Samwer Brothers-backed Online Retailer Lazada Announces US$250 Million New Funding

Lazada, a Southeast Asian e-commerce startup incubated by Rocket Internet, raises approximately $250 million of cash from a consortium including new investors of Tesco, Access Industries, and existing ones of Investment AB Kinnevik and Verlinvest. The company announced a $100 million round this June.

This marks the first investment by multichannel retailer Tesco into a pure online player in Southeast Asia. Synergies of this partnership will span across customer analytics, private label development and supply chain management.

As another key cornerstone of the Group’s strategy, Lazada also launched e-commerce marketplace Lamido in Indonesia and Vietnam, to tap into the large informal e-commerce market of C2C transactions which includes thousands of shops on social networks such as Facebook.

Lazada’s founders Samwer brothers also own Rocket Internet and Zalora. The latter is a Singapore-based online fashion & beauty store, which just announced a record-breaking $112 million funding this month.