Bangkok-based brand ecommerce enabler aCommerce announced Tuesday that it has raised $15 million from Singapore-based investor Indies Capital Partners.
Founded in June 2013, aCommerce helps brands such as Samsung, L’Oreal, and Unilever sell their products online across Southeast Asia by providing services from webstore design, distribution, and marketing to warehousing and delivery.
The latest funding followed the $15-million Series C round in July 2019, which was led by Emerald Media, the Pan-Asia company backed by global investment firm KKR & Co, and participated by January Capital, Sinarmas, Emerald Media, and DKSH, a Zurich-based market expansion services provider.
The investment from Indies Capital Partners brings aCommerce’s total funds raised to date to about $118.8 million, which the company said would finance the execution of its “2.0 strategy” to reach group profitability and become cash-flow positive in 2020.
The company’s 2.0 strategic plan, announced in July 2019, includes better support for global enterprise brands; recruitment, development, and retention of key talent; focus on core markets; and achieving group profitability.
Operating in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, the company earlier said revenue in 2018 grew 73 per cent to more than $100 million, and its core market of Thailand turned profitable.
Paul Srivorakul, aCommerce co-founder and group CEO, said the latest funding “is a milestone” for aCommerce and supports the company’s mission to become Southeast Asia’s leading ecommerce enabler company.
In an interview with Bloomberg last year, Srivorakul said the company has the ambition for an IPO and growing a healthy, valuable business will be very important to reach that goal.
aCommerce first raised $3.1 million in its venture round in 2013, led by NTT Docomo Ventures and then went on to secure $10.7 million in its Series A in 2014. MDI Ventures, the venture capital arm of Indonesian telco Telkom Indonesia, led the company’s $10 million venture round in 2016 while Emerald Media anchored the $65-million Series B round in 2017.
The investment from Indies Capital Partners comes less than five months after the firm hit the final close of its tech fund, Indies Pelago Investments, which raised over $70 million. The said fund focuses on generating superior risk-adjusted returns through the secondary purchase of mid- to late-stage, high-growth pre-IPO technology companies in Southeast Asia.
