E-commerce holding group Rocket Internet was among the investors in a €330m ($363m) round closed today by Global Fashion Group (GFG), a holding entity for several of its portfolio companies.
Rocket Internet itself provided $75m of the funding, including the conversion of an investment in an earlier round, and now holds a 20.4% share of GFG.
The company invested alongside Rocket Internet Capital Partners (RICP), the late-stage venture capital fund it closed in January this year, and investment firm Kinnevik according to TechCrunch.
Established in 2014, GFG oversees six online fashion retailers – Jabong, Lamoda, Zalora, Dafiti, Namshi and The Iconic – covering 27 countries across Asia, South America, the Middle East, the CIS and Australia.
The round was oversubscribed from its €300m target, but values GFG at $1.1bn post-investment, a steep fall from the $3.4bn valuation at which it last raised funding, in a $167m round in July 2015.
The move comes in the midst of some changes to GFG. India-based Jabong is pivoting from an Amazon-like inventory operation to a marketplace business model and is said to be up for sale, perhaps for as little as $50m, while reports in April suggested Zalora is selling its Thailand and Vietnam branches to retail firm Central Group.
Tengelmann Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of retail group Tengelmann, and investment firm Verlinvest provided $34.6m for GFG in April 2015 before Rocket Internet and Kinnevik, supplied the $167m in July.
Conglomerate Access Industries, growth equity firm Summit Partners and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan are past investors in GFG.
Oliver Samwer, chief executive of Rocket Internet, said in a statement today: “GFG has successfully built its position as market leader in online fashion in many key emerging markets.
“The recent funding round provides GFG with the necessary capital to continue on that path. We are looking forward to continuing to work with the GFG team as well as Kinnevik and the other GFG shareholders.”
– This article was edited on July 25 to reflect Kinnevik’s involvement in the round.