052 - Pawan Gupta & Abhishek Sharma - Revolutionizing Fashion Supply Chain

Fashinza is an AI-driven B2B marketplace for global fashion supply chains. They make it exceptionally easy for international brands to access design to delivery in as fast as 4 weeks with very low minimums. Fashinza offers access to a transparent production process that can be monitored 24/7 with 100% control enabled by their revolutionary FactoryOS. Their goal is to create a sustainable (i.e. net positive) supply chain by 2030 and empower SMB manufacturers with Industry 4.0 solutions. Fashinza has a roster of over 250 factories that currently serves 200+ brands across 6 countries, including the United States, Canada, UAE and India. The company was co-founded in 2020 by serial entrepreneurs Pawan Gupta, Abhishek Sharma, and Jamil Ahmad. In May of 2022, they announced Series B funding round totaling $100M USD, after 12 months of 10x business-growth crossing $150 million in annualized GMV run rate. --- https://fashinza.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/fashinza/ Pawan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fashinza, building the future of fashion manufacturing industry using data and cloud that is more sustainable, ethical, inclusive, fast, and efficient. Fashinza is funded by leading VCs, Accel Partners (Facebook, Slack, Flipkart), and SAIF Partners (PayTM, Swiggy). Previously Pawan co-founded Curofy, which is today India’s largest network of Doctors in India with over 50% of Indian doctors discussing patient cases with their peers to provide extremely quick and better diagnoses to their patients. Curofy was VC funded and got acquired by a large US corporate, Edifecs in an all-cash deal in 2017. Pawan is a mission-driven entrepreneur who believes in using technology and entrepreneurship to bring meaningful change in the lives of the most needy. He was part of Forbes India’s 30 under 30 in 2018, Rising Stars by Bloomberg TV, and Young Turks by CNBC. He has also written guest columns in leading publications and has spoken at global events. Pawan Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder at Fashinza --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawaniitd/ Abhishek is the Co-Founder and COO of Fashinza, a global tech-enabled manufacturing company helping Fashion brands source apparel using data and cloud that is more sustainable, ethical, inclusive, fast, and efficient. Fashinza is funded by leading VCs, Accel Partners, Elevation Capital, Prosus Ventures (Naspers), Westbridge, and ADQ UAE. He hasextensive experience in product & technology, building start-ups like Flipkart (India’s leading eCommerce platform acquired by Walmart), LimeRoad, Curofy (acquired by RoundGlass USA) & BharatPe. He is also a writer and guest author for ProductSchool, Hackernoon, Prototypr, and Noteworthy Abhishek Sharma, Co-Founder & COO at Fashinza -- https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhishekksharma/ In Episode 52 Richard talks with Pawan Gupta and Abhishek Sharma, Co-Founders of Fashinza, about: 00:01:05 : Meet Pawan Gupta and Abhishek Sharma 00:03:40 : Pawan and Abhishek’s beginnings in manufacturing. 00:09:13 : What it’s like to be a startup person in India today. 00:14:21 : How India’s entrepreneurial spirit is changing over time. 00:19:49 : Building manufacturing out of India. 00:26:16 : What does Fashions do and how does it work? 00:30:43 : What are some of the biggest challenges you’re seeing in the manufacturing industry? 00:36:18 : What are the three P’s that you’re focused on with supply chain? 00:40:25 : What’s some of the things that shocked people that you’re already seeing that has the opportunity to be fixed? 00:44:05 : How to build a supply chain that adds value to your customers. 00:49:04 : The importance of integrating with other supply chain solutions. 00:52:31 : The importance of being a part of a larger tapestry. 00:57:28 : What are some of the things you can do in terms of circularity? 01:02:08 : What’s coming in India? 01:05:23 : What’s coming up for the company.