Indonesia’s halal-focused social commerce start-up Evermos raises $30 mln to expand outside main cities
JAKARTA – Indonesian halal-focused social commerce platform Evermos has raised over $30 million in a Series B round that it will use to expand to villages.
The round was led by new investor UOB Venture Management’s Asia Impact Investment Fund II. Other participants include IFC, MDI Ventures, Telkomsel Mitra Innovation (TMI) and Future Shape. Existing investors Jungle Ventures and Shunwei Capital also participated in this round.
The fresh funds will be used to expand the leadership and growth teams, enter new geographies and to deepen technology development, Iqbal Muslimin, Evermos CEO and Co-Founder told Salaam Gateway.
The plan is to empower 1 million micro-entrepreneurs over the next five years, with funds channeled to three key areas: expanding the seller community to lower-tier cities (sub-districts), developing a strong and experienced leadership team as well as technology developments (apps, system, admin).
Evermos currently serves more than 500 brand owners in Indonesia and 100,000 active resellers across the country’s regions. It manages the inventory, logistics, and customer support on its platform, essentially empowering these resellers to focus on generating demand and selling a wide range of products that include modest fashion, halal health and beauty products, and halal food and beverages. The business has seen rapid growth with total transaction value increasing by more than 60 times over the last 2 years.
“Currently we are running a pilot program ‘Desa Evermos’ with almost 100 villages in Indonesia to partner with sellers in villages and convert the underproductive local residents to become our resellers. Our seller community now is based on sub-districts where each has a leader to empower other sellers within their sub-districts,” said Iqbal.
E-commerce penetration outside Indonesia’s main cities tends to be low partly due to sporadic internet connectivity, logistics challenges and distrust or unfamiliarity of online shopping. Evermos’s social commerce model bridges the gaps by enabling social sellers to market products to these consumers.
“The platform also empowers local brands and creates income generation opportunities for people in underserved communities. This fits well with our impact fund’s mandate of improving the livelihoods of the base of the pyramid population,” Clarissa Loh, senior director at UOB Venture Management, said in a statement.
Evermos is a member of the World Economic Forum as part of the Global Innovators Community, an invitation-only group of the world’s most promising start-ups and scale-ups that are at the forefront of technological and business model innovation.
The social commerce start-up was founded by Arip Tirta (President and Co-Founder), Iqbal Muslimin (CEO and Co-Founder), Muhammad Ghufron Mustaqim (Deputy CEO and Co-Founder) and Ilham Taufiq (Co-Founder) in November 2018. It secured its first funding in 2019, when it won a Series A round of $8.25 million led by Jungle Ventures, with Shunwei Capital and Alpha JWC participating.
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