Vietnam-based, corporate-backed online marketplaces Sendo and Tiki have agreed to merge operations, DealStreetAsia has reported, citing people privy to the matter.
The companies are currently in discussions with Vietnam’s National Competition Committee over the proposed transaction, which would result in Tiki and Sendo joining forces under the umbrella of a joint holding company.
Tiki runs an e-commerce platform that concentrates on urban customers in larger cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi who are generally concerned about the origin of the goods they buy.
The company last raised money in June 2019 when Nikkei reported it had secured $100m in a round led by private equity firm Northstar Group and backed by existing Korean investors such as Korea Investment Partners, STIC Investments and Sparklabs Ventures.
E-commerce firm JD.com and internet group VNG had provided an amount reported as $44m for Tiki in early 2018, after VNG had invested $17m in 2016 in return for a 38% stake.
Internet company CyberAgent supplied an undisclosed amount for the company through CyberAgent Ventures (now CyberAgent Capital) in 2012, before conglomerate Sumitomo added between $1m and $2m in 2013. Its earlier investors include Seedcom.
Formed as a subsidiary of IT services firm FPT, Sendo caters to a more rural and suburban customer base and recorded 30.9 million visitors in the third quarter of 2019, putting it second in Vietnam’s e-commerce market, behind Shopee.
Sendo secured $61m in series C funding in November 2019 from telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s SoftBank Ventures Asia unit, internet company Digital Garage, e-commerce group Beenos, financial services providers SBI Group and Kasikornbank, EV Growth and Daiwa PI Partners.
SBI led the company’s $51m series B round in 2018, investing alongside FPT, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Beenos, Daiwa PI Partners, payment services provider EContext Asia, Beenext and SKS Ventures, four years after it raised $16.9m from SBI, Beenos and EContext Asia.
