“Rent-to-Buy” the Chinese Runway – with YCloset COO Michael Wang

The Shunwei China Venture Capital Podcast

Today we catch up with my good friend Michael Wang, who is currently COO of YCloset, an online clothing rental and subscription service that raised $20m Series B in March and has already scaled to 40 cities in China. Before YCloset, Michael was on the other side of the table, having spent a few years at KKR before joining IDG Capital, where he was also the lead investor for YCloset's Series A+ round. As such, Michael offers a unique view, speaking from both an operator and investor perspective, and can help us understand the following: Clothing rental companies only recently became popular in China, whereas comparable companies abroad such as Rent The Runway have been around since 2009… what's different now? How does YCloset compare against global and domestic competitors? What are key success factors in this market, from optimizing logistics to central dry cleaning to capital accessibility? What role do China's tech giants (e.g. Alibaba or JD) play in this arena? What is the "rent-to-buy" model, and what might this market look like in the near to medium term?