Rocket Internet’s SE Asian LAZADA secures huge funding for the region

Things seem to be going well for Rocket Internet, with news and investments coming every week from the ecommerce cookie cutter company.

This time it’s with LAZADA, Southeast Asia’s (SEA) largest online shopping “mall”. The company has announced a new round of funding and the welcoming of Verlinvest, a Belgian family-owned, consumer-focused investment holding company as an investor. Together, with existing investors Holtzbrinck Ventures, Kinnevik, Summit Partners and Tengelmann Group, LAZADA’s investors have pumped in an impressive US$100-million in a new round of funding.

Rocket Internet, the startup clone incubator behind LAZADA, claims that this is one of the biggest investments into SEA ever.

“We are thrilled to join LAZADA as a partner of Rocket Internet and an investor, the company’s scale and achievements after only one year of operations are highly impressive. Given the management’s track record and the region’s macro outlook we are very confident in LAZADA’s future,” said Frédéric de Mevius, Chairman of Verlinvest.

LAZADA, which sells everything from baby products to electronics, recently surpassed one million orders. This “Amazon” for SEA has enjoyed rapid growth after just one year thanks to a focus on customer satisfaction from superior service. This is evident from an order and shipping process that currently sees 90% of all orders shipped the same day, with 85% of orders in metro areas being delivered within the next day. The additional capital from this round will be used to enhance that experience by improving infrastructure.

We are extremely happy to have finalized this investment round shortly after our 1st year anniversary and to again focus 100% of our attention on what we enjoy most: providing an amazing shopping experience to our customers” Maximilian Bittner, CEO of LAZADA, commented. “The interest in joining this round and its quick closing has exceeded all our expectations.

LAZADA also recently announced the launch of a new mobile application, on Android, that allows customers to shop on their smartphone. An iOS version is in the works too. Lazada has operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam.