Philippines MSME service provider secures $77m Series C
GrowSari, a Philippines-based start-up that helps micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) take retail operations online, has seen its Series C swell to USD 77.5m with the addition of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Temasek Holdings-owned Pavilion Capital.
In January, KKR said it would commit USD 45m to the round, which was expected to be significantly oversubscribed. GrowSari’s total funding to date of USD 110m is “the largest amount ever in the B2B and MSME space in the Philippines as well as in the region,” according to an IFC statement.
IFC and Pavilion are both existing investors in the company. Others include Tencent Holdings, JG Summit, Robinsons Retail, Wavemaker Partners, Saison Capital, and the Investment & Capital Corporation of the Philippines.
GrowSari helps neighbourhood retailers (sari-sari stores), roadside and market restaurants (carinderia), and pharmacies develop digital services in areas such as telecom reloads, wallet top-ups, inventory procurement, bill payments, e-commerce, and Wi-Fi. It also generates data and insights into the operations of these businesses to be used by manufacturers and distributors.
The company was established in 2016 and is led by a team comprising Johnston & Johnson, Uber, Globe Telecom, and GCash alumni. Co-founder and CEO Reymund Rollan has consumer consulting experience at Unilever, Boston Consulting Group, and Procter & Gamble.
GrowSari seeks to provide local communities with more comprehensive retail offerings, creating a positive socio-economic impact on the lives of MSME owners and the communities they serve. As recently as 2018, it was serving 1,000 stores across three cities. Now, it is present in 220 municipalities in Luzon and works with more than 100,000 stores.
National expansion is on the agenda, with a presence already launched in Visayas and Mindanao to follow shortly. Siddhartha Kongara, a co-founder and CTO, said that the company is on course to have more than 50 fulfilment centres nationwide.
"We are fast progressing on our vision to use the GrowSari technology stack to help other companies in their logistics and e-commerce journeys,” he said. “We already have more than 10 traditional companies that are leveraging the platforms to improve their business operations.”
On announcing KKR’s investment, GrowSari said it had recorded a 6.5x increase in gross merchandise value since 2019 and a 2.5x increase in revenue over the same period. This has been attributed in part to strong tailwinds around digital adoption, proximity shopping, and general economic growth in the Philippines.
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