Foreign
investors to assure growth
During this
financing round the Australian company amassed 28 million Australian dollar (20
million euro). The money was not all Belgian however, since not only Verlinvest
but also Summit Partners and AB Kinneviki nvested.
The
Australians have a catalogue of almost 50,000 products and they have almost
four million visitors every month. Last year they had a loss of about ten
million euro though. To be able to invest in further growth, there was a need
for new funds.
Repeated
cooperation with Zalando brothers
At the end
of May Verlinvest also invested in Asian online clothing shop Zalora, again
together with Summit Partners and AB Kinnevik. In June the Belgian investor
joined the project of Lazada, the online hypermarket for Southeast Asia with,
you guessed it, those same partners.
It is no surprise
the investors keep meeting each other. The three online shops are all part of the
Rocket Internet company of the German brothers Samwer. They always use the same
pattern, by looking for successful start-ups in the US. They copy their concept
and try to build up the volume as soon as possible and make it worldwide.
German
online shop Zalando is the most famous example. Because the original shop
mainly focuses on the US, the rest of the world is wide open for its clones.
