Member Article

Online fashion manufacturing marketplace secures £650,000 investment

An online fashion manufacturing marketplace has secured £650,000 investment from a venture capital fund, after launching at the end of 2017. The fully-automated marketplace seeks to ‘matchmake’ budding and established fashion designers and brands with manufacturers around the world at the touch of a button.

The marketplace, Sewport, only launched at the end of 2017, founded by Latvian entrepreneur Boris Hodakel. Since then it has attracted more than 500 manufacturers and suppliers, as well as more than 4,000 brands internationally.

The company says its purpose is to connect small to medium sized fashion brands and budding designers with manufacturers at all stages of development, enabling them to bring their designs to life in an easy and cost-effective way. Boris started the company after working with luxury high fashion brands and realising there was a gap in the market for a ‘one-stop-shop’ manufacturing marketplace for both established brands and new designers.

Sewport says it will be using the investment from VC fund Fuel Ventures, to hire team members to help with technical development and customer success, as well as create free and publicly available educational material for emerging brands. Around 90% of Sewport’s customers are based in the United Kingdom and United States, and the company will be using the investment to replicate this success within other countries, particularly in Europe.

At the end of 2016, the global fashion industry was estimated to be worth around $2.4 trillion and has grown around 5.5% annually over the last decade. Sewport says its mission is to give people around the world a chance to turn their visions into real-life products, whether they’re a full-time designer at a big brand, or someone with an idea for a product they can’t find on the high street.

Fuel Ventures is a venture capital firm that specialises in providing seed funding to early stage technology companies. It invests in founders who have the ambition to build a global, market leading company, with the passion and ability to execute. Fuel provides entrepreneurs with expertise and insights in business development, marketing and brand-building through its experience of building, scaling and exiting global companies.

Boris Hodakel, Sewport founder, said,

“When we started a little more than 10 months ago our mission was to give everyone, whether they’re the CEO of Gucci, or a student in Bristol, a chance to create exactly what they wanted, and that hasn’t changed. We’ve got thousands of designers all around the world using Sewport to find the perfect manufacturers for them, and with this investment we’re hoping to give even more people a chance to become fashion designers.

“We started this company because there are millions of people out there who are constantly searching for products and items of clothing that they need, but just can’t find. Whether it be maternity lingerie or tailored clothes for different sized people – we give everyone a chance to create anything they want in the easiest way possible. One of our biggest goals is to make the fashion and design world accessible to the masses, as well as to help educate emerging brands.

“The money’s going to be spent in marketing our service, employing additional staff and expanding into more countries around the globe. When I came to the UK five years ago I knew that I wanted to create something special to help others out there turn their visions into reality, and it’s incredible to see how far we’ve come since then – especially since the end of last year, when Sewport was born.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Chris Owen .