Egypt’s Garment IO raises $450,000 to help garment factories improve their productivity with real-time data

Garment IO, a Cairo-based SaaS startup for garment factories has closed a round of $450,000 in seed funding from Egypt Ventures and 500 Startups (Falcons), it told MENAbytes today.

Founded in 2017 by Ahmed Nounou and Mahmoud Sabae, Garment IO is a SaaS that helps garment factories improve their productivity by collecting meaningful real-time data from production lines using a small plug-and-play IoT smart terminal.

“We give decision-makers access to real-time data and tools to make decisions that dramatically improve the productivity of factories and quality of their products,” the startup told MENAbytes.

Ahmed Nounou, the co-founder and CEO of Garment IO, used to manage his family’s garment manufacturing business and that’s where he experienced some of the pains faced by factory managers and owners including lack of data which inspired him to start Garment IO few years down the line.

The terminals by Garment IO can be easily installed on all machines in a factory. All they need is a power outlet and WiFi connectivity. Once the terminals are installed on each machine, they could be used for employee check-in and checkout and sending important data to Garment IO’s software.

The software then provides factory managers and supervisors with production order tracking and bottlenecks, style tracking, live transaction feed, quality level, machines downtime and more through different dashboards (which are available in both English and Arabic) on the web or Garment IO’s mobile apps. This video by them explains it all very nicely.

The startup told MENAbytes that it offers both hardware and software as a service for a fixed fee per machine per month. Garment IO currently has over 2,000 smart terminals installed in factories in Egypt. 

Ahmed speaking to MENAbytes said that they have plans to expand their product to Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey now. But for now, they’re focused on Egypt and that’s what the plan to use the latest investment on.

“We are excited about the partnership with 500 startups and EG Ventures and the funds will help us grow our footprint in Egypt, expand the tech team and strengthen our operations (deployment and customer support),” he said in a conversation with MENAbytes.

Speaking about how easy it is to onboard the factories and their staff, he said, “The system is fully tailored to the garment industry and designed by garment manufacturers. It speaks the same language and follows the same thought process of garment factory employees. This makes it intuitive and easy to use by the workers, supervisors, and managers of the factories.”

Heba Ali, Managing Director of Egypt Ventures, speaking to MENAbytes, said, “We’re very excited to invest in Garment IO as it is offering the opportunity to improve the productivity and efficiency across the value-chain of an industry that holds fantastic promise in Egypt. We’re looking forward to working with Ahmed and Mahmoud as they move into the next phase of their growth plan.”

Sharif El-Badawi, Managing Partner, 500 Startups (500 Falcons), said, “With IoT technology booming with a wide range of applications, Garment IO is revolutionizing the value chain of the garment manufacturing industry. We are delighted to partner with the team and witness Garment IO scale to greater heights in the manufacturing space.”