Carlsquare advised ZOZO, Inc. (‘ZOZO’), the leading fashion platform in Japan, to expand their footprint outside Japan with the acquisition of (‘Lyst’), a UK-based global fashion shopping platform, for equity purchase price of $154m. This transaction marks the cornerstone of ZOZO’s international expansion strategy. Together with Lyst, ZOZO aims to transform the future of fashion discovery through AI and technology. Lyst’s growth strategy will be fully supported by ZOZO, who will invest in accelerating the development of Lyst’s cutting-edge AI-driven discovery experience.
Operated by ZOZO, “ZOZOTOWN” is Japan’s largest fashion e-commerce platform, renowned for combining technology and fashion to deliver highly personalized shopping experiences. It serves 12 million customers annually, and provides innovative shopping experiences through its proprietary measurement technologies including ZOZOMAT and ZOZOGLASS.
Lyst, founded in 2010 in London and backed by leading investors including LVMH Group, Accel, Molten, 14W, and Balderton, is a global fashion shopping platform connecting over 160 million shoppers annually with more than 97 million SKUs from 27,000 of the world’s premium brands and retailers. Leveraging one of the largest data sets in fashion, Lyst fuses AI with fashion intelligence to create new and immersive ways for shoppers to discover fashion through its app and website. Lyst’s unique positioning and perspective fuels The Lyst Index, an influential industry benchmark ranking hottest brands and products.
Lyst’s strong footprint across the US, UK and Europe is complementary to ZOZO’s leading market position in Japan, providing pathways for both companies to expand into new markets.
Lyst management team will stay onboard and be fully supported by ZOZO to realize the shared vision to provide consumers worldwide with better fashion choices, inspire individual style discovery, and transform fashion into a more liberated and creative experience.
Carlsquare acted as the exclusive advisor to ZOZO, Inc.
