Indonesia-based wholesale e-commerce platform Ula secured $87m yesterday in a series B round co-led by internet and gaming group Tencent and Prosus, the internet vehicle formed by media and e-commerce group Naspers.
Venture capital firm Prosus Ventures and B Capital also co-led the round and were joined by Bezos Expeditions, Sequoia Capital India, Northstar Group, Citius, AC Ventures, Lightspeed India, Alter Capital and Quona Capital, while Prosus invested through its Prosus Ventures unit.
Ula provides small retailers with access to a wide array of goods at wholesale prices typically available to main street retailers, aiming to bring together a value chain that can be fragmented and consequently more difficult for neighbourhood shops to navigate.
News of the round was originally reported by DealStreetAsia on Sunday and it came after B Capital and Quona Capital co-led the company’s $20m series A round in January 2021, investing alongside Sequoia Capital India and Lightspeed India.
Lightspeed India and Sequoia Capital India had led a $10.5m seed round for Ula in June 2020 that included SMDV and Saison Capital, subsidiaries of conglomerate Sinar Mas and payment services firm Credit Saison, as well as Quona Capital, Alter Global and several angel investors.
Nipun Mehra, co-founder and chief executive of Ula, said: “We launched in 2020, with a single-minded mission to empower small, neighbourhood retailers with technology to increase their income. We take a long-term approach to solve the underlying problems of traditional retailers by investing in technology, supply chain and data-enabled credit offering.
“Ula’s new investors come with global expertise and share this long-term mindset of the company. We are grateful to them for believing in Ula’s mission and hope to learn from their experience re-imagining retail in other emerging markets.”
