Zilingo

Zilingo is a technology & commerce platform that is re-imagining the

Zilingo
fashion industry to make it fair, connected and transparent for all. A
commerce platform that enables businesses across the fashion value chain
to be more efficient and scale faster, Zilingo connects businesses with a
roster of tools and services to operate in fashion - sourcing, selling
Zilingo logo, 2019
wholesale or retail, marketing services, software services and financial
Type Private
services.
Industry Internet Services / Online
The Singapore headquartered startup was founded in 2015 by Ankiti Bose Fashion Marketplace
and Dhruv Kapoor, and has operations spanning Indonesia, Hong Kong, Services / eCommerce/
Thailand, Philippines, Australia, India & the United States.[1][2] Today, Business to Business/
the company employs over 600 staff representing more than 20 different Fashion Sourcing
nationalities, and works with close to 50,000 partners across the fashion Founded 2015
supply chain. These partners comprise manufacturers, retail merchants, Founder Ankiti Bose and Dhruv
distributors, indie & global brands.[3] Kapoor
Headquarters Singapore
History Number of 8
locations
Zilingo, a play on the word "zillion," was established in 2015 by Ankiti
Area served Worldwide
Bose and Dhruv Kapoor.[4] The idea came from when Bose was on
Key people Ankiti Bose, Chief
holiday in Bangkok and noticed that many of the small and medium-sized
Executive Officer (CEO)
shops had no online presence.[5][6]
Dhruv Kapoor, Chief
The company began with seed funding from Sequoia India[7] and raised Technology Officer (CTO)
an additional $8 million in a Series A funding round in September Jim Perry, Chief Financial
2016.[8] It raised an additional $18 million in 2017 in a Series B round[7] Officer (CFO) Aadi Vaidya,
and $54 million in a Series C round in 2018.[9] In 2019, the company Chief Operating Officer
raised $226 million in a Series D round from existing investors Sequoia (COO)
India, Burda Capital, Sofina with Singapore's sovereign fund Temasek
Marita Abraham, Chief
Holdings joining the tech-platform's capital table.[10] The latest round
Marketing Officer (CMO)
takes the tech-platform to US$308 million from investors, making it one
Number of 700
of Southeast Asia's highest capitalised startups- edging it's valuation
employees
towards unicorn status.[11]
Parent Zilingo Pte Ltd
The company started off as a long-tail fashion marketplace leveraging Subsidiaries Zilingo Business
Southeast Asia's growing internet connectivity to bring small merchants
Website http://www.zilingo.com/
from the street markets of Bangkok & Jakarta into the e-commerce fold,
supported by distribution, cataloguing & financing services Zilingo began to offer.[12] After beefing it's distribution capabilities,
Zilingo expanded focus towards B2B opportunities across the supply chain with an eye on service opportunities the platform
could offer to transform a fragmented, inefficient, cash & tech-strapped value chain.[13][14]

The focus towards B2B opportunities started with a suite of basic products to help merchants & manufacturers manage their e-
commerce business: this initially included inventory management and sales tracking, and today the company has graduated to
deeper services like financing, sourcing and procurement, and a ‘style hunter’ for identifying upcoming fashion trends.[15]
So they expanded, developing software and other tools to allow vendors to access factories from Bangladesh to Vietnam and also
help with cross-border shipping and inventory management. Since 2018, Zilingo has also worked with financial technology firms
to provide working capital to small sellers so they can buy raw materials to produce goods.[16] The company takes a cut
whenever a deal is brokered or a sale is made via its platform,[17] with a business model effectively removing removes a lot of the
agents that brands and factories inefficiently deal with. This also ensures that profits can be evenly spread across all stakeholders
in the fashion industry, thereby edging the company towards it's vision of making the fashion supply chain a levelled playing
field.[18]

In September 2017, Zilingo was shipping to eight countries and has seller hubs in Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia,
Indonesia and Thailand, adding 5,000 new merchants in the previous twelve months.[7] By September 2019 the company
generates 80% of its revenue from its business-to-business operation of matching brands with suppliers in Southeast Asia &
South Asia, with aggressive moves to expand in the United States.[19]

Technology & Commerce

Zilingo started off as a mobile-first eCommerce marketplace and today has expanded into a B2B tech-platform, with services
spanning different offerings for players across the fashion supply chain. The startup was notable for the seller management
platform created in 2016, when Zilingo was simply a fashion eCommerce marketplace. This tool helped small retailers and long
tail brands formally organise their business, through online distribution, inventory management tools & APIs for logistics.[20]

By 2018, the startup had evolved it's seller management tool to become an additional income generator for the business, with
merchants being able to cross-list across Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia versions of the site, and distribute globally. The platform
had also begun offering financial services from third parties, a “style hunter” that aggregates upcoming trends from fashion
watchers and icons, product sourcing and content and photography services—and Zilingo's captive seller base expanded to
include professional fashion sellers, SMEs, brands in Southeast Asia and B2B businesses globally (through Zilingo's "Zilingo
Asia Mall" platform.[21]

References
1. "Riding A Unicorn- Business News" (https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/most-powerful-women/riding-a-unico
rn/story/379321.html). www.businesstoday.in. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
2. " "Our biggest challenge is figuring how we can scale the DNA of the team in so many different countries," says
Bose, who is now considering expanding to Latin America" (https://www.forbes.com/sites/ranawehbe/2019/05/19/
aiming-for-zillions-zilingo-finds-a-niche-in-asias-crowded-e-commerce-market/#5569037dc421).
3. "Founded by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor in 2015, the company has offices in 8 cities globally with over 600
staff representing 20 different nationalities" (https://conandaily.com/2019/09/30/be-casually-preppy-with-zilingos-s
eptember-2019-collection/).
4. Woo, Alyssa (17 August 2017). "Selling online gets easy" (https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/selling-online-get
s-easy). Straits Times. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
5. Chiang, Tay Suan (3 June 2017). "Ankiti Bose" (https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/lifestyle/weekend-interview/an
kiti-bose). Business Times. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
6. Morente, Tricia V. (13 September 2017). "Zilingo: The Singapore-Based e-Merchant of Small Things is Getting
Bigger" (http://inc-asean.com/editor-picks/zilingo-singapore-based-e-merchant-small-things-getting-bigger/). Inc.
Southeast Asia. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
7. Russell, Jon (12 September 2017). "Zilingo raises $18M for its fashion ecommerce service in Southeast Asia" (htt
ps://techcrunch.com/2017/09/12/zilingo-raises-18m/). Tech Crunch. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
8. Russell, Jon (5 September 2016). "Zilingo lands $8M for its marketplace for fashion sellers in Southeast Asia" (htt
ps://techcrunch.com/2016/09/05/zilingo-lands-8m-for-its-marketplace-for-fashion-sellers-in-southeast-asia/). Tech
Crunch. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
 9. Russell, Jon (4 April 2018). "Southeast Asia fashion startup Zilingo continues its meteoric rise with $54M Series
C" (https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/04/zilingo-raises-54-million/). Tech Crunch. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
10. "E-commerce startup Zilingo raises $226M to digitize Asia's fashion supply chain" (http://social.techcrunch.com/2
019/02/11/zilingo-raises-226m/). TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
11. "E-commerce startup Zilingo raises $226M to digitize Asia's fashion supply chain" (http://social.techcrunch.com/2
019/02/11/zilingo-raises-226m/). TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
12. "CTO Dhruv Kapoor first built a service that capitalized on Southeast Asia's growing internet connectivity" (https://
techcrunch.com/2019/02/11/zilingo-raises-226m/).
13. "Moving into the supply chain after building distribution makes sense, but Zilingo has long had its eye on
services" (https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/11/zilingo-raises-226m/).
14. "One thing that's become very clear to us is there's a lot of value [in] making the supply chain efficient, instead of
giving out discounts and doing crazy marketing" (https://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2019/zilingo-vent
ure-capital-funding-supply-chain/).
15. "That business-focused push started with a suite of basic products to help Zilingo sellers manage their e-
commerce business. Those initially included inventory management and sales tracking, but they have since
graduated to deeper services like financing, sourcing and procurement, and a 'style hunter' for identifying
upcoming fashion trends. Zilingo also widened its target from the long tail of small vendors operating in
Southeast Asia, to bigger merchants and brands and even to the fashion industry in Europe, North America and
beyond that seeks access to Asia's producers, who are estimated to account for $1.4 trillion of the $3 billion
global fashion manufacturing market" (https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/11/zilingo-raises-226m/).
16. "How a 27-Year-Old CEO Built a Near $1 Billion Fashion Startup" (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/201
9-02-12/this-near-1-billion-startup-is-led-by-a-27-year-old-female-ceo). 2019-07-21. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
17. "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem" (https://www.techinasia.com/singaporebased-ecommerce-st
artup-zilingo-winner-uschina-trade-war). www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
18. "At Zilingo, we keep the merchant at the centre of everything. We have seen the pain points of some of these
enterprises first-hand — not being able to improve their margins or grow any further due to lack of technology
access and capital. Meanwhile, big international brands continue to grow aggressively" (https://vulcanpost.com/6
57807/zilingo-online-fashion-marketplace/).
19. "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?" (https://www.bloomberg.com/tosv2.html?vid=&uuid=9531aa90-e41f-11e9-ab6b-1
df38956c5f2&url=L25ld3MvdmlkZW9zLzIwMTktMDktMjAvemlsaW5nby1zLWNlby1vbi1zdXBwbHktY2hhaW4tdS1
zLWV4cGFuc2lvbi1zdXN0YWluYWJpbGl0eS12aWRlbw==). www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
20. "Zilingo lands $8M for its marketplace for fashion sellers in Southeast Asia" (http://social.techcrunch.com/2016/0
9/05/zilingo-lands-8m-for-its-marketplace-for-fashion-sellers-in-southeast-asia/). TechCrunch. Retrieved
2019-10-09.
21. "Southeast Asia fashion startup Zilingo continues its meteoric rise with $54M Series C" (http://social.techcrunch.c
om/2018/04/04/zilingo-raises-54-million/). TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-10-09.

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