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Thu Huong Le · · 5 min readCoolmate wants to be Vietnam’s next unicorn
With additional analysis by Miguel Angel Cordon
Pham Chi Nhu appears surprisingly relaxed as the co-founder and CEO of a fast-growing startup.
Coolmate, the Vietnamese direct-to-consumer men’s apparel brand he launched in 2019, recently secured US$6 million in funding from Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India – a notable achievement amid the ongoing tech winter. The company is eyeing an ambitious goal: to become a unicorn by 2030.
At a time when Temu, Shein, and TikTok Shop dominate the conversation in Southeast Asia’s retail space, what gives Coolmate the confidence that it can survive amid such cutthroat competition?
Not fast fashion
Pham initially began by selling clothes on Shopee, but he soon found it unsustainable. The marketplace’s fees ate into his profits, and it was hard to retain customers with nonbranded products.
Coolmate co-founder and CEO Pham Chi Nhu (first row, third from left) / Photo credit: Coolmate
So with two other co-founders, he launched an online platform to sell men’s essentials, including shorts, activewear, T-shirts, polos, and underwear.
Coolmate targets customers who are unwilling or unable to pay premium prices for brands like Nike or Adidas but prefer quality products over no-name, low-cost items from China.
For instance, a men’s training T-shirt on Coolmate is priced at around 200,000 Vietnamese dong (US$8), about a quarter of what Nike or Adidas charges. Meanwhile, many men’s training T-shirts in Temu Vietnam are priced at under US$8.
See also: Southeast Asia’s ecommerce players go low to get ahead in price war
“But we’re not fast fashion. Our customers are 18- to 34-year-olds who view clothing as a necessity and favor minimal designs,” says Pham in an interview with Tech in Asia at Coolmate’s Hanoi headquarters, which was buzzing with livestreaming sessions on November 11.
“Essentially, our customers are people like me,” the 33-year-old CEO adds.
Coolmate products / Photo credit: Coolmate
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The D2C brand is targeting US$45 million in sales next year. Can it persuade customers to shift away from Shein and Temu?
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