Latest update: February 2024 | by Lili
What is happening to Zilingo
Table of contents
- The background of Zilingo
- The beginning of the end
- What’s next
- Protecting your brand’s IP rights on Zilingo
Founded in 2015, Singapore-based Zilingo was the talk of the town. The fashion startup was created with the idea to help small and medium-sized vendors in the textile and fashion industry enter the world of e-Commerce.
A few years later, Zilingo opened its service to B2B vendors, aiming to provide a platform for them to connect and cooperate with each other.
Fast forward to January 2023, and there’s talk of liquidation. But what happened?
The background of Zilingo
Backed by international financial corporations, Zilingo set up its e-Commerce services in the fashion industry in eight countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Besides an online e-Commerce platform to place product listings, Zilingo was offering distribution and financial services to its third party vendors as well.
With such services in place, it made sense to Zilingo to expand its audience from B2C to B2B. Aiming to create a smooth supply chain for businesses, Zilingo started providing assistance with sourcing, manufacturing, inventory management and marketing as well.
Screenshot of zilingo.com’s homepage
The beginning of the end
In 2019, Zilingo was valued at nearly $1 billion. The company expanded to new markets, including Australia, and the Philippines. All looked bright and positive - but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Zilingo was forced to close its offices in various countries and let go of a significant number of its employees. Staff affected by this corporate restructuring felt that the move was rushed, unnecessary and badly communicated.
Slowly, other negative news about Zilingo began to emerge. Apparently, there have been escalating internal tensions about the company’s overly fast spending, rapidly changing strategic approaches and even the management style of its CEO.
In 2022, Zilingo’s CEO was fired by the board for “accounting irregularities and insubordination” detected by independent investigator firm Kroll Inc.
What’s next
Zilingo’s co-founders have made a pitch for a management buyout in late spring of 2022. A new investor group is supposed to take over a few of the company’s assets, including the sourcing operations, the factory and digital platforms Z Connect and Z Trade. The rest of the company is supposed to be liquidated.
While there’s currently no information about the fate of this proposal (although some of its unnamed assets are reported to have been purchased by other investors), news of Zilingo’s impending liquidation broke out in January 2023. EY Corporate Services is appointed as provisional liquidator, but details about the process and its ultimate end are yet to be released.
How Zilingo’s story will come to an end - or whether some parts of it will be allowed to continue will be determined in the next few months. However, brands that have been using Zilingo’s various services may want to look for other providers, just to be on the safe side.
+++Update Winter 2024+++
After the turbulent times at the beginning of 2023, all seems quiet for the once celebrated start-up. Newspapers report that Zilingo’s tech assets have been bought by Buyogo AG, a Swiss e-Commerce enabler corporation with offices in Zürich and Singapore.
Zilingo’s homepage is currently blank. Interestingly, the about us page is still active, featuring information and language that suggests the company is in operation. However, at the time of writing this update, none of the links on the site leading to the company’s various services seem to work.
Protecting your brand’s IP rights on Zilingo
There’s another issue to be considered: your brand’s IP rights. In times of confusion, like the impending closure of an online trading platform when the attention of vendors and brands are upon more pressing issues, fraudsters may believe their time has come to act freely and undisturbed.
As a result of this, counterfeits and grey market products may flood the still existing online platform. If you’re not paying attention, your brand may suffer significant losses in revenue and reputation.
Our marketplace monitoring service can stop this from happening. We detect unauthorized product listings on over 150 marketplaces worldwide, whether they’re just starting out, in full swing or are about to be liquidated. When a listing proves to be infringing on your IP rights, we can enforce your rights and ensure its swift removal from the marketplace.
Contact us if you’re concerned about Zilingo or any other IP rights issue both on- and offline.