released in limited quantities, which allows the brand to maintain strict controlled inventory instead of flooding the market with unsold stock. This discipline helps Dorabi manage cash flow better, reduce dead inventory and avoid the typical burn rate that destroys young fashion startups.
Because the brand relies on direct manufacturing, everything happens in-house or through closely monitored artisan clusters. There are no middlemen, no third-party bulk factories and no diluted accountability. This ensures complete control over quality, timelines and ethical production standards, which is something most large-scale brands struggle to maintain.
Dorabi also operates with transparent processes, making sure customers know exactly how each garment is dyed, stitched and finished. From natural color extraction to final packaging, the brand shows how real ethical fashion looks behind the scenes. This transparency builds trust, especially in a market flooded with “greenwashing” labels that talk sustainability but don’t practice it.
The brand produces high-quality batches, meaning garments go through multiple checks, right from fabric inspection to dye consistency to final finishing. Instead of pushing thousands of identical pieces, Dorabi prioritizes craftsmanship and attention to detail, allowing every batch to feel personal and premium.
And because production is tight, Dorabi naturally achieves minimal waste. Fabric scraps are repurposed into accessories, trims or small products, dyes are used efficiently and overproduction is avoided altogether. This approach reduces environmental impact while maintaining cost efficiency.
Dorabi’s Revenue insights
The numbers show how disciplined scaling can completely change a business:
- FY 2022–23: ₹36 lakh revenue
- FY 2023–24: ₹3.45 crore revenue
- FY 2024–25: Projected ₹5.5 crore
- Valuation: Approximately ₹25 crore
- Shark Tank India Season 4: Secured ₹1 crore for 4% equity from investors Aman Gupta and Anupam Mittal
This Shark Tank deal not only gave them capital but also boosted manufacturing capacity, brand visibility and supply-chain expansion.
Empowering Artisans & Preserving Heritage
Dorabi has grown into a powerful bridge between India’s rural craft communities and the modern fashion ecosystem. The brand collaborates directly with artisans skilled in natural hand-dyeing, block printing, hand-stitching and fabric finishing, giving them consistent work instead of seasonal dependency. Most of these creators are women, many of whom had limited access to formal employment before Dorabi stepped in. By ensuring fair wages, dignified working conditions and year-round production cycles, Dorabi safeguards traditional Indian textile practices while giving artisans the economic stability they’ve long deserved. Every garment becomes a canvas of cultural knowledge passed down through generations, not just another product in a fast-fashion chain.
A Modern Indian Brand With Traditional Roots
Dorabi proves that modern fashion doesn’t need mass production to scale. Its small-batch, heritage-driven model shows that traditional dyeing and handcrafted detailing can thrive commercially when paired with strong design direction, disciplined production and transparent supply chains. Women-led artisan clusters power the brand’s growth, highlighting how rural craftsmanship can compete on both national and global platforms. Dorabi demonstrates that sustainable fashion can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with mainstream labels without losing authenticity. It represents a movement toward mindful consumption, ethical manufacturing and the preservation of India’s textile heritage, bringing artisanal excellence to the forefront of contemporary style.
About Marketing Mirrors
This story was brought to you by Marketing Mirrors, a platform dedicated to breaking down India’s biggest business stories, founder journeys, startup insights, and marketing trends in a way that’s simple, sharp, and genuinely useful.
From deep-dive case studies to viral brand moments to inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, Marketing Mirrors is committed to bringing you stories that matter in today’s fast-moving digital economy.
