China-based online fashion retailer Club Factory has secured $100m in a series C round that included Bertelsmann Asia Investment (BAI), a corporate venturing subsidiary of media group Bertelsmann, AVCJ has reported.
The corporate was joined by venture capital group IDG Capital as well as VC fund Frees Fund and venture firms Kunlun Venture Capital and ZhenFund.
Founded in 2014, Club Factory has built a cross-border e-commerce platform with 10 million registered users that sources items from a network of more than 210 manufacturing partners across eight countries, helping customers access affordable clothing.
The company chiefly sells clothes but also provides jewellery, beauty products and accessories.
The business model is boosted by Club Factory’s artificial intelligence technology, which calculates the most affordable prices on one end and makes recommendations to customers on the other.
Club Factory’s chief target markets include Southeast Asia, where there is a large local population, and the Middle East, which does not have a significant local manufacturing industry, founder Lou Yun told Kr Asia today.
The round follows $20m series B round in January 2017 according to Kr Asia, and the proceeds will go to enhancing Club Factory’s logistics and customer service capabilities.