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Hi readers,
I’m not a sports fan, but I’ve dabbled in startups long enough to know that business is a team sport. And as with any team sport, not every player is going to stay when management changes hands.
Some may depart because of a conflict of beliefs and egos. Others, whose contracts are about to expire, have more practical reasons to up and leave. Many in the Lazada mafia would likely resonate with these reasons.
Although members of the company’s alumni network were behind several high-profile startups as early as 2012, the scale of the group truly skyrocketed after Alibaba’s acquisition of Lazada in 2016.
Several characteristics distinguish the Lazada mafia from others. For one, the companies in the network are very young. Our analysis found that 73% of Lazada alumni startups were founded after the Alibaba acquisition. Most of them are also in the pre-series and series A stages.
Second, the group is striking out on its own path. Unlike the Alibaba mafia which rode the same waves as the Chinese tech giant, most Lazada alumni startups are venturing into industries that Lazada does not have a presence in.
These proteges may no longer play for team Lazada, but that doesn’t mean they’ve shaken off all ties with the ecommerce major. Some, like Una Brands and Branded Group, are leveling the ecommerce playing field for Lazada-affiliated merchants, and others may help realize the ecommerce firm’s bigger aspirations yet.
— Tay Tian Wen, journalist at Tech in Asia
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Image credit: Timmy Loen
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