KUALA LUMPUR: New York-based fashion technology startup Lekondo, founded by Malaysian entrepreneur Yeng Tan, has raised about US$3mil from investors including Verdict Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) SR and DG Daiwa Ventures.
In a statement, the company said the funding would support the development and growth of its fashion platform, which allows users to post daily outfits, build digital closets and discover how people dress around the world.
Since its launch in January 2026, Lekondo has grown to more than 100,000 users across over 50 countries.
Tan, who is Lekondo's co-founder and chief executive officer, said the platform focuses on what people actually wear rather than relying solely on purchasing and browsing behaviour to understand fashion preferences.
“Most technology understands fashion through transactions: what you buy, search for, or click on,” he said.
“We think what people actually wear is a much richer signal of taste, especially as technology begins mediating more of how people discover products.”
Tan, who grew up in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, said his experience growing up in Malaysia's multicultural environment also influenced the idea behind Lekondo.
“The thing about growing up in Malaysia is that you are never uninspired. There is too much cultural entropy,” he said.
“You see it most clearly in food, where Malay, Chinese, Indian, Peranakan, colonial, and indigenous traditions have spent generations borrowing from one another. Fashion works the same way.”
Tan previously worked on artificial intelligence products at GoDaddy. His co-founder and chief technology officer Mitchell Overfield previously worked at Dropbox and Microsoft.
