Fashion Startup Shein Raising Funds at $100 Billion Value

Chinese fast fashion e-commerce startup Shein is weighing a funding round at a valuation of about $100 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The online retailer is in talks with potential investors including General Atlantic to raise about $1 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Achieving the $100 billion mark would make it the third most valuable startup in the world, after ByteDance Ltd. and SpaceX, according to data provider CB Insights.

Shein responded last May to media reports on its fundraising and whether it would go public, saying in a statement that it was valued at several billion dollars and it had no plan for an initial public offering in the short term.

Deliberations are ongoing and details such as the size of the fundraising and valuation could still change, the people said. Representatives for Shein didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours. An official for General Atlantic declined to comment.

Shein has become a juggernaut thanks to a combination of supply-chain savvy, data-driven clothing design, and tax loopholes in the U.S. and China that came to the fore during the trade war. Last year it overtook Amazon.com Inc. in downloads of shopping apps on U.S. stores.

The company has operations in Guangzhou, Singapore and Los Angeles, according to a recent press release. It offers more than 600,000 items to customers in over 150 countries. The startup’s backers include Tiger Global Management, IDG and Sequoia.

–With assistance from Shamim Adam and Gillian Tan.