B2B Fashion Manufacturing Startup Fashinza Hires Senior Leader to Expand International Business

Fashinza, a global B2B manufacturing startup, on Monday, August 16, 2021, announced the hiring of a senior leader to drive its global and Indian expansion. Their new executive leader Rajesh Meena, Head of Operations will play a critical role, as the company continues to see accelerated demand for its offerings.

After a recent round of funding from Accel Partners, Elevation Capital, Anand Ahuja and actress Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Fashinza is quickly expanding its team to meet the tremendous demand. The growth of the Fashinza team is part of a broader plan to help its clients not only in India but globally. The goal is to strengthen its position as a fashion and sustainable brand, delivering solutions for small and medium ethical factories, garment manufacturers and fashion brands/designers who are looking to attain success in the fashion and textile industry.

The addition of Mr. Rajesh marks the initiation of this expansion process for the company's leadership team. Rajesh is an astute professional with 15 years of accomplished career in BlackBuck, Ola, TaxiForSure, and Spencer's Retail.

Rajesh earned his B. Tech from IIT Bombay in 2004 and PGDM from IIM Bangalore in 2008. During his TaxiForSure stint, their Delhi Branch achieved 4x record growth from 5600 to 22000 rides per day within two months. At Fashinza, Rajesh will oversee sales, mobility, operations and supply chain. At the supply end, he'll be chiefly responsible for onboarding factories (to expand supply base), ensuring audit compliance, identifying the "model factories," and achieving accurate supplier-brand matching basis the strengths and requirements of the respective suppliers and brands. At the operational level, Rajesh will be responsible for ensuring 100% visibility in terms of TNA (Time-And-Action Plan), minimizing rejections of delivered goods, and ensuring on-time delivery. A major lacuna in the fashion industry is the missing trust factor between brands and suppliers and Fashinza's goal is to fill this gap. Rajesh will be playing a pivotal role in achieving this target.

Speaking of Fashinza's goals, the tech-driven start-up is on a mission to create a sustainable and futuristic supply chain for fashion brands while improving the lives of workers. In May 2021, the company expanded their operations to New York intending to reinvent the $800 bn global fashion manufacturing for the e-commerce era, which is more agile, fast, transparent, and sustainable. Their platform provides end-to-end online ordering for brands, complete production tracking from the factory floor, low MOQs, and fast but ethical production. The platform's USP is their dashboard where brands can monitor the TNA plans for their orders with regular updates, can access factory footage in real-time, and communicate with Fashinza for support 24/7. Fashinza is currently present in 10 countries and has partnered with brands from the US, Canada, UK, Middle East, and India. At present, they're associated with 150+ leading brands including Forever 21, Hummel, Centrix Brands, and Amaro.

Commenting on the new hire, Abhishek Sharma, Co-Founder, Fashinza, said, "Fashinza is on a transformational journey to make a transparent and agile supply chain accessible to a wider client-base, and Rajesh will help lead the way with his technology and fashion expertise. We are excited to welcome him to the team and will leverage his expertise to propel Fashinza through its next phase of growth of global expansion. Fashinza is expanding its supply chains across countries like China, Middle East, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and India, therefore we have boarded Rajesh with us who will help us in business expansion. He will play a key role in this expansion while continuing to grow in the domestic market."

Jamil Ahmad, CBO and Co-Founder, Fashinza, added, "We are working towards building and strengthening our leading team which will add value to our clients and will ensure a successful business. The company is looking for experienced professionals in sales, business strategy and operations verticals for seamless service delivery to our clients, while by no means compensating on our ethics. We have associated with multiple brands that have used our model and to further expand, we are strengthening our team and Rajesh will help us in business development."

In his comments, Rajesh Meena, Head of Operations, Fashinza, said "I'm excited to join this team and begin the journey of taking the Fashinza brand to new levels. My entire career has been focused on helping the mobility and retail industry and scale-up for creating strategic approaches to finance and investor relations. I am excited and ready to step into this role for Fashinza".

Co-founded in 2020 by Abhishek Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Jamil Ahmad, Fashinza is a global B2B manufacturing marketplace with a mission to create sustainable and futuristic supply chains for fashion brands while improving the lives of millions of workers. The start-up provides absolute transparency in production through regular updates for brands on their AI-based platform. They handle everything from design to delivery for their partner brands while providing the lowest MOQs in the industry and fast turnarounds. As of January 2021, they have 400 plus ethical partner factories across India, Bangladesh, China, and Sri Lanka. Fashinza works with brands across 10 countries like Forever21, Noon.com, Centrix Brands, Amaro, Clovia, and Bewakoof.com. Recently, Fashinza raised $20 million in a mix of equity and debt as part of Series A funding. The round was co-led by marquee existing investors Accel Partners and Elevation Capital along with Abu Dhabi's DisruptAD, Stride Ventures, Alteria Capital, and Tradecred. The round also saw participation from Anand S Ahuja (MD, Shahi Exports & Founder, Bhaane) and actress Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, both of whom are vocal supporters of sustainable fashion.