Ahead of Rocket Internet IPO, here are the numbers on its Southeast Asian ecommerce stores

Remember last week when Rocket Internet announced a US$445 million investment from Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) in exchange for a 10 percent stake in the company? That values the startup dynamo at US$4.45 billion. Even in light of the new deal, mainstream media suggest that Rocket Internet is moving forward with its plan for an IPO before year’s end.

So how big is Rocket and what kind of numbers are its startups pulling in? A new report from Investment AB Kinnevik, a Sweden-based consumer tech firm and investing partner of Rocket Internet, has the latest data for the Rocket empire in Q1 2014.

Rocket Internet’s web empire is on a mission to create the world’s largest internet platform outside of China and the US. In Asia, it operates an array of startups everywhere from Singapore to Myanmar, Indonesia to India. Rocket’s Southeast Asian portfolio includes now-household names like Zalora, Lazada, Carmudi, FoodPanda, and many more. Let’s focus on its two most important Asian estores – Lazada and Zalora.

Investment AB Kinnevik CEO Lorenzo Grabau

Zooming in on Zalora

Zalora takes a pan-regional approach to fashion ecommerce, with localized stores for the six Southeast Asian nations where it operates. Across those six markets, Zalora targets 533 million potential users.

Zalora features local and global clothing brands including Nike, Levis, Aldo, and Mango. It prides itself on strong online and offline presences (events, outdoor advertisements, etc). In 2012, the year of its inception, Zalora posted a US$95 million loss, but predicted profitability by 2015. By 2013, it has more than 1.6 million registered users.

See: 6 tactics Zalora is using to beat the fashion ecommerce competition

Approximately 70 percent of Zalora’s users are women, the majority falling between the ages of 18 and 35. The company gives credit to its marketing campaigns as drivers of early success. It cites budgeting based on customer acquisition, strong editorial content, and a focus on mobile as key sales channels. Currently, Zalora has more than 17 million monthly visitors, 4.8 million Facebook fans, over six million newsletter subscriptions, and 33 percent of users access the site via mobile devices.

One-third of Zalora’s sales come from its own fashion labels. Zalora has seven warehouses across the region and its average delivery time is about two days. 90 percent of customers in emerging markets Zalora serves prefer to pay via cash on delivery.

Apart from Kinnevik and Rocket Internet, Zalora is now backed by several blue chip global investors, including Summit Partners, Verlinvest, and JP Morgan.

Looking closer at Lazada