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The advent of the Internet combined with the ability to customise items such as clothing long ago created a revolution in marketing, especially for merchandise purposes. I think we\u2019re all familiar with the \u2018merch\u2019 phenomena by now, no? Benefitting from that long-term trend is SME-focused, customized merchandise startup Following a Series C of $38.6 million (\u20ac32 million), which I reported<\/a> on in 2020, the Lisbon, Portugal-based startup has now raised a Series \u201cC2\u201d (not yet a full series D) of \u20ac18 million ($19.78 million) in order to push into the US market. The round was led by previous lead investor Indico Capital Partners<\/a> which was once again joined by fellow Portugal investors Iberis Capital<\/a> and Lince Capital<\/a>.<\/p>\n That takes Bizay\u2019s total funding to \u20ac72 million ($79 million), though, when asked what they think the company\u2019s valuation is now, a spokesperson demurred. However, outside observers may well surmise a valuation of anywhere between $180-$220 million at this point. <\/p>\n Suffice it to say, it\u2019s not entirely surprising that customer merchandise continues to do well. Companies love to send out brand merch, and because of technological advances, the market just gets easier to serve. As of 2022 the global Custom Apparel market size (that\u2019s clothing only) was valued at over $48 billion in 2022 and is expected<\/a> to expand to reach $70 billion by 2028. Customised T-shirts alone are projected<\/a> to be worth over $3 billion in 2025. <\/p>\n Bizay says its \u2019special sauce\u2019 is a supply chain system for product customization which combines merchandising, packaging, apparel, and a wide range of product customisation, and has managed to ram down the costs and up the number of product categories it can serve \u2014 even down to customized company-barded watches, if that\u2019s your thing. <\/p>\n Over a call, Bizay co-founder Jose Salgado, told me: \u201cWe see an increasing trend for customization across many different segments. It\u2019s a way for them to self-express.\u201d<\/p>\n And Salgado says if, for instance, the Texas Broncos wants 50,000 customised T-shirts the company has \u201cinvested a lot of effort.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are able to be competitive for small quantities, but also for medium or large quantities. We\u2019ve done an extensive work into R&D, understanding how to scale. This is about industrial production. There are these huge setup costs. What we enable our suppliers to do within the same job is to be producing several orders at the same time. With that, there\u2019s a huge, huge cost saving.\u201d<\/p>\n He points out that the company has \u201cno factories, no machines, no stocks\u201d but is instead enabling a fairly complex value chain to deliver products: \u201cWe can have the three production suppliers within the same value chain because for each of those steps, we choose the best the best supplier. So there\u2019s a really big optimization of the supply chain,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n It\u2019s clear there\u2019s a e-commerce opportunity not just for SMEs. <\/p>\n What\u2019s also partly going on out there is an explosion in the creative economy, where \u2014 for instance\u2014 influencers are hooking up their various social platforms to customized merchandise platforms in order to, frnakly make some damn money. <\/p>\n Consider that earlier this year the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt<\/a> hashtag, had over 71 billion views, it\u2019s clear influencer marketing is alive and well. <\/p>\n Indeed, Fans of the Sheffield band \u201cBring Me The Horizon\u201d can purchase personalised BMTH t-shirts<\/a> by simply connecting their Spotify account or e-mail to the band\u2019s merchandise website.<\/p>\n Bizay is of course often competing with the numerous Print-on-demand shops out there, from Printful to Printify, Gelato, Gooten and Art of Where. The question is, how does one distinguish between these myriad players. <\/p>\n Salgado counters that these companies focus on a single technology and says some of them many of them are vertically integrated, and thus dependent on the production they have in house: \u201cWe can go deeper on the options that we have on each of the products, and are independent on the quantity and on the requirements,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n In an accompanying statement to the raise, Stephan Morais, Managing General Partner at Indico Capital Partners, added:\u201cBizay currently has a scale and reach that is unparalleled in the customized products industry, namely in supply chain partnerships and agreements in Europe and South America. We believe this can be replicated in the US market and we are backing the team again to execute that expansion. \u201d<\/p>\n So much for customised company merch, but we all know it\u2019s the schadenfreude of getting the stuff from a company that goes bust which is often the more enticing part of this world. <\/p>\n The collapse of brands like Silicon Valley Bank has led to phrases like \u201cSVB swag\u201d peaking on search trends and eBay sellers listing<\/a> a $1,000 SVB-branded blanket and a a $249 wine and cheese board with the SVB logo on it.<\/p>\n Perhaps Bisray\u2019s Series D will be to scoop up all the distressed IP of failed companies and launch its own store for \u201cfail memorabilia\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Bizay<\/a>, which has been able to raise a significant funding round, even in this relatively flat market of 2023.<\/p>\n