Singapore-based e-commerce enabler Shopmatic has raised $5.7 million (Rs 37 crore) in its Series A round of funding from ACP Pte Ltd, a technology-focussed venture capital firm, and Spring Seeds Capital Pte. Ltd, the investment subsidiary of SPRING Singapore, a unit of the government of Singapore.
The company will use the capital to expand into other markets such as Indonesia, the Philippines and the Middle East, it said in a statement.
As a part of the fundraise, Sameer Narula, managing partner at ACP, will be joining the board of Shopmatic.
The Shopmatic platform helps small and medium-sized enterprises build their online stores, where they can sell their products or services through multiple channels. The e-commerce firm provides an integrated payment and shipping function. The platform also has data analytics and insights built into it to help sellers be more effective in reaching out to their target audience.
The company was founded in 2014 by payment industry veterans Anurag Avula, Yen Lim and Kris Chen, all of whom have had stints at PayPal. In his most recent role, Avula was senior director for merchant sales, strategy and operations at PayPal Asia-Pacific. Lim was PayPal’s Asia-Pacific head of enterprise relationship and sales excellence, and Chen led the small and medium business and channel partners division at the firm.
Shopmatic’s launch was supported by an angel investment of $1.5 million from undisclosed investors from India, the US and Singapore.
“We have witnessed tremendous growth in merchants leveraging our platform with monthly growth rates in excess of 40%. 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,†Avula said in the press note.
Last year, the company had launched its mobile-centric product called Shopmatic Go and also acquired Taiwan-based Ruby on Rails technology firm 5xRuby.
E-commerce enablers have seen investor interest in recent months.
Last month, Singapore- and Pune-based e-commerce fulfilment platform Anchanto secured funds from Luxasia Group, a Singapore-headquartered omni-channel retailer of beauty products.
In the same month, Bangalore-based e-commerce consultancy firm Ace Turtle Services raised 5 million (Rs 32 crore) in Series A funding from Vertex Venture Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government Temasek, and Singapore-based real estate developer CapitaLand.
Two months ago, Kreate Konnect, which manages operations for e-commerce companies, raised an undisclosed amount of investment from advertising agency Langoor.
In December 2016, 10i Commerce Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs ShopX, raised $5 million (Rs 33.9 crore) in additional investment from Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. The former UIDAI chairman had previously invested $5 million in the startup.
Other startups in this segment include Shopify, Zepo, StoreHippo, and Infibeam’s BuildaBazaar.
