2 years after pitching on reality TV show, this Malaysian ecommerce startup pockets series A funding

Just over two years after being a finalist on Malaysian startup pitching TV show Make The Pitch, fashion ecommerce store FashionValet has secured series A funding to help its growth. The investment amount is revealed only as “multi-million dollar” in size, coming from US-based Elixir Capital.

FashionValet has a variety of western as well as muslim clothing for women.

The Malaysian-based startup hasn’t revealed any user numbers or revenue figures, but we’ve contacted the team for details. FashionValet CEO and co-founder Fadzarudin Anuar says that ecommerce purchases make up only about one percent of retail sales in Malaysia, compared to about 10 percent in China, the US, and Europe, which means his startup is in there early and poised for growth.

The store is run by Anuar along with Vivy Yusof (pictured below), who are married. They started FashionValet in 2010 when they were dating.

There’s already a major challenger in Malaysia in the form on Rocket Internet’s fashion estore Zalora, which operates in 10 Southeast Asian nations. Zalora’s shoppers spent a total of EUR 56 million (US$70.1 million) in the first half of 2014, which is the newest data available for now, so it’s already a sizable rival for any startup doing fashion ecommerce.

This investment is the first from Elixir Capital’s US$150 million Straits Fund I, established a year ago, that focuses on high growth tech businesses across ASEAN nations, especially Malaysia and Indonesia.

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