Temasek leads extended round for Singapore's ShopBack

Rakuten Capital, EV Growth, Cornerstone Ventures, 33 Capital, and EDBI – the investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board – all participated. It tops off a $45 million investment announced last April that featured Rakuten, EV, and EDBI. ShopBack has now raised $113 million since its founding in 2014.

The company promotes products – travel, fashion, health and beauty, grocery, food delivery, and general merchandise – on behalf of retailers, receiving a commission on each sale it delivers. A portion of these commissions is wound back into the business in the form of discounts for end-users. ShopBack claims to serve more than 19 million users across seven markets in the region, with Southeast Asia accounting for the bulk of activity.

In 2019, growth in sales and orders increased 250% year-on-year, with an average of 16 million orders per month. The company facilitated sales in excess of $2 billion for 2,500 merchant partners, including Alibaba Group’s Taobao and Lazada platforms, Expedia, and Zalora. Cumulative discounts provided to users amount to more than $30 million.

The new capital will go towards technology infrastructure improvements, expanding data capabilities, and driving growth in existing markets. Recent innovations include the introduction of ShopBack Go, an app that links to a user’s credit or debit card and automatically delivers discounts on payment at shopping, dining and entertainment establishments in Singapore.

“As the frontrunner in the rewards space, ShopBack is in a great position to capture an outsized portion of the online shopping boom,” said Henry Chan, the company’s co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “Product innovation and customer focus are at the core of ShopBack, and we are proud to have transformed the rewards industry by providing users with a simple and seamless way to save while shopping.”

Previous investment includes a $25 million round in 2017 from East Ventures, SoftBank, and 33 Capital, as well as two early-stage rounds backed by Accel-X. Blue Sky Private Equity, Aetius Capital, AppWorks Ventures, Qualgro Partners, and SingTel Innov8 are among the company's other backers. EV Growth is a joint venture between East Ventures, Yahoo Japan, and Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas Group.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Consumer
• Expansion
• Singapore
• Temasek Holdings
• TMT
• Growth capital
• East Ventures
• Rakuten
• EDBI