WearYouWant, an e-commerce enabler and marketplace with Thailand’s largest online fashion community, has secured USD 1.5 million venture capital in a Series A round led by Digital Media Partners, a venture capital firm specializing in the newly emerging digital markets of Southeast Asia. The second lead investor, OPT SEA, is Japan’s leading e-marketing company. Also involved in this funding round is Singapore based, venture capital firm IMJ Investment Partners as well as one of the WearYouWant co-founders, Julien Chalte.
Dmitry Levit, General Partner at DMP says: “Thailand, with its tech savvy consumers and willingness to embrace mobile commerce, has been a good test market for WearYouWant. We’d now like to help them replicate the same success across Southeast Asia”.
The WearYouWant team is addressing the need of Southeast Asia’s retail industry players to compete with emerging digitalonly ecommerce players on an equal footing. The site, with its highly active members, offers online fashion shoppers a choice of 450 brands and 12,500 items, unique local brands and well known international brands, across a range of women and menswear including bags, accessories and cosmetics.
Chalte says “DMP has been very helpful in successfully preparing WearYouWant for this Series A investment. We chose OPT due to their corporate vision and indepth online expertise. We are also pleased to partner with IMJ Investment Partners as they have a very solid regional network and knowledge about other markets in which we could expand. I believe so strongly in our continuing success that I personally have participated in our Round A”.
With the new investment, WearYouWant will work towards becoming the largest aggregator of fashion and cosmetics brands, attracting 1.5 million monthly site visits, and meeting revenue targets of more than USD 6 million during the second half of 2015.
The company has gained significantly in strength after a recent series of key partnerships including a content marketing deal with Sanook, Thailand’s largest web portal. One partnership deal involves Kasikorn Bank (Kbank), the leading universal banking group in Thailand, who will promote WearYouWant’s special deals through multiple channels including their official Kbank LINE account which has 8.9 million users. Recent partnerships with enterprises such as LINE and Samsung, have seen WearYouWant’s mobile marketing campaigns outcompete its competition in Thailand. WearYouWant have also formed effective partnerships with large but local, specialist logistics firms such as CJ Korea and KWC Logistics, to manage packaging, branding, delivery and payment.
Co-founder Martin Toft Sorensen says: “Due to our partnerships, we have increased sales, gained much more visibility and are better able to source high quality brands”.
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About WearYouWant
The company was founded in 2011 in Bangkok and generates revenue from signups, sales commissionsand professional services offered to partner stores. It has had an exceptional start to 2014 with a triple digit growth rate over the last 6 months.
Julien Chalte is the cofounder, CEO and CTO. He is responsible for product development, emarketing and business administration. He has more than 13 years experience in the internet industry and has been a serial and web entrepreneur for the last 10 years. LinkedIn profile
Martin Toft Sorensen is the cofounder, CEO and CSO. He is responsible for sales(sourcing), business development and affiliate partnerships. He has gained a strong background in the fashion business over the last 10 years. LinkedIn profile
About Investor
Digital Media Partners: http://digitalmedia.vc/
Digital Media Partners (DMP) is a venture capital firm specialized in newly emerging digital markets and dedicated to the development of the consumer internet. Our primary investment focus is on digital business models with strong traction in one or more Southeast Asian markets and confirmed potential for regional expansion
OPT SEA: http://www.opt.ne.jp/news/pr/detail/id=2322
OPT SEA is an OPT group listed in TSE, JAPAN’s leading digital marketing company, headquartered in Singapore. Their mission is to embark on new internet business and investment activities contributing to the growth of the internet market in the ASEAN regions by leveraging the OPT group’s asset and experience. OPT has numerous group companies outside of Japan to provide various localized internet services in each region ; US, China, Korea,Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
IMJ Investment Partners: http://imjip.com/en/
IMJ Investment Partners is a venture capital firm headquartered in Singapore. Their target investments are typically Seed or Series A round across various online and mobile industries such as e-commerce, marketplaces, comparison websites, payment platform, etc. They have currently made 8 investments in South East Asia since June 2013. Their parent company, IMJ Corporation is the largest provider of web integration service in Japan, and their portfolio companies benefit from IMJ’s domain expertise in web integration and direct development support.