Source: The Business of Fashion
Reports this week specify how the fast fashion e-commerce company of China, Shein is to raise funds. They are weighing a funding round at a valuation of around $100 billion. Sources familiar with this situation gave in the information to reporters.
The online fashion startup is in conversion with potential investors to raise approximately $1 billion. These potential investors that the retailer is in talks with include General Atlantic. The same people disclosed these details, asking not to reveal their identities due to the information being private. Notably, reaching the mark of $100 billion would make the retail the third most valuable startup all over. Already leading the list are ByteDance Ltd and SpaceX. CB Insights data provider revealed these aspects of the potential funding.
In May 2021, the fashion retailer responded to media reports regarding its fundraising and possibilities of it going public. In a statement, Shein Co. responded saying it was already valued at several billion dollar and had no such plans for an IPO in the recent future.
Further speculations:
Various deliberations are going on, with possibility of the details, such as the spectrum of the fundraising and valuation, to still alter. Unfortunately, representatives of the fast fashion startup did not acknowledge any requests made for a comment on the situation, outside usual business timings. On the other hand, a General Atlantic official refused to give a comment on the situation. Without much official confirmation, the funding round is still just possibility.
Clearly due to various factors, Shein has emerged as a juggernaut . These include its clothing designs that are data-driven and its supply chain savvy. Most importantly, the tax loopholes in China and in the US that were introduced at the time of the trade war between the economies. Crucially, it visibly surpassed Amazon.com Inc in terms of downloads of shopping apps on app stores in the United States.
Currently, the e-commerce retailer has essential operations in Los Angeles, California, Singapore, along with Guangzhou. A recent press release disclosed these details. It currently offers more than 600,000 products in number to customers expanding across more than 150 countries in the world. The backers of the fast fashion startup include many well known organisations. These include Sequoia, along with Tiger Global Management and IDG. The retailer’s plan to list in the US was paused owing to the volatile capital markets in the middle of the war in Ukraine.
