Zyod, a global B2B platform for sourcing and manufacturing apparel, announced a $3.5 million seed round led by Lightspeed. The seed round also saw participation from FJ Labs, Panthera Peak Partners and select angel investors such as Abhishek Goyal (Founder of Tracxn), Abhinav Sinha (Global COO of Oyo), Ravi Khandelwal, etc.

Ritesh Khandelwal and Ankit Jaipuria co-founded Zyod in January 2023 with a vision to transform India’s apparel sourcing and manufacturing ecosystem. The company has launched a technology platform as a one-stop shop for fashion brands to take advantage of India’s large manufacturing footprint and

The company says to source high-quality products with the best MOQ possible.

“Solving problems for every brand, no matter the size, Zyod can deliver a range of new products within 21 days with MOQs as low as 50 pieces. This combination of 5x faster sourcing and 50x lower MOQs makes it a good choice for global brands and buyers. Since its inception, Zyod has witnessed steady market demand and has served more than 150 clients in 13 countries for every brand, retailer and wholesaler to democratise and simplify fashion sourcing,” it said.

Globally, consumers are adopting fashion trends faster and faster, which has led to the rise of fast fashion brands. Every fashion brand must be more in sync with trends and consumer choices. However, fashion manufacturing and sourcing remained relatively unchanged, which meant large volumes of purchases, often with long lead times, resulting in large unsold stocks at the end of the season.

Despite high gross margins, fashion brands often become unprofitable as they write off large amounts of inventory yearly. Zyod’s agile supply chain is solving this big problem for global fashion brands and retailers, the company said.

Ankit Jaipuria and Ritesh Khandelwal, co-founders of Zyod, said: “While fashion is rapidly transforming globally, existing supply chains have not kept pace with consumers, and it will require a radical reimagining of manufacturing itself to build for the future. In Zyod, our unique, agile supply chain makes fast fashion accessible to every brand/retailer.

Zyod plans to use the funding to strengthen the technology platform and team further. From adding more manufacturers and suppliers to introducing new features, Zyod will continue to build a larger network of MSMEs in the apparel sourcing and manufacturing space. The brand actively hires across product, technology, marketing and operations functions.