Leflair, Vietnam’s online premium outlet, announces its latest series-B funding round from GS Shop and Belt Road Capital Management for US$7 million, bringing the company’s total financing to date to close to US$12 million.
The last series-A funding round of the company was at US$ 3 million and happened 12 months ago in January 2018.
Following the flash-sales model that is proven to be successful in Europe (Vente-privee.com) and China (vip.com), Leflair offers a wide range of branded merchandise from Fashion, Beauty and Home worldwide to the Vietnamese consumers at an attractive price.
Since its launch in December 2015, the company has grown on average more than a 100% every year in gross merchandise value and is currently selling merchandise from more than 1,500 brands.
This round has the participation of two investors and also marks GS Shop’s first direct investment in Vietnam’s startup scene.
“We are going to use this capital first to leverage as much as possible the strategic partnership with GS and increase our flow of merchandise coming from Korea. It means investing in hiring the teams that will make this partnership a success and deploy resources in the areas of fulfillment, delivery and technology,” said Loic Gautier, Co-founder & CEO of Leflair.
As the demand for branded products continues to grow rapidly among the Vietnamese consumers, Leflair will continue to invest in their cross-border operations and bring in more international brands from overseas, in particularly Asia’s largest shopping hubs to Vietnam.
“Since the launch of our international hubs in Singapore and Hong Kong last year, we brought hundreds more brands, for the first time accessible to the Vietnamese consumers. International sales have been growing at an impressive 2x rate per quarter. We believe cross-border is the future of e-commerce in Southeast-Asia and with this additional funding, our customers will soon be able to purchase even more brands from new international hubs, in particular Korea and Japan, while enjoying the same delivery experience as for domestic deliveries.” Gautier commented.
Growing international operations is part of a bigger plan for Leflair to replicate the successes of Vietnam into other Southeast Asian markets.
“We started Leflair in Vietnam knowing that other markets with similar demographics are facing the same supply challenges. 2019 will be be the year of our regional expansion as we progress towards our mission of making the world’s best brands accessible to more consumers in Southeast-Asia.” Mr. Gautier said.
Until today, Leflair has closed a total of three rounds of investment from world-class angel investors and venture capital firms from the United States, France, Italy, Singapore, Hong Kong and now from Korea and Cambodia.
The company was founded by Loic Gautier and Pierre-Antoine Brun, two French entrepreneurs currently living in Vietnam. Leflair is operating in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and has offices and fulfillment centers in Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong. – AsiaPEVC.com
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