How Tiger-backed Geniemode is building powerhouse for world fashion players

Their firm, Geniemode, today has over 250 suppliers in India and Bangladesh to serve some of the biggest names in fashion globally

At a time when founders are hard pressed for funds, Tanuj Gangwani and Amit Sharma, ex-Limeroad colleagues and now founder of Geniemode, managed to raise its Series B in April of 2022 from Tiger Global. Just as the funding winter was setting in.

Both met at Limeroad—Gangwani a CA, company secretary and certified management accountant was CFO and co-founder at the company since 2013 to 2020; and Sharma was director-sourcing for two years starting 2014. Both realised there was room to improve global sourcing for fashion and home segments.

The going wasn’t easy simply because the duo intended to offer end-to-end design and manufacturing services to about 200 global buyers such as Mango, Desigual, Lefties, Amazon, Choccos, Next UK, TJ Maxx in the US, TK Maxx in the UK, Liverpool in Mexico, among others, And there was no way, given the clampdown on global travel, that they could showcase their wares to a clientele that insisted on touch-and-feel before they bought—never mind the duo's track record at Limeroad. Geniemode was founded in May 2021.

So Gangwani and Sharma, instead, decided to use this time building their supplier base, and focusing on fund-raising to kickstart and ramp up that side of the business before the skies opened up.

The model

“Geniemode’s aim was to get global buyers to look at Indian suppliers,” says Gangwani. “We serve our clientele right from design to end-product delivery, pitching everything from designs, to the fabrics, right down to the factories that can deliver.” They also adhere to the global ethical standards of sourcing.

Given that global buyers are finicky about the use of ethical inputs in the final product, Gangwani says his firm uses Better Cotton Initiative- or BCI-approved cotton, and works with factories that comply with stringent international norms. In fact the protocols aren’t limited to fabric quality but go all the way down to auditing on provident fund compliance and minimum wages. Some of the production units are certified green as well, and minimise the use of water in their manufacturing processes.

Says Gangawani: “We take care of everything, from design to delivery, which includes designing, tech packs, costing, factory closures, agreements, quality control, TNA adherence, timely deliveries, logistics, and compliance.”

Each factory is audited and once the buyer releases the purchase order, the entire production will be tracked on a system and broken down. A complete time and action plan is available in the system. This includes yarn procurement and processing into fabric, dyeing, washing, embroidery/printing, fabric cutting, and sending the pre-production sample to the buyer for its approval. Full visibility is given to the buyer on the platform with regular updates from suppliers on the status of the order, documentation and approvals, delays and rectification thereof.

“We also have our own manpower of merchandisers and quality assurance experts who visit the factories regularly to ensure that whatever they are doing is being regularly and accurately updated,” says Gangwani.

Costing: Gangawani clarifies that his isn’t a marketplace but a personalised platform, where solutions are created and curated to the specific needs of the buyer. “So when we deal with Mango, for instance, we understand their requirements, based on which the range will be created and shown to them, Once they have made their selections we come to the costing.”

Gangwani says there is a great deal of flexibility here too. So if the range has been selected for quality and aesthetics, but falls outside the client’s budget, the Geniemode will suggest moving from embroidery to printing, for instance, in order to seal the deal. The firm might even move factories in order to clinch the contract.

But what about competition from countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh and Turkey? Says Gangwani: “Factories in Vietnam and Bangladesh are very large factories and do not work on small minimum order quantities (MOQs). I might add that in this context inflation has played a supportive role in our operations, as a lot of our buyers are moving to smaller MOQs that larger factories abroad cannot service due to scale of operations.”

Funding

Once the curbs on international travel were lifted, Gangwani and Sharma went the whole hog and use their background in fashion to onboard some of the biggest names globally in that space. This happened in late 2021 and early 2022, by which time the company, which was set up in April 2021 amid the second wave, had already raised $200,000 from a few angel investors and a further $2 million from Info Edge as seed in August of that year.

Gangwani says though Info Edge was tough on due diligence, it was impressed with the Geniemode business model, and supported the company with a Series A round taking its total exposure to $9 million.  He adds: “Then in February 2022, we got connected to Tiger Global and another investor and in May of that year, we closed a $28 million Series B round with Tiger Global leading with a $20 million injection.”

Financial performance

Geniemode claims to have a current annualised revenue run rate of over $120 million.

“For the past 20 months, our average growth has been at 15 per cent plus, month on month. And we expect it to go to about $150 million by the end of this financial year,” says Gangwani, who foresees a near 3x spike in the top line to about $400 million in FY24.

He adds that the firm was operationally profitable “from Day-1”, and was also Ebitda profitable in the early stages. “But after we raised the funding, we spent the money in scaling, where manpower is our major cost--we have over 250 people in India and abroad. But we expect to get back to Ebitda profitability by the end of this financial year.

Geniemode has four Indian offices in all, two in Gurgaon, one in Tirupur, one in Jodhpur.

“We don't have offices, but a virtual presence through employees in Jaipur, Panipat, Bhadohi and Bemgaluru as well,” Gangwani says. “Our staff in these cities works from home or visits the factories.”

The road ahead

While 95 per cent of Geniemode’s shipments are from India, it has expanded its supply set to Bangladesh, where it opened an office recently. It also has 15-20 people working out of two offices in New York and a warehouse in High Point in the US.

“We have our offices in London and in Barcelona too, and will be opening one office in Italy as well," says Gangwani.

"Geniemode in India is a holding company that we want to list on the stock exchanges here, in 4-5 years. All our offices abroad are essentially subsidiaries of the Indian company. That is how we have structured ourselves," says Gangwani.