By CHENG Lu

Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Lazada has received an US$845 million (6.06 billion) investment from parent company Alibaba Group to support local businesses in Southeast Asia and improve the customer experience. 

Alibaba’s reorganization in March established a global digital business group, led by former Tmall President JIANG Fan. 

Alibaba bought Lazada in 2016, and has poured money into the company ever since, investing US$1 billion in 2017, US$2 billion in 2018 and US$1.6 billion last year. Prior to this act of open-handedness,  Lazada received US$353 million investment from Alibaba in April. Alibaba’s total investment in Lazada now stands close to US$6 billion.

Lazada was founded in Singapore in 2012, and was bought by Alibaba four years later. But it was only in 2022, under Jiang’s leadership, that Lazada took charge of localized e-commerce operations globally, leading expansion into new markets like Spain in Europe.