by Founded 10 years ago, Konvy is now Thailand’s leading beauty e-commerce platform. It plans to accelerate its omnichannel and international distribution with a new $10 million Series A from Insignia Ventures Partners.
Konvy was launched in 2012 by Chinese entrepreneur QingGui Huang, who previously ran fashion e-commerce platforms in China. It now works with over 1,000 brands, representing over 20,000 SKUs. Its brand portfolio includes L’Oréal, Shiseido, Sulwhasoo, Eucerin and La Roche-Posay.
“Konvy had the advantage of starting in Thailand when there weren’t really any major e-commerce players there at the time,” Huang told TechCrunch. “We have since leveraged our first mover advantage in Thailand to become a leading e-commerce player in the market.”
Konvy founders Leon Huang, Pornsuda Vangvidhayakul and QingHui Huang
Konvy’s goal is to help local and international beauty brands capitalize on two big trends. The first is that health and beauty shopping is a priority spending category for Thai consumers, and the second is that Thailand sees high rates of e-commerce shopping and social media usage, meaning young people in Thailand spend an average of about two hours and 55 minutes on social media each day.
Huang said he confirmed his assumptions about Thai spending on beauty products through conversations with brands, and that drove his desire to start Konvy.
“This opportunity for health and beauty to be a priority spending category for Thai consumers is a function of both the demand and supply conditions that have favored this consumer behavior over the past few decades,” he said. “On the supply side, Thailand has been a manufacturing hub for many international brands for over 40 years. This has also created a thriving local industry. On the demand side, we see that Thai consumers are connected to this ‘upgrading’ mentality when it comes to health and beauty, meaning it’s not just about access to such products, but actually looking for the best products and a great willingness to spend on the latest trends’.
Konvy capitalizes on the high rate of social media usage by developing a feedback loop where engagements with its partner brands not only help Konvy’s existing portfolio, but also help more brands in the future. For example, as more Gen Z consumers bought products they saw on TikTok during the pandemic, Konvy became more present on that channel.
In a statement, Insignia Ventures Partners founding partner Yinglan Tan said: “While there may be stronger competitors from horizontal markets in the future, we believe Konvy is best positioned to be the market leader in online beauty , given its longstanding brand name. equity, brand and community-centric approach.”
