5Y News | Chinese Emerging Designer Brand "bosie" Closes New Funding Round of Several Hundred Million Yuan

五源资本·September 9, 2021

Break free from constraints. No divisions, no boundaries.

Emerging designer brand bosie has announced a new funding round of several hundred million yuan, with Bilibili and 5Y Capital as investors, and existing shareholder GSR Ventures participating. Lighthouse Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. The proceeds will go toward product R&D and supply chain upgrades.

Yuan Ye, partner at 5Y Capital, said: "I remember when we first sat down with Bill (Guangyao Liu), we didn't talk much business because we didn't understand the fashion industry. Instead we chatted about history, art, and philosophy. This is an outlier challenging an industry that looks traditional but desperately needs innovation. We look forward to bosie combining its unique brand spirit with cutting-edge technological innovation, becoming a lifestyle brand that a generation of consumers aspires to, and continuously exploring the boundaries of what a new kind of apparel company can be."

Guangyao Liu

Founder of bosie

What contrarian thinking do you bring to your field? What's the biggest misconception people have about you?

Guangyao Liu: Fashion Risk is both the biggest risk and the biggest opportunity in the apparel industry — for new companies and old ones alike. The flip side of Risk is Risk Premium. Whoever can grasp what remains constant amid change, or discover the patterns of change, will capture that premium. It's difficult, but plenty of great companies have done it. You have to embrace Fashion Risk from the perspective of "principle" rather than "tactic."

"All apparel companies die from inventory" — that's another thing people who don't understand this industry love to say. I won't bother refuting it in detail here.

The biggest misconception is taking our starting point as our destination, and mistaking our partial innovations for our entire business model.

What's a non-work-related question you've been thinking about lately?

Guangyao Liu: If my lifespan doubled, how would my decision-making logic for major events change? What if it were cut in half?

Recommend a work you particularly enjoy (any field). Why do you like it?

Guangyao Liu: Tao Te Ching. It's the foundational text of Chinese philosophy, containing answers to nearly every worldly problem. It resolves the relationship between person and world, person and self. Every three months I reread it, and each time I gain deeper insight.

Why did you choose 5Y Capital's investment?

Guangyao Liu: Zweig wrote that the greatest luck in a person's life is discovering their mission in mid-life, when they are in their prime — this is the fortune of all entrepreneurs. I believe entrepreneurs have a second fortune: finding true kindred spirits while confidently pursuing that mission. A good investment institution is like light — bright and warm, with firm and clear foresight; like shadow — understated and calm, with humility and reverence in its heart. I believe 5Y is precisely such an institution. May we cast light and shadow upon each other, illuminating one another.

Ji Tong

Senior Investment Manager, 5Y Capital

Why invest in bosie?

Ji Tong: Looking at the past 50 years, apparel is a category that has produced multiple giant companies across different eras and countries. Yet China's nearly 2 trillion yuan apparel market has long remained relatively fragmented, with traditional brands declining even more visibly in recent years. There's a persistent lack of quality supply that delivers "good-looking and affordable." bosie started on Tmall in 2018 and grew from zero to hundreds of millions in revenue within three years, with repeat customers exceeding 30% — a very promising new brand. And you can see bosie's core consumers are under 25. They want individuality, aesthetic sensibility, experience. bosie has taken a step toward meeting the diverse demands of China's new generation of young consumers.

What about the founder and team has impressed you since you first connected?

Ji Tong: The first phrase that comes to mind is "idealistic goodwill."

In this era of scarce creativity, bosie insists on original design by thoughtful designers, and gives young designers room to grow. In an industry where everyone knows operational efficiency is paramount, bosie in its early days chose what it considered more important. Precisely because of this choice, bosie had to build a long-term, effective designer organizational system — what the team calls "Ten Thousand Creators, Ten Thousand Creations."

Another phrase is "courage born of foresight."

bosie recently opened a 2,000-square-meter flagship store on Middle Huaihai Road, which has been quite popular with consumers these past few months. But looking back, the decision to open this store wasn't easy. A year ago, bosie's SKU count, revenue scale, and brand recognition were all insufficient to support such a large store. Yet the team judged this from a longer time horizon — a precious core quality in a startup.

What are your imaginings for the future of consumer brands? What are your expectations for bosie?

Ji Tong: I've had a sudden thought lately: the good brands of the future will transcend the boundary between virtual and physical. Twenty years from now, will I be wearing bosie in the virtual world too?

As The Tide of History puts it, "to realize the unachievable is the true mark of extraordinary perseverance." The apparel industry is massive and difficult, but as long as the direction is meaningful and a group of people believe in it and work toward it, the distance doesn't matter. I hope bosie keeps its original intention: giving original designers soil to grow in, giving consumers value for money, and pushing "fashion democracy" a little further forward.

Designer brand bosie, targeting the Gen Z apparel market, was founded in 2018. Since inception it has adhered to the brand philosophy "Beyond Boundaries" (wu bie wu jie), advocating the breaking of constraints and boundaries. With a style that is retro and playful, quirky and distinctive, it has quickly won broad recognition from a new generation of consumers.

By the numbers, bosie reached the milestone of GMV exceeding 100 million yuan within 15 months of founding. Year over year, bosie has maintained growth of over 200% for three consecutive years, with cumulative sales exceeding 1 billion yuan.

Compared to current fast fashion brands in the market, bosie demonstrates advantages in design and social media insight, and has continuously found new growth across multiple scenarios. Its offline 2,000-square-meter superstore (bosie SPACE), positioned as a one-stop trendy destination, now achieves monthly sales per square meter exceeding most international fast fashion brands, with profit margins over 20%. Online, bosie's Tmall store ranking rose rapidly from 84th in May 2020 to 18th. On Douyin's e-commerce platform, which it began operating this year, bosie exceeded 10 million yuan in GMV in its second month.

Guangyao Liu, bosie's founder, said the company will next expand its standard large stores (bosie LAB) nationwide, while continuously broadening online channels to meet more consumers' demands for individuality and fashion.

One reason bosie has maintained its design and stylistic distinctiveness amid growing sales and SKUs is its unique flattened design model.

On one hand, bosie rigorously screens high-caliber design talent and uses a studio format to push designers into seamless, zero-distance connection with consumers. The designer is the consumer; works reach consumers directly without passing through layers of decision-makers and distributors. On the other hand, bosie empowers designers through efficient supply chain, logistics, and channel capabilities, plus a culture-centered creative激励机制.

Under the "Beyond Boundaries" philosophy, bosie's designer team continuously innovates and breaks through in design style.

Liu said that through this approach, bosie realizes the落地 of Chinese emerging designer products at accessible prices, allowing consumers regardless of identity, class, or spending power to wear clothing with design sensibility and brand character.

Supported by this system, data shows bosie's consumer base is continuously expanding. Currently, an increasing share of bosie's consumers come from third- through fifth-tier cities; consumer age is expanding from post-95s toward both post-00s and post-90s.

Channel data also shows bosie continuously winning recognition from new groups. On its two major online channels, Tmall and Douyin, consumer overlap is only 4%.

Guangyao Liu said: "bosie hopes to embrace consumers and talent tightly, co-creating products and brands with them. With a 'Beyond Boundaries' attitude, we want everyone to break boundaries, shatter constraints, and truly be loved, respected, and allowed to be themselves."

5Y Capital (formerly Morningside Venture Capital) currently manages approximately 32 billion yuan in USD and RMB dual-currency funds. 5Y Capital seeks out, supports, and inspires lonely entrepreneurs, providing support from spiritual to operational. We believe that if the "crazy you" in others' eyes begins to be believed in, the world will become a different place.

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