Hard reality cuts into luxurious Reebonz

Despite being a pioneer in Southeast Asia’s luxury online marketplace business, Reebonz has failed to turn in a profit for over a decade. Now, after being booted out of Nasdaq, it’s up against increasing competition

Founded in 2009, Reebonz was launched by serial entrepreneur Samuel Lim with the aim to make luxury accessible to Asians

It raised over US$50 million from a slew of prominent global investors including GGV Capital, Vertex Ventures, Intel Capital to grow its business

In end-2018, Reebonz went public on Nasdaq through a merger with a blank-cheque company, but retail investors didn’t quite buy into its strategies

Running a luxury online marketplace isn’t easy in Southeast Asia where the addressable market is not as large as the West

Seventeen months. That’s how long Reebonz lasted on Nasdaq. In July, Nasdaq delisted the Singapore-based luxury online marketplace after it failed to meet the minimum share price requirement of US$1 for more than 30 days.

For a company that brought luxury brands like Chanel, Prada, Gucci, Balenciaga, Burberry, and Louis Vuitton, among others, to the fingertips of Asian consumers, it was a crushing blow.

Reebonz (pronounced “ribbons”) launched in 2009 with an aim to “make luxury accessible” to Asians. It broke the conventional model of selling luxury items offline to maintain their exclusivity and scarcity. Today, Reebonz is an online marketplace for over 1,000 brands and 172 luxury boutiques, with shipping available to 17 countries.

AUTHOR

Ka Kay Lum

Based in Kuala Lumpur, Ka Kay covers investment activities, aka following the money, across Southeast Asia and in-depth stories on the often-overlooked Malaysian startup ecosystem. She was previously a regional writer for Nikkei-owned DealStreetAsia.

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