Bangladesh’s ShopUp raises $75m Series B

Prosus Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, and Veon Ventures, a unit of NASDAQ-listed internet services provider Veon, also participated. It follows a $22.5 million Series A last year led by Flourish and Sequoia. Previous investors also include Austria’s Speedinvest and Lonsdale Capital Singapore.

The latest round is being called the largest-ever Series B for a B2B commerce platform in South Asia. It follows a 13x increase in revenue for the company and an 11x increase in the number of shipments enabled by the platform in the past 12 months, according to a statement.

“ShopUp has proven itself to be an innovator in mobile e-commerce and is a venture that we are proud to be partnering with,” said Erik Aas, CEO of Banglalink, Veon’s mobile operator in Bangladesh. “This round will allow ShopUp and Banglalink to broaden our services offer for Bangladesh’s micro and SMEs [small to medium-sized enterprises], which are the backbone of the nation’s retail industry.”

ShopUp offers SMEs services such as inventory sourcing, last-mile logistics, digital credit, and business management support. Last year, it expanded into India, where it merged with Sequoia-backed fashion portal Voonik.

Bangladesh is one of the most fragmented retail markets in Asia, with about 4.5 million small businesses experiencing severe challenges around procuring goods from multiple distributors, accessing formal financing channels, and a lack of pricing transparency. COVID-19 has increased the strain on the ecosystem by causing a sudden rise in consumer demand for essential goods.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Support services
• Early-stage
• Bangladesh
• Valar Ventures
• Prosus Ventures
• Sequoia Capital
• Logistics
• SME
• Flourish Ventures