Fantail, a B2B man-made textile company designing and manufacturing products for enterprise fashion retail, has raised $1.6Mn in a seed funding round led by Riverwalk Holdings, Incubate Fund Asia & All in Capital. Founded in 2023 by a seasoned entrepreneur, Ramya Iyer, Fantail aims to be the first MMF brand out of Surat, the world’s second-largest ecosystem for man-made fibres and textiles. The company aims to use the funds for building capabilities, processes, and talent required to streamline its design and manufacturing operations in the Surat MMF ecosystem.
Fantail works at full depth with weavers, mills, processors, and value addition units to design, develop, and build products for fashion retail brands. Fantail’s supply chain is integrated across player,s right from the yarn stage to the final garment stage. This deep integration not only helps streamline operational and capital efficiency but also creates a mutually beneficial model, where SMEs in the value chain get consistent growth and scale, while Fantail builds a reliable, future-ready supply chain to serve the growing needs of organized fashion retail.
With the infusion of this capital, Fantail plans to make strategic investments across multiple fronts, including processes and machinery investments in its partner weavers, mills, and processors in Surat, the development of backend technologies to streamline operations, and the acquisition of talent, particularly in design, quality, and technical domains.
The MMF industry in Surat is the second-largest globally, valued at over $40 billion. Traditionally geared towards unorganized retail, the sector is now seeing a shift with the rise of organized fashion retail in India. Fantail’s model aims to bridge this gap by organizing, streamlining, and scaling textile manufacturing through close collaboration with the region’s SMEs, a move that positions the company to serve not only the Indian market but eventually fashion brands across Asia and MENA.
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Ms Ramya Iyer, Founder of Fantail, said, “In B2B, timing is of great significance. I have personally worked with the Surat ecosystem for a decade, and I think in the coming few years, we will see a lot of action in manufacturing 2.0 here. If we solve for the operational hurdles in scale and keep a strong focus on capital efficiency, we can truly harness the power of this ecosystem.” She further added, “I believe Fantail is at the right time, at the right place. With the right team, we can truly build a valuable MMF brand from Surat. We're fortunate to have investors who are patient and understand our approach and this space well.”
Jai Sumer Singh, Founder & Managing Partner, Riverwalk Holdings, said, “Despite the massive MMF market in Surat, there’s no company that's built a brand which stands for quality, trust, and forward-thinking design. We saw Fantail stepping in to bridge this gap by standardizing the fragmented supply chain and building proprietary designs with a customer-first mindset, and are excited to back them.”
“Fantail is serving a vast yet fragmented value chain of finished textiles, catering to retailers, exporters, and manufacturers. Fantail's integrated supply chain solutions enable them to provide a faster, more reliable source of supply, ensuring seamless operations across the industry. We are excited to partner with Ramya and team with a sharp focus on digitizing the supply chain for the textile industry and unlocking new efficiencies,” added Rajeev Ranka, Partner at Incubate Fund Asia.
“Fantail is going after one of the largest and most under-digitized sectors in India—Surat’s $40B MMF ecosystem. The opportunity to organize and modernize this supply chain for enterprise retail is massive. What gave us conviction was not just the scale, but Ramya’s rare combination of deep domain experience and relentless execution. Her clarity, energy, and sharp understanding of the ecosystem stood out. We believe Fantail has all the ingredients to build a foundational B2B company from India.”, quoted Aditya Singh, Partner, All In Capital.
