Indonesia's GudangAda gets $25m Series A

Previously, the company received $10.5 million in a seed round in February with contributions from Alpha JWC, Wavemaker Partners, and Pavilion Capital.

Founded in 2019, GudangAda is an online marketplace that targets wholesale and small-scale retailers - including "warungs" or roadside kiosks - that sell fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) across 500 cities in Indonesia. The start-up claims to have onboarded more than 50,000 retailers across the archipelago and it says sellers have been able to grow their business while buyers get optimal pricing and improved order management capabilities.

The new capital will go towards increasing headcount by 100 and creating new technological solutions that meet the needs of users. The company says it plans to target up to 10% of the retailer base in the country – Indonesia has millions of small-scale retailers that still use traditional methods to fill up inventory for goods in their shops.

“FMCG is a tough industry to disrupt and still mainly conducted in traditional ways. It’s not easy to change behaviors, especially one that has stayed for decades, but GudangAda proved that it can be done if you know the right gateways, the pain points to address, and how to execute efficiently,” said Chandra Tjan, a managing partner at Alpha JWC.

According to Alpha JWC, the Indonesian FMCG industry is valued at $50 billion. Stevensang, co-founder of GudangAda, recently told AgFunderNews that the platform currently sees monthly transactions worth $100 million. Usage has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic due to curbs on intra-city travel imposed by the Indonesian government. GudangAda says it has developed a logistics network in select cities to ensure orders are not impacted.

Other VC-backed online marketplaces that seek to help digitize B2B trade in the country include Singapore-headquartered NinjaVan, which recently received $279 million in a Series D round led by GeoPost, a logistics division of French postal services giant La Poste. Last month, TaniHub, an online marketplace for farm products in Indonesia, raised $17 million in a round led by Openspace Ventures and Intudo Ventures.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Indonesia
• Sequoia Capital
• Alpha JWC Ventures
• TMT