EWTP Capital, the investment vehicle backed by e-commerce group Alibaba, has provided $50m for Singapore-registered new retail technology firm Ficus, Tech in Asia reported yesterday.
Ficus is the majority owner of Seedcom, an investment entity that oversees Vietnam-based ventures including coffee and tea producer Cau Dat Farm, fashion retailer Juno and a chain of cafes called The Coffee House.
Dinh Anh Huan co-founded Seedcom in 2014 and remains its chairman, before founding Ficus three years later, according to DealStreetAsia.
Seedcom is also an investor in e-commerce logistics provider Scommerce, and Tech in Asia stated EWTP Capital, which supplied the Ficus funding through its ReDefine Capital Fund, holds a direct stake in the latter’s Vietnamese operation.
The deal valued Ficus at approximately $370m according to VentureCap calculations cited by Tech in Asia, which reported it has now secured $71.3m in funding altogether.
Other Ficus backers include investment vehicles The Quaternary Group, Aurora Global and Mizuho ASEAN Investment, according to regulatory filings cited by DealStreetAsia.
