Meet Rachel Lim, the Singaporean co-founder of Love, Bonito: she boasts a multimillion-dollar net worth and her fashion brand dominates Asia – but it all started as a second-hand shop when she was 19

Apr 25 , 2023

Rachel Lim has seen great success with her Love, Bonito clothing brand. Photo: @lovebonito/Instagram

In 2005, Rachel Lim started a fashion blog shop selling preloved clothes with her university friends – now it’s a thriving brand with customers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines

She dropped out of Nanyang Technological University to be an entrepreneur and posts cute Instagram snaps of her family when she’s not overseeing her company, which earned millions of investment funds

Rachel Lim was only 19 when she started a fashion blog shop that sold preloved clothes, along with a couple of university friends, in 2005. Five years later, in 2010, fashion brand Love, Bonito was built, and the group decided to design their own clothing pieces instead.

Love, Bonito’s co-founder Rachel Lim. Photo: Love Bonito/Facebook

Fast forward to more than a decade later and the Love, Bonito co-founder is now known as a pioneer of e-commerce who owns a multimillion-dollar fashion empire.

So, what else do we know about Lim, and what is the story behind the popular Singaporean home-grown fashion brand?

Rachel Lim dropped out of university to focus on entrepreneurship

Rachel Lim posing for a profile shot at Love, Bonito’s headquarters in Singapore, in November 2021. Photo: @ms_rach/Instagram

According to business website Another Start-up Story, Lim took a chance on her start-up and forewent her final year at Nanyang Technological University. Before dropping out, she was on a path to earning a degree in teaching.

“I always just loved to influence and impact people. Be it through education, or be it through the people we appeal to at Love, Bonito,” she said in her interview with the publication.

Rachel Lim in a magazine photo shoot campaign in June 2016. Photo: @ms_rach/Instagram

In the same interview, the Singaporean businesswoman shared a story about how she had to borrow from her mum’s savings to initially finance the business and venture into designing her own clothes.