E-commerce enabler Shopmatic raises $5.7M from Singapore-based investors
Singapore-based technology company Shopmatic has raised $5.7 million in Series AA funding led by ACP Pte Ltd, a technology-focused venture capital firm, and SPRING SEEDS Capital, the investment subsidiary of SPRING Singapore, an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Sameer Narula, Managing Partner, ACP, will be joining Shopmatic's board of directors.
Shopmatic, which is headquartered in Singapore and has offices in Bengaluru and Gurgaon, is planning to utilise the funding for market expansion across Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Middle East. Shopmatic acquired Taiwan-based 5xRuby, a technology development house, in December 2016 to fuel international expansion. It caters to brick-and-mortar retailers as well as online sellers.
In a press statement, Ted Tan, Deputy Chief Executive of SPRING Singapore and Chairman of SPRING SEEDS Capital, said, “Going forward, e-commerce will play an even more critical role in omnichannel marketing strategies, to help businesses expand globally. We encourage all SMEs to embrace change and go digital. Technologies like Shopmatic’s web and mobile platforms will help transform the way retailers engage their customers, by offering better shopping experiences.”
Story so far
Founded in December 2014 by three ex-PayPal employees—Anurag Avula, Yen Ti Lim, and Kris Chen—Shopmatic helps SMEs set up e-commerce businesses. From developing a unique web store to listing businesses on marketplaces on the sellers’ behalf, it serves as a single window to help entrepreneurs be online sellers. Shopmatic partners with the likes of Lazada and Rakuten across Asia as well as eBay and Amazon in India.
Anurag, CEO of Shopmatic, said in the statement, “Our approach of simplicity with a wide value proposition to our customers has deepened our engagement with sellers and grown the category of online sellers. With this round of funds, we aim to expand our service to a wider seller base across more markets in Asia and other emerging markets.”
Since retail is done across multiple channels like e-commerce, social commerce, and omnichannel, Shopmatic gives customised solutions for each. It also provides data analytics to help sellers reach out to their target audience more efficiently. It deals with managing selling channels, integrating payment and delivery systems. With the help of the dashboard, one can easily monitor the volume of the sales on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and assess business growth.
Scope for growth
Since January 2016, Shopmatic has witnessed 30 percent monthly growth. “We get 500–600 new customers daily on the mobile platform alone,” says Anurag. Shopmatic also partners with bodies like the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which has 60 million traders who can now enter e-commerce.
Currently, out of the 55 million SMEs in the country, hardly three percent have an online presence with a URL. Anurag believes that by 2020, it will be eight–10 percent. Half of Shopmatic’s Indian customer base comes from tier- 2 and tier-3 cities.
Shopmatic’s mobile-centric product Shopmatic Go, launched in November 2016, is used by 50,000 customers free of charge. Its full-stack model, a subscription service which charges $20 per month, has 25,000 customers. India contributes 75 percent of the total number of clients.
Among customers, women outnumber men, with about 60 percent of homemakers becoming entrepreneurs in categories like fashion, lifestyle, and food.
Sellers in emerging markets often have to be handheld where online shopping is concerned. Shopmatic’s e-commerce consulting teams in Gurgaon and Bengaluru assist their clients with hopping onto the online shopping bandwagon. With Shopmatic, it will take hardly 30 minutes to register and start selling online.
