8th May 2018 – Rocket Internet announced today the acquisition of its Daraz Group platform by the Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba Group (“Alibaba”). The acquisition is 100% with an undisclosed amount.
This is the second major acquisition, after 45% stake in Telenor Bank, of Alibaba Group in Pakistan.
Founded in 2012, Daraz Group operates mainly in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar and is immensely popular in Pakistan, and is also the biggest eCommerce website of Pakistan.
According to Oliver Samwer, CEO of Rocket Internet,
The sale of Daraz to Alibaba is another testament to Rocket Internet’s ability to successfully scale and exit market-leading companies
Bjarke Mikkelsen, Co-Ceo of Daraz said,
With this transaction Daraz has found its natural home in the Alibaba family, and we are proud to carry our part of the mission to ‘make it easy to do business anywhere’
According to Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group,
We are excited for Daraz to become a part of the Alibaba ecosystem. Together with Daraz, we can now empower entrepreneurs to better serve consumers in the region through our technology and expertise. In Daraz, we found a great team that espouses our values and believes that a technology-enabled commerce ecosystem will play a critical role in driving the long term economic development in South Asia.
Helpful Links
Rocket Internet: http://www.rocket-internet.com
Alibab Group: http://www.alibabagroup.com/en/global/home
Daraz: http://www.daraz.com
Daraz.pk Press Release: https://www.daraz.pk/daraz-group-joins-the-alibaba-ecosystem/
German Press News: http://www.dgap.de/dgap/News/corporate/rocket-internet-alibaba-acquires-daraz/?newsID=1071229
