Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL), acquired the technology of Furrl, a Bengaluru fashion discovery startup, in an all-cash deal reported on August 5, 2026. The amount was not disclosed.
The purchase covers Furrl's AI styling engine and its shopping app, which Reliance plans to fold into its own digital commerce services. FashionUnited described the deal as a purchase of Furrl's technology assets and intellectual property, while Inc42 and Venture Intelligence reported that Furrl's entire team would also move to Reliance.
Founder and chief executive Esha Tiwary will lead new AI initiatives at Reliance Retail focused on fashion discovery and personalised shopping. Furrl's product team will work on extending its technology across Reliance's wider commerce business.
What Furrl built
Tiwary started Furrl in 2022 as a place to discover independent Indian direct-to-consumer fashion and lifestyle brands. Its main technology is a styling engine that takes ordinary catalogue images and turns them into personalised, shoppable looks, so a shopper sees a full outfit rather than a single product on a white background.
Entrepreneur India reported that the platform recommends clothes based on a user's style preferences rather than keyword searches. Over about four years the company built up a catalogue of more than 50,000 products from over 200 fashion and lifestyle brands, according to Retail Insight Network.
The business was small. Venture Intelligence reported that Furrl had operating income of about INR 57 lakh (about $65,000) in the 2025 financial year and a net loss of about INR 523 lakh, or roughly INR 5.2 crore (about $600,000).
“We built Furrl with one conviction: that fashion discovery is broken and AI can fundamentally change that.”
Why Reliance is buying
Reliance Retail said the deal supports what it calls an AI-first approach to personalised shopping and discovery, and that it expects Furrl's technology to improve product discovery across its digital and omnichannel platforms. In a letter to Tiwary that she shared on social media, RRVL chief executive and president Jeyandran Venugopal wrote that the addition strengthened the company's portfolio of AI capabilities, Inc42 reported.
According to Apparel Resources, Venugopal also said Reliance Retail was embedding AI and other technologies across its consumer businesses to make shopping more intuitive and centred on customers. Retail Insight Network reported that Furrl's operating company was Kleosa Retail Private Limited.
The founder and the funding
Before the deal, Furrl raised more than INR 8 crore (about $0.9 million) from PeerCapital, Sadev Ventures and Bharat Founders Fund, according to Inc42. The reports did not give the dates or sizes of individual rounds.
In comments carried by Retail Insight Network, Tiwary said the company was built on the view that fashion discovery did not work well and that AI could change it, and that the acquisition would let Furrl's technology reach millions of Reliance Retail customers.
Tiwary told Entrepreneur India that Furrl was started on the belief that shopping should feel personal and effortless. Venture Intelligence, which tracks private company deals, classified the transaction as an acqui-hire, reflecting that the whole team moves to Reliance along with the technology.
What happens to the Furrl app
Reliance said Furrl's AI styling engine and its ecommerce app would be integrated into Reliance Retail's digital commerce offerings, Inc42 reported. The companies did not say whether the Furrl app would continue to run under its own name or how long it would stay available to shoppers.
The independent brands that sold through Furrl were not addressed in the announcements. Reliance said the technology would be used across its digital and omnichannel platforms, and that Furrl's product team would be responsible for scaling it across the group's wider commerce business.
A busy market for AI shopping in India
Indian retailers have been adding AI shopping assistants. Inc42 pointed to Myntra's Maya, Nykaa's Ask Nykaa and Flash, a startup founded by former Flipkart executive Ranjith Boyanapalli, as examples of competing efforts.
Inc42's D2C 3.0 report estimates India's ecommerce market at $165 billion and expects it to grow at about 22% a year to more than $450 billion within five years.
