Pureplay international ecommerce retailers tend to fit into one of two categories:
- Small niche retailers with lowish growth potential.
- Very large monoliths like Amazon, Alibaba, JD.com, Zalando, who manage growth by investing huge amounts upfront in each market.
The third category – good growth, profitability, international reach – seems much rarer. Daniel Wellington, Gymshark, Palace Skateboards may be examples of this in recent years, but those types of companies are few & far between.
Navabi, the ‘global leader in plus size fashion’ seem to have managed to become another among this club: a rare example of an international pureplay ecommerce company with good growth managed profitably and have, as a result, announced a new round of investment to further push growth.
The company has secured an 8-figure euro investment from Verdane Capital, the Nordic investor known for their ecommerce specialism, and a successful IPO with Boozt (‘the Nordic Zalando’). Previous investors, including Index Ventures, remain on-board.
The move follows recent collaborations with Hayley Hasselhof and other celebrities, a range of ‘Influencer Collaborations’, new product offerings from Levi’s and others who seem to have recognized the growing Plus segment of the market, and the launch of their first Spanish-language site.
Navabi plan to use the investment to secure international growth (currently around 1/3 of business is outside of their home region Germany), to invest further in their BI, Data Science, and AI work, and to push the success they’ve had around data-driven marketing, customer satisfaction, and product development further into merchandising.
The retailer stocks over 150 well-known labels such as Marina Rinaldi Sport and Levi’s. Navabi has also successfully launched own brands which are growing strongly and already account for one third of the company’s sales. navabi is available in more than 30 countries, including Germany, the UK, France and the USA.(growing their stable of own brands further).
The company’s co-founder & co-CEO, Bahman Nedaei commented “We are delighted to partner with Verdane Capital IX who has strong roots in the fashion and online retail industry and who shares our vision of sustainable and profitable growth.” Co-founder Zahir Dehnadi added: “We think all women, irrespective of size, should be able to find beautiful and high quality clothes and our goal is for navabi to become synonymous with plus size fashion. Buying clothes when you are plus size can be challenging but by understanding what our customers need and desire, we ensure that shopping at navabi is a truly enjoyable experience.”
