Lakeshore Capital invests in Thailand's ReadyPlanet

ReadyPlanet offers a variety of marketing management services, mainly directed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). It develops websites and mobile applications for companies, creates search engine optimization strategies and helps to manage social media marketing efforts for its customers.

Demand for online advertising in Thailand is expected to grow in the coming years as advertisers increasingly take advantage of Thailand's growing online population. Compared to other countries in the region, digital ad spending in Thailand comprises much less of the total ad spending, leaving plenty of room for growth, according to the Digital Advertising Association of Thailand.

Currently ReadyPlanet claims to have over 14,000 SME customers. Last year it entered a major partnership with Chinese online marketplace Alibaba.com, which appointed ReadyPlanet as the first authorized reseller in Thailand for its business-to-business platform.

This is the third investment by Lakeshore from its first Thailand-focused fund, which closed last year at $60 million. LPs in the fund include the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which committed up to $20 million, or no more than 20% of the overall corpus, in 2013. Other investments by Lakeshore include steakhouse chain Santa Fe, to which the firm committed $4.5 million last year.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• Support services
• Expansion
• Thailand
• Lakeshore Capital Partners