Recently there was news that Mukesh Ambani’s company Reliance Retail is working on a big plan. Now Reliance Retail has partnered with fashion e-commerce company Shein to boost clothing production in India. Their goal is not only to make more clothes here but also to sell Indian-made Shein clothes around the world. Shein is a fast-fashion company that started in China but now has its headquarters in Singapore. The company is known for selling trendy clothes at low prices and uses smart marketing to attract customers. It makes over USD 30 billion every year. Even though the brand is popular not many people know about its founder. Shein was founded by Chris Xu who is also known as Sky Xu. He is the co-founder and CEO of the company. Shein is growing very quickly and is especially loved by Gen Z (young people). The brand sells stylish clothes in over 150 countries. Shein first came to India in 2018. But in 2020 the Indian government banned several Chinese apps and companies including Shein. In February this year Shein returned to India through a partnership with Reliance Industries. They launched a new website called SheinIndia.in where they now sell clothes made in India. This is different from Shein’s other websites which mostly sell clothes made in China. How it all started There is not much public information available about Shein’s founder Chris Xu as he prefers to stay away from the media. He is 41 years old and was born in 1984 in Shandong province China. Today he also holds Singapore citizenship where Shein’s main office is based. Chris Xu studied at the Qingdao University of Science and Technology in China where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. After graduation he worked in marketing and gained expertise in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) while working at Nanjing Aodao Information Technology. During this time Xu realized there was a huge opportunity to sell Chinese products in global markets. In 2008 he partnered with two others to start a company called Nanjing Dianwei Information Technology  which later evolved into what we now know as Shein. Chris Xus net worth and Shein’s rise A few years after starting out Chris Xu launched a company called SheInside which mainly sold wedding dresses at first. In 2015 he renamed the company to Shein. That same year he moved the company’s headquarters from Nanjing to Guangzhou and later in 2022 shifted it again to Singapore. Chris Xu is not only the CEO of Shein but is also believed to be its largest individual shareholder of the company. Under his leadership Shein has become one of the biggest fashion retailers in the world. The company is famous for its ultra-fast fashionable clothes wide variety of products and low prices. According to Forbes Chris Xu has a net worth of USD 9.1 billion (around Rs. 78000 crore) making him one of the richest people from China. In the first half of 2022 Shein raised funds at a valuation of USD 100 billion. However due to a global dip in stock markets later the company’s valuation declined. Preparing for public listing In 2023 Shein took its first step into the offline retail market by partnering with Sparc Group the company that runs the fast-fashion chain Forever 21. Through this partnership Shein began selling its products in Forever 21 stores across the United States. Earlier Shein was planning to launch its IPO (Initial Public Offering) in the U.S. However the company has now shifted its focus and is preparing to list on the London Stock Exchange instead.