Building India’s Alibaba & Foxconn: A new crop of startups simplifying exports

Fashinza, which connects fashion brands to manufacturers, is busy closing its series A round of $15 million from existing investors Accel Partners and Elevation Capital at a valuation of close to $40 million. But even as the startup formalizes its previous round, the buzz is that it is negotiating a fresh deal at a valuation-ask of over $200 million, five people told The CapTable.  

While the talks are early, they signify the high investor interest in the space. 

Fashinza connects large global brands with 400-plus factories across India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, taking full ownership of the product supply chain. More than half of its business comes from exports.

Several other early-stage startups are trying to address a similar problem statement—how do you facilitate trade with trust between unorganized manufacturers in India and South Asia to high-GDP overseas markets? 

“This space is at a level where B2C ecommerce (Flipkart and Amazon) in India was in 2012. Very, very early days,” said Gaurav Chaturvedi, Partner, Kae Capital. “For any kind of ecommerce for global exports with issues like workflow for payments, logistics... the trust deficit is very high.”

There are several approaches being explored, depending on whether the buyer is a small business or a large enterprise.