Indonesian beauty platform Social Bella secures $40m Series D funding co-led by Temasek, EV Growth

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Indonesian beauty platform Social Bella, known by its Sociolla e-commerce brand, has announced the closing of its Series D funding round of $40 million co-led by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and venture capital fund EV Growth.

DealStreetAsia first reported on the deal last month.

Others participating in the round include new investors EDBI, Pavilion Capital and Jungle Ventures.

Founded as a beauty-focused e-commerce portal in 2015, Social Bella also operates a media business through SO.CO and Beauty Journal, while also providing brand distribution and development services for beauty brands from Indonesian and abroad.

This year, the company opened two O2O concept stores in Jakarta, as it looks to employ an omnichannel approach and offer a more holistic customer experience.

With the new funding, the company says it looks to expand its business reach in the country through improved technology.

“We will invest more in building our digital asset, which is SO.CO,” said Social Bella co-founder and CEO John Rasjid. “This will enable us to expand into a wider segment, accelerate our business further and bring a more comprehensive beauty service.”

Social Bella claims to have pulled over 20.2 million registered users cumulatively on its Sociolla, SO.CO and Beauty Journal platform. The company says it targets to reach 100 million unique visitors by 2021.

The deal follows a $12 million Series C funding round in May 2018 led by EV Growth, a $200-million fund established by East Ventures, Sinar Mas Digital Ventures, and Yahoo Japan’s YJ Capital.

In Indonesia, Social Bella competes with Orami, which in 2016 secured a $15-million round of investment, and LYKE, which raised $4 million in Series A funding from a German VC fund later in the same year.

Another well funded women-focused startup that has recently expanded into the beauty vertical is B2C e-commerce company Sorabel, which is currently raising a pre-Series C round. Like Sociolla, Sorabel also plans to venture into the offline game in the near future.

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.

Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.