Participated · Series D · Jan 2019

Memebox builds and scales private-label beauty brands using data-driven consumer insights and the latest Korean technology and formulations. Its core product strategy centers on creating indie K-Beauty brands and formulations and bringing them to market. The company’s portfolio includes I Dew Care, Kaja, Nooni and Pony Effect. Memebox plans to use new capital to strengthen its portfolio by investing in digital capabilities and working with innovative manufacturing and retail partners. Financially, the company has raised $190M to date, including a $35M Series D announced in January 2019. Memebox graduated Y Combinator in 2014 and recently reintroduced its e-commerce engine and launched the Kaja color makeup line in partnership with Sephora. Memebox began in 2012 as a beauty box service and has evolved into an online makeup and cosmetics store selling both its own brands and third-party products. The company operates physical stores in Korea but is predominantly focused on online sales. It says an average of 88% of purchases worldwide come via mobile, rising to 94% for Asia-based customers. Founder and CEO Dino Ha recently relocated to San Francisco as the company increases its focus on the U.S. and China while Korea remains its largest market. Memebox reports annual revenues over $100 million but is not yet profitable. The company plans to use new funding to continue operations and expand its global footprint. Memebox began in 2012 as a beauty-box company and pivoted to a direct-to-consumer e-commerce model. It sells over 1,200 Korean beauty products and has developed 450 products across four own brands, with income from those own brands higher than general platform sales. The company operates across offices in San Francisco, Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore and has nearly 250 staff. Memebox reports a $150M GMV annual run rate and 280% annual growth, with China up 1,200% year-on-year and the U.S. up 490% year-on-year. The business has four million app downloads, 80% of sales from mobile, and is not yet profitable but is aiming for profitability by next year. It plans to add two more own brands before year-end and expand offline with more brick-and-mortar stores beyond its first Seoul location. Memebox is a Seoul-based e-commerce company focused on curating and selling Korean beauty brands and its own private-label cosmetics. The company sells themed beauty boxes individually (not by subscription), though boxes account for less than five percent of revenue; the bulk of sales come from its e-commerce store and private label. Memebox uses search, sales, customer feedback, and social data to inform product development and aims to turn trends into private-label products in about two months using vertical integration. Mobile apps drive roughly 80% of transactions, and the company plans to launch 10 new apps. It has expanded into China with a localized site, a Shanghai team of 20, and about 24,000 active U.S. customers. Memebox has raised $29.35M to date and is investing in operations, app upgrades, private-label expansion, and improved logistics, including company-run fulfillment centers. Memebox is a South Korean beauty subscription commerce company launched in 2012 by CEO Dino Ha. It offers a curated subscription service in which beauty specialists select beauty items for customers. The company operates beyond South Korea, with its service also available in the USA and Japan. In 2013 Memebox raised $500K in funding from SparkLabs Global Ventures. The company said it will use the funds to continue to grow. Memebox provides curated beauty products through its subscription-commerce model.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2016

Gojek operates ride-hailing and payments services in Indonesia and has expanded into food delivery and other digital services. The company is working to seal a proposed merger with e-commerce platform Tokopedia to create a new entity called GoTo in an $18 billion deal, according to media reports. Gojek has raised over $3.45 billion to date from investors including Google, Facebook, PayPal, Visa, and Tencent. It maintains a strategic partnership with Telkomsel dating to 2018 that includes subsidizing mobile data costs for driver partners and integrations such as Telkomsel MyAds with GoBiz and onboarding MSME partners via the DigiPOS Aja! application. The firms also co-market gaming services through Telkomsel’s Dunia Games and GoPay in collaboration with Tencent. Telkomsel, which has more than 170 million subscribers, said the investment will open opportunities to scale digital services and innovations developed by homegrown companies. Gojek began as a ride-hailing service and has grown into a multi-service platform that includes digital payments and food delivery. The company serves about 170 million users in Indonesia. Gojek has raised over $3 billion to date and was valued at about $10 billion earlier this year. It has been lossmaking and competes directly with rival Grab. Gojek and telecom operator Telkomsel have an ongoing commercial relationship dating back to 2018 to subsidize driver mobile data usage. The firms say they will explore a broad range of collaboration opportunities to reach millions more Indonesians and deepen digital-economy adoption. Gojek operates ride-hailing, meal delivery, and payments services across Southeast Asia. The company announced a $1.2 billion funding round and has now raised nearly $3 billion in total. Investors in the latest round were not disclosed, although existing backers include Google, Tencent, and Temasek. Leadership is held by co-CEOs Andre Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi after founder Nadiem Makarim left to become Indonesia’s education and culture minister. Gojek said it will use the new funding to expand operations and that it is engaged in ongoing conversations with potential partners. The company faces competition from Grab and has been the subject of merger-talk rumors; there were also unconfirmed reports of interest from Amazon. Gojek is an Indonesian ride-hailing and multi-service company that offers a range of on-demand services. The company has launched a new video streaming offering. Gojek plans to add Japanese content to that streaming service as part of a partnership with investors. The immediate financial development is a planned investment of about $50 million from the state-backed Cool Japan Fund. The investment is also intended to promote Japanese cuisine through Gojek’s platform. No other financial metrics or user numbers are provided in the article. Go-Jek operates a ride-hailing and on-demand services platform and is expanding its core transport offering across Southeast Asia. The company is raising a Series F round and pulled in $100 million from Astra, an existing investor. Go-Jek is aiming to bring in at least $2 billion in the round and has closed around half of that capital. Astra's investment includes a strategic joint venture to equip Go-Jek's cars with Astra's fleet management system, with a rollout starting with "thousands" of Go-Car drivers. The capital is being raised to expand Go-Jek's services regionally; the company recently launched its Thailand-based Get business, has expanded to Vietnam and Singapore, and is primed to offer services in the Philippines soon. The company is Indonesian and competing for regional market share.