KitaBuy Announce Additional Series A Funding

Platform social commerce KitaBeli announced that it has secured additional funding for its series A round. A number of participating investors include Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal (founder Meesho, India), Kopi Kenangan Capital, and Banana Capital. This acquisition is approximately 6 months from $10 million series A funding which the company recorded in March 2021.

Additional funds will be used to accelerate expansion into more cities, as well as build SKUs for consumers to create one stop shop for various needs E-commerce outside the big cities.

KitaBeli was founded by Prateek Chaturvedi, Ivana Tjandra, Subhash Bishnoi and Gopal Singh Rathore. With concept 'group buying', their platform sells daily necessities such as FMCG, fresh produce, beauty, electronics, and others. The main focus is on the tier-2 to 4 city market -- see the list on their website, currently they have operated in 13 cities, ranging from Solo, Medan, Kediri, Depok, Madiun, Yogyakarta, etc.

Vidit from Meesho said that the combination of business models that KitaBeli runs has the potential to grow in the Indonesian market. WeBuy combine approach 'group buying' a la PinDuoDuo and combines it with a local community approach.

How it works, through the KitaBeli application, users or community leaders who become 'team leaders' can share information about product catalogs/prices in their social circle. Then, people can also order the goods through it. Competitively priced, network approach offline This is judged to be effective.

"We have a strong belief that KitaBeli's strategy of having end-customer relationships is the key differentiating factor that sets it apart in the competitive space," said Turner Novak of Banana Capital.

Crowd serving small town

According to the data submitted, Indonesia is currently the main market for E-commerce in South East Asia. However, service penetration in the country is still less than 10% of the total retail GMV. This means that there is still significant market potential that has not been exploited.

While the consumer base in the city tier 2-4 has accounted for 75% of the total $175 billion in retail GMV. User penetration E-commerce in these cities can be said to be minimal and provide room for further digitization.

On this basis, startups social commerce flocked to enliven the market with their various approaches. This month alone there are two startups social commerce which announces the funding, namely Trade for series A worth 163 billion Rupiah and Evermos for series B 427 billion Rupiah. With the fresh funds obtained, both of them are also committed to deeper penetration into small cities throughout Indonesia.

Approach social commerce It is also considered suitable for educating new users who were previously not very familiar with E-commerce. How it works by combining networks online and offline, utilizing the community, both as an intermediary for purchases and reseller. The final consumer will be in touch with the people around him for purchases [offline], while the person will place the order with a business process that is fully handled by the platform owner [on line].