KDDI’s ‘Syn Alliance’ grows stronger as telco acquires ecommerce site Luxa

In acquiring Luxa, an ecommerce site specializing in high-end sales, KDDI has finally got its mark. The telco first invested in the startup back in 2013 for US$3.3 million. KDDI later joined forces with Luxa for its “Syn Alliance,” a collection of popular internet properties designed to form a more perfect mobile portal site last October. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Details on Luxa are scarce. The startup offers flash sales on typically expensive items ranging from clothes to massage chairs to scuba weekend getaways. In March 2013, Tech in Asia learned that the firm has 350,000 registered users and was gunning for one million. Six months later it had hit 450,000. Since that funding news, however, there have been no press releases on revenue or user numbers. Today, a Luxa representative told Tech in Asia that the firm passed 1 million registered users last November. Annual sales and profits could not be disclosed.

How Luxa appears as a member of the Syn Alliance. On the left, Alliance members sites can be accessed. On the right, Luxa’s typical navigation plus a Syn Ad.

Luxa is the second company founded by Soichiro “Swimmy” Minami, a former finance professional turned serial entrepreneur. After founding BizReach, a job site for individuals earning over US$100,000 per year, in 2009, he started Luxa a year later. Though Luxa has taken about US$10 million in outside funding, BizReach continues to be fully bootstrapped and profitable as it expands its target demographics.

Luxa marks the third Syn Alliance member KDDI has acquired following the purchases of life hacking site Nanapi and Buzzfeed-esque ranker Bitcellar last year.