Passing it on? Here's Society Pass (SoPa)! They're an e-commerce startup that acquires startups in the lifestyle, F&B, loyalty, travel and merchant software spaces. (Basically, a roll-up firm!)

Launched in 2019, SoPa has acquired four businesses in SEA: #HOTTAB, Leflair, Handycart (Vietnam) and Pushkart (Philippines) — the last two only acquired this year.

• The vision? Acquire these companies and bring them into one ecosystem to help improve services for customers while increasing revenues for the companies.
  

US IPO? For a relatively little known and young company, SoPa listed on the NASDAQ in a $26M IPO last year— the first Vietnamese startup to do so. The listing raised a few eyebrows (and saw its stock skyrocket and crash). But that's not the story here.

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😮  A surprising move

Here's the backstory: In 2021, SoPa acquired Leflair, an online marketplace that sold international luxury for lower prices within several SEA markets. At its peak, Leflair had over 1.5M users and 3,500 merchants.

The acquisition was a shocker since Leflair shut down and filed for bankruptcy in 2020.

• After Leflair filed for bankruptcy, suppliers claimed Leflair owed them about $2M in unpaid goods.
• Leflair was relaunched later in 2021.

Now, here's another surprise: SoPa just announced that they'll be restructuring Leflair by spinning it off into a new entity called LeFlair Group.

💥  Bigger plans than ever

While Leflair was an e-commerce platform to buy discounted luxury products, the plans for Leflair Group go far beyond that.

Leflair Group's now building an ecosystem for lifestyle shopping in SEA. How are they going to do that? By acquiring e-commerce, lifestyle retail and online advertising companies.

• The ecosystem looks to connect everyone within the lifestyle retail value chain, from brand distributors and online stores to e-commerce platforms and delivery companies.