Founded 10 years ago, Konvy is now Thailand’s leading beauty e-commerce platform. It plans to accelerate its omnichannel and international distribution with a new $10 million Series A from Insignia Ventures Partners.
Konvy was launched in 2012 by Chinese entrepreneur QingGui Huang, who previously ran fashion e-commerce platforms in China. He now works with more than 1,000 brands, representing more than 20,000 SKUs. His brand portfolio includes L’Oréal, Shiseido, Sulwhasoo, Eucerin and La Roche-Posay.
“Konvy had the advantage of starting in Thailand when there weren’t any really big e-commerce players there at the time,” Huang told TechCrunch. “Since then, we have leveraged our pioneering advantage in Thailand to become a leading e-commerce player in the market.”
Konvy founders Leon Huang, Pornsuda Vangvidhayakul and QingHui Huang. Image credits: Konvy
Konvy’s goal is to help local and international beauty brands tap into two main trends. The first is that health and beauty shopping is a priority spending category for Thai consumers and the second is that Thailand has high rates of e-commerce shopping and social media use, meaning that young people in Thailand spend an average of about two hours and 55 minutes on social media each day.
Huang said he confirmed his assumptions about Thai spending on beauty products through conversations with brands, and that fueled his desire to start Konvy.
“This opportunity for health and beauty to be a priority spending category for Thai consumers is a function of both demand and supply circumstances favoring this consumer behavior over the last few decades,” he said. “On the supply side, Thailand has been a manufacturing hub for many international brands for more than 40 years. This has also generated a thriving local industry. On the demand side, we see that Thai consumers are connected to this ‘improvement’ mentality when it comes to health and beauty, that is, it’s not just about accessing such products, but about searching for the best products and a great willingness to spend on the latest trends.”
Konvy capitalizes on the high usage rate of social media by developing a feedback loop, where engagements with its partners’ brands not only help Konvy’s existing portfolio, but also help more brands in the future. For example, as more Gen Z consumers bought products they saw on TikTok during the pandemic, Konvy became more present on that channel.
In a statement, Insignia Ventures Partners Founding Managing Partner Yinglan Tan said: “While there may be stronger competitors from horizontal markets in the future, we believe Konvy is best positioned to be the market leader in the segment of online beauty given its longstanding brand. equity approach, brand-centric and community-led.”
Source: news.google.com