VCs invest $27 million in Indonesia's Sale Stock

The round was led by Alpha JWC Ventures and existing backer Sinar Mas Digital Ventures. Gobi Partners, Golden Equator Capital and Convergence Ventures also participated.

Alpha JWC emphasized Sale Stock’s focus on technology, including the use of messaging interfaces that connect customers through services such as Facebook and Whatsapp, as well as an artificial intelligence (AI)-based recommendation engine. The company has also automated its customer service interactions with an AI chatbot.

“A lot of people talk about the more apparent e-commerce obstacles in Indonesia like internet penetration, logistics and payment, but there are also trust issues based on those problems,” Jefrey Joe, co-founder and managing partner at Alpha JWC, told AVCJ. “Customers want to verify what they’re buying first and ask questions. Having someone to ask in real time is really comforting, and in the AI era, you can do that with a chatbot.”

Founded in 2014, Sale Stock operates an Indonesian language platform with a strong focus on clothing and fashion. The company reportedly reduced its staff by more than 200 employees in September last year despite claiming a monthly growth rate of 25% across the prior 18 months. It will use the new capital for an operational expansion including new marketing efforts.

E-commerce has been identified as an important growth area in Indonesia due to a combination of untapped potential in online retail verticals and underdevelopment in digital payments infrastructure. Recent activity includes the acquisition of VC-backed online-to-offline e-commerce start-up Kudo by ride-hailing app operator Grab and a RMB150 million ($22.5 million) Series B round led by Maison Capital for Wook.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Indonesia
• Sinar Mas Digital Ventures
• Gobi Partners
• Convergence Ventures
• TMT
• e-commerce