Croquis – the startup behind women’s online shopping mall app Zigzag – has netted 7 billion won (USD $6.2m) in Series B funding from Stronebridge Capital and Altos Ventures.
Zigzag was launched in 2015 and is an aggregator for women’s online fashion stores. Privately owned and small-scale clothing websites are popular in South Korea, offering stylish clothes at affordable prices. So far the app has seen 6 million downloads, with an average of 1.5 million users on average per month.
On the back of this success, Coquis received its first investment of 3 billion won (USD $2.64m) from Altos Ventures in April last year. According to the company, the latest funding will be used to stabilize its operations in Korea, and to eventually take the platform overseas.
One of the most popular features of the app are its ranking lists, showing the most popular online stores. Lists can be filtered according to age groups such as “early twenties”, so users can get results that fit them better. The service also recommends items to users based on app usage.
According to Son Ho-jun from Stonebridge Capital, the market for Korea’s small and out-of-home fashion stores is worth several trillion won and is quickly moving to mobile. He says that as well as offering a great service for users, he expects Zigzag to help boost the number of customers for shopping malls at little cost. Croquis CEO Johnny Seo also emphasized that it wants to help businesses, creating sustainable business for retailers in the fashion shopping district of Dongdaemun, as well supporting new businesses entering the market.
The startup aims to enter the global market by developing a version of Zigzag aimed at the Asia region, expected to be launched next year.
