Start-up sells nearly 2 million pairs of underwear by 2024, aims to become a 'unicorn'

Coolmate, a fashion start-up founded in 2019, with a model of not owning a factory and quite successful, has set a goal of becoming a "unicorn", a company valued at over 1 billion USD.

Startup bán gần 2 triệu chiếc quần lót năm 2024 tham vọng thành 'kỳ lân' - Ảnh 1. — Workers work at Coolmate's manufacturing partner factory - Photo: COOLMATE

Expanding abroad

As a fashion brand specializing in providing products for men, sharing with Tuoi Tre Online , a representative of Coolmate said that in 2024, this brand sold about 1.7 million pairs of underwear of all kinds.

The total capital the start-up has raised after 5 years of establishment is 11 million USD, including the most recent round of capital calling in October 2024.

Coolmate's leadership set a goal of becoming a "unicorn" by 2030 and identified this as an important milestone, not only in leading the domestic market but also successfully expanding to the international market.

According to the report on Vietnam's startup ecosystem recently released by VinVentures, Coolmate, a prominent D2C company in Vietnam, is a testament to the success of this model.

Accordingly, Coolmate provides basic products for men through an online platform, while also leveraging social networks to interact and engage with customers.

In addition to the domestic market, Coolmate representatives said they will bring products to conquer foreign markets including the US and Southeast Asia, especially countries like Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

No manufacturing plant ownership

Coolmate, a brand of Fastech Asia Company Limited, was established in March 2019.

The three co-founders, Pham Chi Nhu (CEO), Nguyen Van Hiep (CTO) and Nguyen Hoai Xuan Lan (CMO), started the project with a ^20m2 warehouse and a rudimentary sales website.

In its initial stages, the start-up offered basic men's products such as t-shirts, socks and underwear.

Up to now, Coolmate still sells the above products and has other products in men's wardrobe such as clothes for going out, working or playing sports , hats, masks, towels...

Vietnam is one of the world's largest textile and garment producers and exporters. Many famous brands such as Levi's, Coach, Zara, H&M, Uniqlo... have cooperated with partners in Vietnam to build factories.

Taking advantage of the existing advantages of the domestic textile industry, Coolmate cooperates with fabric factories such as Hong Ngoc, Scavi, VitaJeans, Nobland... to produce products.

This start-up does not build factories and invests resources in technology and product research and development teams.

According to a report by VinVentures, a venture capital firm under Vingroup, in 2024, the total capital raised by startups in Vietnam was about 308 million USD, down 30% compared to 2023.

Of which, about 60% of the total transaction value comes from 9 start-ups, notably Techcoop (70 million USD), Be Group (30.3 million USD), Metub Network (15.5 million USD)...