Online fashion and beauty group Zalora, backed by prolific German ecommerce investor Rocket Internet, has raised $112 million for expansion in the southeast Asian market.
The Singapore-based firm raised the cash from new investors including Len Blavatnik, currently the UK's second richest person. The Ukrainian-born Blavatnik has become a serial investor in ecommerce and this year has funded businesses such as Russia's Lamoda in June and New York crowd-funding site The Fancy in July.
Zalora will use the money to tap into growing demand from southeast Asia's 600 million population and is the second fundraising this year following a $100 million boost in May from existing investors.
Other backers this time include Scopia Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund, and Blavatnik's Access Industries.
Zalora's managing director Michele Farrario told the Financial Times that, despite signs economic growth in the region is slowing, he and the investors remained confident in the medium term. He explained: 'When the investment climate becomes more challenging usually investors become more selective in what they do. So far they're happy with the macro opportunity on one side and the way we are executing on the other.'
Rocket's Lazada, which also operates in the same region across countries including Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, raised $100 million of new funds in June.
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