Ziod It is an Indian startup that provides its technology platform to global fashion brands to help them in the entire design to delivery process. It has raised $18 million in a new funding round to expand its presence to more than 40 countries around the world.
The Gurugram-based startup works with Indian factories to help them manufacture fashion apparel for global brands. It offers enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which it calls the “brain of manufacturing,” that tells factories what to produce, how it should be manufactured and when it should be manufactured to allow them to fully utilize their capabilities.
More than 80,000 small and medium factories in India have less than 33% capacity utilization, Ankit Jaipuria, co-founder of Zyod, told TechCrunch. Through its ERP platform, the startup helps factories understand what components – such as fabric – they need to use to produce clothing for a particular brand. It also explains the pattern in which the fabric should be cut and stitched based on the requirements put forth by the brand to achieve maximum benefit.
Moreover, the startup has developed a daily production reporting system to give a daily work plan to factories. This overcomes the challenges faced by local factories and their workers in a typical environment where factory owners manage operations through pen and paper or via WhatsApp.
“We give those daily instructions, which were given by the factory owner earlier, which are: how to make it, when to make it, what to make – all of this goes through the ZIOD,” Jaipuria said. “executed.”
Co-founded in early 2023 by Jaipuria and Ritesh Khandelwal, Zyod currently serves more than 550 customers in more than 18 countries, adding about 400 customers in the past two years. The startup initially helped D2C brands with faster launch time and lower minimum order quantity. However, in the October quarter, it started taking on institutional clients and has since added major brands, including Reliance Industries and Aditya Birla in India. It also counts Urban Research of Japan, Anthropologie of Pennsylvania, NEXT and Boohoo of the United Kingdom, and VAN-DOS of Spain among its early clients.
In January, Zyod launched its mobile app across iOS and Android platforms. It focuses on long-tail customers who want to purchase different styles on the go. The app also helps enterprise customers see their orders. Zyod also plans to update the app with new communication methods, including approving requests and communicating with teams through live chat windows.
The $18 million investment is Zyod’s Series A round led by RTP Global and includes participation from existing investors Lightspeed and Alteria Capital and new investors Stride Ventures, Stride One and Trifecta Capital. This amount will help the startup strengthen its presence in the Southern Hemisphere and penetrate markets such as Brazil and Australia. It is also looking to enter a few untapped countries, including Africa and the Scandinavian part of Europe.
“Once we expand very well in both hemispheres, we can have all-season products that are compatible with our factories operating in India,” Jaipuria said.
Zyod has expanded its catalog to 10,000 styles per month from 10 or 20 initially. The startup makes predictions to brands about what clothing styles people might want to buy, based on the data it collects.
With the new funding, Zyod wants to boost these expectations as well as automate the platform to allow brands to feed the style and image of the design they want to produce to bring out its style. The startup also plans to integrate its software with traditional sewing machines to reduce human errors.
The A round also includes undisclosed debt, which Jaipuria said is specifically earmarked for working capital requirements.
“Zyod leverages technology to improve every aspect of the production process, from a modular design approach to optimizing plant-level processes,” Nishit Garg, partner in RTP Global’s Asia investment team, said in a prepared statement.
Zyod’s new funding comes after it raised $3.5 million in a seed round in April 2023. Jaipuria told TechCrunch that the startup’s valuation has increased “multi-fold” since the last round without sharing a specific number. The co-founder stated that the startup also generates “millions of dollars” in annual revenue.
“We are delighted to double our partnership with Zyod,” said Rahul Taneja, Partner, Lightspeed India. “Their global network is rapidly expanding, and we are excited about this next phase of growth.”