Techcrunch has an interesting article about The Iconic receiving $26 million in funding from Berlin incubator Rocket Internet.
Adding that to the $46 million (A$50 million) already raised, the site becomes the largest-ever investment in an e-commerce site in the country.
Seems as if retailers such as ASOS and others have seen the demand in online fashion and are fighting to capture a fairly untapped Australian market..
When we think about scale we know the Australian consumer loves fashion and spends more per capita than almost anywhere else in the world.
“We have high Internet penetration and smartphone usage, and high margins on retail fashion, as well as disposable income. But what is underdeveloped in Australia is the e-commerce industry,” says Jacobs. He says that ASOS, the U.K. online retailer, is its biggest competitor.
Rocket Internet has invested a bit in Australia. They had their hands in Wimdu(airbnb clone), Hellofresh(fruit/veggies delivered) and Zanui(homewares).
EDIT: As Scott pointed out, the comments from the article paint a different story:
I work for this company. its really struggling, actually. The place is built on smoke and mirrors. The metrics they release are forged. the visitors. the growth. everything. They don't have 500 brands. They have under 100 brands. They don't have 45k products. They have under 10k. The "co founders" aren't founders, they're employees w fancy titles. The money raised was for rocket not iconic. The place is a sham. And the guys running it are clueless!
And from the SMH
Stories have emerged that 10 per cent of the 300-strong workforce have been sacked over the past two weeks, but unconfirmed reports say the number was 20 per cent. The public relations and offline marketing team were iced.
Leaked emails seem to a bit strange with the Germans coining their funding of aggressive startups in countries as a Blitzkrieg. The original MDs, Ryan Touhy and Cameron Votan, have been kicked out.
Profits are not required because the entire Rocket business model is predicated on each online business becoming number one in its local market, and then being sold to a competitor who is prepared to pay big bucks to "take out" the competition.
Seems like this is the long term goal if you look at Rocket Internet's "selected exits".
Saw it last week and the comments of that TechCrunch article are actually quite interesting that paints a different picture.