Rocket Internet’s Lazada receives near $250-million from Tesco and friends

The Rocket Internet-backed Lazada is based in Singapore and operating in Southeast Asia, making it easier for people to buy and sell goods online. The company announced today that it has secured approximately US$250-million from the British retail conglomerate Tesco PLC, the US-based Access Industries, Investment AB Kinnevik and Verlinvest.

Since its launch in February 2012, Lazada has expanded to five Southeast Asian countries and now employs approximately 1500 employees. CEO of Lazada Group Maximilian Bittner notes the importance of establishing multinational relationships to support further expansion:

“We are delighted to welcome Tesco and Access to join our investor group through this funding round. That the investment is also joined by Kinnevik and Verlinvest — which know our business and operations extremely well — demonstrates that we are making great progress in building a large and sustainable company in Southeast Asia. We are excited to continue this journey together with our investors.”

Group Multichannel Director of Tesco Robin Terrell says that this recent investment in Southeast Asia’s “largest ecommerce retailer” continues its strategy of developing leading multichannel businesses in core growth markets. Terrell further notes that Lazada’s exceptional expansion to reach large potential markets is evident to its past success:

“Lazada is an exciting, pioneering business which has developed a market-leading offer in each of its five markets in just 18 months. As South East Asia’s 600 million consumers begin to use smartphone technology to access retailers online, Lazada has established a strong position from which to grow.”

As key pillars of Lazada’s long-term strategy, the company has opened up its platform to third-party merchants to increase assortment and allowing both large and small suppliers take advantage of Lazada’s traffic volumes. Lazada also launched Lamido back in early November to tap into Indonesia and Vietnam’s large informal e-commerce market of C2C transactions which includes thousands of shops on social networks such as Facebook.