Zilingo to invest $100 mn in fashion supply chain

For retailers enabled by Zilingo, responsible manufacturing will be fast, feasible and accessible. And, factories can compete in a global marketplace with improved line efficiency, labour management and sustainable sourcing.

"The fashion industry is exploitative, wasteful and, frankly, completely broken," said Ankiti Bose, co-founder and CEO, Zilingo. "We're a technology company at heart, and firmly believe in the power of technology to improve business and the world. We're bringing technology to a supply chain that hasn't changed since the industrial revolution. Zilingo levels the playing field in fashion so that businesses - no matter how big or small - can have access to a fair, transparent, affordable, fast supply chain."

Zilingo was founded in 2015 by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor, as an e-commerce platform to allow merchants to sell to end consumers in Southeast Asia. It rapidly evolved to look further upstream at problems relating to sourcing, software, data and financing. Headquartered in Singapore, today Zilingo enables 60,000 retailers and 6,000 factories on its platform, across 17 countries.

Zilingo uses smart, technology-led solutions to re-imagine the fashion supply chain. Its SaaS software connects merchants and factories to digitise, automate and scale painlessly; and remove unnecessary middlemen that eat into their margins. The artificial Intelligence predicts upcoming fashion trends that can be produced and be on-shelf in as few as 21 days to reduce overproduction and waste. Its financial services enable fair and healthy competition in the market. Its global network of sustainable supply creates opportunity and transparency in sustainable retailing. In terms of compliance, Zilingo grants access to internationally recognised auditing and compliance services to ensure responsible manufacturing.

In April 2019, Zilingo raised $226 million in series d funding, bringing the total amount raised by the company to $308 million. Key investors from the latest round included Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Burda Principal Investments, Sofina, Singapore investment fund EDBI as well as existing investors.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (PC)