Wifkain's Transformation Connects Fashion and Manufacturing Businesses, Ready for Expansion to the United Arab Emirates

Starting as marketplace for textile products, now Wifkain transformed into a Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform, a multifunctional service that enables business owners fashion source of raw materials and all business production needs in a more practical way.

To DailySocial.id, Co-founder and CEO of Wifkain Sara Sofyan conveys Wifkain's plan to increase the number of brand to expand to the United Arab Emirates.

Bridging buyers and manufacturers

One of the industries that has not been touched by technology, such as process and automation, is fashion. The complexity of the process to the difficulty of searching or discovery what business people should do fashion from beginning to end, became one of the reasons Wifkain was founded.

The pandemic that had disrupted the industry fashion two years ago, it was the right moment for Wifkain to help buyers and brand in the middle to upper segment to MSMEs in finding relevant manufactures to launch their business. At present, industrial conditions fashion started to recover.

According to Sara, there have been significant changes during the pandemic. In the past, many players relied on imported products from other countries, such as China, now they rely on local personnel and teams in their ecosystem.

"When the market has started to recover after first wave pandemic, we see this as an opportunity for Wifkain. We see a lot of localization Manufacturing not only in Indonesia, but also in other countries," said Sara.

Founded in 2020, Wifkain is a manufacturing service provider platform that can meet all business production needs fashion in a more practical way. Positioning itself as a pioneer, Wifkain aims to be the first technology-based platform to meet supply chain needs (supply chain leaders) textiles for fashion brands in Indonesia.

The MaaS service from Wifkain will make it easier for entrepreneurs to get the design or sewing pattern they want, as well as simplify and speed up the process. textile procurement, Manufacturing, quality assurance, and the provision of logistics.

"Process supply chain leaders what is happening in Indonesia today is still long tail. The more downstream, the more fragmented the process. Wifkain is here to automate the process," said Sara.

Currently, Wifkain has around 200 partners, consisting of 60 factories and the rest are traders, distributors, and tailors. All partners have gone through a rigorous curation process before joining the Wifkain ecosystem. This is done in order to provide certainty and guarantee to brand. The monetization strategy launched by Wifkain is direct to their partners.

Expansion to United Arab Emirates

Supported by technology, Wifkain wants to present a feature that can be used by buyers to monitor the manufacture or process of the products they order. This feature can minimize the occurrence of late deliveries and other problems.

For partners, the technology is expected to be able to monitor the performance of their workers to be more transparent. This practice has previously been carried out by the industry fashion in China. Currently, especially in Indonesia, most of these processes are still carried out conventionally.

"Roadmap the company going forward is to create tech-enabled tracking in the garment to provide buyers daily output form process monitoring. From the factory side, they can monitor working flow labor become more transparent," said Sara.

Next year the company will also launch an expansion to the United Arab Emirates. Still in the process of being explored, there is a similarity in climate to the great potential fashion Muslims in Indonesia, make the expansion plan appropriate and relevant.

For your information, Wifkain has pocketed early stage funding led by Insignia Ventures Partners with an undisclosed amount. Amount angel investors Notable leaders participated in this round, including Atome Financial Indonesia CEO Wawan Salum.

Together with other co-founders, namely Rudy Setyo Hartono and Chindera Soewandy, the fresh funds were then used by Wifkain to expand its business reach to MSMEs and business owners. fashion brands, increase the amount merchant, and team building.

Strategic partnership with KoinWorks

To strengthen commitment, Wifkain cooperates with CoinWorks as a strategic partner to provide supply chain financing for factory partners and fashion brands who are partners and clients.

There are still many banks and financial institutions that have not reached business people fashion in running their business. This is a strong reason for Wifkain and KoinWorks to facilitate supply chain financing. This solution is seen as very appropriate to help business people fashion, not just support in material fulfillment.

"This funding solution provides a better payment guarantee. KoinWorks is the right partner for us to offer financing to our customers buyer. From the side funds flow, we make sure this funding is used for working capital so it is not misused for inappropriate use," he said.

Industry fashion listed as one of the industries with the largest contribution to the Indonesian economy. According to a report by Euromonitor International, business fashion contributed 18,01% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Indonesia with a CAGR of 9%-10% for the category womenswear, menswearand childrenswear. In addition, textiles and Manufacturing ranks 12th in Southeast Asia with a CAGR growth of 5%.

Seeing the big role of industry fashion, Wifkain and KoinWorks hope that this collaboration can support more MSMEs so that they can encourage industrial growth fashion faster.