Dhaka-based RMG digitisation start-up Merchant Bay has raised $2.60 lakh in a pre-seed round to develop specialised business intelligence solutions, smart factory management tools and multi-sided platform services for the ready-made garment industry of Bangladesh.
Merchant Bay, a marketplace and software service provider in the apparel sector, raised the fund through angel investment from several serial angel investors, according to a press release.
Chief Executive Officer Abrar Hossain Sayem said, “Merchant Bay began its journey with the goal of bringing about a qualitative change in the ready-made garment sector. This investment will help us to fully implement our ideas on digitisation of the readymade garment sector.
“We hope that this will enable us to quickly build Merchant Bay as a major driver of qualitative change in the garment sector in Bangladesh,” he added.
Merchant Bay started its journey in 2020 with the dream of digitising Bangladesh’s RMG industry, linking the supply chain, and making sourcing of global buyers from Bangladesh easy. Today it has more than 1,000 suppliers on its platform.
For the past one year, the company has been working on increasing digital literacy of Bangladesh suppliers and conducting market research to identify areas in RMG industry where technology can help increase efficiency.
During the Covid times Merchant Bay helped many businesses to meet their sourcing needs through its online marketplace, read the release.
Through the Digital Trade Week, the company connected representatives from 40 countries. The start-up was able to connect 1,400 suppliers and 300 buyers during the event.
Through 75 public and private sessions, Merchant Bay provided assistance to buyers and suppliers in various ways - such as identifying the needs, helping in sourcing, and various other business-related topics - during the pandemic.
