Indonesian social commerce firm KitaBeli raises $20m in fresh funds to bring e-commerce to the country’s small cities

KitaBeli, an Indonesia-based social commerce platform, has brought US$20 million up in a funding round led by Glade Brook Capital Partners. The funding will be utilized to expand into additional little cities in Indonesia, and add new product categories like excellence, individual consideration, and mother and baby products.

Complicated supply chains imply that consumers in Tier 1 and Tier 2 Indonesian cities frequently wind up paying more for products than their peers in huge cities, similar to Jakarta. KitaBeli is determined to change that, with its own dispersion network and a direct-to-buyer social commerce app. Today the startup announced that it has brought $20 million up in fresh funding led by Glade Brook Capital Partners, alongside participation from returning investors AC Ventures and GoVentures, and new backer InnoVen Capital.

InnoVen Capital joined the round as another investor while existing backers AC Ventures and Go-Ventures likewise took participated.

Established in 2020 by Prateek Chaturvedi, Ivana Tjandra, Gopal Rathore, and Subhash Bishnoi, KitaBeli’s social commerce platform focuses on FMCG products.

Designated in more modest cities in Indonesia, the firm permits clients to buy along with their friends and get discounts, like Pinduoduo’s group buying scheme.

The organization intends to utilize the new capital to extend its presence in Indonesia along with launching new product categories like beauty, personal care, frozen food, and mother and baby products.

“KitaBeli’s expansion is timely, as Indonesia’s second-and third-tier cities now represent more than a US$100 billion market, with over 200 million consumers contributing more than 50% of the nation’s GDP,” the company said in a statement.

The startup says it has developed more than 10x in a half year and claims to be the biggest direct-to-consumer social commerce platform in Indonesia. It presently has in excess of 400 workers.

KitaBeli says Indonesia’s Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities make up a $100 billion market, with 200 million buyers that offer over half of Indonesia’s gross domestic product. Be that as it may, they face more difficulties requesting online compared with their peers in Tier 1 cities like Jakarta. For instance, long delivery times, greater costs due to complicated supply chains, and trust issues since clients don’t have the foggiest idea who is selling a product.

To address these, KitaBeli has opened a warehouse in each city it works in, enabling same-day and next-day deliveries. It procures products straightforwardly from brands and principals, resulting in savings that can then be given to its clients. At last, it tends to the trust issue through the social commerce model, in which clients accumulate individuals from their social networks for group purchases.

In September 2021, KitaBeli brought an undisclosed sum in a lengthy series A financing round, which saw support from Meesho co-founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal. A half year sooner, the social commerce platform brought US$10 million up in a Series A funding round led by Go-Ventures.

To purchase on KitaBeli, clients open the app, put in a request, then get motivations for sharing these buys with their friends. KitaBeli’s customers use it to buy staples like rice, oil, sugar, milk, and individual consideration things. Chaturvedi said every client for the most part burns through $5 to $10 in each request, and each group generally comprises 5 to 25 individuals.

KitaBeli can increase its distribution network by opening small warehouses in every city as opposed to having huge distribution places.“Since we focus primarily on FMCG, we are able to churn our inventory very fast,” said Chaturvedi. “Our system works to minimize the days of inventory for each item. By reducing the amount of stock in the warehouse, we able to reduce the space required as well, which reduces the cost.”

KitaBeli rivals SoftBank-backed Super and other social commerce firms like RateS, Raena, and Dagangan.