Chilibeli's "Social Commerce" Startup Shatters

Startups social commerceChilibeli is currently closing operations temporarily, at least until the end of this month. The reason given to the public was transfer server and deep cleaning resources. The employees have started to be laid off with the promise that this month's salary will still be disbursed.

It is said that the management conveyed to the employees that they had tried their best to save the company. According to reliable sources, Chilibeli is still having trouble getting the Series B funding raised since last year.

The company is reportedly already exploring the potential to sell the business. There are two startups unicorn who had explored potential acquisitions, but now a strong candidate for WeBuy, a similar startup from Singapore, appears as the party who is rumored to be taking over Chilibeli's business.

WeBuy has been operating in Indonesia since September 2021. This company is a portfolio MDI Ventures, Wavemaker, KB Financial Group, and Rocket Internet.

We have not received an answer from Chilibeli management and its investors regarding this matter.

Chilibeli was founded by Alex Feng, Damon Yue, and Matt Li in 2019. They announced the acquisition Series A pendanaan funding for $10 million in March 2020. The round was led by Lightspeed Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, Sequoia Surge, Kinesys Group, and Alto Partners.

Companies rely on C2M business concept (customer to manufacturer) in bridging fresh produce from farmers to final consumers in a number of communities. The concept is here to encourage logistics efficiency and ensure product freshness reaches consumers.

Chilibeli participated in the Surge acceleration program batch second.