Indian startup Zyod scores $3.5 million in seed funding to grow its apparel procurement business

Zyod, an Indian B2B startup offering apparel sourcing and manufacturing to fashion brands globally, has raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by Lightspeed Venture India Partners.

Co-founded by Ankit Jaipuria and Ritesh Khandelwal earlier this year, the Gurugram-based startup offers end-to-end service support to global fashion brands looking to launch and expand their fashion businesses. Using its tech-driven approach, the startup takes over everything from apparel sourcing to manufacturing for apparel companies.

The platform leverages its agile supply chain solutions to help companies ranging from big fashion houses to new upcoming brands, procure products within 21 days with as low as 50 pieces as minimum order quantity, a significant difference from the traditional supply chain's 180-day lead time and 2,000-piece minimum order, according to co-founder Ankit Jaipuria.

In the past three months since its inception, the startup claims it has served a roster of over 150 clients across 13 countries. It also claims to have a network of more than 30 local suppliers.

Zyod competes with the likes of homegrown startups such as Fashinza which recently secured $30 million in working capital funding from Mars Growth Capital and Liquidity Group. Groyyo, ReshaMandi and Geniemode are its other competitors in the B2B apparel procurement space.

According to the apparel procurement company in a press release, the funds will be used to strengthen the technology platform and team, expand its network of MSMEs in the apparel sourcing and manufacturing segment, and introduce new features.

The round also saw participation from US-based venture funds FJ Labs, Panthera Peak Capital, and angels such as Abhishek Goyal, Abhinav Sinha, Gaurav Hinduja, Ravi Khandelwal and others.