Malaysia’s business to business (B2B) wholesale startup Dropee announced Thursday it has completed its $7 million Series A round comprising a combination of equity and debt investments from new & existing investors.
The current financing round, led by returning investor Vynn Capital, welcomes new investors including HCL Capital, a Hong Kong-based family office which represents a Malaysian family business; Resolution Ventures, a venture capital (VC) that focuses on fintech companies in Southeast Asia; and LKF Capital, corporate venture capital arm of Lan Kwai Fong Group, Dropee said in a statement.
Dropee’s Series A fundraising also saw participation from another existing investor, Brama One Ventures, as well as other undisclosed new investors, it said.
“With this Series A round, we’re doubling down on helping micro and small local businesses to adopt digital solutions so they’re able to bring down their operating costs, have more access to financing support, and increase their business longevity. We work with over thousands of Dropee partners (the wholesalers, distributors, fulfillment and warehousing partners) to serve local retailers with a whole new experience in stocking up inventories in a better, faster, and cheaper way,” said Lennise Ng, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dropee.
According to Dropee, the funding will also be used to accelerate financing product offerings for wholesalers and retailers over the next 12 months.
It said that Dropee has built a successful track record with credit financing portfolios over the past year and is ready to scale up the offering by working with strategic partners, including regional banks and non-banking financial institutions.
“We have been consistently impressed by Dropee’s growth and the team’s ability to execute. As such, we are glad to invest more capital to back Lennise and Aizat’s vision in transforming the industry to support micro and small businesses. As supply chain is the backbone to any industry and sector, we believe Dropee will play a very crucial role in helping small businesses adapt and grow in the new normal,” said Victor Chua, Founding and Managing Partner of Vynn Capital.
Dropee is a software as a service (SaaS)-enabled marketplace that connects brands with local retailers across Southeast Asia. It is on a mission to help local retailers stock up the best wholesale products and suppliers for their business in the fastest and easiest way possible.
Its modern and digital approach to the wholesale industry allows retailers to discover, purchase, and manage inventories for their store all on a single marketplace platform – and its software tool for brands and wholesalers to deal with all the pain points of a growing customer database, from stock replenishment to payment collections. This saves local retailers and wholesalers time and money, allowing them to focus on what’s most important: building and growing their sales.
In the five years since its launch, Dropee has established itself as one of the fastest growing B2B wholesale SaaS-enabled marketplace in Southeast Asia with market presence in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Over 80,000 small and medium enterprises (SME) businesses procured wholesale inventories in its marketplace, annually totalling more than $100 million in transaction value. On top of its SaaS and marketplace businesses, Dropee has also expanded its product line to support loan and financing deployment.
“We believe the pandemic has forced Malaysia and Southeast (SE) Asia to digitalise B2B sales faster than it would originally have and Dropee sits at the forefront of this revolution. They also possess a superstar team that has driven the business forward and has the ability to not just take advantage of this rapidly changing landscape but shape the future of how Malaysia and SE Asia’s B2B e-commerce will operate. We are very proud to be part of Dropee’s journey and hope to be able to contribute to their growth,” said Jack Hon, Managing Partner of HCL Capital.
For brand owners and wholesalers, Dropee currently offers a one-stop solution from complete offline-to-online B2B order management to automated payment collection from customers, over hassle-free and seamless paperwork processes.
Dropee’s last financing round was in July 2020 where the company raised $1.30 million, and its earlier seed round of $350,000 was announced in Jan 2019.