Myntra vs The Souled Store: Strategic Comparison
Direct Answer
Myntra is India's largest fashion e-commerce platform (owned by Flipkart), selling thousands of third-party clothing and beauty brands. The Souled Store is a successful independent Indian clothing brand (D2C) specializing exclusively in officially licensed pop-culture apparel (Marvel, Disney, Anime).
Myntra and The Souled Store represent the exact same battle happening globally: Large Platform Aggregators vs Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) specialized brands. Myntra (owned by Flipkart/Walmart) is the dominance of online fashion in India. They sell everything from $5 generic t-shirts to $500 luxury watches, acting as the ultimate digital mall. The Souled Store is a large D2C success story. Founded by young Indian entrepreneurs who were frustrated by boring t-shirts, they acquired the official Indian licensing rights for Marvel, DC, and Harry Potter. Instead of trying to fight Myntra on everything, The Souled Store focused on high-quality, pop-culture 'fandom' apparel, building a large cult following that buys directly from their standalone app.
Editorial research by Swet Parvadiya. Figures keep each company's fiscal year; amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Sources are listed below.
Key Differences at a Glance
| Field | Myntra | The Souled Store |
|---|---|---|
| Latest annual revenue | ~$701M (FY2025) | ~$57.1M (FY2025) |
| Founded | 2007 | 2013 |
| Employees | 5,500 | N/A |
| Market Cap | N/A | N/A |
| Headquarters | India | India |
| Revenue / Employee | $127k / employee | N/A |
| Valuation Multiple | N/A | N/A |
Strategic Positioning
Business model and competitive context from the cited profiles
Myntra Strategic Vector
FY2025 Revenue BaselineAfter building its base in India's largest cities, Myntra is expanding into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and into beauty and personal care.
The Souled Store Strategic Vector
FY2025 Revenue BaselineGrowth comes from four levers: more licences (anime, sports and entertainment franchises), more categories beyond graphic tees (casualwear, footwear, innerwear, accessories), more physical stores, and consolidation such as the 2025 Redwolf acquisition.
Quick Stats Comparison
| Metric | Myntra | The Souled Store |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ~$701M (FY2025) | ~$57.1M (FY2025) |
| Founded | 2007 | 2013 |
| Headquarters | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Market Cap | N/A | N/A |
| Employees | 5,500 | — |
| Revenue / Employee | $127k / employee | N/A |
| Valuation Multiple | N/A | N/A |
Myntra Revenue vs The Souled Store Revenue — Year by Year
| Year | Myntra | The Souled Store | Higher reported revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | ~$701M | ~$57.1M | Myntra (approx. USD) |
| 2024 | ~$594.1M | ~$41.8M | Myntra (approx. USD) |
| 2023 | ~$517.9M | ~$27M | Myntra (approx. USD) |
Business Model Breakdown
Overview: Myntra vs The Souled Store
This in-depth comparison examines Myntra and The Souled Store across revenue, market value, business model, competitive positioning, and long-term growth strategy. Whether you are researching Myntra on its own, evaluating The Souled Store, or weighing the two companies side by side, the breakdown below highlights where each company leads and where the gap between Myntra and The Souled Store is widest.
On the headline numbers, annual revenue is ~$701M (FY2025) for Myntra and ~$57.1M (FY2025) for The Souled Store, while their respective market capitalizations stand at N/A and N/A. Both Myntra and The Souled Store are headquartered in India. Their local markets and applicable rules may still differ.
Myntra: Myntra is an Indian online fashion retailer based in Bengaluru and owned by Flipkart, which is controlled by Walmart. Founded in 2007, it sells clothing, shoes and beauty products, mainly to middle-class and Gen Z shoppers, on a platform built around fashion rather than general merchandise. The company is headquartered in Bangalore, India. India's premier online fashion and lifestyle destination was founded in 2007 in Bengaluru by Mukesh Bansal, Ashutosh Lawania, and Vineet Saxena, pivoting from personalized corporate gifts into a fashion titan acquired by Flipkart in 2014 for $300 million.
The Souled Store: The Souled Store is a privately held Mumbai company founded in 2013 by Vedang Patel, Aditya Sharma, Rohin Samtaney and Harsh Lal. It sells licensed Marvel, DC, Harry Potter, anime and cricket merchandise plus its own casualwear online and in stores. It reported ~$57.1 million (₹492 crore) in FY25 revenue from operations and a ~$1.28 million (₹11 crore) profit, and its founders are reported to still hold a majority stake. The company is headquartered in Mumbai, India.
Business Models: How Myntra and The Souled Store Make Money
Myntra and The Souled Store pursue distinct approaches to generating revenue, and understanding how each company operates is the foundation of any fair comparison between Myntra and The Souled Store.
Myntra business model: Myntra earns money in two ways. Its marketplace sells global brands such as Nike, H&M and Levi's, which bring in shoppers. Its private brands, such as Roadster and HRX, are designed using data on what Indian shoppers search for. Because Myntra owns those brands and controls their manufacturing, their margins are much higher than on third-party products.
The Souled Store business model: The Souled Store earns almost all of its money from selling apparel and accessories. It licenses characters from studios and rights holders such as Disney/Marvel, Warner Bros. (DC, Harry Potter), anime franchises and IPL teams, pays royalties on those sales, and designs and sources the garments itself. Licensed graphic tees and hoodies bring customers in; its own casualwear (cargos, shirts, denim, basics), footwear, innerwear and accessories raise basket size and repeat purchases. Sales happen through thesouledstore.com, its mobile app, marketplaces and company-run stores in malls. A paid membership offers members lower prices on its products. The company does not publish a revenue split by category or channel.
Competitive Advantage: Myntra vs The Souled Store
The durability of a company's moat often decides long-term winners. Here is how the competitive advantages of Myntra stack up against those of The Souled Store.
Myntra competitive advantage: Myntra's advantage is fashion curation and a returns operation built for clothing. Return rates are high in online fashion because fit is hard to judge, so Myntra runs its own logistics arm, Myntra Logistics, to handle returns quickly. Its app is designed for browsing fashion and uses AI to recommend outfits.
The Souled Store competitive advantage: The Souled Store's main edge is a large portfolio of official licences (over 200, according to industry coverage) that unlicensed sellers cannot legally copy. Buying Redwolf in 2025 removed its closest pop-culture rival. Its owned channels and paid membership reduce reliance on marketplaces, and it has grown profitably while raising far less capital than many Indian D2C peers.
Growth Strategy: Where Myntra and The Souled Store Are Headed
Future prospects matter as much as current results. The growth strategies below explain how Myntra and The Souled Store each plan to expand from here.
Myntra growth strategy: After building its base in India's largest cities, Myntra is expanding into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and into beauty and personal care. Myntra Beauty sells cosmetics and premium skincare in competition with Nykaa, a category with higher margins and more frequent repeat purchases than apparel. It is also investing in live commerce, where influencers sell through video streams in the app.
The Souled Store growth strategy: Growth comes from four levers: more licences (anime, sports and entertainment franchises), more categories beyond graphic tees (casualwear, footwear, innerwear, accessories), more physical stores, and consolidation such as the 2025 Redwolf acquisition. International expansion, starting with the Gulf, has been reported as a next step.
Financial Picture: Myntra vs The Souled Store
A closer look at the financial trajectory of Myntra and The Souled Store rounds out the comparison.
Myntra: Myntra Designs reported operating revenue of ~$594 million (₹5,121.8 crore) in FY24 and ~$701 million (₹6,043 crore) in FY25 (+18%). It swung from a ~$90.7 million (₹782 crore) loss in FY23 to a ~$3.58 million (₹30.9 crore) profit in FY24, then to ~$63.6 million (₹548 crore) in FY25; about $15.7 million (₹135 crore) of the FY25 profit came from a deferred tax credit. Advertising income rose 28% to ~$106 million (₹914 crore) in FY25, while marketing spend climbed to about $244 million (₹2,105 crore). Myntra does not publish GMV, and as a private Flipkart subsidiary it has no public market capitalisation.
The Souled Store: According to Registrar of Companies filings reported by Entrackr, revenue from operations rose from ~$27 million (₹233 crore) in FY23 to ~$41.8 million (₹360 crore) in FY24, when the company posted a ~$2.05 million (₹17.67 crore) profit, its first profitable year. In FY25 revenue grew about 37% to ~$57.1 million (₹492 crore) (Inc42 puts total income at ~$58 million (₹500.3 crore)), while profit fell 38% to ~$1.28 million (₹11 crore) as employee and marketing costs rose. Total equity funding is about $29.4 million across five rounds, the last being a ~$15.7 million (₹135 crore) round in March 2023 led by Xponentia Capital with Elevation Capital and RPSG Capital. The Economic Times put the last valuation at about $174 million (₹1,500 crore) and reported in September 2026 that a mostly secondary deal could value the company at ₹4,000-5,000 crore.
Company-Specific SWOT Notes
Myntra
6,000+ brands and the only profitable unit in the Flipkart group, with ~$63.6 million (₹548 crore) FY25 net profit.
In-house labels such as Roadster and HRX give Myntra more control over pricing and margin than resold brands.
Apparel e-commerce carries high return and size-exchange rates, adding reverse-logistics cost.
Non-metro shoppers seeking steep discounts and value pricing, compressing net take-rate margins.
Capturing high-margin skincare and fragrance budgets from affluent urban Indian women.
AJIO leveraging Reliance's physical retail store footprint and large capital to undercut fashion pricing.
The Souled Store
Official rights for major franchises that unlicensed sellers cannot legally use.
Profitable in FY24 and FY25 while revenue more than doubled from FY23.
Licences must be renewed and carry royalties and minimum guarantees.
FY25 profit of ~$1.28 million (₹11 crore) on ~$57.1 million (₹492 crore) revenue.
More stores in India and a reported entry into Gulf markets.
Zudio, Bewakoof and Snitch compete on price in casualwear.
Factual Scorecard
| Category | Result | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Same-period Revenue Scale | Myntra | ~$701M (FY2025) versus ~$57.1M (FY2025); the higher figure is identified after approximate USD conversion. |
| Founded Earlier | Myntra | Myntra was founded in 2007; The Souled Store was founded in 2013. |
Comparison Takeaway: Myntra vs The Souled Store
Methodology and sourcing reviewed by Swet Parvadiya. No date is shown unless this comparison has its own editorial review date.
Frequently Asked Questions: Myntra vs The Souled Store
Who owns Myntra?
Myntra is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Flipkart, which is majority-owned by the large American retail giant Walmart.
Does The Souled Store sell on Myntra?
Yes. This is the 'Frenemy' dynamic of D2C. While The Souled Store prefers customers buy directly from their own app (to keep 100% of the profit), they still list some of their products on Myntra simply to access Myntra's large 50-million user base.
How did The Souled Store get the rights to Marvel?
This is their large moat. In the early days, the founders actively pitched global studios (like Disney and Warner Bros) for the official licensing rights in India, promising high-quality merchandise, which effectively killed cheap, unauthorized bootleg t-shirts.
Does Myntra make its own clothes?
Yes. Myntra operates successful 'Private Labels' (like Roadster and HRX). Myntra uses its large data to see what styles are selling, and then manufactures those exact styles themselves, keeping much higher profit margins.
Why is The Souled Store opening physical shops?
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Advertising on Instagram to find new customers is becoming expensive. Opening a cool physical store in a large mall is actually a cheaper way to acquire new, loyal customers than buying Facebook ads.
Which company was founded first, Myntra or The Souled Store?
Myntra was founded in 2007; The Souled Store was founded in 2013.
What revenue did Myntra and The Souled Store report?
Myntra had ~$701M (FY2025), while The Souled Store had ~$57.1M (FY2025). These figures describe revenue scale; they do not by themselves determine an overall winner.
How do Myntra and The Souled Store make money?
Myntra: Myntra earns money in two ways. The Souled Store: The Souled Store earns almost all of its money from selling apparel and accessories.
Which is better, Myntra or The Souled Store?
There is no evidence-based single winner. Compare Myntra and The Souled Store on the same fiscal period and the metric relevant to the question, such as revenue, profitability, growth, product fit, or market value.
Sources & References
- Myntra Corporate Website
- Myntra 2025 revenue figure: Myntra Designs results (RoC filing, via Entrackr)
- economictimes.indiatimes.com
- storyboard18.com
- economictimes.indiatimes.com
- livemint.com
- en.wikipedia.org
- The Souled Store Corporate Website
- The Souled Store 2025 revenue figure: RoC filings via Entrackr
- entrackr.com
- inc42.com
- inc42.com
- thesouledstore.com
- livemint.com
- economictimes.indiatimes.com
Quick Answer
Myntra is India's largest fashion e-commerce platform (owned by Flipkart), selling thousands of third-party clothing and beauty brands. The Souled Store is a successful independent Indian clothing brand (D2C) specializing exclusively in officially licensed pop-culture apparel (Marvel, Disney, Anime).
Verdict
Myntra wins on scale, logistics, and infinite variety. If you need a formal suit, running shoes, and a winter jacket in one checkout, Myntra is inescapable. The Souled Store wins on brand loyalty, profit margins, and niche dominance. Because The Souled Store manufactures its own desirable licensed t-shirts and sells them directly on its own app, it doesn't have to pay Myntra's large 30% platform commissions, making it profitable.
Cite This Page
Automatically generated citations for researchers.
CorpDigest. (2026). Myntra vs The Souled Store Comparison. from https://corpdigest.com/compare/myntra-vs-the-souled-store
CorpDigest. "Myntra vs The Souled Store Comparison." CorpDigest, 2026, https://corpdigest.com/compare/myntra-vs-the-souled-store.
CorpDigest. "Myntra vs The Souled Store Comparison." CorpDigest. 2026. https://corpdigest.com/compare/myntra-vs-the-souled-store.