Ramping up recommerce
- Heliconia Capital, an investment firm under Temasek, has invested US$10 million in 500-backed secondhand marketplace Carousell.
- In September, the startup secured US$100 million in a fundraising round led by South Korean private equity firm STIC.
- This took Carousell past its previous US$900 million valuation mark to US$1 billion, earning it the unicorn status.
- Read the full article in The Business Times.
Essentials for all
- 500-backed e-grocery startup HappyFresh has entered a collaboration with PT Matahari Putra Prima (MPPA), the retail arm of Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Group.
- The partnership is expected to expand MPPA’s reach across the country, ahead of the year-end festive season.
- MPPA’s retail brands, such as Hypermart, Foodmart, Primo, and Hyfresh will be made available on HappyFresh’s platform.
- According to the article, HappyFresh recently expanded to Bali, Makassar, Medan, and Semarang and has links to over 700 supermarkets, hypermarkets, and grocers across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
- Read the full story on DealStreetAsia. A subscription may be required.
Boosting businesses
- Teddy Oetomo, president of 500-backed Bukalapak shared how the startup responds to competition in the Indonesian e-commerce space on CNBC.
- According to Teddy, Bukalapak’s strategy is three-pronged. The startup focuses on areas outside of Tier 1 cities, engages in all-commerce activities (providing services both online and offline), and focuses on areas where overlap with competitors is low.
- He believes the key to tapping into the population of over 270 million lies with the mom-and-pop kiosks.
- Many e-commerce players focus on directing traffic into a single marketplace, he shared. He said that Bukalapak has democratized that, enabling MSMEs to build their own marketplaces to serve their communities.
- Watch the full interview on CNBC.
