The next SHEIN? Another overseas fashion brand completes $150 million in financing

Clothing has always been a popular track for cross-border e-commerce. At a time when brands are going overseas to make money, some Chinese fashion DTC brands are launching attacks around the world, ushering in rapid development, and also gaining favor from the capital market.

Urbanic Announces Completion of $150 Million Series C Financing

Recently, the overseas fashion brand Urbanic announced the completion of US$150 million (approximately RMB 1.073 billion) in Series C financing. Investors include Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation Fund from Switzerland, D1 Capital Partners, a public-private partnership mixed investment company headquartered in New York, JAM Fund and other global investors and European luxury fashion families.

It is understood that this round of financing will be used by Urbanic to develop new markets and continuously improve its supply chain operational capabilities.

It is worth mentioning that this is not Urbanic’s first round of financing.

On February 20, 2019, Urbanic completed its angel round of financing. The amount of financing was not disclosed to the public. The investment institution was Jiuhe Venture Capital.

On December 1, 2019, Urbanic completed its Series A financing. The amount of financing was not disclosed to the public. The investment institutions were Sequoia Capital China , CDH Investments and Nexus Venture Partners .

On March 30, 2020, Urbanic completed its A+ round of financing with a financing amount of US$10 million, and the investment institution was Fosun Ruizheng Capital.

On April 12, 2021, Urbanic completed its Series B financing. The amount of financing was not disclosed to the public. The investment institutions were Sequoia Capital China and CDH Investments .

Up to now, Urbanic has won multiple rounds of financing, which shows that the investment market fully recognizes Urbanic.

How did Urbanic rise to prominence with sales of $400 million a year?

It is understood that the fashion brand Urbanic was founded in 2019 and is affiliated to Hangzhou Meifeier Technology Co., Ltd. Founder Xue Chi once worked for Google, co-founder Deng Qiulin once worked for Alibaba, and other core members came from European fashion industries such as LVMH and Chanel.

Urbanic mainly engages in export fast fashion business, and its main products include clothing, accessories and home furnishings. The company serves young and powerful consumer groups aged 20 to 44.

(Image source: Urbanic)

Currently, Urbanic operates as an independent website and conducts sales through the local mainstream omni-channel.

Unlike many fast fashion brands that have been focusing on the North American market, Urbanic's products are sold to emerging regions such as Latin America, Brazil, Mexico and India . With its advantages such as high cost-effectiveness, wide variety and fast update of new products, it has quickly risen in emerging markets.

After only six months of going online, Urbanic's monthly sales reached millions of dollars.

According to Forbes, Urbanic is currently the number one DTC brand in India, with annual sales of more than $400 million for the entire company.

In the future, Urbanic will develop new products such as beauty and skin care products, mother and baby products, etc. based on the original categories.

One of the reasons why Urbanic has been recognized by consumers in overseas markets is its high cost-performance ratio.

Since its main customer group is middle-class women aged 20-44, and taking into account the consumption habits and spending power of this main customer group, Urbanic sets the product price at around 1,200 rupees (equivalent to RMB 103). On the official APP, the price of some items is only one-third of that of Zara, which is very attractive to local consumers.

Urbanic's overseas APP has more than 100,000 styles of fashionable women's clothing, and the speed of new products is quite fast. Moreover, the sizes are complete, ranging from XS-5XL, which can meet the needs of consumers of different body shapes.

It is worth noting that, unlike traditional cross-border e-commerce smart retail companies, Urbanic localizes international fashion designs through AI, data accumulation-driven operations and supply chain management. Its co-founder Xue Chi also said: "We use a human-machine combination selection model to efficiently combine buyer experience and automated machines to quickly screen out the best products. In addition, based on the local people's dressing habits, the team conducted C2M data modeling and adjusted the clothing pattern, making our product return rate much lower than the industry average."

Moreover, Urbanic has created a zero-inventory product model and uses personalized recommendation algorithms to manage and plan the supply chain. Whether it is order fulfillment, quality monitoring, or product delivery and returns, factories can master detailed data to better manage inventory and produce clothing according to demand. Urbanic has achieved rapid business expansion by leveraging the overseas dividends of the domestic supply chain and refined operations.

Urbanic focuses on traffic through social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. In addition to social media platforms, Urbanic has also entered local e-commerce platforms, such as the Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart.

In September 2021, Urbanic was officially launched on Flipkart's fashion website Myntra and achieved good results. Within 12 hours of the launch, Urbanic sold nearly 23,000 items, and a total of 51,000 items were sold within 24 hours of the launch, breaking the highest opening day sales record for Myntra website brands and becoming the second highest revenue brand on Myntra.

It is worth mentioning that recently, the National Business Daily and Shenzhen Yishi Technology jointly launched the "China Cross-border E-commerce Brand Influence List ( 2023/10)", announcing the search data and traffic of the TOP100 leading brands. Urbanic is on the list, ranking 22nd. In October, the natural traffic of Urbanic's independent site reached 3416.27K.

Several Chinese fashion brands have gained favor from the capital market

As the fashion clothing industry has great potential for overseas expansion, countless practitioners are rushing to enter the market, and more and more investors are also seeing the potential of this industry.

In addition to Urbanic, there are many fashion brands that have experienced rapid development in recent years and gained the favor of capital.

Halara: Sportswear

Halara is a fashion cross-border brand founded in 2020, mainly selling sports and leisure products such as yoga pants and tennis skirts.

Halara completed its Series A and Angel rounds of financing in just over a year. On July 29, 2020, it received $30 million in financing from investors including Capital Today and Shanxing Capital. On June 17, 2021, it received $100 million in financing from Capital Today, Sequoia China, IDG Capital, and other capitals.

Cider: Plus-size women's clothing, swimwear

Cider, a women's clothing brand targeting Generation Z women, is also favored by investors. It mainly sells women's clothing, swimwear and plus-size women's clothing, with overall product prices below US$50. It is affiliated to Beijing Lizhi and Mango Technology Co., Ltd., and its founder Wang Chen is the co-founder of Yi'ersan.

Since its establishment in May 2020, Cider has completed four rounds of financing. Its investors include domestic top venture capital firms IDG Capital and Heyu Capital, as well as top international venture capital firms DST Global and Silicon Valley legendary venture capital firm A16Z. Currently, Cider's valuation is approaching $1 billion.

Bloomchic: Plus-Size Womenswear

As a D2C brand focusing on the overseas plus-size women's clothing market , Bloomchic was established at the end of 2020 and is affiliated to Guangzhou Shenyi Information Technology Co., Ltd. Its founder is the son of Zhou Chengjian of Metersbonwe. It mainly sells plus-size clothing such as tops, pants, and dresses to the North American market.

In less than a year since its establishment, Bloomchic has completed multiple rounds of financing. Its investors include major investment companies such as Mingshi Capital and 5Y Capital, and the investment amount has reached tens of millions of dollars.

SHEIN's success has largely ignited a new round of enthusiasm for domestic fashion brands to go overseas. The increased investment from the capital market will also drive this track to continue to improve.

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