Jaipur | Rajshree Upadhyaya | When 19-year-old Arjun Goel stepped onto the stage of Shark Tank India alongside his father and co-founder Sanjay Goel, he introduced the Sharks to a business that aimed to redefine the future of fashion. Although the founders pitched VKYD Labs, the company behind the Meta Fashion platform, it was their vision of blending digital and physical fashion that captured attention. Established in 2022, the startup was built on the belief that as millions of people spend more time in virtual worlds, fashion would no longer be limited to wardrobes but would also become an essential part of digital identities.
Arjun’s entrepreneurial journey began long before the television spotlight. As one of India’s early creators on Roblox’s User Generated Content program, he started designing virtual clothing and accessories for gaming avatars. The overwhelming demand for these creations revealed a rapidly emerging market where users were willing to spend real money on digital fashion. Recognizing the opportunity, Arjun partnered with Sanjay Goel, a NIFT Delhi alumnus with extensive experience in the fashion industry, to establish VKYD Labs and launch Meta Fashion, a platform focused on bringing digital fashion into the mainstream while connecting it with real-world commerce.
Unlike traditional fashion brands, Meta Fashion operates at the intersection of gaming, technology, and retail. Its portfolio includes digital fashion wearables for gaming avatars, 3D fashion asset creation, virtual fashion experiences for global brands, AI-powered fashion design tools, and physical apparel inspired by successful digital collections. Through experiences such as GlamGirls and its growing creator ecosystem, the company enables users to discover fashion inside virtual worlds before translating those trends into products that can also be worn in real life, creating what the founders describe as a phygital fashion ecosystem.
On Shark Tank India, the founders sought Rs. 1 crore in exchange for 10% equity, valuing the company at Rs. 10 crore. While the Sharks appreciated the founders’ vision, technical expertise, and early traction in the virtual fashion space, they also expressed concerns about the niche nature of the business and the challenges of building a large-scale market in an industry that is still evolving. As a result, VKYD Labs left the tank without securing an investment. Despite not receiving a deal, the episode introduced a wider audience to the concept of digital fashion and significantly boosted awareness of the startup.
The exposure helped accelerate the company’s growth. Meta Fashion continued expanding its technology platform, allowing brands, creators, manufacturers, and gaming communities to participate in the digital fashion economy. The startup has reported selling more than 2.5 million digital fashion items, generating strong engagement across platforms such as Roblox while building a rapidly growing creator ecosystem. In 2026, the company further strengthened its position by raising $400,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Lumikai, providing fresh capital to scale its AI-native platform and expand globally.
As of now, Meta Fashion is operational and continues to grow from New Delhi. The company remains focused on building digital-first fashion experiences while enabling consumers to seamlessly move between virtual and physical fashion. What began as a teenager’s passion for designing avatar clothing has evolved into one of India’s most promising ventures in the emerging phygital fashion space. Even without a Shark Tank deal, Arjun Goel and Sanjay Goel have demonstrated that the next chapter of fashion may not begin on a runway but inside a virtual world, where creativity, technology, and commerce come together to shape how future generations express themselves.
