Fashinza, B2B supply chain marketplace for fashion brands, raises $100M

The pandemic has had a huge impact on the global supply chain, with 60% of U.S. teens surveyed in an August 2021 Gallup poll saying they haven’t been able to get the product they want in the past two months due to shortages. The fashion industry is affected and employs millions of workers in stores, suppliers and factories around the world. Bangladesh, one of the largest exporters of ready-to-wear, has seen export revenues soar from $34.13 billion in 2018 to less than $28 billion in 2020 as Western brands grapple with border restrictions related to the pandemic.

Fashioninza, Delhi, an India-based supply chain ‘marketplace’ for fashion brands and retailers, was established months before its closure. But CEO Pavan Gupta says the platform is designed to address exactly these kinds of supply chain challenges and provide access to performance options not normally available to global companies.

“During the investigation” [the] E-commerce comes from consumers to companies [industry]“We are impressed with the supply chains,” Gupta, co-founder of Fashinza with Abhishek Sharma and Jamil Ahmed, told TechCrunch. “Even though brands have increased sales prices by 75%-80%, they still made only 8-10% profits and lost money through wasting large inventory or depleting inventory. [They] Fight against… the opacity due to the many middlemen and their creators who are thousands of miles away. †

Gupta describes the Fashioninza product as a “delivery design” because it allows brands not only to search for manufacturers and place bulk orders, but also to rate trendy designs. Customers can also use Fashioninza to keep track of time and promotion calendars, a tool used in the apparel industry to track production milestones to ensure on-time delivery.

On the production side, Fashioninza is working with factories to produce its software directory called FactoryOS for sampling, inventory and financing. The software tracks clothing lifecycles and uses data to prepare algorithms to match brands with suppliers, Gupta said, and predict metrics such as response times.

To support Fashionnza’s approach to supply chain management, the company announced today that it has raised $100 million in Series B financing ($60 million in equity and $40 million in debt), led by Prosus Ventures and Westbridge Accel. , elevation. And an ADQ worth $300 billion. The round will bring Fashionnza total sales of up to $135 million, which Gupta says will be used to refine the company’s supply chain technology and expand it into new markets, including the extraction of raw materials.

“Business-to-business markets will stay here. We can’t imagine a world where, even in 2030, brands have to call 100, send 200 emails and wait six months. [a] “We order in bulk,” Gufta said. “The whole experience is broken and doesn’t work in this fast paced world. But the solutions… have to be vertical and highly personalized for industries.”

extensive market

Prior to Fashinza, Gupta founded Curofy, a social networking app for doctors, and Sharma helped discover e-commerce retailer OfferBean. Together with Ahmad, they launched Fashinza in 2020, which now employs 200 people. Gupta expects the workforce to increase to 250 by the end of the year.

Fashinza earns money from suppliers at a “use-based” fee for each order and value-added services such as logistics, fintech and business-to-business payments for brands and manufacturers. Gupta argues that Fashinza can realize cost savings by improving the supply-side economy of the unit, taking advantage of “idle capacity” and “improving production efficiency” through technology and data.

Of course, Fashinza isn’t lacking in competition in the supply chain management market, which Statista predicts could be worth $30.91 billion in 2026, up from $19.58 billion in 2022. e-mail network comparable to Amazon, while ShelfLife offers the market. Based on raw material suppliers, which brands really need. There are also sustainable sourcing platforms like Source: La Neta Netaful, which sits everywhere alongside supply chain financing platforms, including Tradeshift.

Gupta argues that Fashioninza’s focus on the fashion industry is enough to differentiate it and indicate consumer acceptance. He says more than 200 brands and 150 factories are currently using the platform, mainly concentrated in India, Bangladesh, China, US, UK, UAE and Vietnam.

Historically, the challenge has been to convince clothing and fashion brands to adopt technologies to modernize hereditary processes, including sourcing. For example, a McKinsey 2020 survey found that while 74% of brands expect to accelerate product development and font digitization, only 20% plan to make the technology practical for country and supplier selection.

But Gupta thinks Fashioninza has the team and funding to succeed. Indeed, the startup will benefit from a steady investment boom in the supply chain management market, which received $11.3 billion in injections from venture capitalists last year.

“The solution that Fashioninza offers is primarily technology-oriented, which sets us apart from our competitors. Imagine the delays caused by Uber and Amazon in their respective sectors. “Fashinza is doing something similar in the corporate clothing sector,” Gufta said. “Production can be managed end-to-end through the Fashinza platform…with transparency and control, without the need to leave managers’ offices, without the need for multiple middlemen and the potential for undeclared delays.”