Singapore state-owned investment firm Temasek has shown a great amount of interest in the ecommerce scene this year, investing in India’s Snapdeal and China’s JD in May and August respectively. Over the weekend, it added Rocket Internet-backed ecommerce store Lazada to its portfolio by taking the lead in a massive EUR 200 million (US$250 million) funding round, which included a number of existing investors such as Rocket Internet, Kinnevik and Verlinvest.
This new investment matches Lazada’s last round of funding, and brings the total amount it has raised so far to roughly US$736 million. The Amazon-esque site now joins the unicorn club, with its value standing at EUR 1 billion (US$1.25 billion).
According to Lazada CEO Maximilian Bittner, the fresh funds will be used to “enhance the shopping experience” for its customers. Specifically, they will go towards expanding and improving its logistics infrastructure, payment solutions, and IT systems across the six countries in which it operates – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The company claims that sales, or gross merchandise volume (GMV), on its websites and mobile apps have doubled since June 2014. Given that Lazada saw GMV of EUR 71 million (US$91.4 million) in the first half of 2014, this means its GMV from July to December would be around EUR 142 million (US$182.8 million). It attributes the growth to its recent shift to a marketplace model for third-party merchants, which apparently accounts for approximately 70 percent of Lazada’s overall monthly sales.
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