Thai fashion e-commerce startup Pomelo raises US$52m in Series C round

FASHION e-commerce startup Pomelo has secured US$52 million in Series C funding from investors including Central Group, Provident Growth Fund and InterVest Star SEA Growth Fund.

Pomelo, which was launched in 2013, said it is the first Thai startup to raise a Series C funding round. Other investors include Andre Hoffman, Toivo Annus, Lombard Private Equity, Ambient Sound Investments OU and The Luxembourg Company Deverel.

The fresh funds will be used to scale its business across South-east Asia as it intends to utilise Big Data and AI (artificial intelligence) for pricing, design and e-commerce personalisation. It will also look to expand its supply chain automation platform, Henry.

Pomelo raised US$19 million a Series B round in November 2017, and has since opened a flagship store in Singapore's Orchard Road shopping district.

It also launched eight stores in Thailand and expanded to Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Pomelo has expanded its product offerings to include Purpose, an eco-friendly collection, Beet cosmetics and Pomelo Man, its menswear label.

Including its Series C round, Pomelo has now raised over US$83 million from investors globally, including JD, Start Today Ventures and Jungle Ventures, which participated in previous funding rounds.

David Jou, CEO of Pomelo, said the startup was more than an online fashion brand: "As a fashion-tech company, we are developing a proprietary catalogue of innovative technologies that will allow us to unlock significant hidden value that exists in the branded fashion business today."