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  • JD.com cashes in on steady online demand, beats market expectations

    JD.com cashes in on steady online demand, beats market expectations

    JD.com Inc’s fourth-quarter revenue beat expectations on Thursday as more shoppers flocked to its website on the back of a broader shift to online shopping triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

    While China has largely emerged from coronavirus lockdowns with most businesses resuming production, JD.com’s domestic consumers continue to shop online for everything from daily groceries to luxury products.

    The Beijing-based company posted revenue of 745.8 billion yuan ($114.97 billion) for the year, beating analysts’ estimate of 740.81 billion yuan.

    In a pandemic-struck year, during which retail sales fell 3.9% in China, JD.com’s strategy of ramping up its in-house delivery network enabled faster deliveries.

    The company has also been working to expand into price-sensitive lower-tier cities through its shopping platform Jingxi in a bid to stave off stiff competition from rivals like Alibaba and Pinduoduo that are equally popular.

    As a result, JD.com raked in 110 million new active customer accounts during the year. Meanwhile, Jack Ma’s Alibaba added about 68 million active buyers in the same period.

    U.S.-listed shares of the company, which have been volatile as China looks to tighten scrutiny on its tech giants, were up 3% at $91.98 in early trading.

    The world’s second-largest economy has vowed to strengthen oversight of its big tech firms, which rank among the world’s largest and most valuable, citing concerns they have built market power that stifles competition, misused consumer data, and violated consumer rights.

    The long-term impact of this on JD.com’s business, though unclear, remains a threat. In late December, regulators fined the company, along with Alibaba and other e-commerce sites, 500,000 yuan for engaging in irregular pricing.

    The company’s net revenue rose 31.4% to 224.3 billion yuan in the quarter ended Dec. 31, beating analysts’ estimate of 219.73 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

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  • Senreve raises funds for Asian expansion

    Senreve raises funds for Asian expansion

    Online fashion startup Senreve has raised US$16.75 million in Series A funding to expand into the fast-growing Asian market.

    The funds bring Senreve’s total capital raised to more than $23 million within three years.

    Led by Norwest Venture Partners, this latest round of funding will help co-founders Coral Chung and Wendy Wen take Senreve to reach a more global scale from its San Francisco base.“We focus on authentic brand storytelling, creating beautiful and luxurious products, and engaging with customer feedback and data,” said Senreve co-founder and CEO Coral Chung.

    “We’re thrilled to bring on an institutional partner like Norwest, and especially excited to partner with Sonya Brown who has a phenomenal track record of backing successful consumer brands,” said the firm’s COO Wendy Wen.

    “In a world where direct-to-consumer channels have become increasingly crowded, Senreve has been extremely savvy about how they introduce themselves digitally,” said Norwest general partner Sonya Brown. “Coral and Wendy’s ability to build a luxury brand practically overnight is a testament to their authentic understanding of the modern woman. In particular, Senreve resonates with the next generation of powerful women because they don’t want to compromise functionality to achieve luxury, and they shouldn’t have to. I am thrilled to partner with them for this next, exciting chapter.”

    The new funding is expected to significantly expand Senreve’s product offering, grow its geographic presence – particularly in its expanding Asian markets where it is looking to form strategic partnerships – and explore new brick-and-mortar retail opportunities.

    As a female-founded start-up, this latest round of funding is a milestone for the company as well as extremely rare in the startup landscape. According to PitchBook, female-founded start-up companies receive only 2.2 per cent of the total capital invested by US venture capital firms, despite owning 38 per cent of businesses in the country.

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