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Yeng Tan, a Malaysian founder who grew up in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, KL, has raised approximately USD3 million (around RM12.6 million) for his New York-based fashion-tech startup, Lekondo
But Lekondo isn't your typical fashion app focused on getting you to buy more clothes.
Instead, it's built around something much more personal: how people actually dress.
Users can post their daily outfits, build digital closets, and discover how people put their looks together in different parts of the world.
Since launching in January 2026, Lekondo has grown to more than 100,000 users across over 50 countries
The startup's latest funding comes from investors including Verdict Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) SR, and DG Daiwa Ventures.
For Tan, the idea behind Lekondo is partly rooted in his experience growing up in TTDI.
He sees Malaysia's mix of cultures as a big part of what makes the country's sense of style so interesting.
"The thing about growing up in Malaysia is that you are never uninspired. There is too much cultural entropy," Tan said.
He compared the way fashion evolves in Malaysia to the country's food culture, where Malay, Chinese, Indian, Peranakan, colonial, and indigenous influences have mixed and influenced one another over generations.
"Fashion works the same way. Taste is endogenous. It emerges from the people, places, and references around you," he said.
It's this idea of fashion as a reflection of people and their surroundings that Lekondo wants to bring online.
Tan believes much of today's technology understands fashion through things like what you buy, search for, or click on
Lekondo, on the other hand, is interested in what those signals might miss — namely, what you actually choose to wear.
"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 shared.
The platform is designed to make fashion discovery feel more like browsing people's real-life styles than scrolling through a traditional online store.
And with users joining from more than 50 countries, you can get a glimpse of how people are dressing well beyond your own city or country.
Before founding Lekondo, Tan worked on AI products at GoDaddy
His co-founder and CTO, Mitchell Overfield, previously worked at Dropbox and Microsoft.
The company is headquartered in New York and is growing across the US, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
With its latest funding, Lekondo plans to continue building its fashion-focused platform, with the bigger goal of creating a global community around personal style and self-expression.
