End-to-end e-commerce marketing company Epsilo recently completed a $2 million funding round. Almost all of this new capital injection was provided by Surge, Sequoia India’s scale-up program established to help startups in India and Southeast Asia.

Epsilo was chosen as one of the 17 startups picked by Sequoia’s Surge as part of the fourth iteration of the program, which kicked off on November 19, 2020. The fund infusion is part of the $45.35 million allocated for startups representing various sectors. Surge has been helping startups with its biannual program that grants $1 million to $2 million of seed capital to select fledgling businesses.

In a statement, Surge described the program’s fourth cohort as a special batch of startups. “These companies have shown remarkable resilience in what has been a very tough year, and we are super excited to leverage our experience, learning, and resources to help them succeed. Every startup in this cohort has the potential to make a global impact, and we can’t wait to see each of them leave their indelible mark on the world,” the statement reads.

Epsilo Founders Quang Tran and Hang Pham describe their startup as a “SaaS company that helps e-commerce marketers and category managers deliver effective advertising operations across the leading online retail platforms in Southeast Asia.”

In a message submitted to Surge as part of their profile, the founders of the Vietnam and Singapore-based startup said that Epsilo leverages integrations with leading e-commerce platforms to monitor and optimize in-platform marketing campaigns. The company also intends to implement operational controls across different brands, websites, and SKUs organized under the Epsilo marketing ecosystem.

Epsilo is cashing in on the considerable growth of Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market, which is expected to hit the $40 billion mark in 2020. This impressive growth is giving way to the rise of in-platform performance marketing, something the likes of Shopee, Lazada, Tokopedia, and other regional e-commerce players are already doing.

Tran and Pham believe that the in-platform advertising solutions offered by the leading e-commerce sites are still far from mature and not as efficient as they can be. “The advertising tools built by the e-commerce platforms are still nascent, requiring significant human capital to operate,” the duo state.

Epsilo’s founders believe that they can close the gap by providing “higher levels of intelligence and automation, thereby enabling brands to scale up their in-platform performance marketing efforts, simplify campaign management, and increase sales.”

“Ninety-seven percent of digital ad dollars are spent on ads that don’t drive a direct revenue return, and the shift of shopping on mega e-commerce platforms and the opening up of ad inventory on those marketplaces have created a new opportunity for performance marketers,” says Tran. He suggests this can be improved with the help of Epsilo’s solutions.

Established in January 2019, Epsilo seeks to allow brands and merchants to maximize the outcomes of their ad spend. The software-as-a-service company claims that they have already helped over 400 online stores to raise revenues and gross merchandising value.

Some of Epsilo’s high-profile clients are Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and L’Oreal. The company has been serving customers in six Southeast Asian countries including Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Featured image: Epsilo Founders Quang Tran and Hang Pham