The investment company specialises in technology-based e-commerce businesses and has agreed to acquire more than 20% of Singapore-based Luxola from company founder and CEO Alexis Horowitz-Burdick.
Luxola was established in 2011 and has been developed as an e-commerce retailer specialising in cosmetics products that are exclusively available in the online retail channel.
The company’s e-tail reach has been extended to eight of the biggest ASEAN markets, which on top of the domestic Singapore market now also include Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, UAE Brunei and Hong Kong.
Tapping into some of the world's major growth markets
Growth in many of these markets has been fuelled by significant economic expansion that has translated into higher consumer spend on cosmetic and personal care products.
Indeed, Indonesia has recently emerged as one of the fastest growing markets in the world, being identified as a BIITS market, which also includes Brazil, India, Turkey and South Africa, while the Philippines has also been singled out as currently being the fastest growing market in Asia, after China.
Luxola said it chose to form the alliance because it has now entered a period of hyper growth, with forecasts predicting that the company's revenue will expand by approximately 450% compared to the revenue recorded in 2013.
Targeting enhanced marketing, customer care and mobile accessiblity
The new investment targets enhanced services, including improved user marketing, customer care, and mobile experience across all of the eight ASEAN countries in the region.
Specific to Thailand and Indonesia, the company says it also want to invest in the new construction and expansion of distribution centres to serve those markets.
Transcosmos will be further supporting this stage of the expansion by providing executive level personnel who are specialised digital marketing and customer support specific to this area of business, while longer-term plans should see further development of the alliance between the two companies.
"We believe that there is no other example within ASEAN comparable to Luxola as a reliable cross-border E-Commerce company dealing with cosmetics, and we also think that its business will continue to expand even further in the future keeping pace with the growth of the cosmetics market in ASEAN,” said Masataka Okuda, transcosmos President and COO.
Building on previous investments in Luxola
Last April Luxola announced that it had secured an undisclosed A round line of investment from Gree Ventures, a Japan-based venture capitalist business that specializes in the retail and consumer markets Asian-wide.
The investment enabled to launch the online sales of luxury cosmetics in the Southeast Asian markets of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines – four markets that have been enjoying strong economic and retail growth
In February of 2013, the company said that it was targeting expansion into Southeast Asia, by continuing its focus on masstige and luxury international brands, claiming to be the first major online cosmetics retailer to target this region.
At the time it also announced that it had added US skin care brand SK-11, as well as Maybelline, to its portfolio of available brands – also making it the first online retailer in the region to market the brands.