India’s first silk-tech start-up ReshaMandi has announced a Series A funding round of US $ 30 million, led by global alternative investment manager Creation Investments and other investors.
ReshaMandi serves as a B2B marketplace for silk farmers, businesses and retailers in India.
This round featured a mix of equity and some debt. The equity funding includes new investors such as 9 Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Sandeep Singhal from Nexus, Brijesh Agarwal, founder of IndiaMART and Omnivore, which also led the seed round of ReshaMandi.
ReshaMandi, founded in May 2020, provides a full-stack digital ecosystem, starting from farm to fashion.
Founded by Mayank Tiwari, a Niftian, Saurabh Agarwal, former Cisco Systems technologist and entrepreneur, and Utkarsh Apoorva, a serial technology entrepreneur from IIT Delhi, the company claims to witness an increase of 30X in revenue in the first year of operation.
“This round of funding will allow us to expand into newer territories and operationalise our R&D work while helping further stakeholders reap the benefits of our innovations and efficiencies,” said Mayank Tiwari, CEO, ReshaMandi.
ReshaMandi’s proprietary AI and IoT technology is bringing in transparent and inexpensive solutions to the finer fabrics issues in India while closely working with farmers to streamline the silk industry and utilising ReshaMandi app especially curated for farmers’ productivity.
The firm aspires to further strengthen its position in this supply chain with this fresh round of capital. It aims at creating a zero-waste circular economy that will have a significant social, environmental and economic impact for all the stakeholders of the silk supply chain.
Utkarsh Apoorva, Co-founder, and CBO, ReshaMandi said, “Shortly after this round, a whole new range of saris and other fashion wear will be available in Tier-2 towns in India where we are expanding. Our supply chain ensures that silk becomes affordable, and is available to middle-class households across the country, with a design range and price points never seen before. This will change the way people in Tier-2 shop for silk apparel.”
ReshaMandi has on-boarded more than 35,000 small businesses spanning across farmers, SME manufacturers and retailers onto its supply chain, impacting over US $ 1.5 billion worth of market, in the first 15 months of its operations. Its processes have helped increase small business incomes by 35-55 per cent and the use of indigenous raw silk dramatically.