Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba and private equity firm Baring Private Equity Asia agreed to invest $400m in The CrownX, Masan Group’s consumer-retail platform. "The combination of Alibaba’s online retail expertise, Lazada’s e-commerce platform in Vietnam, and Masan’s leading offline network will be a strong catalyst to modernize Vietnam’s retail landscape. We look forward to building a champion offline-to-online platform alongside Masan," Kenny Ho, Alibaba Head of Investment for Southeast Asia.