Locofast Raises $15 Million In Series A Funding Round Co-led By Stellaris Venture Partners and Chiratae Ventures Alongside equity, the company has also raised debt from strategic partners such as Stride Ventures and BlackSoil Capital
By Saptak Bardhan •
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Full-service supply chain platform for the fashion brands and manufacturers, Locofast, on Tuesday announced to have raised $15 million in Series A round co-led by Stellaris Venture Partners and Chiratae Ventures with participation from Kris Gopalakrishnan's Axilor Ventures. The round also saw participation from notable angel investors including Suhail Sameer, Amit Lakhotia and Nitin Gupta, among others.
Alongside equity, the company has also raised debt from strategic partners such as Stride Ventures and BlackSoil Capital. Funds will be utilized to invest in technology, expand reach to more than 15 cities in India and launch three new product categories while enabling SMEs to scale their business. Furthermore, the company will also continue to expand its workforce while also focusing on growth of existing teams.
"Despite being a major contributor to India's GDP, the textile industry is fragmented and slow in terms of technological adoption. With our previous entrepreneurial experience coupled with technical expertise, on-ground study of the ecosystem and understanding of SME functioning, our mission is to enable a sophisticated tech-enabled platform for textile SMEs and empower them with market linkages from across the world. By providing operational excellence to our customers, we aim to streamline the currently broken textile supply chain," said Deepak Wadhwa, founder and CEO, Locofast.
The total allocation for the textile sector in the Union Budget of 2022 is $1.6 billion. The Centre has also allocated $14 million for financial year 2023 towards the Raw Material Supply Scheme.
"The Indian textile sector is one of the oldest industries in the country contributing about 2 per cent of GDP and employing over 45 million people. It is a space that is ripe for digital transformation," said Ranjith Menon, partner and executive director, Chiratae Ventures.
Founded by serial entrepreneurs Deepak Wadhwa and Mohit Piplani, Locofast addresses the broken textile supply chain through a platform connecting vendors and suppliers from all over the world. Locofast has expanded rapidly and partnered with over 500-plus suppliers who have collectively executed 5,000-plus orders of textiles pan-India. The company has touched the supply chain of 700-plus brands of some of the big players in the apparel industry including supply chain partners for Zara and H&M as well as TJX, Cotton:On and Primark.
