Dubai: Fashinza, a new-age product development and production management platform enabling fashion brands and manufacturers, has joined hands with Stride One and SaraLoan and other fintech lenders to empower apparel manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with USD 15 million (AED 55.1 million) supplier-financing program.
The supplier finance program from Fashinza as a Business to Business (B2B) platform in partnership with the fintech lenders will help SMEs to receive their payments on due dates or early payments. This will help these enterprises scale their business without capital limitation.
Commenting on the initiative, Abhishek Sharma, Co-Founder and COO, Fashinza, said, “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. We work closely with suppliers and have found that when the working capital is taken into account, they are able to work on bigger projects with bigger labels and to scale their business.”
“The supplier-financing program, offered by Fashinza in partnership with Stride One, SaraLoan (a 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 to get new opportunities to grow their business faster”, he added.
According to Abhishek, 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.
Jamil Ahmad, Co-Founder and CBO, Fashinza said, “Through our fintech partners like Stride and Saraloan, we are offering supplier financing limits to apparel manufacturers and solving their longstanding cashflow problem, which is why, it is a win-win solution for all stakeholders, including us. Manufacturers will have the ability to raise requests for early payments by paying interest on actuals which means that they will get paid on time without impacting Fashinza’s cash flow. Our supplier financing program will act as a major catalyst for exponential growth in this supply-driven industry”.
Sameer Mahajan, Director, Stride One said, “In our endeavour to provide customized financing solutions, we have designed robust and flexible financial programs for Fashinza that meet their working capital needs. Through this partnership, Stride continues its focus on creating disruptive supply chain financing solutions for new-age businesses, along with digitizing the onboarding process of vendors”.
Ashutosh Kumar, Chief Business Officer, SaraLoan said, “We are excited to work with Fashinza as they are helping highly unstructured apparel manufacturers by providing them with a tech backbone to help them get more business. By working with Fashinza, SaraLoan has been able to provide working capital to these manufacturers to help fulfil orders generated on the Fashinza platform. The solution offered by Saraloan is flexible and manufacturers can draw as per demand and pay interest only on the amount utilized”.
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About Fashinza
Fashinza is an AI-driven B2B marketplace for global fashion supply chains. They make it exceptionally easy for international brands to access design to delivery in as fast as 4 weeks with very low minimums. Fashinza offers access to a transparent production process that can be monitored 24/7 with 100% control enabled by their revolutionary FactoryOS. Their goal is to create a sustainable (i.e. net positive) supply chain by 2030 and empower SMB manufacturers with Industry 4.0 solutions. Fashinza has a roster of over 250 factories that currently serves 200+ brands across 6 countries, including the United States, Canada, UAE and India. The company was co-founded in 2020 by serial entrepreneurs Pawan Gupta, Abhishek Sharma, and Jamil Ahmad. For additional information, please visit www.fashinza.com.
About Stride
Stride Ventures, a leading venture debt fund, has become synonymous with innovative startup financing in India. The firm has always characterized itself as a fund that has the ability to constantly adapt and evolve and bring forth novel solutions to the venture ecosystem. Stride provides comprehensive debt & supply chain financing solutions, across sectors and lifecycles, to cater to the distinctive challenges faced by high-growth and inherently strong businesses, backed by leading VCs.
About SaraLoan
SaraLoan offers B2B checkout solutions to businesses to better manage their payment for their customers and vendors. By offering a platform that integrates with their current accounting solutions, businesses are able to get a bird's eye view of their receivables and payables.
