Singapore-headquartered startup Plugo has raised $9 million in a Series A funding round. The company provides direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands with a complete range of e-commerce support services, from website creation, payment system development and marketing management to shipping, warehousing and logistics. In other words, Plugo allows D2C merchants to focus on their product and support other processes.
The Series A round was led by Altos Ventures, with participation from BonAngels Ventures Partners, Access Ventures, Mahanusa Capital, Prodigy Investment, and Pearl Abyss Capital. The company did not disclose the valuation when asked.
The startup plans to use the revenue to grow its R&D team and hire more engineers, said Kyungmin Bang, founder and CEO of Plugo, which currently employs about 30 people.
Bang founded Plugo two months ago with five founding members. Approximately 200 D2C brands have already started using Plugo’s beta service in Indonesia. The Singapore-based startup, which has offices in Indonesia and South Korea, plans to officially launch its service in Indonesia in the first quarter of next year.
In the next 12 months, the company wants to focus on the Indonesian market, one of the largest markets in Southeast Asia, and then expand to other Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, Bang told TechCrunch. It has partnered with various logistics companies, including Indonesia-based JNE Express, SiCepat and J&T, as well as payment processors such as Necepay Indonesia, Bang said.
A serial entrepreneur, Bang was inspired to provide an end-to-end management system for D2C brands and merchants to set up online stores after realizing that Indonesia’s D2C market is less than 1% of the total e-commerce in Indonesia. The country is still in its infancy but growing rapidly.
Indonesia’s D2C market is expected to have vast growth potential, with the fourth largest population, including a growing youth population in the coming years and rapid penetration of smartphone users in the country, Bang pointed out.
“Local businesses [in Indonesia] They have accelerated their adoption of digital technology due to innovation in the e-commerce ecosystem and dynamic changes in consumer behavior. In Indonesia, D2C platforms are becoming a new trend in the e-commerce industry as a business-to-consumer (B2C) platform that has dominated the e-commerce market for the past decade, Bang said.
The startup looks set to challenge e-commerce players in Southeast Asia such as Shopify. “I believe we have great potential because there is still a lot of room for growth and big gaps. [in the D2C business] Big e-commerce behemoths like Shopify have yet to find a solution [in Southeast Asia]. For example, we can provide customized services, especially for small businesses in the region such as MSMEs and encourage them to sell online,” Bang said.
Charles Ream, founder and general partner at Xcess Ventures, said, “We believe the time is right to give birth to Plugo as the e-commerce landscape is experiencing turbulence that is fueling positive disruption. press release.
Bang has previously released two startups: Indonesian e-commerce app TokoTalk operator CodeBrick, which was acquired by PitchBook in 2021, and Korean PC online game J2MSoft (J2M), which Electronic Arts acquired in 2008. (As reported by Tech. In Isa, Bahr has shut down its TokoTalk service since October to cut costs amid widespread economic uncertainty.)
“Plugo’s mission aligns with our own,” Moon-Suk Oh, a partner at Altos Ventures, said in a statement. “Plugo offers an unparalleled set of digital capabilities that will transform the future of e-commerce in Indonesia.”
