Zilingo acquires Sri Lankan firm nCinga Innovations for $15.5 million

Zilingo, a commerce and technology platform, said on Tuesday that it has acquired Sri Lanka-based software-as-a-service company nCinga Innovations for $15.5 million in a cash and stock deal. The acquisition would help Zilingo scale up its global supply chain capabilities.

“What excited us about the nCinga product was their ability to dramatically improve efficiency and drive insights by digitising the shop floor,” said Ankiti Bose, co-founder and CEO of Zilingo. “We have partnered with them for a long time and their work has been crucial to our mission of creating a transparent, sustainable, economically viable and socially responsible apparel supply chain.”

Zilingo, whose technology platform powers the entire fashion supply chain, was founded in 2015 by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor.  In February this year, the Singapore-headquartered firm revealed that it had raised $226 million from investors such as Sequoia, Sofina and Temasek.

The acquisition of nCinga will drive the adoption of the manufacturing execution system (MES) software across Zilingo’s global network of 6,000 factories and 75,000 businesses, enabling access to previously untapped markets. An addition to Zilingo’s technology stack, the MES software automates operations on the factory floor by enabling access to real-time data on the go.

Fashion is an over $3 trillion industry, in which a majority of retailers struggle with meeting consumer demand for fast, on-trend and responsibly produced products due to inefficiencies and information asymmetry. To address this, Zilingo said it has created a full-stack technology platform that makes the supply chain fair, transparent and connected. The acquisition will bring added features to the company’s customers in the US, Europe and Australia, where brands traditionally lack transparency over supply chain and manufacturing processes.

Zilingo also plans to leverage its global manufacturer network to increase distribution of the software- specifically for core fashion manufacturing markets such as Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Turkey.

“We at nCinga are very inspired by Zilingo’s vision. Both the teams align on shared values and a global ambition to make the fashion and apparel industry fair, transparent and efficient," said Imal Kalutotage,CEO, nCinga Innovations.