Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba has expanded its empire to South Asia with the acquisition of Daraz from German internet company Rocket Internet for an undisclosed fee.

Pakistani eCommerce platform Daraz was founded in 2012 and has since expanded to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Following the acquisition, Daraz has become a member of the Alibaba Group but will continue to operate under the same brand.

“We are excited for Daraz to become a part of the Alibaba ecosystem,” said Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group. “Together with Daraz, we can now empower entrepreneurs to better serve consumers in the region through our technology and expertise. In Daraz, we found a great team that espouses our values and believes that a technology-enabled commerce ecosystem will play a critical role in driving the long term economic development in South Asia.”

Daraz becomes the second eCommerce firm that Alibaba has picked up from Rocket Internet. Back in 2016, the internet behemoth bought a 51 per cent stake in Southeast Asian platform Lazada – a stake which has since expanded to 83 per cent.