Led by Sequoia India and Alpha JWC with participation from Wavemaker
- Connects merchants across 500 cities in Indonesia, has 50,000+ large retailers and nearly 100% coverage of the nation’s FMCG wholesalers
- Targets 7-10% of the large retailer base in Indonesia in the next phase of growth
- Launches GudangAda Logistics; to expand service to large cities nationwide
Jakarta, May 04, 2020: Indonesia’s dominant FMCG B2B platform GudangAda has raised US$25.4 Mn in Series A funding in a round led by Sequoia India and Alpha JWC. Existing investor Wavemaker Partners also participated in the round.
GudangAda will use the funding to continue investing in their technology platform, launch new business initiatives, and to strengthen the team. The FMCG market in Indonesia is facing a number of challenges due to Covid-19, and limited physical interactions are pushing wholesalers and retailers to adopt digital solutions. The funds will enable GudangAda to extend critical support to the supply chain and ensure availability of daily essential consumer goods, such as staples, cooking ingredients, health and sanitary products, to meet growing consumer demand; while also helping the industry function smoothly in this time of large-scale social restrictions (locally known as PSBB).
“Since we announced our large round of seed funding earlier this year, we have been fortunate to have received strong inbound interests from the market. We’re very pleased to partner with Sequoia India given their stellar reputation, ongoing capital commitment and track record of portfolio support, especially in areas where we need to accelerate our platform development. We’re also grateful for the continued commitment and value-addition from our current investor, Alpha JWC Ventures”, said Stevensang, founder of GudangAda.
GudangAda’s Team
The platform has been acting as a reliable solution for FMCG traders who now rely on online transactions in the wake of the PSBB policy in Indonesia. With the rising awareness around the importance of social distancing, GudangAda has launched a number of initiatives, including a pilot logistics service to help their merchant network maintain essential products’ availability in the local supply chain. This service is currently available in Greater Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Medan and Lampung, while the company has expansion plans to cover major cities nationwide within the next few months.
“These are challenging times. But GudangAda is excited and fully prepared to launch a new chapter of growth in our journey, together with our investors, in fulfilling our mission – which is to empower all players in Indonesia’s FMCG value chain with one-stop solutions through the use of technology”, added Stevensang.
The early success of this mission is evident from the company’s unmatched FMCG supply chain network. With linkage to merchants across 500 cities in Indonesia, 50,000+ large retailers, and nearly 100% coverage of the nation’s FMCG wholesalers, they are building out their core philosophy of empowering, rather than replacing, existing intermediaries in the value chain.
GudangAda helps merchant members on its marketplace platform grow their traditional business with faster inventory turns, more optimal pricing, wider product selection, better buyer-seller discovery, as well as improved order management and enhanced analytics through their online platform and native applications. After reaching nearly full market coverage of FMCG wholesalers in Indonesia, the company is now targeting 7-10% of the nation’s large retailer base for their next phase of growth.
“B2B supply chains in many emerging markets face challenges around working capital limitations, inefficient inventory management, and manual operational processes. GudangAda is building a digital ecosystem to transform the massive and highly fragmented FMCG market in Indonesia. We are deeply impressed with Mr. Steven’s decades of experience, innovation mindset, and ambitious vision to build something bold and game-changing. The country is set to witness the emergence and rapid adoption of B2B in its second wave of e-commerce, and we look forward to partnering with GudangAda in this journey”, said Abheek Anand, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore
Given GudangAda’s core product offering of daily essential consumer goods, coupled with merchants’ heightened appreciation of the advantages of moving their traditional business online, the company’s FMCG B2B marketplace business continues to show resilient and ongoing growth even in today’s challenging times.
Previously, the company raised US$10.5 Mn in a seed funding round co-led by Alpha JWC Ventures and Wavemaker Partners, with participation from Pavilion Capital. With this Series A funding, GudangAda has raised US$36 Mn in total, in only 15 months since its inception.
“When we first invested in the company and Stevensang, we knew that they would be the leading industry player in the region, and since then, their growth continues to impress us. FMCG is a tough industry to disrupt and still mainly conducted in traditional ways. It’s not easy to change behaviours, especially one that has stayed for decades, but GudangAda proved that it can be done if you know the right gateways, the pain points to address, and how to execute efficiently. This cannot be done without the founder’s experience, reputation, and clear direction. Now, GudangAda has made its way to being the largest B2B FMCG technology company in Indonesia. We are proud to partner with them since day one, and we’re excited to see the next growth for this company,” says Chandra Tjan, Managing Partner at Alpha JWC Ventures.
GudangAda is committed to supporting Indonesia’s local communities impacted by Covid-19 and PSBB restrictions – and is actively involved in the distribution of government assistance to remote and secluded areas by leveraging their nationwide reach within the nation’s FMCG supply chain. They have also dedicated their own resources to launch food donation programs across the country for underprivileged local citizens. Since the Covid-19 outbreak in Indonesia, the team has maintained a ‘no lay-off’ policy, and instead continued to recruit quality talent from within Indonesia’s start-up ecosystem.
