Beauty that doesn’t break the bank

• Ever tried purchasing Korean skincare products outside of Korea? You may have been worried about the authenticity, or perhaps you were intimidated by the language barrier and shipping costs. 500-backed K-beauty ecommerce platform Althea was launched in Malaysia in 2015 to solve precisely all of the above, at reasonable prices!
• Co-founder & newly appointed CEO Christopher Cynn now wants to double down on Althea’s customer-centric services and has launched its own brand, A’bloom.
• A’bloom addresses real customer needs, based on years of data collected, and is designed for Gen Zs with its affordable price point.
• Its goal? 300,000 Malaysians by 2023, and doubling the number of A’bloom shoppers by 2030.
• Read the full story on VulcanPost here.

Fusing fashion with tech

• 500-backed omnichannel fashion startup Pomelo wants to grow its GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) by 260%, 2x GMV for brands on its platform, and add over 2,000 new brands. How does it plan to do that? It partnered with Suuchi, a supply chain tech company, to execute a game-changing digital strategy.
• Both companies will combine proprietary technologies to drive efficiency and data visibility. Moving forward, everything can be tracked and measured — from mood board and collection development through to purchasing, production, quality, and logistics.
• “For the past 9 years, we have been empowering women everywhere to look and feel their best in quality fashion through our cutting-edge technology and innovation,” said David Jou, Co-founder & CEO of Pomelo Fashion. “As a leading fashion tech company, we need to ensure that our technology is highly efficient for both front-end customers and partner experience coupled with a powerhouse back-office operation.”
• Read the full announcement here.

The extra mile for efficient delivery

• “The growth of e-commerce worldwide is the silver lining of the pandemic,” said Arne Jeroschewski, Co-founder & CEO of 500-backed Parcel Perform. “However, data remains complex across different providers, languages, and time zones in the logistics industry.”
• This means there is an ever-present challenge for logistics providers and merchants to gain full transparency of the supply chain, and keep up with consumer expectations.
• Here is where Parcel Perform comes in with its machine learning engine. The platform provides real-time and accurate parcel tracking updates with up to 98% accuracy!
• “Our immediate plan is to scale and grow our commercial presence in North America and Latin America while concurrently doubling our headcount by 2022, doubling our ranks from over 150 employees across the United States, Germany, Singapore, and Vietnam,” Arne revealed, adding that product development will continue to be a key cornerstone.
• Read the full interview here.