Thai fashion e-commerce startup Pomelo raises US$1.6 million

• Specialises in Korean fashion; launched in Singapore, Malaysia next year
• Investment led by Jungle Ventures, others include 500 Startups

THAILAND’S Pomelo Fashion said it has raised US$1.6 million in pre-Series A funding that would be used to scale the company throughout Asia
 
The investment was led by Jungle Ventures, with participation from Skype cofounder Toivo Annus, 500 Startups, Fenox Ventures, Queens Bridge Ventures and others, including a major hedge fund based in New York which it did not disclose.
 
This brings the total funds the company, which was launched at the beginning of this year, has raised to US$2 million, including investments made by the founding team, Pomelo Fashion said in a statement.
 
The startup describes itself an online fast fashion brand and e-tailer that brings in Korean fashion trends to South-East Asia via an online-only brand. It recently launched in Singapore and plans to expand to Malaysia by the first quarter of next year.
 
“Pomelo is different from other fashion e-commerce sites in the region in that we are a fast fashion brand first and e-tailer second,” said cofounder David Jou.
 
“We’re much like Zara and H&M in that we try to control as much of the value chain as possible so that we can provide in-trend fashion with keen attention to quality … at surprisingly accessible price points,” he claimed.
 
Jou said that its investor group shares the vision to make Pomelo the No 1 online fashion brand in the region.
 
“We are at the start of the 'full-stack movement' where large industries are going to get rebuilt by teams that are inherently ‘tech,’ ” said Jungle Ventures founding partner Amit Anand.
 
“Pomelo is the first of many brands in Asia that have adopted this full-stack approach which made the likes of Tesla and Uber such big success stories.
 
“Pomelo is our first investment in the e-commerce space and we are excited to be partner with them in their journey towards a regional category leader in the fast fashion space,” he added.
 
Pomelo Fashion told regional tech startup blog e27 that it has about 180,000 monthly visitors and just under a million pageviews per month.
 
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