SeaTown invests $50m in Vietnam e-commerce enabler

It is being touted as the largest private round in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce enabler industry in the past five years. E-commerce will be the main driver as Southeast Asia’s digital economy grows from USD 174bn in 2021 to USD 363bn in 2025, according to Temasek, Google, and Bain & Co.

Significant activity in the regional e-commerce enabler space includes a US37m round for Singapore-based SCI Ecommerce, a USD 36m round for Indonesia’s Sirclo, and the Gobi Partners-backed acquisition of Singapore’s Synagie for USD 45m.

As recently as last week, Temasek-controlled Vertex Ventures participated in a USD 29m Series B for Malaysia’s RPG Commerce, a direct-to-consumer social e-commerce company expanding into back-end technology infrastructure to support small businesses going online.

OnPoint was founded in 2017 by two former executives at Southeast Asia online retailer Lazada, now owned by Alibaba Group. It aims to provide a one-stop service that enables consumer brands to speed up their online growth on e-commerce marketplaces, social media platforms, and brand-owned websites.

The company claims capabilities across all aspects of the e-commerce value chain, from the set-up and operations of online stores to managing digital marketing campaigns, customer services, warehousing, and order fulfilment. Its client portfolio includes more than 150 brands across all major retail categories.

The most advanced product is Galaxy, a big data and artificial intelligence-enabled digital marketing campaign management tool. There is also a software-as-a-service product called OctoSells to help small to medium-sized merchants manage online stores seamlessly. The plan is to build out further capabilities in omnichannel marketing and sales.

Korea’s Kiwoom Investment backed a USD 8m Series A for the company in 2020 with support from Daiwa-SSIAM Vietnam Growth Fund, a joint venture between Japan’s Daiwa and Vietnam’s SSI Asset Management.

“In one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets globally, OnPoint has proven to be the best-in-class e-commerce enabler supporting a large portfolio of local and international brands,” Dickson Loo, a managing director at SeaTown, said in a statement.

“We strongly believe that, with its unparalleled experience and capabilities, OnPoint is well-positioned to capture the growth of the Vietnamese e-commerce industry and solidify its position as an integral part of the value chain.”

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Support services
• Early-stage
• Vietnam
• Temasek Holdings
• e-commerce
• Logistics