Germany-based retail group Tengelmann’s corporate venturing unit has made its third online fashion investment incubated at Rocket Internet in as many months by backing Singapore-based Zalora. Zalora said it had raised €20m ($25m), while Tengelmann has previously invested in Lazada and Linio. Founded last year, Zalora in September raised “significant double digit millions” of dollars from investment bank JP Morgan, according to a source to news provider TechCrunch, which added that other investors in Zalora included Summit Partners and Invus. Christian Winter, chief executive of Tengelmann Ventures, told news provider Tech In Asia: “This is a synergistic and promising partnership given both our strengths in retail and the tremendous potential of the e-commerce market in Asia.” Zalora has also started building a regional software development centre in Singapore because of its universities. Zalora told Tech In Asia: “Our chief product officer had shared that Zalora chose Singapore over seven other lower-cost Zalora countries for the talent pool in Singapore – two top universities with excellent Computer Science departments, and fresh talent from the polytechnics.”

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