Zilingo Pte, a Singapore-based online fashion marketplace, raised $226 million to fund an expansion into the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia. Investors in the series D financing included Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings Pte, Burda Principal Investments, Sofina and EDBI, the company said on Tuesday without disclosing a valuation. The startup is valued at $970 million, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is private. Zilingo, founded by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor, started as a fashion and lifestyle marketplace in 2015 to help small merchants build scale. It developed software and other tools allowing vendors to access factories from Bangladesh to Indonesia and also helped with cross-border shipping and inventory management. Listings are provided for free with the company charging a commission of between 10 percent and 20 percent on orders, helping drive a fourfold increase in revenue in the past 12 months. “Ankiti and team have rapidly transformed their original ideas about Zilingo into a platform company that serves fashion consumers, merchants, retailers, brands and manufacturers,” said Shailendra Singh, managing director of Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore, which has backed Zilingo. Bose, 27, is chief executive officer of Zilingo after previously working at Sequoia and McKinsey & Co. in India. She came up with the idea after a visit to Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market, which features more than 15,000 booths selling goods from across Thailand. Bose and Kapoor, who serves as chief technology officer, realized that many small merchants suffered from a lack of access to technology, capital and economies of scale. The latest funding brings its total capital raised to $308 million. Zilingo currently has offices in eight countries with more than 400 employees, including about 80 engineers in Bengaluru, India. (Bloomberg)