Women-focussed media Clozette secures US$10M funding from Cool Japan Fund
Women-targeted social content marketing company based in Singapore Clozette has announced that it receives US$10 million Series C funding from a public-private fund that belongs to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Cool Japan Fund.
Cool Japan Fund provides risk capital for businesses that wants to integrate the “Cool Japan” concept into its business.
Clozette said that it will use the funding to scale the company’s proprietary data-driven content and analytics platform, drive international expansion starting with Thailand, and develop an interactive Cool Japan Ecosystem that brings Japanese culture to a new generation of consumers.
“We believe in our vision of authentic content marketing. Content is king – consumers today are blocking ads but consuming content at unprecedented rates on their platform of choice. In the same breath, they demand more authenticity, interactivity, and mobility in their experience. Marketers must embrace this pivotal shift in media consumption behaviours in order to keep up with generational shifts in perception,” said Roger Yuen, CEO of Clozette.
Clozette was founded in 2010 and at that time is said to be the pioneer of storytelling combined with editorial authority as a category on its own. It has a curated user-generated content that is managed by a team of over 90 employees operating in Southeast Asia and Japan.
Clozette’s brand content incorporates original work created by more than 3,500 creators and talents boasting a collective social reach that the company said has exceeded 600 million.
In the past, the company has worked with the likes of Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Zalora, Charles & Keith, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and Omnicom Media Group.
The company highlighted that its growth in the past year was attributed to its subsidiary in Indonesia, that managed to drive 200 per cent growth making the Series C funding timely.
“The DNA of the Clozette dovetails with Cool Japan Fund’s mission to promote Japanese fashion, beauty, food, travel, and lifestyle to consumers around the globe. Part of the investment will go towards the creation of a multi-lingual Cool Japan Ecosystem that enables the discovery of actionable and shoppable “cool” content about Japan, leveraging the company’s unique storytelling capabilities and network of talents to attract a new generation of fans of Japanese culture in the region and beyond,” said Yuji Kato, COO and CIO of Cool Japan Fund.
The interactive Cool Japan Ecosystem by Clozette is scheduled to launch in June 2019.