26/4/2019 – TokoTalk, a social commerce platform based in Indonesia said that it has secured an investment of US$3.2 million from Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Altos Ventures.
Powered by South Korean startup Codebrick, TokoTalk provides a chat-based ecommerce platform on social media networks including Instagram and Whatsapp.
In Indonesia, chat platforms are the preferred method for ordering online purchases.
TokoTalk allows buyers to view catalogs, pay for orders, receive order and shipping confirmation, in addition to providing customer service convenience for sellers via chatbox. For the sellers, TokoTalk offers a platform that enables simple order and inventory management through the use of a chatbox.
Since TokoTalk was launched in March 2018, the social commerce platform had reached more than 100,000 online sellers on its platform and facilitates transactions worth US$10 million a year.
Codebrick’s CEO Kyung-min Bang commented on the deal, “the rise of the internet in Indonesia began with the smartphone era so that the Indonesian people are very attached to social media. Therefore, I am sure that social commerce will grow bigger in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand.”
Indonesia has the fourth largest amount of Instagram users in the world. It counts 62 million Indonesian of Instagram users among a total population of 270 million.
Last year, the Indonesian Ministry of Finance announced that 64 percent of all e-commerce transactions in the country occurred through social media.channels, including Instagram, Facebook, and Whatsapp.
With the new funding, the startup plans to strengthen its features, particularly in terms of payment process and marketing tools.
“Those improvements are hoped to lead to an increase in the number of transactions, up to US$20 million per month in orders and being a significant player in the social commerce platform market in Indonesia.”
Besides developing automated payments confirmation system, Tokotalk also plans to build partnership with more courier services and integrate its service with marketplaces following the funding round.
