d through an optimised domestic supply chain.  By controlling everything from fabric sourcing to last-mile delivery, the company believed it could offer higher-quality products at accessible prices while providing the kind of service consumers were beginning to expect from global platforms. That bet has paid off domestically. Over six years, the company has built a deeply engaged customer base and a tech-enabled operating model that looks more like a product company than a traditional apparel player.  “We’ve been watching the evolution of Vietnam’s consumer landscape for some time,” James Lee, general partner at Vertex Growth, told Inside Retail. “Coolmate stood out early because it wasn’t chasing fashion trends – it was building an operating model.”  For a growth-stage fund anchored by Vertex Holdings, a Temasek subsidiary, that distinction matters. Vertical integration and SKU discipline are harder to copy than a logo. With fresh capital, Coolmate has crystallised its 2026–2030 roadmap into three growth pillars: “Go Women – Go Global – Go Offline”.  Go Women: Betting on the engine of wellness growth In March, Coolmate entered the women’s activewear market, one of the fastest-growing apparel categories in Vietnam, repositioning Coolmate from a men’s brand to a performance lifestyle brand for all.  The company has a target of deriving 40 per cent of total revenue from womenswear by 2030. The opportunity, as Coolmate’s CEO Nhu Pham describes it, comes from three overlapping shifts. First, women are increasingly driving demand in performance and wellness – filling running tracks, yoga studios, and gyms and seeking products that support movement, comfort, and confidence.  “This shift is reshaping demand in the apparel market, yet many women still feel underserved by the options available to them,” Pham said.  Second, the market is polarised: premium global brands remain aspirational but expensive, while low-cost fast fashion often fails on performance, durability and thoughtful design.  Third, there is a shortage of products tuned to Vietnamese women – from better-fitting sports bras and leggings to lighter, more breathable fabrics for a tropical climate. Coolmate argues it is no longer a rookie product. After a deliberate slowdown in 2023 to rebuild its R&D and quality systems, bring in a chief product officer with international experience, and reset internal standards, management believes the company can now design and test women’s performance products to global standards. The “Go Women” push, in other words, rests on both market white space and internal readiness. According to the company, Series C funds will go into strengthening fit and fabric development, scaling the product team and testing capabilities, and building a distinct women’s brand ecosystem through content, community and partnerships. Go global with Amazon as a launchpad The second pillar, ‘Go Global’, is already underway. Earlier this year, Coolmate debuted on Amazon US with a sports sock line that quickly achieved best seller status and surpassed 25,000 orders per month.  But management is careful not to over-celebrate early wins. Amazon, they argue, is a “long-distance race, not a quick win”.  “Launching on Amazon US taught us that we must avoid price wars, especially with Chinese sellers who dominate the platform with extremely low pricing,” Pham said.  “Competing on price only leads to a race to the bottom. Instead, we focused on product quality, clear positioning, and a consistent customer experience – areas where Coolmate can truly differentiate and build sustainable growth.” Coolmate’s objective on the platform is clear: to validate global demand and test whether a Vietnamese brand can genuinely compete in the US. The broader ambition is to generate 30 per cent of revenue from international markets by 2030. To get there, Coolmate plans to scale its Amazon business with a focus on performance basics and women’s essentials; expand cross-border e-commerce across Southeast Asia via Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop; and build partnerships with regional distributors and Japanese IP holders. Here, the strategic logic of its new investors becomes clearer. Cool Japan Fund sees Coolmate as a potential channel to cultivate global demand for Japanese IP and character content, especially in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia. YoungOne CVC, backed by a global leader in outdoor and sportswear manufacturing, brings technical and supply chain expertise to help the brand upgrade production and fulfilment to international standards. Beyond e-commerce, Coolmate knows it must tackle a softer challenge: perception. In markets that do not yet associate Vietnam with high-performance fashion, trust is earned through product experience and consistent delivery. The company’s answer is to lean into what it calls the “modern Asian spirit”: active yet approachable, disciplined yet warm, performance-driven yet human. By collaborating with Asian creators, sports communities and Japanese IP partners, Coolmate hopes to introduce itself in ways that feel distinct from Western athletic brands, not derivative of them. Go offline: Turning stores into performance destinations The third strategic pillar may be the most counterintuitive for a digital-native brand: a serious push into physical retail. By 2030, Coolmate expects offline channels to contribute around 40 per cent of revenue. The company is not talking about flagship megastores. Instead, it envisions compact, omnichannel spaces in major Vietnamese cities. It calls these “performance lifestyle destinations” where customers can try products, understand the technology behind fabrics, and participate in community-driven activities, from running meetups to product workshops. These stores are designed as extensions of Coolmate’s direct-to-consumer DNA: smart, data-enabled and tightly curated. Rather than maximising assortment, the goal is to spotlight performance essentials and weave storytelling into the experience – explaining materials, showcasing use cases and creating a hub where runners, gym enthusiasts and active communities feel a sense of belonging. Executed well, this strategy could reinforce Coolmate’s positioning as more than an apparel company. It would also provide a powerful physical touchpoint for a brand that wants to elevate the perception of “Made in Vietnam” at home before exporting that identity abroad. The risk, as with any offline expansion, lies in managing store economics, inventory complexity and the demands of omnichannel integration. But the potential upside in customer lifetime value and loyalty is significant. Discipline in an era of easy capital Coolmate’s story diverges from the stereotype of fast-growing consumer start-ups fuelled by aggressive discounting and unchecked expansion. In 2023, when the business could have continued to pursue top-line growth, the leadership team chose to slow down – pausing to rebuild product development and quality control from the ground up. “It was a bold move at a time when the business could have simply continued chasing growth, but it became a turning point that solidified who we are as a brand,” Pham said.  The reset, while painful, laid the groundwork for the women’s activewear launch, offline experiments and international expansion now underway. Investors point to that discipline as a core part of their conviction. Coolmate, they argue, runs like how a digitally native vertical brand should with “fast design iteration, real-time consumer data, and clear SKU discipline. A business that scales intelligently, not through endless capital burn, but through tight operational control and strong repeat behaviour.” It also shaped Pham’s own evolution as a founder. The hardest lesson, he said, has been accepting that “what got us here won’t get us to the next stage”. Early success came from speed, intuition, and a “get it done” mindset.  The next phase demands systems, structure, and the humility to bring in leaders with deeper expertise. Growth, in Pham’s view, is no longer just about expanding the company – it’s about expanding the leader. Further reading: Coolmate plots international debut after securing US$6 million in Series B.