How do I finance inventory without giving up equity?
The short answer
Inventory financing, purchase-order financing and RBF are the three non-dilutive routes - lenders advance cash against stock or confirmed orders and get repaid as that stock sells, so you're not handing over a slice of your company to fund a bulk fabric order. Expect effective annualised rates of roughly 11-22% depending on the lender and your revenue history, cheaper than equity's true cost but real cash that comes out every month regardless of how sales go. Compare at least three lenders on total cost, not just the headline rate, before committing.
A quick summary to orient you. The real value is below: the resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it, not us.
Here are the resources
Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time. India-specific ones carry a badge.
3 resources3 India-specific3 link-checked
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📄 Article
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Why we picked it
Lays five non-dilutive inventory-financing routes side by side with real effective-rate ranges (11-22%), so you can compare apples to apples instead of chasing the lowest headline number. Exactly the kind of comparison founders skip and later regret.
Why we picked it
A rare India-specific look at non-dilutive funding for D2C brands - working capital and revenue-based debt matched to inventory and marketing cycles instead of the default 'raise a round' instinct.
Why we picked it
A founder-facing explainer of how RBF actually works in India - capital against future revenue, repaid as a percentage of sales, no dilution - written for someone evaluating it for the first time rather than an investor audience.
