Vietnam-based e-commerce marketplace Sendo received $61m yesterday in a series C round that included telecommunications and internet group SoftBank, internet company Digital Garage and e-commerce group Beenos.
The round also featured financial services firms SBI Group and Kasikornbank, venture capital firm EV Growth and Daiwa PI Partners, the private equity arm of investment bank Daiwa Securities Group, while SoftBank invested through its SoftBank Ventures Asia unit.
Formed in 2012 by IT services provider FPT Corporation, Sendo operates a peer-to-peer e-commerce marketplace with more than 500,000 vendors and 12 million customers across Vietnam.
The platform lists some 17 million different items and is mainly targeted at customers in tier 2 Vietnamese cities where Sendo believes it can attain competitive advantage.
The company will spend the money on product development as it seeks to broaden the scope of its marketplace and bring in new features underpinned by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Sendo secured $51m in an August 2018 series B round led by SBI Holdings that included FPT Corporation, Beenos, SoftBank Ventures Asia (then SoftBank Ventures Korea), payment services provider EContext Asia, Daiwa PI Partners, Beenext and SKS Ventures.
The company had previously raised approximately $16.9m in series A funding from investors including SBI Group, Beenos and EContext Asia in 2014.
Daniel Kang, managing director of Softbank Ventures Asia, said: “Sendo’s strength in utilising the capabilities of its partners within the ecosystem has essentially created a win-win for merchants, [third-party logistics firms], advertising companies and financial institutions.
“The company’s marketplace model is extremely well-aligned to address the needs of typical Vietnamese sellers and consumers, and more importantly, to empower them.”