Chilibeli Pockets IDR 160 Billion Series A Funding Led by Lightspeed Ventures

Lightspeed Ventures leads series A funding of US$10 million (approximately 160 billion Rupiah) for services social commerce Chilibeli. The funding also included a number of other investors, including Golden Gate Ventures, Sequoia Surge, Kinesys Group, and Alto Partners.

The closing of this funding was made public today. Chilibeli CEO Alex Feng has announced the certainty of this funding since early March.

Alex said the funds would be used to strengthen a number of their business lines. One of their priorities is to strengthen their community network, which is located in Jakarta, South Tangerang, and Depok, as well as to expand their network in Bekasi and Bogor.

Alex also added that the funds will also be used to upgrade UI and user experience their mobile application, as well as improving their warehouse facility located in Depok.

"The strong support from this well-known investor is crucial in strengthening and scaling up our future growth and continuing to have a meaningful impact on society," added Alex.

Chilibeli's business model relies on community networks, especially housewives. Through this network, Chilibeli sells their basic food products, especially vegetables and various fruits, directly into the hands of consumers.

This model outsmarts the challenges that agritech actors often face in distributing fresh food ingredients. Chilibeli claims that so far only agritech companies have used this model in Indonesia.

Akshay Bhushan, Partner of Lightspeed Ventures, said Chilibeli's efforts will be a new scale for the platform social commerce in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Lightspeed's confidence in leading this funding round, he said, came from their experience of investing in a number of well-known startups, such as Pinduoduo, Snapchat, Udaan, and Sharechat.

"The power of the platform social commerce Chilibeli comes from empowering local communities in Indonesia's middle class through access to valuable and affordable products while advancing the livelihoods of farmers, housewives, and MSMEs in the Chilibeli ecosystem," he added.

Social commerce it is believed by many to be a sub-sector that has not been touched by many business people. Chilibeli noted that about 20% of household income was used up for basic food needs. That's why they believe their growing room is still big enough.

In an interview with DailySocial Previously, Alex Feng was confident that his team could continue to profit. Alex targets this year's Chilibeli to earn up to Rp. 1,6 trillion. In addition, he also intends to open a series B funding round in the second or third quarter of this year. This year they also plan to expand their services to Central Java and East Java.

"This funding round officially makes Chilibeli a series A company in just 7 months since its establishment. One of the fastest growing startups in Southeast Asia," concluded Alex.