Zalando welcomes new shareholder

Zalando, Europe’s leading online retailer for shoes and fashion, has successfully completed

talks regarding an equity investment with international firm, DST Global. The investment firm has announced that it is acquiring 4 per cent of Zalando, an investment aimed at supporting the future growth of the retailer in Europe.

The Berlin-based e-commerce company was founded in 2008 by Robert Gentz and David Schneider offering fashion and lifestyle products to the German market. Following its success it expanded to its neighbouring European countries, starting with Austria in 2009, and the Netherlands and France in 2010. In 2011, the retailer expanded to Italy, the UK and Switzerland.

Rubin Ritter, Managing Director of Zalando, commented: "We are very pleased to have won DST as a new shareholder. With investments in Facebook, Zynga, Groupon, Twitter, 360buy and Alibaba, DST is one of the world's leading investment firms in the internet sector. Together with our shareholders Rocket Internet, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures, Kinnevik and DST we look forward to accelerating Zalando's growth in Europe even further."

"Zalando has a professional management team, an impressive growth record and great potential to capitalize on the fast growing European e-commerce market. “We look forward to being long-term partners of Zalando on its path to becoming a European Internet leader,” said Alexander Tamas, Partner at DST Global.