I am sure when you go shopping for adding clothes to your wardrobe collections, you would have seen the mannequins at the stores displaying stylish, branded clothes that look appealing. Some of them would even have footwear or other accessories hanging on them. Have you ever given a thought about where these clothes are being manufactured and how they are sourced?
The Apparel industry consists of companies that design and sell clothing, footwear and accessories, and the product categories include everything from basics to luxury items. These companies design and produce/source items that they sell to retailers. Apparel sourcing is the crucial element of the entire apparel business. According to Yamini Jain, Senior Consultant, Threadsol, “For a brand, sourcing is the right manufacturer who can deliver quality garments at the right price, time and quality. And for manufacture, it is the vendor from whom the raw material or job is being procured.” India is still struggling with sourcing despite many initiatives from local as well as central governments.
Another important aspect of the apparel business is to provide time-specific deliveries. This demands an effective management of the supply chain, and this is the area that most brands struggle to manage with.
Fashinza, an Indian startup based at Gurugram, was founded in 2020 by IIT Delhi Alumni Pawan Gupta and Abhishek Sharma as a B2B manufacturing marketplace to solve the apparel/fashion supply chain challenges by connecting fashion brands to experienced manufacturers. It helps apparel and fashion brands outsource their manufacturing with complete transparency and reliability. It handles everything from design to delivery, so the partner brands wouldn’t have to worry about the managing aspects. The startup has a comprehensive catalogue to suit different categories, and has a digital materials library that makes it easier for businesses to discover diversified sustainable material.
Fashinza also helps global brands to work with lowest MOQs (Minimum Order Quantity) in the industry and have fast turnarounds. As of January 2021, the startup has 400+ ethical partner factories across India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka. The startup counts brands like Forever21, Noon.com, FirstCry, The Souled Store, and Bewakoof.com among its customers.
According to Fashinza, the global apparel industry was set to reach a value of $1.5 trillion in 2020 with the global demand on the rise but the growth was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The European Union, the United States, and China are the three largest markets for the apparel industry while the APAC region has the highest growth rate, the startup said. Countries like China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and India have emerged as the leading suppliers in the industry, it added.
Fashinza has recently raised a seed funding of $2.6 million. The round was led by Accel Partners and Elevation Capital with the participation of marquee individual investors – Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, co-founders of Snapdeal, and Alok Mittal, Co-founder of Indifi.
The funds raised will be used by the startup in solving apparel supply challenges by digitizing the entire sourcing cycle from design to delivery.
“The funding that we have received is an acknowledgement of our potential to transform the apparel supply chain and it will be invested to facilitate our growth in different directions. We are expanding our network of manufacturers globally and are working with leading brands across 10 countries. Our mission here is to combine innovation with sustainability.”
– Pawan Gupta, CEO and Co-founder, Fashinza
Here is a timeline of the startup’s accomplishment in its first year:
The startup aided India’s fight against Covid during 2020 by providing a scalable demand-supply matching platform for all PPEs.
Fashinza has also impacted the lives of thousands of local artisans, empowering them for the greater good. The startup is also thinking about E-textiles as the future of fashion.
It is noteworthy that Fashinza is reimagining the fashion supply chain that works for the artisans, the women, and the planet to make the world a better place.