Footwear startup RARA Barefoot raises $500K in seed round

Footwear startup RARA Barefoot  has raised $500K in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round and announced the launch of its debut sneaker line. The round led by  founders and senior operators from Zomato, Urban Company, Tata 1mg, Shyft and HexaHealth, along with Managing Directors and Partners from ChrysCapital and BCG.

The proceeds will be used to support its national D2C rollout, the establishment of select offline retail partnerships, and local manufacturing scale-up as the brand prepares to bring barefoot sneakers to Indian consumers, RARA Barefoot said in a press release.

Co-founded in 2024 by  Varun Mimani and Manas Tripathi, RARA Barefoot is a performance footwear company pioneering barefoot sneakers. By combining evolutionary design with modern aesthetics, RARA aims to create footwear that lets the body move naturally the way nature intended.

RARA launches as a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand, with its first collection available online at its website. The company plans to expand through select multi-brand stores and experience-driven offline pop-ups in major cities in 2026.

According to RARA Barefoot, each sneaker offers three designs such as a flat sole with zero heel-toe drop, a wide toe box for natural toe spread, and a flexible sole that bends with the foot’s 33 joints. All sneakers are manufactured in India, combining global barefoot design with locally sourced, high-performance materials. 

As per market research,, the India sneaker market is expected to reach $4,665.9 million by 2030, with a CAGR of 5.7 %.