AI-powered B2B marketplace Fashinza raises $100 million

Fashinza, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven business-to-business (B2B) marketplace platform, has raised $100 million as a part of its Series B funding round led by Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures) and Westbridge Capital, the company said in a statement on May 17.

The $100 million round, which was a combination of equity and debt funding, also saw participation from existing investors Accel, Elevation, and ADQ, along with angel investors Naval Ravikant, Jeff Fagnan, Jake Zeller, Nivi, and Nitesh Banta.

Fashinza said it will use the funds for creating a sustainable supply chain for the global fashion industry. The company said that it will also use the funds for expanding its operations globally. Fashinza said that it will look to monetise its fintech offerings and expand into raw material procurement, which will help Indian small and medium apparel manufacturing enterprises.

"We are excited to expand our global presence and offer fast and sustainable tech-based supply chain solutions--especially to our customers in North America. Our goal to help our partner brands and manufacturers work and thrive with an agile supply chain that benefits all is now a reality and already increasingly impacting our customers' lives,"said Pawan Gupta, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Fashinza.

Fashinza also said that it will provide the SMEs (small medium enterprises) with supply chain financing financing, which will help the SMEs in creating a net positive supply chain by 2030. Fashinza claimed that it grew its business 10 times over the last 12 months and said it has crossed $150 million in gross merchandise value run rate.

"At Fashinza we believe that we cannot grow alone but only with the growth of our SME partners and customers. The funds infusion would help us in executing new strategies and implement new solutions, leading to all round growth across geographies," said Jamil Ahmad, Chief Business Officer and Co-founder of Fashinza.

Fashinza also claimed to have reduced the requirement of minimum order units to as low as 50 and said it reduced the delivery turnaround time by 50 percent. The company also claimed to have a roster of more than 250 manufacturers in India, Bangladesh, China and Vietnam and said it is currently serving over 200 brands across six countries including the US, Canada, the UAE and India.