Temasek leads $249m round for SE Asia-focused Lazada
Temasek Holdings has led a EUR200 million ($249 million) round of funding for Lazada, a Southeast Asia-focused online retailer set up by Germany’s Rocket Internet.
Several existing investors also participated in the round, including Kinnevik and Verlinvest, as well as Rocket Internet itself. Lazada has now raised more than $700 million from investors.
Last December, the company received $250 million from Tesco, Access Industries, Kinnevik and Verlinvest. Six months earlier, Verlinvest led a $100 million round with participation from Holtzbrinck Ventures, AB Kinnevik, Summit Partners and Tengelmann Group. The first large commitment, which came in September 2012, saw J.P. Morgan, Summit and Tengelmann put in $96 million.
Lazada launched in 2012 and now has operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, plus a sourcing center in Hong Kong. It shares certain resources with Zalora, an apparel, shoes, accessories and beauty products e-commerce platform also set up by Rocket Internet. Zalora has received substantial investor backing of its own.
According to Rocket Internet, sales on Lazada's websites and mobile applications have doubled since June, in part thanks to the introduction of a marketplace for third-party merchants. Marketplace sales have increased more than tenfold since January and now account for around 70% of overall monthly sales.
"This investment provides us with the strategic flexibility to further anchor our leadership position and enhance the shopping experience for our customers," Maximilian Bittner, CEO of Lazada, said in a statement. "We are extremely delighted to welcome Temasek as a new investor and long-term local partner and we are also very grateful for the continued confidence of our existing investors. To us, it is a clear recognition of our leading regional footprint, and an affirmation of the growth strategy and potential of our business."
Rocket Internet, which has backers including Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in October following a EUR1.6 billion IPO.
Goldman Sachs acted as exclusive financial advisor to Lazada on the latest investment.
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