Zalando, a Germany-based online fashion retailer backed by some of the country’s largest consumer goods company corporate venturing units, has raised an undisclosed investment from investment bank JP Morgan’s Asset Management subsidiary and investment firm Quadrant Capital Advisors.
Although the exact figures of the round were not disclosed, a Zalando spokesperson told news provider TechCrunch that both JP Morgan and Quadrant now each own around 1% of the company.
Zalando, which was founded in 2008, specialises in online shoe retailing. In 2011, the firm reached a net turnover of €510m ($626m).
It is the second venture round this year for the e-commerce start-up, who attracted another undisclosed investment from internet-focussed investment firm DST Global, backed by South Africa-based media group Naspers, in February.
Zalando raised its series C round in August 2010 from a consortium including Germany-based retailer Tengelmann E-Commerce and HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, the then-corporate venturing unit of local publisher Holtzbrinck before its independence earlier this year. The size of the C round was not disclosed.
Zalando is one of many internet start-ups incubated by German entrepreneurs Oliver, Mark, and Alexander Samwer, and from their Rocket Internet. 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.