On July 19, PatPat, the world’s largest DTC kids clothing brand, announced that is has secured $510 million in Series C and Series D rounds, with INCE Capital investing in the Series C round.
The Series C round was led by Capital Today, General Atlantic, and CDH, and followed by SIG, Ocean Link, INCE Capital, etc. The Series D round was led by DST Global and followed by General Atlantic, Ocean Link, GGV Capital, etc. Index Capital served as exclusive financial advisor.
“Kids clothing is a market with large scale but low brand concentration, and PatPat has built a Chinese supply chain that can efficiently meet overseas consumer demand. PatPat has a strong team of its own, with overall strength in cross-border e-commerce, technology, supply chain, and the whole chain of operations. Together with the operation of its own brand and the steadily increasing share of its own design, PatPat has created business barriers to competitors. With the promising size of the global children’s wear market, we are optimistic that PatPat can continue to lead in this track,” said Stella Zhou, founding partner of INCE Capital.
Several “Firsts” Showcasing Extraordinary International Influence
Founded in Silicon Valley in 2014, PatPat is the world’s largest and fastest-growing DTC kids clothing brand, with users covering more than 100 countries and regions worldwide.
In the top 100 overseas social platform performance list of overseas Chinese brands for the fourth quarter of 2020, PatPat was ranked as top 1 in the e-commerce category and top 9 in the overall ranking, second only to TikTok, Huawei, Xiaomi, etc. PatPat has over six million followers on Facebook with a VIP account that has maintained rapid growth for a long time. Cooperating with many top global IPs, PatPat has seen ever-increasing international influence. Another remarkable achievement is that PatPat ranks first in the user recommendation index among all kids clothing brands in the U.S., firmly grasping the needs and expectations of American consumers.
For the next strategic step, PatPat will take advantage of its strong brand effect in Europe and the U.S. to open the Middle East and South American markets.
Building the Strongest Supply Chain in the Industry with Big Data + AI Technology
When it comes to going global, there is no doubt that PatPat leads the industry in management and operation efficiency. It has built its own digital system to access the entire supply chain, and uses big data and AI to capture trends in real time, aggregate and analyze data, and strengthen functions such as product development, style design, and sales forecasting, so as to realize a closed-loop supply chain.
PatPat has also established a global consumer operation system with dedicated consumer insight teams in both overseas and China to thoroughly understand consumer needs. The number of its unique visitors has been growing rapidly at an annual rate of more than three times the rate of the previous year in the past few years.
Quality control is also key to PatPat’s success. In the apparel industry, the quality and safety requirements for kids clothing are particularly stringent. With its extreme attention to safety and demanding control of quality, PatPat implements inspection for all products, and as a result, the quality of its clothing exceeds that of traditional local brands in Europe and the U.S.
In the future, PatPat aspires to exploit technological capabilities rarely used in the industry, guiding the global kids clothing industry to realize supply chain transformation and industrial upgrading.
International Team with Top-Notch Talent Being Core Competitiveness
Talent is the fundamental source of PatPat’s core competitiveness. Founded in Mountain View, Silicon Valley, PatPat has been internationally-oriented since its establishment, with offices in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Foshan, and branches in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dublin, New York, Manila, London, etc. The three founders of PatPat all graduated from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) with computer-related majors, and have rich working experience in Oracle, Amazon, and other high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. PatPat’s team also includes global executives from Fortune 500 companies, making it the only entrepreneurial team in the industry with talents featuring top academic background, technical experience, international vision, and diverse management experience.
The team is mainly composed of Internet professionals born after the 1990s, and the management is young and earnest in work, with strong learning ability and motivation for continuous self-improvement. The flat structure and the unlimited full-stack development model (from the front end to the back end) have also contributed to its talent recruitment and, in the long run, talent retention. In the future, PatPat will harness its strong employer brand to continue to attract a large number of outstanding young people, so that they can grow and thrive with PatPat.
Previously, PatPat has raised funds from IDG Capital, Frees Fund, SIG, and Sequoia Capital China in multiple rounds. The company plans to strategically tap into the kids clothing market worldwide within three to five years, becoming the most influential world-class consumer brand.
