Tag: Chindera Soewandy

Wifkain Bags Seed Funding Led by Insignia Ventures [UPDATED]

Textile supply chain platform, Wifkain, announced seed funding led by Insignia Ventures Partners with an undisclosed amount. A number of prominent angel investors participated in this round, including the Atome Financial Indonesia‘s CEO, Wawan Salum.

The company positioned itself as a pioneer, Wifkain aspires to be the first technology-based platform to meet the needs of the textile supply chain for fashion brands in Indonesia. Through this funding, Wifkain intends to expand its business reach to SMEs and fashion brand owners, increase the number of merchants, and build a team.

On the general note, Wifkain was founded by former banker and fashion entrepreneur Sara Sofyan (CEO), D2C brand entrepreneur Chindera Soewandy, and former Bukalapak’s executives Rudy Setyo Hartono (CTO) in 2020.

The Co-founder & CEO, Sara Sofyan said many brands had difficulty finding manufacturing partners due to several factors. In that case, Wifkain provides Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) services by cooperating with various manufacturers in various specialties, capacities, and locations in Indonesia.

“The platform we built connects sellers and buyers directly, simplify the long supply chain by cutting out intermediaries, the transaction process is cheaper, faster, and low risk,” Sara said in her official statement.

Meanwhile, Yinglan Tan, Founding Managing Partner of Insignia Ventures Partners, said that e-commerce and social media make fashion available quickly and easily accessible online. However, the upstream supply chain in Indonesia will remain disconnected and fragmented.

“Thus, Sara and the team at Wifkain are in a strong position to digitize the entire supply chain in the textile industry. They have made significant early-stage progress since launching the platform. We are delighted to be their partner on this journey,” he said.

Challenges and target

Sara views the Indonesian textile industry ecosystem from upstream to downstream has not been fully digitized. The process chain is very long, complex, and not transparent as it involves many intermediaries.

Manufacturing companies also have no integrated system for buyers, limiting their opportunities to increase sales. The ordering process can take up to several days. The level of non-fulfillment (unfulfillment rate) of sales can reach 30-50 percent. This situation forces fashion business people and brand owners through a multi-layered chain of processes.

In addition, traditional textile traders who sell offline have limitations in the choice of products which are relatively expensive, the ordering system is not integrated, and there is no product guarantee.

In fact, Indonesia is one of the largest textile markets and manufacturing centers in the world. Its market value is around 40% of the total global fashion industry market of $55 billion according to the Euromonitor report in 2018. The value is projected to grow at 5% CAGR in 2022.

Wifkain seeks to digitize the supply chain, especially for long-tail merchants in the MSME segment, aka merchants with search volumes and relatively low levels of competition. Through the solutions built, Wifkain wants to increase connectivity, transparency and efficiency for the textile industry supply chain

In order to meet supply chain needs in Indonesia, Wifkain will develop order management and inventory management that will allow order confirmation within a few hours, reduce order non-fulfillment rates to less than 5%, increase production process transparency, and provide analytical data such as demand predictions to suppliers.

Since its commercial service in 2020, Wifkain recorded an 11-fold growth in GMV (YoY) and pocketed 150 merchants (textile and factory traders) on the island of Java. The company claims to be able to complete the sourcing process in one day, faster than the standard which generally takes up to three weeks. It guarantees that there is an efficiency of purchasing costs of up to 50%.

On a separate session with DailySocial, Sara revealed that it is not easy to digitize merchants or textile suppliers with long history of conventional operation. One of the obstacles is shown from the development of technology on the platform to accommodate merchant needs.

“[The development of] technology [for the textile market] does not have many benchmarks in the market, therefore, we have to [do] testing properly according to the needs of merchants,” Sara added.

Although the textile marketplace is relatively new to the Indonesian market, Sara admitted that Wifkain’s business measurement metrics remain the same as the e-commerce model in general, such as Monthly Active User (MAU), Lifetime Value (LTV), and retention rate.

To date, Wifkain merchants are only available in the Java and Bali areas, however, the scope of buyers has reached various locations throughout Indonesia.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian

Wifkain Peroleh Pendanaan Awal Dipimpin Insignia Ventures [UPDATED]

Platform supply chain tekstil Wifkain mengumumkan perolehan pendanaan tahap awal (seed) yang dipimpin oleh Insignia Ventures Partners dengan nominal yang dirahasiakan. Sejumlah angel investor terkemuka ikut berpartisipasi pada putaran ini, termasuk CEO Atome Financial Indonesia Wawan Salum.

Memposisikan diri sebagai pionir, Wifkain berkeinginan untuk menjadi platform berbasis teknologi pertama untuk memenuhi kebutuhan rantai pasokan (supply chain) tekstil bagi fashion brand di Indonesia. Lewat pendanaan ini, Wifkain ingin memperluas jangkauan bisnisnya ke UKM dan pemilik fashion brand, meningkatkan jumlah merchant, dan membangun tim.

Sebagai informasi, Wifkain didirikan oleh mantan bankir dan pengusaha fashion Sara Sofyan (CEO), pengusaha brand D2C Chindera Soewandy, dan eks Bukalapak Rudy Setyo Hartono (CTO) di 2020.

Co-founder & CEO Sara Sofyan mengatakan banyak brand kesulitan mencari mitra manufaktur karena sejumlah faktor. Untuk itu, Wifkain menghadirkan layanan Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) dengan menggandeng berbagai macam pabrikan di berbagai spesialisasi, kapasitas, dan lokasi di Indonesia.

“Platform yang kami bangun menghubungkan penjual dan pembeli langsung, memotong supply chain yang panjang dengan memangkas perantara, proses transaksi lebih murah, cepat, dan rendah risiko,” ujar Sara dalam keterangan resminya.

Sementara itu, Founding Managing Partner Insignia Ventures Partners Yinglan Tan mengatakan e-commerce dan media sosial membuat fashion dapat tersedia dengan cepat dan mudah diakses secara online. Namun, supply chain hulu di Indonesia akan tetap terputus dan terfragmentasi.

“Maka itu, Sara dan tim di Wifkain memiliki posisi kuat untuk mendigitalkan seluruh rantai pasokan di industri tekstil. Mereka telah membuat kemajuan tahap awal yang signifikan sejak meluncurkan platformnya. Kami senang dapat menjadi partner mereka dalam perjalanan ini,” ujarnya.

Tantangan dan target

Sara melihat ekosistem industri tekstil Indonesia dari hulu ke hilir belum sepenuhnya terdigitalisasi. Rantai prosesnya sangat panjang, kompleks, dan tidak transparan karena melibatkan banyak perantara.

Perusahaan manufaktur juga tidak punya sistem terintegrasi kepada pembeli sehingga membatasi peluang mereka meningkatkan penjualan. Proses pemesanan memakan waktu hingga beberapa hari. Tercatat tingkat ketidakterpenuhan (unfulfillment rate) penjualan bisa mencapai 30-50 persen. Situasi ini memaksa pelaku bisnis fashion dan pemilik brand melalui rantai proses yang berlapis.

Selain itu, pedagang tekstil tradisional yang berjualan secara offline memiliki keterbatasan pada pilihan produk yang harganya relatif mahal, sistem pemesanannya tidak terintegrasi, dan tidak ada jaminan produk.

Padahal Indonesia merupakan salah satu pasar tekstil dan pusat manufaktur terbesar di dunia. Nilai pasarnya berkisar 40% dari total pasar industri fashion global $55 miliar mengacu laporan Euromonitor di 2018. Nilai tersebut diproyeksi tumbuh 5% CAGR di 2022.

Wifkain berupaya mendigitalkan rantai pasokan, terutama bagi long-tail merchant di segmen UMKM alias merchant dengan volume pencarian dan tingkat persaingan yang relatif rendah. Melalui solusi yang dibangun, Wifkain ingin meningkatkan keterhubungan, transparansi, dan efisiensi bagi rantai pasokan industri tekstil

Untuk memenuhi kebutuhan rantai pasok di Indonesia, Wifkain akan mengembangkan order management dan inventory management yang memungkinkan konfirmasi pesanan dalam waktu beberapa jam, menurunkan tingkat ketidakterpenuhan pesanan kurang dari 5%, meningkatkan transparansi proses produksi, dan menyediakan data analisis seperti prediksi permintaan ke pemasok.

Sejak layanannya komersial di 2020, Wifkain mencatat pertumbuhan GMV sebesar 11 kali lipat (YoY) dan mengantongi 150 merchant (pedagang tekstil dan pabrik) di pulau Jawa. Wifkain mengklaim dapat menyelesaikan memproses sourcing dalam satu hari, lebih cepat dibanding standar yang umumnya memakan waktu sampai tiga minggu. Pihaknya menjamin ada efisiensi biaya pembelian hingga 50%.

Dihubungi DailySocial secara terpisah, Sara mengungkap tidak mudah untuk mendigitalisasi merchant atau supplier tekstil yang selama ini beroperasi secara konvensional. Salah satu kendalanya terlihat dari pengembangan teknologi di platform untuk mengakomodasi kebutuhan merchant.

“[Pengembangan] teknologi [untuk pasar tekstil] tidak banyak benchmark-nya di pasar sehingga kami harus [melakukan] testing dengan benar sesuai dengan kebutuhan merchant,” tutur Sara.

Meski marketplace tekstil terbilang baru untuk pasar Indonesia, Sara mengaku metrik pengukuran bisnis Wifkain tetap sama dengan model e-commerce pada umumnya, seperti Monthly Active User (MAU), Lifetime Value (LTV), dan retention rate.

Adapun, saat ini merchant Wifkain baru ada di area Jawa dan Bali, tetapi cakupannya pembelinya sudah menjangkau berbagai lokasi di seluruh Indonesia.

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