[Funding alert] Digital Mall of Asia raises Rs 22 Cr through Amour Infrastructure
Digital Mall of Asia plans to scale up its product development and branding initiatives. The virtual ecommerce platform is set to go live in January 2020.
![[Funding alert] Digital Mall of Asia raises Rs 22 Cr through Amour Infrastructure](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/a9efa9c0-2dd9-11e9-adc5-2d913c55075e/165-VC-funding1552277843560.jpg?mode=crop&crop=faces&ar=2%3A1&format=auto&w=1920&q=75)
Virtual ecommerce platform Digital Mall of Asia (DMA) on Tuesday said it has raised close to Rs 22 crores in a fresh funding round. The investment was made by Satish Jain through Amour Infrastructure.
With this funding, DMA plans to scale up its product development and branding initiatives to create large-scale awareness about its key offerings, followed by an upcoming launch in the Indian ecommerce space.
An initiative of Yokeasia Malls Private Limited, DMA is in its initial phase and set to go live in January 2020. The platform expects that its ecosystem will be operational in 20 cities in India and eight countries across the continent by 2021.
DMA claims to be a perfect mix of ‘digital malls’ and ‘digital shops’ that aims to offer a virtual mall environment to consumers while providing a safe investment and selling platform to retailers and vendors across India.
In a statement, DMA said that, to operate on the platform, vendors and retailers would be required to rent a shop in their desired city, tower, and floor. Then, not only will they be enabled to integrate their offline store to a virtual mall environment but also be given exclusive rights to sell a particular product category or brand in their respective city.
This would help eliminate artificial hyper-competitiveness, which has remained a common concern for retailers on most ecommerce portals, the statement added.
The new-age virtual mall will run on a zero-commission model, which means retailers will only be required to pay a fixed monthly rent of as low as Rs 10,000. This model compares favourably to those of other ecommerce portals that also charge a commission of 5 to 35 percent in addition to the rent.
Speaking on the fundraise, Rishabh Mehra, Managing Director and CEO, DMA, said,
“We are extremely delighted to bring on board an industry veteran like Satish Jain as our strategic investment partner. With his domain expertise and valuable insights, we are confident to unlock the potential of DMA in the Indian ecommerce space and offer seamless shopping experiences to consumers pan India. We are very excited to launch this unique portal for the first time ever in the Indian market and hope to witness amazing responses from the crowd, especially the millennial generation.”
Since retailers will not be paying an extra commission, the model will enable them to sell their products at the cheapest price points possible, thus improving their profitability while also making the shopping experience more affordable and welcoming for customers.
(Edited by Athirupa Geetha Manichandar)
