Fast fashion estore Pomelo adds more funds to its series A round, now stands at $11 million

Image credit: Pomelo

Pomelo – an online retail brand targeting Southeast Asian customers, today announced additional investment into its series A round, adding up to a total of US$11 million.

Jungle Ventures led the follow-on round after previously leading Pomelo’s pre-series A financing. Existing investors also participated, along with new names such as Andre Hoffmann, 500 Startups with its 500 Tuk Tuks fund, and Jonathan Price.

See: How Pomelo’s pre-series A round went

Pomelo has 130 employees around the region, and it plans on expanding in Southeast Asia using these funds. The company is backed by a solid team, hiring Meg Mistry (former regional creative director at Zalora) as brand president and James Lamrock (former chief logistics officer at Luxola – now Sephora) as regional vice president of operations. Jonathan Price, current senior advisor at TPG also joins Pomelo as an advisor, previously managing director of The Body Shop Asia and global COO of Targus.

Pomelo’s humble beginnings trace back to Thailand in 2013. With headquarters in Bangkok and offices in Jakarta and Singapore, the online retailer now has customers in over 44 countries across the globe. Pomelo even attracted the mentions of prominent fashion Youtubers like Jenn Im from clothesencounters.

Stanley Chum, Pomelo’s regional vice president for affairs and talent, tells Tech In Asia that Pomelo analyzes its inventory through an automated supply chain. “This has helped us reduce cost and allowed us to better service our customers.”

Pomelo works with its own designers and production facilities, giving it a unique edge. “Ecommerce is clearly approaching a tipping point in Southeast Asia and we’re lucky to be one of the leaders in the fast growing fashion vertical,” said Pomelo co-founder and CEO David Jou.

“With our own designers and manufacturers, we are able to cut out the middlemen and provide better pricing to our customers,” Stanley further explains.

Customers can easily shop at Pomelo by going to the site, picking items to put in their shopping cart, and paying via credit card, bank transfer, or cash upon delivery. Through its website, Pomelo promises to ship in 1 to 3 business days, depending on the customer’s area of residence.

(Update October 27, 5:20 pm: The title of and introduction to this article were slightly edited. In the original version, Tech In Asia wrote that Pomelo closed its series A round. According to a Pomelo spokesperson, the current investment represents a follow-on investment in that round, not its closing.)