The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean online shopping site Coupang has secured a $1 billion investment from Japanese Internet company Softbank Corp.
Coupang said Wednesday that Softbank founder Masayoshi Son decided to back Coupang because of the South Korean company's delivery system and its market dominance in online shopping via smartphones.
It is the latest foreign bet on Coupang. It received a $400 million investment from two Silicon Valley venture capitalists last year.
Coupang started in 2010 as a website for getting daily discount deals. The company now sells everything from baby products, grocery, flight tickets to cosmetics and hires its own deliverymen. It is owned by Forward Ventures Co.
Half of South Korea's population has downloaded the Coupang app and about two third of transactions with Coupang are done on the app.
In 2020, like many companies, the $50 billion yoga apparel brand created a new department to improve internal diversity and inclusion, and to create a more equitable playing field for minorities. In interviews with BoF, 14 current and former employees said things only got worse.
For fashion’s private market investors, deal-making may provide less-than-ideal returns and raise questions about the long-term value creation opportunities across parts of the fashion industry, reports The State of Fashion 2024.
A blockbuster public listing should clear the way for other brands to try their luck. That, plus LVMH results and what else to watch for in the coming week.
L Catterton, the private-equity firm with close ties to LVMH and Bernard Arnault that’s preparing to take Birkenstock public, has become an investment giant in the consumer-goods space, with stakes in companies selling everything from fashion to pet food to tacos.