A Vizag-based e-commerce startup for textiles

Founded by Raghunath Penumarthi in Vizag, Texfy is a startup paving the way for a hassle-free association between manufacturers and retailers in the textile industry.

The Inception

While working in Hyderabad, Raghunath identified the problems being faced by one of his friends with his garment-retail business. With an experience of already having worked in the B2B sector for about eight years, he decided to introduce a smoother way that would eliminate the troubles endured in this field. Eventually, he moved to Vizag in 2016 and after a thorough market study, registered Texfy in August that year.

Revolutionising the textile industry

In the early days, retailers had to travel to different places for purchasing textiles/material from the manufacturers. While this was common practice, challenges such as language barriers, payment issues, and travel costs, made the process hard to endure. Also, given that the retailers couldn’t visit the manufacturers frequently, the stock needed to be purchased in bulk, leading to investment and storage problems. Working to solve this pain point, Raghunath Penumarthi and his team created Texfy. This B2B e-commerce platform brings together manufacturers and retailers online. By engaging different parties from across the country, their technology makes the wholesale procurement of textiles a trouble-free experience.

Unique Proposition

Apart from eliminating the multiple obstacles faced in the orthodox methods, Texfy has also been implementing newer ideas such as Cash on Delivery to offer unique experiences to customers. Recently, they have collaborated with numerous courier companies to facilitate doorstep pick-up and delivery, thus reducing the delivery time drastically. Texfy has also emerged as a premier platform for people who, otherwise, would have found it difficult to market their products. In fact, many women groups and handloom weavers too make use of the platform.

The Challenges

Being an e-commerce startup with a new concept, Texfy faced the challenge of convincing manufacturers to get on board initially. The lack of awareness regarding the technology and its potential, in South India, was another major hurdle as many sellers were apprehensive of the payment models and their credibility. Their initial investments were also out of their pockets, for they sought concept validation over growth, and thus couldn’t invest much on infrastructure. However, being selected for the Nasscom 10000 startups programme helped them get the requisite initial support.

Vizag and the future

Sharing that he has a special liking for the city, Raghunath adds “Be it for the beaches or its placid atmosphere, Vizag had struck a chord with me long ago. Moreover, the thriving startup ecosystem here provides us the perfect soil to grow further.” Talking about plans for the future he shared that because Texfy is now a validated concept, it’s time to rake in investments from some big players and reach a wider market. They even plan to target the overseas markets soon.