Ian Brown
We invested in Bombiix because we recognised the strength of its PLM offer and the impending EU requirement for Digital Product Passports.
With decades of experience investing in SMEs – from starting at 3i, to opening the Bahrain Development Bank and now co-owning Anticus – I’ve seen the challenges businesses face and the opportunities that come with them. Our role is to be a supportive investor, guiding Lucy in growing Bombiix and in future fundraising.
Sue Page
With experience across manufacturing, financial services, SaaS, e-commerce, and retail, I help Bombiix navigate growth while keeping a close eye on cash flow, performance and strategic alignment.
From the first time I met Lucy, I knew I wanted to work with her – she’s a breath of fresh air and the passion that fills her is infectious. It’s a pleasure to complement her skills in delivering the vision of Bombiix.
Zowaid Rauf
I make sure our software meets your needs, spotting areas for improvement and helping your team streamline and grow.
Having worked in hospitality, manufacturing, supply chain and agriculture, I bring a wealth of experience when it comes in creating digital solutions that tackle real-world challenges.
Neil Weaver
I joined Bombiix after being a customer – it’s hugely refreshing to see a platform that focuses on the needs of product people. After managing many global teams across multiple industries, including pharmaceuticals, FMCG, toiletries and cosmetics, sporting goods and apparel and fashion, I can see real potential in Bombiix, and I’m excited to lead the business and achieve it.
Lucy Blackley
I created Bombiix because I was an exhausted, frustrated Head of Product who knew there had to be a better way to work
My experience is in garment technology, pattern cutting, product development and technical design and I understand the everyday struggles our customers face – the chaotic workflows, confusing email threads and out of date spreadsheets. So I created Bombiix to change all of that.
The concept for Bombiix was born from one product developer’s frustrations with outdated legacy PLMs. So, when we say we get it, we really do. Whether you’re a growing start up or experienced enterprise, our team is with you every step of the way with personalised onboarding and ongoing support. My experience is in garment technology, pattern cutting, product development and technical design and I understand the everyday struggles our customers face – the chaotic workflows, confusing email threads and out of date spreadsheets. So I created Bombiix to change all of that.
Manage your entire product lifecycle, from initial concept and design through to development, manufacturing and bringing it to shelves.
Automate your Digital Product Passports in a way that’s affordable, scalable and removes the need for multiple complex systems.
Unify all your product information with an automated PIM that ensures consistency and accuracy while reducing workload and manual data entry.
Organise, store and access all your digital assets into a single, easy-to-use hub so you can effortlessly find, share and use content whenever you need to.
Traditional Product Lifecycle Management systems are simply not built for the retail sector. They were designed for the manufacturing of products that stay the same for years e.g. car engines and train components. PLM software for retail needs to be capable of keeping up with fast moving trends and seasonal shifts. The retail industry moves far too quickly for product information to be handled manually.
Having your product information spread across multiple spreadsheets and email chains throughout several departments is a recipe for disaster. No one knows what the true final version of a product is, where every piece of information is held, or who needs to provide sign off at each stage of a product’s development. It just causes chaos.
Add to this the inability to leave a legacy system, due to information being trapped in the software with no easy way of extracting it, and your product development process can hit a brick wall. Without the use of an agile retail PLM, the product development process can take a lot longer.
Big-box PLM vendors can be good for some product development teams, however they expect every company that uses their solution to change their development process to fit their software. This can cause friction between users and the solution, as it is not actually making their lives much easier.
It takes more effort to retrain a team on how to use a new system that doesn’t fit your workflow than it does to invest in a solution that adapts to your workflow instead.
A lack of transparent pricing on legacy PLM in the retail industry can cause major issues too. Many packages do not include setup costs as part of the pricing information provided, or have fees that are hidden behind success milestones such as number of SKUs.
This can lead to costs escalating very quickly as your company grows, with profits stagnating due to dramatically increased PLM costs. You can essentially be punished for being successful.
We understand the frustration that can be born from using a legacy PLM with no easy way of owning your own product information. We’ve experienced the chaos of trying to manage product data across multiple spreadsheets and email chains, and we’ve developed a solution that focuses on fixing the pain points that all product teams face.
Bombiix PLM is designed to provide a single source of truth throughout the product development process. There is no need to have information saved across different documents in several places; everyone has access to the same up to date product information that is stored in a single centralised software.
Every time a piece of information is updated across a product’s critical path, this information is available to everyone that is working on the product. This allows for timescales to be adjusted quickly and easily, and removes the likelihood of a product material change completely derailing the development process of a product.
Our software provides good product lifecycle management for retail due to its agile nature and connected approach.
By embedding PLM capabilities directly into industry-standard vector graphics software, creative teams can build briefs, sketch lines, and define product specifications within a unified, familiar environment.
Designers create artwork, flats, colorways, and pattern placements inside their primary design software, with changes syncing to the PLM database in real time. This removes the need for manual file uploads and duplicate data entry.
Sketches, design notes, and dynamic callouts created on the artboard convert into structured tech pack components, ensuring design intent is captured accurately without having to add specifications separately.
Because vector files stay connected to the central PLM record, updates to a sketch or colorway reflect across associated bill-of-materials (BOM) files and supplier-facing documents, preventing outdated exports from entering production.
By bridging the gap between creative ideation and technical product development, this native integration allows designers to stay focused on product design while automatically building the requisite structural data.
We make retail supply chain management easier due to the ability to pre-approve suppliers, and provide unique access for different suppliers across your supply chain. This allows you to provide each supplier with a unique view in your PLM, giving them access that is restricted to the specific product or component they are collaborating on.
It also provides a safety net that protects you if a supplier is unable to provide a part or material. Instead of having to search for new suppliers and approve them, the system can be used to choose a pre-approved supplier from your suppliers list quickly and easily. This helps to remove development bottlenecks quickly and easily.
Rather than treating sustainability and European Union compliance directives as late-stage administrative hurdles, Bombiix PLM embeds Digital Product Passport (DPP) creation directly into the core development workflow. As teams select materials, record supplier certifications, and document manufacturing processes, the platform captures and validates the necessary traceability data in real time.
By the time a product reaches production sign-off, its compliant DPP data bundle that covers material origin, supply chain tiers, and recyclability specs is already fully generated. This native approach eliminates last-minute data hunting, protects against launch delays, and turns complex regulatory compliance into an effortless byproduct of everyday product development.
Without the help of an agile PLM, the majority of a product development team member’s time is spent on admin tasks such as downloading, transferring, and uploading files to different platforms. Our PLM removes all of this busy work and frees up time for actual product development tasks.
Due to its connection with our PIM (Product Information Management) system, there is no need for product images, descriptions, or specifications to be manually reformatted for each of your connected sales channels.
Our PIM system collates all information about a product from the PLM and retrieves design and image files from our DAM (Digital Asset Management) system. It then formats this information to be suitable for all of your connected channels. Saving you hours that would have been spent on manually rewriting and reformatting content.
Bombiix connects to existing systems such as ERP, design and communications tools in the following ways:
ERP: Bombiix pushes the finalised BOM and master files for a product directly to your ERP without the need for manual handover of files. It can also pull PO data from an ERP to help track inbound delivery performance, and it reacts to new information in the ERP to create an alert for any component that is marked as “end of life” for instance.
PIM: The system connects with PIM systems to update data directly. There is no need for files to be downloaded and uploaded. Data from the PLM flows into the PIM which keeps product data on all connected sales channels up to date at all times.
Communication tools: The PLM has built-in chat functionality that can be used internally and by external suppliers or collaborators. This removes the delay caused by relying on email communication. It allows for direct commenting on a specific product to help avoid confusion, and lets you invite external vendors into a secure and controlled supplier portal, enabling them to upload reports and confirm lead times directly.
Due to its direct connection to the Bombiix PIM and DAM systems, our PLM can generate product profiles that are specifically formatted for a number of different sales channels including Shopify, amazon marketplace, and many more. This saves time that would have been spent on manually formatting product profiles for each of your connected sales channels.
One of our main driving values at Bombiix is the importance of keeping things simple. That’s why our system is capable of integrating with a number of systems easily. By removing complexity and focusing on easy-to-implement API connections, we can connect our solution to your existing systems without needing to rely on expensive and complex middleware.
Traditional PLM implementation can take upwards of 12 months due to slow data transfer and the need for a lot of dev work to get things up and running properly. Bombiix PLM doesn’t need much dev support to be implemented effectively. Our speedy implementation process can be completed in a matter of weeks, with our friendly team being readily available through live chat and face-to-face calls.
One of the biggest development costs when setting up traditional retail Product Lifecycle Management software is the cost of integrating it with other systems. This can use up a lot of dev hours and incur high setup fees. At Bombiix we remove all of this hassle. Instead of connecting legacy systems, we integrate PLM, PIM, DAM, and DPP into a single "All-In" subscription.
This allows you to keep all of your product information connected across systems without the need for hefty amounts of dev work.
A big issue that small product development teams face when scaling their business is that they outgrow the technology they are using. This then leads to growth being delayed due to a system’s limitations, with more and more IT team members being required to make the system usable at each success milestone.
At Bombiix, our solution scales with you. There is no limit on how many product SKUs you can have within our systems. You simply pay on a per user basis. We grow as you grow.
The best way to keep up with compliance and sustainability standards is to stay ahead of them. This is something that can be difficult when relying on a legacy PLM system.
Our PLM system can be used to help you keep track of global regulations for different products, and to check each product for compliance. For example, if a food and drink product in the system is missing food-specific compliance information, it will not be able to be signed off for generating a PO.
The Bombiix PLM tracks the lifecycle of a product from the raw materials it is created from to how it is disposed of at the end of its life. Every bit of information that a regulator might require can be found in one centralised place. Regardless of where in the product’s lifecycle it is.
By tracking a product’s lifecycle from start to finish and including compliance features such as DPPs, our platform allows fashion and apparel retailers to take a circular approach to product development.
Get started with Bombiix today
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Bombiix empowers product teams with cutting-edge, affordable technology that simplifies processes, reduces admin, and enables smarter, more ethical decisions.
