ShopBack the one-stop lifestyle portal that powers smarter purchase decisions, raised USD25M in its latest funding round, bringing the company’s total funding raised to date close to USD40M. The round was led by Credit Saison, the largest credit card and retail finance company in Japan. More than 10 institutional investors participated in the round, including new investors Blue Sky and Intouch Holdings PLC, as well as existing investors SoftBank Ventures Korea, Singtel Innov8, Qualgro and East Ventures.
“Cashback served as the cornerstone for ShopBack’s establishment in Malaysia and laid the foundation for us to build smarter shopping solutions,” said Alvin Gill, ShopBack Malaysia’s Country General Manager, “Living up to our value proposition as ‘The Smarter Way’, we have recently added service aggregation features for the rides to simplify purchase decisions for our users. We strive to become the one-stop shopping and lifestyle portal for every Malaysian.”
Today, ShopBack powers close to 1,000 orders per hour, with an annualised sales figure of over USD300M for more than 1,300 partner merchants across the online retail, travel and lifestyle verticals. Over three and half million consumers across six countries in the Asia Pacific have signed up with ShopBack since the company’s inception in 2014.
“ShopBack’s business model builds on the explosive growth of ecommerce in the Asia Pacific to drive tangible value for its users and cost-efficient sales generation for its partner merchants,” said Sean Lee, Partner of SoftBank Ventures Korea, “The model enables ShopBack to leverage user insights across shopping categories and develop smarter shopping solutions such as cross-category recommendations.”
“The ShopBack team has demonstrated the ability to build a pool of loyal users in a sustainable and scalable manner, which is the backbone of all successful businesses. We have high confidence that the team is able to deliver on their vision in the region, hence the follow-on 18 months after our initial investment,” said Sean
The three-year-old start-up previously disclosed two seed funding rounds totaling to over USD1M. This latest round of funding will be used to drive three key areas of development – acquiring world-class talent, launching new product features and establishing market leadership.
Talent is key to long term success
According to Heang Chhor, Managing Partner of Qualgro, “ShopBack consistently meets our high bar for delivering very strong growth. It has demonstrated exceptional ability to adapt and execute fast in very different markets across Southeast Asia. This rests on an innovative and fast-moving talent pool, that ShopBack has been able to attract, grow and motivate.”
“Speed and results-orientation are key in the region, and ShopBack’s mantra of “Fail fast, learn fast and iterate faster”, has seen them rapidly become a regional platform for ‘The Smarter Way’ to shop online.”
ShopBack’s presence in six countries is driven by a team of more than 130 people. The management team hails from ecommerce and technology background with experience in scaling companies across the region, including Alvin Gill who was previously the Chief of Staff to the CEO at ZEAL Network, a publicly-listed online lottery company with revenues in excess of EUR100M per annum.
Prior to ZEAL Network, Alvin was in the investment banking industry before joining ZALORA Malaysia. He led the Buying Division and contributed, for the categories he controlled, a significant revenue growth towards the business. His experience and knowledge in Business Intelligence helped the company solve and streamline multiple operational challenges during his tenure.
Proven product-market fit laid foundation for ShopBack’s regional growth
ShopBack’s core business model is built on a strong foundation of multiple experimentations and iterations. It transformed from a one-day flash sale site to a perennial Cashback platform which enables it to deliver value to customers and partner merchants all year round.
“We have witnessed ShopBack’s growth journey and the founders’ dedication to the business from the early days,” said Edgar Hardless, Chief Executive Officer of Singtel Innov8. “With the flourishing e-commerce market in the region, we believe ShopBack is strongly positioned to realise their regional growth aspirations.”
ShopBack believes rapid and effective localisation is critical for players operating in a fragmented region like the Asia Pacific. While its core service offering remains the same across geographies, different marketing and product strategies are adopted to better address the needs of customers in each market.
“This new round of funding leads to the start of the year-end shopping festival, with the nearest being Alibaba’s 11.11 Singles’ Day. Our customised marketing approach has efficiently lifted the awareness level for Taobao, Tmall, and AliExpress in Malaysia, which resulted in a 400% increase in orders during 2016’s 11.11 Singles Day compared to 2015. We look forward to upscale the performance this year with an impactful campaign including up to 50% cash rewards and special rebates for our users,” added Alvin.
