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Start-Up 25-05-2022

Almowear Closes Pre-Series A

25 May 2022, Mumbai:

Almo Closes Pre-Series & Led By Inflection Point Ventures.

ABOUT Almo

Born with the desire to embody the effortless sophistication and designs from Italy, Almo essential wear is stitched to perfection to suit your every need and beyond.

Almo began with a mission to bring minimalistic, classic & sustainable essential wear inspired by the simplicity & style that resonated with Italian standards. The hustle & hard work has finally bought us to an important junction in the growth & progress of the organization.

It is grateful & delighted to announce an important milestone of raising $2 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round with Inflection Point Ventures. It is a proud moment that is pushing it to work harder & achieve more in the coming year.

ALSO READ Pepe breaks joint venture (JV) with 'Dollar Industries'

Its Inspiration Wolf, the national animal of Italy, is a symbol of guardianship, ritual, loyalty & spirit. Drawing inspiration from an animal as unbound and spirited as you, we have meticulously crafted each product that is stitched to perfection to let you follow your heart and mind unshackled from any discomfort. Almo is built for a formidable man like you, who leaves no stone unturned in his journey to success, we ensure comfort & functionality that never fails.

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CREDITS: ALMOWEAR Linkedin ALMOWEAR (The news article has not been edited by DFU Publications staff).

Start-Up 25-05-2022

Bostreet launches first collection on Myntra

23 May 2022, Mumbai:

Women’s fashion brand Bostreet has launched its first collection exclusively on fashion e-commerce platform Myntra with over 1000 styles.

As per *a Fashion Network report, the collection includes dresses, tops, co-ords, trousers, T-shirts, denims, skirts and shorts.

ALSO READ Myntra launches Style Squad to curate collections and content for consumers

It targets Gen-Z and early millennial shoppers to make inroads in the lucrative women’s fashion segment and expects its affordable prices to drive sales.

KunalAbhishek, the Co-founder, says, Myntra has a huge consumer base of young shoppers. This makes it an ideal launch platform for a fashion brand like ours.

RELEVANT NEWS Myntra launches Style Squad to curate collections and content for consumers

Bostreetaims to strike a perfect balance between inexpensive and stylish clothes for young buyers.

Bostreet primarily launched as Stargate Club in early 2020. The brand has revamped to cater to its new generation of consumers and launched its app and website recently.

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CREDITS:* A Fashion Network report

Start-Up 23-05-2022

Bostreet launches first collection on Myntra

Piyush Goyal chairs meeting of National Startup Advisory Council

18 May 2022, Mumbai:

Minister urges NSAC to focus on tier-2 and tier-3 cities for VC funding, capacity building and awareness generation on government schemes that promote startups.

Council deliberates on protecting ownership of startups with original promoters, incorporating in India, listing in India, and developing innovation hubs.

ALSO READ

Minister launches NavIC Grand Challenge aimed at promoting the adoption of NavIC is the geo-positioning solution for digital Aatmanirbharta.

The meeting was attended by key stakeholders, officials, and existing startups in the country.

RELEVANT NEWS

It is a one of its kind congregation wherein the policy-making process is driven as part of a collaboration between all the key stakeholders of the Startup ecosystem.

During the course of the meeting, the members also shared many interesting insights and views about the startup ecosystem and gave recommendations as to how the ecosystem can be strengthened further through various initiatives and programmes.

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CREDITS: PIB (The news article has not been edited by DFU Publications staff).

Start-Up 18-05-2022

Piyush Goyal chairs meeting of National Startup Advisory Council

Nykaa Fashion’s European label teams up with Mira Rajput

14 May 2022, Mumbai:

Nykaa Fashion’s European label, NA-KD has teamed up with celebrity influencer Mira Rajput Kapoor for three different collections.

As part of the collaboration, Nykaa has launched a campaign titled #SelectedbyMira. The MIRA x NA-KD collection was launched on Nykaa’s official site on May 11, 2022.

ALSO READ Alaya Furniturewalla has been named as a brand ambassador for Nykaa Fashion

A multi-brand e-commerce fashion offering, Nykaa Fashion houses 1,350 brands and over 1.8 million SKUs across women, men, kids, luxe, and home categories to appeal to every consumer. It offers brands that include Indian and western wear, footwear, bags, jewellry, accessories, lingerie, athleisure, sleepwear, home décor, bath, bed, kitchen, and more.

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It has built a portfolio of seven consumer brands – Gajra Gang, Nykd by Nykaa, Pipa Bella, Twenty Dresses, Likha, IYKYK, Kica, and RSVP.

Kapoor says, the brand’s aesthetic mirrors her beliefs of balancing a lifestyle and promising an environmentally conscious range.

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Start-Up 14-05-2022

Nykaa Fashion’s European label teams up with Mira Rajput

Fashinza to expand operations

19 May 2022, Mumbai:

Business-to-business product development and production management platform for fashion brands and manufacturers Fashinza aim to expand its domestic and international operations.

ALSO READ Fashinza: Manufacturing Made Effortless

The company recently raised $100 million (Rs 775 crore) in a Series B funding round led by Prosus Ventures and Westbridge.

Existing investors Accel, Elevation, DisruptAD along with angel investors Naval Ravikant, Jeff Fagnan, Jake Zeller, Nivi, and Nitesh Banta also participated in the funding round.

RELEVANT NEWS Fashinza and BlackSoil have teamed together to offer finance to small Indian businesses

Fashinza currently has over 250 manufacturers in India, Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam that serves over 200 brands across 6 countries, including the United States, Canada, UAE, and India.

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Start-Up 19-05-2022

ONDC is working on a framework for an in-house settlement system

18 May 2022, Mumbai:

The open network for digital commerce (ONDC ). The government-backed initiative aimed at curbing digital monopolies is working on a framework for an in-house settlement system.

ALSO READ ONDC: Flipkart, Amazons Of The World Look @ Joining

According to its CEO MP Koshy.

koshy expects that it will bring in 'efficiency in processing' payments, especially for new entities. It is said to be ready in a month's time.

RELEVANT NEWS E-commerce platform faces tough competition

A committee with representatives from ONDC, Bombay stock exchange, and National stock exchange as well as from the national payment corporation of India (NPCI) and a few leading banks are evaluating the regulatory framework for the service which can be offered by any service provider on the network.

ONDC which is being pitched as a solution to make the E-Commerce platform agnostic and therefore break the dominance of large etailers.

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CREDITS: ET Dt 18-05-2022 (The news article has not been edited by DFU Publications staff).

Start-Up 18-05-2022

ONDC is working on a framework for an in-house settlement system

E-commerce majors Flipkart, Amazon to join ONDC

14 May 2022, Mumbai:

Ecommerce majors including Flipkart, Reliance Retail, and Amazon plan to join the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which plans to soon start tis pilot program to on-board kiranas and small and medium businesses in Bengaluru and four other cities.

ALSO READ ONDC: Flipkart, Amazons Of The World Look @ Joining

Flipkart’s logistics arm Ekart and Reliance Retail-backed Dunzo have already integrated with ONDC for logistics services while PhonePe, which is also owned by Flipkart and Walmart, is joining the network and is in advanced stages of integration, these people said.

Still, at a nascent stage, ONDC is being pitched as a solution to break the dominance of large e-commerce firms like Walmart-owned Flipkart, Amazon, and others in India. The platform will enable all the buyers in the network to be discoverable to all the sellers, says ThampyKoshy, CEO, of ONDC.

Koshy said the network aims to scale its presence in about 100 cities by August and it will also be opened to the wider public in five cities — Bengaluru, New Delhi, Coimbatore, Bhopal, and Shillong — where the pilot is underway.

RELEVANT NEWS E-commerce platform faces tough competition

The network is currently in the “beta testing” phase with just five sellers onboard and a limited set of buyers from five cities.

The network aims to on-board small sellers and some expect it to have an impact on e-commerce similar to what the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) had on digital payments. It is a “decentralised” platform without the need for customers and sellers to be on one platform.

ONDC is also educating key stakeholders, including online merchants, that visibility on the network won’t be influenced by certain algorithms by e-commerce platforms — a growing concern among online sellers. Ecommerce firms maintain their algorithms do not treat sellers in a discriminatory manner while favoring others.

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Start-Up 14-05-2022

E-commerce majors Flipkart, Amazon to join ONDC

BlissClub raises funds

19 May 2022, Mumbai:

In a new funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures and Elevation Capital, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) women’s activewear brand, BissClub raised funds worth $15 million.

ALSO READ Bliss Club: Fitness apparel crafted for the Indian woman

The funds were raised from prominent angel investors including Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy’s; Ghazal Alagh, Co-Founder, Mamaearth; Vivek Gupta and Abhay Hanjura, Co-Founders, Licious and Abhay Hanjura; Amar Nagarman, Former CEO, Myntra; Munish Varma and Sumer Juneja, Executives, SoftBank; Brennan Loh, Executive, Shopify, and fashion influencer Masoom Minawala.

RELEVANT NEWS Venture Intelligence report: Investments by PE-VCs registers grow in Jan 2022

Minu Margeret, Founder, and CEO, BlissClub says, the firm is on track to hit the Rs 100 crore of annual revenue run rate.

The firm generates over 90 percent of sales through its own platform while the rest comes from Amazon India and Myntra, she adds.

The company plans to make further investments in its technology, and expand into offline channels and research and development.

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Start-Up 19-05-2022

Fashinza Raises $100 Million Series B Funding

17 May 2022, Mumbai:

Fashinza Raises $100 Million Series B Funding Led by Prosus, Westbridge Capital.

Fashinza, the AI-driven B2B marketplace and real-time global supply chain for fashion brands and retailers, today announced it has raised a $100 million in Series B funding round led by Prosus Ventures (f.k.a. Naspers Ventures) and Westbridge along with participation from existing investors Accel, Elevation, and DisruptAD.

ALSO READ Fashinza: Manufacturing Made Effortless

The round also saw participation from angel investors Naval Ravikant, Jeff Fagnan, Jake Zeller, Nivi, and Nitesh Banta. The funding round is a combination of equity and debt financing. Fashinza will utilize the funds towards creating a sustainable supply chain for the global fashion industry and in expanding the company’s presence globally.

This includes monetizing fintech offerings, expanding into raw material procurement, helping Indian SME apparel manufacturers with supply chain financing, creating a sustainable (i.e. net positive) supply chain by 2030 and Industry 4.0 solutions for SMB manufacturers.

RELEVANT NEWS Fashinza and BlackSoil have teamed together to offer finance to small Indian businesses

In the past 12 months, and in the middle of a global pandemic, Fashinza grew the business 10x crossing $150 million in annualized GMV run rate. The company also reduced minimum order units to as low as 50 and reduced design to delivery TATs by 50% in a single year.

Fashinza has a roster of over 250 manufacturers in India, Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam that currently serves 200+ brands across 6 countries, including the United States, Canada, UAE, and India. “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,” adds Pawan Gupta, CEO and Co-founder of Fashinza.

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Start-Up 17-05-2022

Fashinza Raises $100 Million Series B Funding

CEPA between India & UAE to incentavise Textile sector

14 May 2022, Mumbai:

Startup push in Indo-UAE agreement.

"THE COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (CEPA) the trade pact will open doors to Indian labour and incentivize many sectors including textiles," says commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal this Friday.

ALSO READ Startups: IPOs are delayed & may-not hit public markets in 2022

According to Goyal the agreement which came into effect on May 2nd, the CEPA was one of the fastest trade agreements to be signed.

RELEVANT NEWS Startups look at pruning costs to stay in shape

The summit also saw the launch of the India-UAE startup bridge as part of CEPA.

The bridge would enable UAE investments in Indian startups and would provide UAE with the benefit of India's experience in the sector.

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CREDITS: ET Dt 14-05-2022 (The news article has not been edited by DFU Publications staff).

Start-Up 14-05-2022

CEPA between India & UAE to incentavise Textile sector

Amazon: Launches Smart Commerce To Help Offline Stores Setup Digital Store-fronts

19 May 2022, Mumbai:

Amazon to help store setup online outlets.
Amazon has launched a new initiative called smart commerce that will help offline stores set up their own digital store-fronts in addition to selling on its India marketplace.

ALSO READ Amazon India reaches ten lakh sellers

This will be similar to Canada's Shopify.

Amazon's initiative to help kiranas open e-store fronts offer firms expertise in logistics and payments.

RELEVANT NEWS ONDC: Flipkart, Amazons Of The World Look @ Joining

Amit Agarwal Senior VP India and emerging markets, Amazon.

We remain committed to our pledge to digitize 1 crore small businesses in India by 2025 and are super excited by the possibilities unlocked by smart commerce to accelerate progress Agarwal said.

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CREDITS: ET Dt 19-05-2022 (The news article has not been edited by DFU Publications staff).

Start-Up 19-05-2022

Amazon: Launches Smart Commerce To Help Offline Stores Setup Digital Store-fronts

FirstCry To Defer IPO Plans

16 May 2022, Mumbai:

Firstcry halts IPO plans as volatility continues.

DRHP filing is deferred by at least a month or two.

ALSO READ FirstCry goes ahead with IPO plans

May recalibrate issue size and valuation it would seek.

RELEVANT NEWS NIIF-FirstCry proposed deal

E-Commerce firm Firstcry will delay its planned one billion initial public offering by a few months according to people in the know who said the cautious approach by Softbank backed e-tailer followed the muted response last week to new economy issues, like that of logistics player Delhivery as well as broader headwinds in global markets.

The Pune base etailer had finalized plans to file its draft IPO paper this month but is pulling back on the advice of its investors and bankers sources said.

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CREDITS: ET Dt 16-05-2022 (The news article has not been edited by DFU Publications staff).

Start-Up 16-05-2022

$15+ million financing program for SME apparel manufactures

13 May 2022, Mumbai:

Fashinza announces over $15 million financing program for SME apparel manufacturers, in partnership with Stride One, SaraLoan, and other fintech lenders.

ALSO READ Fashinza: Manufacturing Made Effortless

Fashinza, a B2B, new-age product development and production management platform enabling fashion brands and manufacturers to produce better, together, has joined hands with Stride One, SaraLoan, and other fintech lenders to empower apparel manufacturing SMEs with an over $15 million supplier-financing program.

The lack of requisite working capital has been a significant challenge and a roadblock for SME suppliers and manufacturers in fulfilling large orders from big fashion labels. The supplier finance program from Fashinza and the fintech lenders will help SMEs to receive their payments on due dates or early payments.

RELEVANT NEWS Start-up in India Fashinza announces a Middle East growth plan

This will help SMEs scale their business without capital limitations. The supplier-financing program, offered by Fashinza in partnership with Stride One, SaraLoan (Blacksoil’s fintech arm), and other fintech lenders, will help manufacturers to focus on production without financial stress, and enable brands to focus on their operations and sales without their cash getting stuck in production.

Also, the long-term benefits for SMEs are the ability to scale up capacity and get new opportunities to grow their business faster.

According to Abhishek Sharma, Co-Founder and COO, Fashinza: “India’s contribution to apparel manufacturing and the global fashion industry is undisputed.

While there is immense scope to grow for SMEs, the availability of working capital remains a challenge. Our financing program for SMEs is an enabler and is empowering small manufacturers.

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Start-Up 13-05-2022