Venture capital firm Lightspeed, which raised $500 million under an early-stage fund for Indian and Southeast Asia last year, has invested in Hong Kong-based wholesale marketplace Markato.
Lightspeed invested in Markato as part of the startup’s $5 million seed round of funding that also involved other institutional funds and a few technology sector angel investors. This is Lightspeed’s first investment in a Hong Kong-based company, the VC firm said.
Markato was founded this year by Brian Lo and Martin Li, who previously worked at Deliveroo and Uber. It provides an online wholesale marketplace for independent retailers and buyers in Asia.
The startup says it digitises the product discovery process into one end-to-end wholesale buying experience, while reducing procurement and logistics costs. The company has partnered with over 200 brands mainly from Europe, US and Australia offering Asian retailers access to over 4,000 unique products.
Markato plans to use the fresh capital to grow its business in Asia ovver the next 12 months, beginning with Singapore to tap into the retail and wholesale opportunity. It is looking to expand its network to include over 2,000 buyers and 2,000 brands over the coming months.
Rahul Taneja, partner at Lightspeed, the Markato founders’ vision to serve independent businesses in Asia and enable access to the best products globally is “compelling”.
“Early progress on the platform is very encouraging and we strongly believe they are the perfect team to transform retailers' end-to-end experience in Asia,” Taneja said.
Lightspeed and its affiliates manage more than $18 billion across the globe. In India, it has backed companies such as OYO, Darwinbox, Razorpay and Udaan.
Markato soft-launched the platform in July. It will now ramp up its hiring of engineering, product and business development talent.
“Retailers and buyers across Asia are always on the lookout for exciting brands and premium products from around the world that sets them apart without straining their limited resources,” said Lo, co-founder, Markato.
“Markato creates opportunities for Asia’s retailers to tap a global marketplace and access a curated mix of global brands by providing cost and time-efficient operational support while eliminating capital constraints and inventory risk for the buyers,” he added.
