Fast fashion retailer Shein hits $100bn valuation with fresh funding round
Fast-fashion giant Shein has hit a $100bn valuation this week after a fresh funding round, making it the third most valuable startup in the world after Elon Musk’s SpaceX and ByteDance.
The Chinese retailer has secured between $1bn and $2bn from investors including General Atlantic, Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital China to catapult its valuation from just $20bn in 2020, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
Shein’s valuation now tops the combined value of Zara-owner Inditex and H&M, the two biggest clothing companies in the world.
Demand has rocketed through the pandemic as the digital retailer capitalised on a surge in demand for online retail.
The firm trawls social media sites like TikTok to pick up new fashion trends before quickly turning out clothing designs targeting younger consumers.
Boss Molly Miao says the firm releases between 700 and 1,000 new items a day, with the firm producing around 50-100 of each product and mass producing those that see high demand.
The approach has drawn the ire of some campaigners who say it has contributed to the industry’s fast fashion problem – its fast turn around model produces between 35,000 and 100,000 pieces per day, based on the figures provided by Shein.
But the approach has seen it surge past H&M, Zara and Forever 21 to become the biggest fast-fashion retailer in the US by sales, with 28 per cent of the market, according to Earnest Research
But it has drawn the ire of some campaigners who say it has contributed to the industry’s fast fashion problem. The fast turn around approach produces between 35,000 and 100,000 pieces per day, based on
Bosses at the firm have looked to play down IPO rumours in the past but the firm has been linked to New York listing and is said to be working with a number of Wall Street banks.