Indonesian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) B2B platform GudangAda has bagged USD 25.4 million in a Series A funding round, the company announced on Tuesday. The round was led by Sequoia India and Alpha JWC, with participation from existing investor Wavemaker. The company plans to utilize the fresh funding to launch new business initiatives and strengthen its tech and team capabilities.
This investment follows GudangAda’s USD 10.5 million seed funding round in February last year, increasing the firm’s total funding to nearly USD 40 million.
GudangAda helps merchants grow their traditional businesses on its marketplace platform, with faster inventory turnover, optimal pricing, wider product selection, better buyer-seller discovery, as well as improved order management and enhanced analytics. The company claims to have onboarded more than 50,000 large retailers, and nearly 100% coverage of the nation’s FMCG wholesalers. GudangAda’s service is now available in 500 cities across Indonesia.
The FMCG market in Indonesia is facing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and large-scale social restrictions. The company said that this new capital will help to extend critical support to the supply chain and ensure the availability of daily essential consumer goods to meet growing demand in this time of crisis.
GudangAda has launched several initiatives, including a pilot logistics service to help its merchant network maintain availability of essential products in the local supply chain. This service is currently available in Greater Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Medan, and Lampung. The company plans to expand the service to cover major cities nationwide within the next few months.
No layoffs
Moreover, GudangAda has maintained a no-layoff policy since the COVID-19 outbreak, and continues to recruit quality talent from within Indonesia’s startup ecosystem.
“These are challenging times but GudangAda is excited to launch a new chapter of growth, together with our investors, in fulfilling our mission, which is to empower all players in Indonesia’s FMCG value chain with one-stop solutions through the use of technology,” said the firm’s founder and CEO Steven Sang in a statement.
After reaching nearly full market coverage of FMCG wholesalers in Indonesia, the company is now targeting 7–10% of the nation’s large retailer base for their next phase of growth, according to the statement.
