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how me
the money
As the sun came out and temperatures began to rise, investors seemed to warm up across
the industry in the month of May. As if on cue with the season, investments this month
nearly doubled from a minuscule $376M to an impressive $689M. Though the total
certainly isn’t the highest we’ve seen, it does indicate that our predictions seem on track
and that we’re in for an incredible summer of key funding rounds.
WHERE did all that money come from?
Nine countries were represented across 23
funding rounds, over $500M came from our
top three companies alone. Considering that
those companies were Flipkart, Pinterest and
Aeropostale, the only real surprise we found
was that May ended without anything more on
what has become the now infamous US
Alibaba IPO. Reigning in at number one was
India-based Flipkart, which acquired Myntra
last month, with $210M. Also from India was
LimeRoad, a social discovery platform that
raised $15M. An important factor to keep in
mind as we watch future investments from the
country is that, by time of print, India was in
the process of restructuring online sales laws,
preparing to open the door for online giants
like Amazon and eBay, which currently operate
through third-party vendors.
Rounding out the top three were
Pinterest and shopping mallstaple Aeropostale, raising
$200M and $150M respectively.
Aeropostale caught our eye because they’ve
been relatively quiet outside of filling their role
as a teen staple in American malls. We expect
that the financing will be used to assist the
brand in determining how they’ll shi with the
industry, especially being in the heart of the
same demographic as Abercrombie who has
already begun the move to attract a more
“inclusive” clientele, having felt the pressure
from more traditional “fast fashion” brands like
H&M.
In the spirit of the quick and easy online
shopping that has been threatening malls
across the country, an outstanding number of
companies that we tracked were focused online
sales. e companies that le their mark were
primarily shopping platforms and online
markets like Wheretoget ($2M), e RealReal
($20.4M) and SHOP.CA ($31M). Of course
platforms have always stood out to investors,
for the most part its easier to imagine making
money with them, but the spectrum of May’s
platform investments spanned from new online
shopping sites in Canada (SHOP.CA) and
Japan (BASE) to closet-sharing with Tradesy
($13M). What’s crucial about the expansion of
platform and online marketplace investments is
the potential of growth and collaboration
among the companies. We say that because as
similar companies flood the market, we expect
to see more acquisitions like that of Flipkart
and Myntra to create one main company vying
for the power of Amazon or Alibaba.
Nine
countries
were
represented
across 23
funding
rounds,
over $500M
came from
our top
three
companies
alone.
$
With so many factors shaping the face of retail,
from online stores to beacon technology,
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