Financial firm JP Morgan has bought up shares in Russia-based Lamoda, the terms of which were not disclosed, thus continuing a trend of the company buying into Rocket Internet’s online fashion retailers.
The latest deal could be worth anything from $40m to $80m, according to insiders on the deal who spoke with Russian news provider Kommersant.
It is the third such investment into the Berlin-based incubator’s online retailers within a month. In August, JP Morgan invested an undisclosed amount in Europe-based Zalando, although a Zalando spokesperson told news provider VentureVillage that the firm would hold a one percent stake. Then a week later, JP Morgan invested $45m in Rocket’s Brazil-based online retailer Dafiti.
Lamoda is one of a large number of websites run by incubator Rocket Internet, which specialises in cloning successful US websites. The firm is owned by German entrepreneurs Oliver, Mark, and Alexander Sawmer. The three brothers sprung onto the online entrepreneur scene in 1999 after selling Alando, a German clone of eBay, to eBay for €38m ($50m) 100 days after it was founded. According to The Spiegel, they have since been involved with Jamba, StudiVZ, Citydeal, Groupon, Facebook, Parship, eDarling, MyVideo, Wimdu, HelloFresh, GlossyBox, Zalando, and many other internet companies.
Lamoda said in a statement that the new funds would be used to expand the company’s portfolio, which currently has around 700 brands on its virtual shelves, and would also be used to increase its presence outside of Russia.
“The investment underlines our leading position in one of the world’s fastest growing markets,” said Lamoda co-founder Niels Tonsen. “It will allow us to further expand our product and brand portfolio as well as our presence in other emerging markets such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Belarus. We will continue to streamline our fulfillment and delivery processes and to enhance the online shopping experience for our customers.”