Breaking down an unfashionable story

This column was first published on The Malaysianist, a weekly guide to understanding Malaysia’s current affairs that focuses on money and power. It was edited to reflect Tech in Asia’s editorial guidelines.

Ecommerce platform FashionValet has been in the news the past few weeks. The latest update involves the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) claiming it had found suspicious transactions made to a company linked to FashionValet’s founding partner from 2018 until last year. 

MACC moved in following social media backlash over a parliamentary reply to Yeo Bee Yin, a member of parliament (MP), detailing the losses incurred by sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional and Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) in FashionValet. 

Khazanah invested 27 million ringgit (US$6 million) while PNB poured 20 million ringgit (US$4.48 million) in 2018, but both sold their stakes in the company for 3.1 million ringgit (US$695,000) in 2023. 

No charges have been made against FashionValet yet. 

Make the pitch

Fadzarudin Anuar and Vivy Yusof founded FashionValet in 2010, right after their undergraduate studies in London. Both come from relatively wealthy families and decided to hop on the ecommerce bandwagon straight out of university. 

FashionValet was established around a year ahead of Zalora, which was incorporated in 2011. While many credit Vivy’s social media presence for creating attention around the company, it was the couple’s debut on a TV show called Make The Pitch that embedded FashionValet into Malaysia’s startup ecosystem.

See also: Mapping Khazanah’s role in Malaysia’s tech investments

The company’s main business model was to be an aggregator or marketplace where customers could select brands and designs and get clothes delivered to them. In simple terms, this was a fashion website with some extras. 

Aside from catering to the Muslim market in its home base, FashionValet always had the idea of targeting the larger market in Southeast Asia and counted customers from Brunei and Singapore.

In 2015, the firm raised 5 million ringgit (US$1.16 million) from Silicon Valley-based Elixir Capital. The following year, it netted 21 million ringgit (US$5 million) from Zozotown, a Japanese fashion marketplace. 

Even when regional competitor Zalora launched in 2012, FashionValet was still ahead as it had better a website in terms of interface and user experience. 

In 2013, Vivy and Fadza incorporated 30 Maple, the holding company for the famous Duck hijabs. They would go on to incorporate Sitca Designs, which owns the Lilit clothing clothing brand, two years later. 

Institutional attention

Terrible ‘22

In the media crosshairs

Willing buyer, willing seller

Raids, grills, apologies