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Reports flew around China’s financial media last week that ultra fast fashion e-commerce player, Shein, was preparing for an IPO following its latest round of financing, which reportedly tipped the company’s valuation over 300 billion yuan ($46.8 billion), a plan (and valuation) the company has refuted.
A spokesperson told BoF via email that the plan for an IPO remains a longer-term ambition, another one or two years in the future. The spokesperson said the rumoured valuation was inaccurate, but did not disclose the correct amount.
Shein, beloved of Western teens and still relatively unknown in its home country of China, where it was founded in 2008, utilises big data and China’s highly-developed garment manufacturing capabilities to pump out products in record time and ship them cross-border to 220 countries.
Earlier this month, Shein overtook Amazon as the most installed shopping app in the US and in 2020 its estimated revenue was 63.5 billion yuan ($9.93 billion).
