The advent of the Internet, combined with the ability to customize items such as clothing, revolutionized marketing, especially for products, back in the day. We think we’re all familiar with the “March” phenomenon by now, no? Benefiting from this long-term trend are customized product startups focused on small and medium-sized businesses.
visawas able to raise a large funding round even in this relatively flat market in 2023.
Following the $38.6 million (€32 million) Series C that I reported on in 2020, the Lisbon, Portugal-based startup is currently in the process of completing its $18 million ($19.78 million) Series “C2” (not yet fully completed). (not Series D). ) to enter the US market. This round was led by the previous lead investor Indico Capital Partners. This was again joined by fellow Portuguese investors, Iberis Capital and Rinse Capital.
This brings Bizay’s total funding to €72 million (approximately $79 million), but a spokesperson demurred when asked what the company’s current valuation was. However, outside observers are likely to estimate the current valuation to be between $180 million and $220 million.
It’s no surprise at all that customer products continue to perform well. Companies love to push out branded products, and advances in technology have made it easier and easier for markets to serve them. As of 2022, the global custom apparel market size (clothing only) is valued at over $48 billion. Be expected It is expected to grow to reach $70 billion by 2028. Even just a customized T-shirt. projected It is expected to be worth more than $3 billion by 2025.
According to Bizay, the company’s “special sauce” is its supply chain system for product customization, which combines merchandising, packaging, apparel, and a wide range of product customizations, allowing it to significantly reduce costs and deliver products They say they have succeeded in increasing the number of categories. Right down to a customized company bird watch if you wish.
Bizay co-founder Jose Salgado said by phone: It’s a way for them to express themselves.
And Salgado said if, for example, the Texas Broncos want 50,000 customized T-shirts, the company is “investing a lot of effort.”
“We can be competitive not only for small quantities, but also for medium and large quantities. We have done extensive work in research and development and have understood how to scale up. It’s about these huge setup costs. It’s about allowing suppliers to produce multiple orders at the same time within the same operation. This results in significant cost savings.”
He noted that the company has “no factories, no machinery, no inventory,” but instead enables a fairly complex value chain to deliver its products. We choose the best suppliers. So the supply chain has been optimized to a very large extent,” he told me.
It’s clear that there are opportunities for e-commerce not just for small and medium-sized businesses.
Also, part of what’s happening in the world is the explosion of the creative economy. For example, influencers are connecting their various social platforms to customized product platforms to make insane amounts of money.
Early this year, #Make and buy TikTok With over 71 billion hashtag views, it’s clear that influencer marketing is alive and well.
In fact, fans of Sheffield band ‘Bring Me The Horizon’ can buy one. Personalized BMTH T-shirt Simply connect your Spotify account or email to the band’s product website.
Of course, Bizay often competes with a number of print-on-demand shops, from Printful to Printify to Gelato to Gooten to Art of Where. The question is how to differentiate between these countless players.
Salgado disputes that these companies focus on a single technology, saying that many of them are vertically integrated and therefore rely on in-house production. . and independent of quantity and requirements,” he said.
Stephane Morais, Managing General Partner at Indico Capital Partners, added in a statement accompanying the financing: . We believe this can be replicated in the US market and will once again support the team in executing that expansion.”
So much for company customized goods, we all know that getting goods from a bankrupt company is schadenfreude, and that’s often the more glamorous part of this world.
With the collapse of brands like Silicon Valley Bank, phrases like “SVB goods” have reached the peak in search trends and eBay sellers List up a $1,000 SVB-branded blanket and a $249 wine and cheese board with the SVB logo.
Perhaps Bisray’s Series D will result in it scooping up all of the failing intellectual property of failed companies and launching its own store of “memorabilia of failure.”
