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.
The Series C funding round led by investment firm KKR with participation from Wellington Management will bring the company’s valuation to about $2.76 billion.
Munil Han, Musinsa chief executive, said the funds will be used to further scale the platform. The e-tailer has location and language-specific sites for customers in the US and Canada as well as Asia Pacific markets including Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.
KKR’s Mukul Chawla, partner and head of growth equity Asia Pacific at the firm said: “we see enormous opportunity for Munsina to build on its leading position in a fast-growing K-fashion market that continues to shift online and expand globally on the back of K-culture’s explosive reach.”
The Series B round in 2021, following a Series A round in 2019, attracted investment from Sequoia Capital and IMM. The company’s total raised since 2001 now stands at around $330 million.
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Musinsa was founded in 2001 and currently sells more than 8000 local and international designer brands. Besides its core service, the company’s portfolio includes online lifestyle retail brand 29CM, sneaker resale platform Soldout and in-house label Musinsa Standard.
The company registered $545 million in sales last year, up 54 per cent on the previous year. Turnover tripled in three years from its pre-pandemic benchmark in 2019.
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South Korean E-Tailer Musinsa Sees Annual Sales Surge 54%
The rapidly growing fashion e-commerce company reported sales of 708.3 billion won (US$545 million) in 2022.
Local streetwear brands, festivals and stores selling major global labels remain relatively small but the country’s community of hypebeasts and sneakerheads is growing fast.
This week’s round-up of global markets fashion business news also features Senegalese investors, an Indian menswear giant and workers’ rights in Myanmar.
Though e-commerce reshaped retailing in the US and Europe even before the pandemic, a confluence of economic, financial and logistical circumstances kept the South American nation insulated from the trend until later.
This week’s round-up of global markets fashion business news also features Korean shopping app Ably, Kenya’s second-hand clothing trade and the EU’s bid to curb forced labour in Chinese cotton.