Lazada gets 250 million dollars
The two Belgian families, Spoelberch and de Mévius, have already invested in the online warehouse’s previous
funding round in June through their investment company Verlinvest. At that time, Lazada secured 100 million dollars (some
77 million euro), but this second round would be worth 250 million dollars.
Belgian
Verlinvest is joined by British
supermarket giant Tesco, American Access Industries and Swedish Investment
AB Kinnevik (the current Zalando owner), but it is unclear how much money each investor paid.
Lazada ispowered by Rocket Internet, a fast-growing group belonging to the German Samwer
brothers who have also built up Zalando. It is the third collaboration between the InBev families and the Samwer
family, after earlier investments in online boutiques Zalora (Southeast Asia) and The Iconic (Australia).
A playground for investors
Verlinvest is not the only Belgian investor seeking fortune in e-commerce: Sofina is buying stakes in companies like French
online shoe seller Spartoo, Spanish private clothing botique Privalia and
recently in Flipkart (India’s version of Amazon). Coincidentally, Sofina recently backed out of supermarket Delhaize’s capital.
The moves are not limited to abroad, as moves are also being made in
Belgium. Last week, Shopinvest, which owns clothing retailer e5 Mode, has purchased Outlet Avenue, an online
outlet store from Brussels.
(translated by Gary Peeters)
