Japan’s members-only discount site LUXA raises $5.32M

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luxa-jpTokyo-based e-commerce website LUXA has announced today that it has raised 500 million yen in series B funding from the JAFCO Super V3 Fund. For those outside Japan who might not be familiar with the site, LUXA is a sort of ‘outlet shopping’ site which offers products at discount prices for a limited time, with sales typically lasting for just 72 hours for its members.

The site has over 350,000 members to date, mostly people in their 30s and 40s, with products recently showing a heavy slant towards cosmetics and appliances. The company’s founder and CEO Swimmy Minami explains more about the service:

LUXA aims to provide a unique online shopping experience, similar to what is offered at real-life premium outlet malls. The buyers stakeholders of various categories in LUXA will continue to focus on curating the best premium products and luxury experiences for its membership and make LUXA into an essential online shopping destination full of new discoveries.

The new funds will be used to help the service grow, specifically in terms of its sales staff as well as customer acquisition, particularly on mobile where the site has seen a six-fold increase in revenue over the course of 2012.

In addition to Tokyo, the company also has offices in Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka. This round of funding brings its total amount raised to 10 billion yen (or $10.6 million).

I was lucky enough to have a chance to meet with Swimmy just last week, and hear more about how Luxa has grown. He’s a bold entrepreneur, and it will be interesting to see where he steers Luxa in the future.

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