Floward Funding, Investors & Competitors

Market Kurly, operated by Kurly Inc., is a South Korean online grocery platform known for next-day, early-morning delivery of premium fresh food and groceries. Launched in 2015, it pioneered overnight grocery logistics in South Korea and has grown to serve millions of monthly active users with high repurchase rates. The company has since broadened its assortment beyond groceries to include luxury goods as it works toward profitability.

Alibaba is the world's largest online and mobile commerce company as measured by gross merchandise volume. It operates China's online marketplaces, including Taobao (consumer-to-consumer) and Tmall (business-to-consumer). The China retail e-commerce platform is the most valuable cash flow-generating business at Alibaba. Additional revenue sources include China wholesale e-commerce, international retail and wholesale e-commerce, local consumer services, travel services, cloud computing, digital media and entertainment, Cainiao logistics services, and other businesses.

Carvana Co is an e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars. The company derives revenue from used vehicle sales, wholesale vehicle sales and other sales and revenues. The other sales and revenues include sales of loans originated and sold in securitization transactions or to financing partners, commissions received on VSCs and sales of GAP waiver coverage. The foundation of the business is retail vehicle unit sales. This drives the majority of the revenue and allows the company to capture additional revenue streams associated with financing, VSCs, auto insurance and GAP waiver coverage, as well as trade-in vehicles.

Shein Global Holdings Ltd is an online fashion and lifestyle company. It operates online platforms that offer fashion products to consumers mainly in the United States and Europe. The company's portfolio of brands includes SHEIN, Dazy, Romwe, MOTF, Anewsta, Musera, Glowmode, and Aralina. The majority of the company's revenue is derived from the sale of its fashion apparel products.

JD Health is the largest healthcare e-commerce platform in China in terms of revenue. The company offers pharmaceutical drugs and healthcare products on its platform, both as a marketplace that connects merchants to consumers and as a first-party, or 1P, direct retailer. It also offers online consultation from real life doctors and separately partners with offline pharmacies that can provide location-based 24/7 delivery as part of an omnichannel initiative to complement its core e-commerce business. Its closest competitors are Alibaba Health and Meituan for its e-commerce business. As of Dec. 31, 2024, the platform has over 200 million active annual users and over 70,000 merchants. JD Health is 67.49% owned by its parent company, JD.com.

Wayfair engages in e-commerce in the United States (88% of 2025 sales), Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. It's also embarked on expansion into the brick-and-mortar landscape, with 12 stores (excluding outlets) between the AllModern, Birch Lane, Joss & Main, and Wayfair banners. At the end of 2025, the firm offered more than 40 million products from more than 20,000 suppliers under the brands Wayfair, Joss & Main, AllModern, Birch Lane, and Perigold. Its offerings include furniture, everyday and seasonal decor, decorative accents, housewares, as well as advertising and logistics services. Wayfair was founded in 2002 and began trading publicly in 2014.

Lenskart Solutions Ltd is a technology-driven eyewear company, with a belief that clear vision is fundamental to personal development and well-being. It sells a range of eyewear products including prescription eyeglasses, sunglasses, and other products such as contact lenses and eyewear accessories.

Kavak is a Mexico City-headquartered online marketplace for buying and selling inspected used cars across Latin America. It operates inspection centers, provides financing options, and guarantees vehicle history in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia. Founded in 2016 by Carlos García Elía, Federico Schuster, and Diego Moreno, Kavak expanded to Turkey in 2022. The platform features over 20 inspection points and digital trade-ins, serving urban markets with seamless transactions.

Chewy is the largest e-commerce petcare retailer in the US, generating $11.9 billion in fiscal 2024 sales across pet food, treats, hard goods, and pharmacy categories. The firm was founded in 2011, acquired by PetSmart in 2017, and tapped public markets as a stand-alone company in 2019 after spending time developing under the aegis of the pet superstore chain. The firm generates sales from pet food, treats, over-the-counter medications, medical prescription fulfillment, and hard goods like crates, leashes, and bowls.

Zozo was established in 1998 by Yusaku Maezawa (founder and former CEO), and its main business is Zozotown, the largest fashion e-commerce platform in Japan. Zozotown’s business consists mainly of consignment sales, where each brand’s products are stocked in Zozotown’s logistics bases, and brands open their shops on Zozotown as tenants. As of 2025, Zozotown sold clothing from over 9,000 brands and boasted about 12.8 million annual active users. Zozo acquired LYST, a UK-based fashion e-commerce platform operator, in 2025.

Alibaba Health is of one of China's leading e-commerce platform specializing in healthcare-related products, including prescription drugs, OTC drugs, traditional Chinese medicine, health foods, and so on. The company operates both a third-party B2C service, or 3P, and its own direct-to-consumer business, or 1P, with its own inventory, which can both be accessed by Alibaba’s Tmall app and Alipay. The company also provides online consultation services in a separate app called Yilu or “Dr. Deer,” although its e-commerce businesses remain its core competency in the long-term. E-commerce accounted for 93% of revenue in fiscal year 2022. We estimate that AliHealth holds about 45% of market share in the industry in terms of GMV. AliHealth is 63.74% owned by its parent company, Alibaba Group.

Zalando, founded in 2008, is Europe’s biggest pure-play online fashion platform. Zalando is present in 25 European countries, and its major market is the DACH region, comprising Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. After the About You acquisition, it has 17 fulfillment centers, offers over 7,000 brands, and as of September 2025, had 62 million active users (more than 10% of the population in countries where the firm has a presence).

Vipshop is a leading Chinese online discount retailer offering branded products at attractive discounts ranging from 10%-90% off their original price through daily flash sales. It operates warehousing, retailing, product procurements, software development, and information technology support in-house while outsourcing to third-party logistics providers for distribution and shipments. Branded products on Vipshop’s platform are sourced mostly through a consignment model with global brand partners . As of March 31, 2025, Eric Ya Shen, chairman and CEO, had 64.5% voting rights. Leading Chinese social media firm and strategic shareholder Tencent also holds an 12.5% interest.

Valentino is a Paris-headquartered luxury fashion house operating over 300 boutiques worldwide, including flagships in Rome, New York, and Tokyo. The brand designs ready-to-wear apparel, leather handbags like the Rockstud line, pumps, and fine jewelry for men and women. Founded in 1960 by Valentino Garavani, it stages annual couture shows during Paris Fashion Week and supplies red-carpet gowns for events like the Oscars.

Skims is a direct-to-consumer apparel brand offering shapewear, underwear, loungewear, and outerwear in inclusive sizing from XXS to 5X and 40+ skin tone shades. New York-headquartered and launched in 2019, it produces bodysuits, bras, briefs, slips, and sleepwear using nylon-elastane blends for stretch and support. Skims operates flagship stores in New York and Los Angeles, ships to over 50 countries, and collaborates with retailers like Nordstrom and Net-a-Porter.

Quince is a San Francisco-headquartered direct-to-consumer retailer offering apparel, home essentials, and accessories made from premium materials like Mongolian cashmere, mulberry silk, and organic Turkish cotton. The company sells 100% cashmere sweaters for $50, leather bags under $100, and 400-thread-count sateen sheets with factory-direct pricing 80% below luxury retail. Quince sources from the same mills supplying Everlane and J.Crew and ships to customers in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Founded in 2018, it expanded into men's clothing, baby products, and kitchenware.

Openlane Inc provides a digital marketplace for used vehicles, connecting sellers and buyers in North America and Europe for fast and transparent transactions. Its services include financing, repossessions, repairs, transportation, warranty, and inventory management. The company operates used-vehicle auctions and has two main segments: Marketplace and Finance, with majority revenue coming from the Marketplace segment, which to used vehicle remarketing, including marketplace services, remarketing, or make ready services and all are interrelated, synergistic elements along the auto remarketing chain. The Finance segment, through AFC engaged in business of providing short-term, inventory-secured financing to independent vehicle dealers.

Inchcape PLC, based in the United Kingdom, is a distributor and retailer of premium and luxury automobiles through partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The company has three reportable segments and two operating business units: distribution and retail. The distribution segment delivers new vehicles and parts in three geographies (Asia Pacific (APAC), the Americas, Europe and Africa) and provides associated marketing and logistics operations. The retail segment sells new and used vehicles in the U.K. and Europe. The company’s profitable revenue sources are distribution services performed in APAC and retail services in the U.K. and Europe.