B2B ZYOD raises $18M led by RTP Global

Urigram-headquartered Zyod, a business-to-business manufacturing platform for apparel, has raised $18 million in a Series A round of funding, a combination of debt and equity investment. The round led by RTP Global also had participation from returning investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Alteria Capital.
Other investors in the round include Stride Ventures, Stride One and Trifecta Capital.

The company will use the capital to expand into 40 new countries. It currently works with fashion apparel brands in 18 countries. Part of the capital will be used for technological advancement and talent acquisition.

Founded in April 2023 by Ankit Jaipuria and Ritesh Khandelwal, ZYOD raised $3.5 million in a seed round led by Lightspeed in 2023. In India, it works with Reliance, Aditya Birla, Apoorva Rabbit, FirstCry and others.

“I didn't know earlier that it takes six months for fashion houses to get new designs every season, from design to delivery. Post-Covid, the number of seasonal launches has increased,” says Ankit Jaipuria, co-founder, ZYOD.

While Jaipuria's family is in the textile business in Jaipur, the IIT Delhi graduate has briefly worked with Accel and process support firm Fashinsa, which addresses a similar problem statement. However, Fashinza said the company will return investor capital early this year as the company is not product-market fit, according to reports.

“We took a three-pronged approach to working with apparel brands – we offered end-to-end design and delivery, fast turnaround time and low order quantity (MOQ) for manufacturing,” says Jaipuria.

He added that it offers customers a turnaround time of 40-60 days from a 6-month turnaround time and an average MOQ of 25,000 pieces per season to 200 pieces.

“We have digitized a combination of patterns that can be mixed and matched. This ultimately reduces fabric wastage and solves the problem of dead inventory for brands,” added Jaipuria. The company is also planning to digitize its supply chain.

“ZYOD uses technology to refine every aspect of the manufacturing process, from a modular design approach to optimizing operations at the factory level. "We are excited to support ZYOD as they expand their transformative platform internationally, showcasing the potential of Indian entrepreneurship globally," said Nishit Garg, partner in RTP Global's Asia Investment team, in a statement.

ZYOD competes in a market where well-funded rivals such as Tiger Global-backed GenieMode, which has raised a total of $75 million from marquee investors, Fashinza.