Rocket Internet’s Asia-oriented e-commerce site Lazada announced yesterday that the company received $26 million in funding from equity investor Summit Partners. The money will be spent on further business development in its five markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand. Maximilian Bittner, the regional CEO of Lazada, adds:
We are very proud to have an investor of Summit’s calibre joining our shareholder base. They have extensive experience in supporting fast‐growing companies which will be of huge benefit as we continue to build out our offering and services to win the Southeast Asian market.
Lazada launched its new fashion marketplace platform in Malaysia on November 21st. The platform allows offline retailers control over logistics and operations while selling their items online. The company plans to introduce this platform to its other four countries in the near future. It’s an interesting diversification, especially as Rocket Internet already has its own Southeast Asia-oriented fashion e-tailer in the form of Zalora.
This is the third major investment that Lazada has received in the past four months. Previously the e-commerce site received $40 million from Swedish investment firm Kinnevik, and before that an undisclosed investment rumored to be in the region of $50 million from J.P. Morgan.
[Source: TechCrunch via DailySocial]