Shenzhen-based Smart Fabric Textile Technology co., Ltd, an industrial internet startup focusing on the textile industry, closed its Series C round led by Tencent and Sequoia, bagging USD 100 million, 36Kr reported Thursday.
Other investors include China Broadband Capital, Vision Plus Capital, Matrix Partners China, and IDG Capital.
New funds will be used to develop new technologies, expand its market presence and recruit more talents.
Smart Fabric, which was set up in 2014, features a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that aims to help transform both the manufacturing and trading of China’s textile industry.
The startup works as a brain that coordinates various links on a clothing supply chain. First, it takes orders from brands and garment factories, then via its IoT and production scheduling systems, it disassembles and distributes the orders to the manufacturing knots, such as spinning, dyeing, and weaving mills.
Smart Fabric’s clientele includes a bevy of international brands, the likes of H&M, Walmart, Amazon, Hugo Boss, Armani, and Calvin Klein.
The new investment in China’s textile industry highlights Tencent’s move to dive deeper in the country’s industrial internet sector as it bets big in the digitalization of traditional industries such as medical care, automobiles, and electricity generation, which is also part of Beijing’s digitalization push.
36Kr is KrASIA’s parent company