Rocket Internet’s Lazada gets USD40M from shareholder Kinnevik

Following a high-profile investment by JP Morgan earlier this year, the Samwer Brother’s Amazon clone Lazada has secured another substantial round of funding, reported TechCrunch. This time, the investor is Kinnevik, a Swedish investment firm which owns a 25 percent stake in Rocket Internet. This latest round is worth USD40M.

Lazada is shaping up to be a leading player in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce scene. Launched in March 2012, Lazada now operates in Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. It currently sells items in the books, consumer electronics, household goods, toys and sports equipment categories.

What’s unclear at this point is how well the company is doing in each of these countries, since Rocket Internet is predictably tight-lipped about it.

Regardless, Lazada has a huge war chest to play with. Combined with the JP Morgan investment – said to be worth between USD50M and USD100M — the company’s total funds received overshadows any amount that e-commerce startups in Southeast Asia can muster.

If the Alexa rankings are any indication, Lazada is shaping up well vis-à-vis the other e-commerce players. Lazada is ranked 69th in Indonesia, behind Kaskus (ranked 8th), but ahead of Rakuten and BliBli.  Across the various markets, Lazada’s country rankings range from the 60s to the low 100s.

It’s easy to tell why Lazada is so enamored about Indonesia. Kaskus, which is responsible for a large chunk of Indonesia’s USD0.9B e-commerce market, is estimated to be processing between USD296M and USD444M in annual sales.

The market is set to grow rapidly, although there are question surrounding how much Lazada will cannibalize on the existing players’ customer base, and whether the industry as a whole can successfully capitalize on a new wave of first-time e-commerce users in spite of infrastructural challenges.

With the fresh injection of funds, Lazada intends to expand its reach, perhaps into other countries in Asia. It also hopes to increase the variety of products on offer, just like how it recently expanded into fashion (we could speculate that with Zalora’s woes, it might eventually be folded into Lazada).

“We are delighted to invest in Lazada which has obtained a market leading position in a very short time,” noted Henrik Persson, head of investments at Kinnevik, in a press release.

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