Ula, a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce marketplace in Indonesia, announced Tuesday it has secured an additional $23.1 million funding from Tiger Global.
Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart, also participated in the round.
The fresh fund infusion follows the $87 million previously announced in October in a round co-led by Prosus Ventures, Tencent, and B-Capital, which were joined by Jeff Bezos’s Bezos Expeditions, Northstar group, AC Ventures, and Citius.
Ula said in a statement that with a total Series B funding of $110 Million, the company will continue to invest in geographic, product, and team expansion, with a special focus on supporting underserved retailer communities through technology in Tier 2 to 4 cities.
This includes expanding a Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) offering, empowering small business owners to sell within their communities, and incorporating advanced technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) to support retailers in improving business management.
“The additional funding in our Series B round demonstrates continued investor interest and firm belief in Ula’s vision and mission. We are grateful and excited for the opportunity to build a platform that not only empowers traditional retailers, but one that reimagines the traditional retail industry. As we move forward, we will continue to take a customer-first approach to address underlying problems with technology,” said Nipun Mehra, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Ula.
Ula is a horizontal multi-category wholesale e-commerce marketplace that combines the technology, tools and skills of modern retail with the lean cost structure of traditional micro-retail – bringing the best in selection, prices, and working capital to small store owners to increase their overall income.
According to the statement, Ula has grown 230 times since its launch in January 2020, currently offering over 6,000 products and serving more than 70,000 traditional retail stores on its platform.
With teams spread across three countries, Ula is one of the fastest-growing startups of its kind in the region.
Ula’s previous funding includes a $10.5 million seed round in June 2020 and an additional $20 million Series A round in January 2021.
The Series B funding round brings the overall funding since Ula’s inception to $140.6 million in just under two years since launch.
Bezos-backed Ula to scale up ‘pay later’ options for underserved small retailers in Indonesia