Blue Sky Venture Capital has participated in a USD10 million financing round in aCommerce, an e-commerce provider that helps global brands such as L’Oréal, Adidas and Nestlé set up an online retail presence in Southeast Asia.
MDI Ventures, an Indonesian venture capital fund by Telkom, and DKSH, a Switzerland-based company providing market expansion services for brands, were also part of the raise.
aCommerce provides end-to-end services for e-commerce clients, which include brands and retailers, looking to grow their online presence in Southeast Asia. The business provides services along the entire e-commerce journey, including marketing, customer service, channel management, warehousing, fulfilment and payments through a sophisticated plug and play technology platform.
Since launching in 2013, aCommerce has had an average annual growth rate of 300 per cent year-on-year, and has more than 1,000 employees, spread across offices in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
The capital injection will help aCommerce increase its footprint in ASEAN territories by expanding to new territories in the next 18 months and continuing to invest in infrastructure to reach second and third tier cities.
Southeast Asia is regarded as the world’s fastest growing internet region with more than 120,000 new users estimated to come online every day. This rapid adoption of technology is driving the Southeast Asian e-commerce market, which is set to grow by more than 30 per cent annually to be worth USD88 billion in the next 10 years.
Ben Dunphy, investment professional at Blue Sky Venture Capital, says Southeast Asia was a key geographic focus for Blue Sky.
“The region’s unique characteristics are driving world-leading growth in terms of technology adoption. At the same time, we see a trend emerging in the region that is similar to what we’ve observed in Australia – there is a dearth of capital available for later stage investments,” says Dunphy.
“With the extraordinary growth rates the region is experiencing and the overall size of the market, we feel it would be a wasted opportunity not to support companies through their next stage of growth.”
aCommerce was founded by seasoned entrepreneurs, including chief executive Paul Srivorakul, the former CEO of Thai social commerce website Ensogo, which was acquired by Living Social; chief financial officer Piers Bennett, also ex-Ensogo; and chief operating officer Peter Kopitz, seasoned entrepreneur and founder of Asian fashion website Zalora.
Dunphy says Blue Sky was attracted to aCommerce’s world-class management team and impressive track record in a nascent high-growth market.
“aCommerce is uniquely positioned as a market leader. The company’s first mover advantage has seen the team outperform industry benchmarks and its own targets since inception,” Dunphy says.
Srivorakul says brands that currently operate offline in Southeast Asia do not have the expertise to take the business online.
“We help them do just that. Demand for aCommerce’s services and technology across the region have exceeded forecasts due to rapid growth. This capital, in preparation for a larger funding round, will be used to ramp up our tech infrastructure to support the expanding fulfilment centers across the region and growing number of clients,” Srivorakul says.
The investment was made by a fund managed by Blue Sky Venture Capital, a division of Blue Sky Alternative Investments.
