18/9/2018 – Indonesian online B2B marketplace Ralali has today closed a funding round worth US$7 million led by Japan’s SBI Group. The round also saw the participation of Southeast Asian VC Addventures and global incubator Digital Garage.
This funding round was raised to accelerate Ralali’s mission to serve 30 million SMEs in the country and its expansion towards the global market by providing a wider range of business segment solutions.
The capital in part, will be used for the company’s expansion plans to penetrate the Thailand market in collaboration with Siam Cement Group (SCG), the parent company of participating investor Addventures.
SCG is one of the leaders in building materials and industrial supplies in Thailand, and Ralali plans to leverage its business network to kickstart its expansion. It is expected to begin in Q1 2019 through building materials and MRO (maintenance, repair, and operation & office supplies) categories first.
“B2B ecommerce platform in emerging market is still fragmented in terms of supply chain,” said Ralali’s Founder Joseph Aditya. “We strive to enable the business to have better integrations in terms of products offering combined with the services in one platform.”
The B2B marketplace founder also adds that the company plans to achieve a gross sales target of US$1 billion by 2020.
Founded in 2013, Ralali provides a B2B ecommerce platform for manufacturers to sell directly to shop owners and merchants. The startup has more than 10,000 suppliers in 20 cities and connects around 150,000 wholesalers and retailers.
The startup initially operates in MRO but later expanded to other business segmentation such as food supplies, building material, and automotive supplies. Its annual transactions have grown five-fold compared to previous year, with an average basket size per transaction around US$2000.
SBI Investment Executive officer Tomoyuki Nii commented on the deal, saying that “We believe the B2B e-Commerce platform will have a promising growth and we can support the company in the area of fintech such as introducing a financial lending platform to it.”
The investment makes Ralali SBI’s latest Indonesian portfolio company after the Japanese giant had earlier announced investments in fintech firms Taralite and Investree.
Ralali had last raised US$2.5 million in June 2015 from Beenos Partners, Cyber Venture Partners and East Ventures.
