Society Pass, owner of Leflair brand, gears up for US listing

US tech firm Society Pass, which owns Vietnam-based ecommerce brand Leflair, is gearing up for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol SOPA.

The company, which is incorporated in Nevada, has been primarily focused on Vietnam so far. It expects to raise about US$27 million from the IPO and use the new proceeds to grow its ecommerce business in Southeast Asia via acquisitions, with Indonesia and the Philippines as priority markets.

Photo credit: Leflair

Earlier this year, Society Pass purchased the Leflair brand, which it recently relaunched in Vietnam to target online consumers that want to buy premium products at discounted prices.

The original Leflair was founded in 2015 by two French entrepreneurs, Loic Gautier and Pierre-Antoine Brun. The startup raised US$12 million from investors but closed in 2020 due to a capital crunch and operational issues.

Both of Leflair’s co-founders have joined the executive team at Society Pass, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

See also: Lessons from the fall of luxury e-tailer Leflair

“We’re not doing mass market,” Dennis Nguyen, Society Pass founder and CEO, told Tech in Asia in an interview. “Consumers in the region are getting a lot smarter and more discerning on what they want to spend their ecommerce dollars on.”

Nguyen says he does not see Leflair competing with brands on Shopee or Lazada. He adds that the new Leflair will partner with global luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren so these retailers can sell their excess inventories at discounted prices to consumers in Vietnam and the region.

Besides Leflair, Society Pass also runs two other platforms in Vietnam: SoPa, which offers online food ordering and a rewards scheme, and Hottab, a point-of-sale service provider specializing in payment infrastructure, loyalty management, and joint marketing programs for merchants.

Society Pass says it has amassed over 1.5 million registered users and over 3,500 registered merchants and brands since 2019. According to its IPO filing, the company’s revenue in the first half of this year was about US$17,000 while incurring a net loss of US$4.2 million.