KitaBeli, the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) social commerce platform for consumers in Indonesia’s second-and third-tier cities, announced Monday that it has closed a $20 million funding round led by Glade Brook Capital Partners (Glade Brook), a global growth equity investment firm.
KitaBeli said in a statement that its existing investors, AC Ventures and GoVentures joined the round, along with new investor InnoVen Capital.
The new funding will enable the firm to further expand into second- and third-tier cities across the archipelago, while also rolling out new product categories such as beauty, personal care, mother and baby products, frozen food, and more.
“By being extremely consumer-focused, we have been able to achieve product-market fit and scale very fast in a historically untapped market. By leveraging the offline social networks of our local community leaders (Mitras), we have been able to reach thousands of new users who are buying online for the first time in their lives,
“This has helped us build massive loyalty with our customers and enabled us to deliver better long-term margins than other players,” said Prateek Chaturvedi, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of KitaBeli.
KitaBeli allows users and partners (Mitras) to get discounts and earn money by leveraging their social networks. The app allows consumers to enjoy discounted prices through a gamified and social shopping experience.
Unlike some other shopping apps, it runs a direct-to-consumer social commerce business model that offers buyers the staples of daily life. The startup has grown more than 10times in six months and is now Indonesia’s largest direct-to-consumer social commerce platform.
“We are excited to partner with KitaBeli to bring better, more affordable e-commerce access to second-tier communities in Indonesia. We believe the next wave of e-commerce growth in Indonesia will be driven by consumer demand outside major cities like Jakarta,
“As a result, the winners will be new and innovative companies like KitaBeli, which bring deep connections to local community leaders and are built to serve the emerging middle-class consumer,” said Linda Guo, Partner at Glade Brook Capital Partners.
KitaBeli’s expansion comes as Indonesia’s second- and third-tier cities now represent a more than $100 billion market, with more than 200 million consumers contributing more than 50 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).
As a result, its unique platform focuses on reaching consumers in cities outside of Indonesia’s main business hub of Jakarta, and addresses many of the unique problems they traditionally face.
First, these consumers are often subject to long delivery times for online shopping orders. KitaBeli has addressed by opening warehouses in every city it operates in, allowing it to execute same-day and next-day deliveries right to the customer’s doorstep.
Further, city-dwellers outside the nation’s capital also routinely find themselves coping with higher prices due to broken supply chains. This often results in the end-customer paying 10 percent to 50 percent more than their Jakarta-based peers do. By sourcing products directly from brands and principals, KitaBeli passes major savings on to consumers.
Finally, consumers in second- and third-tier cities often have trust issues with e-commerce when they don’t know the person who’s promoting or selling a product. To break down trust barriers, KitaBeli employs a different strategy than its competitors, focusing on the consumer’s offline networks and incentivizing them to invite friends and family to use the platform.
“Our commitment to KitaBeli further substantiates our thesis that Indonesia’s next frontier of e-commerce users will come from second and third-tier cities in Indonesia. KitaBeli has focused on creating a solution that is well-suited for rural consumers. It utilizes social hooks and gamification to push engagement and employs a hyper-local community delivery model,
“KitaBeli’s product-led approach and operational excellence has demonstrated powerful customer engagement, strong top-line growth, and promising take rate expansion. We are enthusiastic about KitaBeli’s future and excited to be part of the journey from the beginning,”said Adrian Li, Founder and Managing Partner of AC Ventures.