Fashion E-Commerce Company Sale Stock Indonesia Raises $27m in Funding
Jakarta. Local fashion e-commerce company Sale Stock Indonesia has raised $27 million in funding from several investment firms to expand its business in Southeast Asia's largest economy.
Singaporean fund management firm Golden Equator Capital and Chinese venture capital firm Gobi Partners, as well as Indonesia's Alpha JWC, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures, Convergence Ventures, Korea Investment Partners and MNC Media all contributed to Sale Stock's latest round of funding.
Lingga Madu, the company's chief executive and co-founder, said the investments will be allocated to strengthen the company's business in the country and to accelerate its profitability in the near future.
Sale Stock offers imported and locally made clothing for women at lowered prices. The startup currently boasts an inventory of over 15,000 items and receives thousands of orders daily.
The company's website even boasts an artificial intelligence program, integrated on popular social messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, to receive customer inquiries, take sales orders and complete purchases.
"We see Sale Stock's [...] tech-driven platform successfully reaching Indonesia's fast growing and relatively untapped middle-class markets in tier two and tier three cities. Seventy percent of Sale Stock’s customers in these cities are making their first e-commerce transactions, demonstrating the company’s unique advantage and a potential for growth in Indonesia’s fast-evolving digital economy," said Daren Tan, Golden Equator Capital's managing partner.
Golden Equator Capital invests in series A and B funding rounds into companies with a focus on digital marketplaces, fintech and enterprise solutions, especially in the healthcare and urban sectors.
Sale Stock is the first company of Golden Equator Capital's second fund investment, which will see $100 million in funding over an undisclosed time period.
The investment firm previously dished out $40 million in its first fund in 2016, when it invested in at least 10 companies, including the live streaming service M17, electronic payment provider MC Payment, career discovery platform Glints and e-commerce food and beverage marketplace Eunoia.
"Following the success of the first Technology and Innovation Fund, we are looking to invest in Southeast Asia, where we can add strategic value—addressing bottlenecks or pain points," Tan said
"For example, Indonesia’s fragmented geography poses ongoing challenges to e-commerce and logistics, providing an opportunity for tech startups to solve and disrupt how products can now reach new customer bases in the most efficient manner," Tan added.
Southeast Asia's e-commerce market is projected to generate $88 billion by 2025, with Indonesia contributing 52 percent of the total market, according to a study co-conducted by Google.
Indonesia's e-commerce market mainly derives from middle class customers who live in second and third tier cities, where access to retail stores is often limited.
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