Australia-based daily deals company Dealised, backed by SingTel’s corporate venturing unit, has repositioned itself as an Asia-Pacific-based company by selling off its UK operations.
At the same time of announcing the sale of its UK operations to US-based Group Commerce, the company has also signed a six country agreement with Granton Asia, a direct selling advertising company, which would allow Granton to use Dealised’s e-commerce platform to launch daily deal sites in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore during 2012.
Jonathan Marchbank, chief executive of Dealised, said: "While we believe very strongly in the fundamentals of our European business, we have decided to focus our efforts closer to home on the diverse opportunities in Asia. Asia is already worth more than US$1 billion and growing quickly; this is the place to be," concluded
Dealised won A$5m ($5.3m) of series A backing in a SingTel Innov8-led round last year. The round was joined by Australia-based venture capital firm Yuuwa Capital.
The company subsequently bought Hong Kong-based Lokaly Network, the owner of group buying platform Lokaly and group buying website ValuUp, for an undisclosed sum, when the company said its focus on Asia began.The company provides the platform for news provider South China Morning Post’s daily deals.
Other Dealised investors include Australia-based start-up incubator Pollenizer and angel investors.
Dealised set up Spreets, an Australian deals site, in 2009 which was sold in 2010 to US-based internet services provider Yahoo’s local subsidiary for A$40m.