Online fashion and lifestyle store Jabong receives gets $27.5 million investment from CDC Group plc

Rocket Internet incubated online fashion and lifestyle store Jabong had received $27.5 million investment from UK's development finance institution CDC Group plc.

However, according to CDC group, this formed only a part of Jabong's larger (yet-undisclosed) funding round. According to The Economic Times, Jabong was in the process of raising $100 million in this round, although Jabong co-founder and managing director Praveen Sinha had declined to comment on this to the publication.

According to CDC, Jabong planned to use the investment raised to develop its supply chain infrastructure and technology platform.

The Rocket Internet venture, which was inspired by Amazon's online clothing and shoe store Zappos, started its Indian operations in January 2012.

Rocket Internet followed up the success with a string of businesses like FoodPanda (which raised $20 million yesterday), FabFurnish (online furniture portal), OfficeYes (office products portal), Printvenue (online printing service), Cuponation (deals and coupon website) and Wimdu (apartment and holiday renting portal).

Jabong currently has on offer products including footwear, men's and women's apparel, home & furniture, jewellery, sports and accessories from brands like Adidas, FabIndia, Fastrack, Fila, Fossil, Giordano, Nike, Puma, Wildcraft and others. According to CDC, Jabong provided over 4,000 local manufacturers access to customers.

Jabong which was launched in January 2012 by Arun Chandra Mohan, Praveen Sinha, Manu Jain and Mukul Bafana, quickly emerged as a leading e-commerce platform in India.

The platform connects consumers with over 4,000 local manufacturers within the country. The firm had already secured millions of customers throughout India, with over half of them located outside major metropolitan areas.

According to commentators, for CDC Group, this could be very likely the first technology investment in India. Among the CDC's recent direct deals are microfinance company Equitas and renewable energy developer Green Infra.

Meanwhile, established e-commerce firms had been raising large rounds of funding over the last year with leaders in the industry starting to emerge. For Jabong, this funding comes even as another apparel e-tailer Myntra was all set to unveil its mega round of funding.

October last year saw, Flipkart.com, India's largest consumer e-commerce player, raise an additional $160 million in the fifth round of funding, from new investors, which included Belgium-based Sofina, US-based Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Dragoneer Investment Group and Vulcan Capital (founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen). Existing investor Tiger Global also participated in the round.