Portugal’s first unicorn, Farfetch — the Portuguese national and international luxury shopping platform for luxury brands — acquires CuriosityChina, a digital marketing company that amplifies premium and luxury brands on digital platforms in China.
CuriosityChina will enable the Portuguese unicorn to offer additional services to luxury brand partners operating in the rapidly changing digital marketing environment. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, according to Jornal Economico.
“Farfetch, a leading global platform for the luxury fashion industry, has acquired CuriosityChina, a technology that focuses on enhancing premium and luxury brands across digital platforms in China,” the company said in a statement last week.
CuriosityChina has a customer list of more than 80 brands and companies and “offers the best solutions available in the market to the top international brands who want to expand to China or reach potential Chinese customers who are leaving to other markets.”
With this purchase, “Farfetch combines significant knowledge and investment in technology, e-commerce, and operations with CuriosityChina’s best practices in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and digital marketing to offer its partners a new set of services ‘plug-and-play’ through its Black & White business unit,” the statement reads.
The London-based, Portuguese company has partnerships with over 700 boutiques worldwide and more than 1,000 designers contracted in around 38 countries.
This year, Farfetch signed a strategic partnership with Chanel; entered into a joint venture with Chalhoub Group, one of the largest distributors of fashion and luxury goods in the Middle East; and has entered into an agreement with Burberry to expand its global e-commerce distribution and launch a delivery service in London.
Portugal’s 1st Unicorn, Farfetch
In March of 2015, Farfetch became the first Portuguese company to valued at $1 billion.
Read More: A $1 Billion Milestone for the Portuguese Startup Scene
Farfetch was created in 2008 close to Porto, Portugal by a Portuguese founder, José Neves. Legally the company is British and they have offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, São Paulo and Porto but their genes are all Portuguese.
The Portugese startup’s international success drew the attention of a €300 million startup scaleup investment fund.
Last month, Lisbon-born OutSystems reached an evaluation of over $1 billion, becoming Portugal’s second unicorn.
Read More: Portugal Has A New Unicorn
With a €305 million ($360 million) investment from Goldman Sachs and KKR, OutSystems is now valued at over $1 billion.
OutSystems is widely regarded as the leader in its market due to the breadth and depth of the platform. The company serves thousands of customers globally and is recognized as one of the fastest-growing technology companies with revenues well above $100 million and growing at more than 70 percent annually.