Fashion goes out of the style and performs fashion startups. LYST, a high -end fashion marketplace with $ 160 million users, has been acquired at $ 155 million in all cash transactions. The buyer is Zozo, a Japanese fashion and e -commerce business.
Zozo owns several fashion brands with the same names as Zozo’s Wear and Zozotown and Zozosuit.
(But for another reason, you can know your name better. Founder Yusaku Maezawa insisted on the title “Most Retweight Tweets” when the platform was still Twitter.
Zozo said it will continue to operate LYST -based LYST as a standalone business as part of its stability. Currently, Lyst CEO Emma MCFERRAN will be with the company.
Compared to the last evaluation of LYST, the acquisition is coming in a period of powerful uncertainty in the e -commerce world. LYST was specifically facing the headwind in three directions.
First, the US tariff hiking has questioned how world trade will look for for several months and years, including the impact of selling goods to US consumers other than US companies, but the ripple effect on transactions between countries and regions. Nearly one -third of LYST’s sales based in London comes from the current US sales.
Second, even before these tariffs became a problem, LYST faced large -scale competition online with huge people such as Amazon and Temu as well as other professional players.
Third, today’s technical investors have excessively ignored everything about artificial intelligence and everything. It has put a lot of pressure on the company No ~ In that space, a similar growth trajectory and a growth story that includes AI anyway.
(Lyst and Zozo have obtained a note. The pairs will change the future of fashion discovery through AI and technology. ”They will notice in the presentation. The expression is re -mentioned in the release, but there is no specific detail on what it means.)
The contract offers Zozo a foothold in the UK but offers international business. LYST said that there are customers in 190 markets, 30%of business in the United States, 24%in the United Kingdom, and 34%in Europe.
LYST leans on the long tail of the fashion brand aggregate in the marketplace model. It claims that it offers 27,000 brands, including designers and retailers. This list is prada, gucci, Bottega veneta, valentino, miu miu; Coach, Michael Kors, Hugo Boss, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods.
LYST was one of the highest scores of Covid-19 and the winner of the e-commerce boom. In the round led by Fidelity, it received about $ 700 million when raising $ 85 million in May 2021. Other big investors in the company include Accel, Balderton, and Molten (previous Draper Esprit). At that time, the company explained the funds in the IPO round. However, the IPO Windows Slam not only closed the door, but also lost the air when an e -commerce company saw by an infectious company when the consumer returned to pre -male spending habits. (And investors have moved to the next big thing.
And more specifically in fashion e -commerce, the market has made these brands individually and collectively.
One spokesman explains that Lyst’s 160 million users are “annual users.” But the numbers include active shopping and Windows shopping. It is difficult to know how successful the company, which is an important part of the e -commerce model, has succeeded in transitioning. Another big name for high -end fashion commerce, such as Farfetch, also sprinkled nose in Cobid.
In December 2024, Lyst’s most recent financial submission in the company’s house, and the company mentioned that the total income of the year ended on March 31, 2024 was £ 550 million ($ 66 million). This was 50 million pounds compared to the previous year.
At that time, LYST was not profitable, but it reduced the loss from £ 150 million to £ 555 million that year. (In addition, operating profit was also posted before £ 443,000.)
MCFERRAN said in a statement: “This is an exciting moment for Lyst, and it is a win -win moment for the fashion ecosystem of shoppers and partners as part of Zozo Group.
The problem is now whether or not to get a better scale through Zozo whether it will give Lyft to give it a lift for it.
