Malaysian-based e-commerce startup, iPrice Group have cemented further growths to its digital services with USD$5 million raised in a funding round backed by Japan-based firms Itochu Corporation and the KDDI Open Innovation Fund III, the VC fund of Japanese telco firm KDDI and operated by Global Brain Corporation.
According to a statement, the funding will serve to expand the Group’s services into the lending market and help users to find the best consumers loans to fund their purchase. The Southeast Asian leading price comparison platform will be able to better support its users with the best deals to save them money, as the e-commerce market becomes increasingly difficult to navigate.
"We're very excited that we can leverage our investors' extensive lending experience. The first step in our strategic cooperation will be adding Itochu's subsidiary, Payku, as a key lending partner in Indonesia. Their expertise will be vital as we further penetrate the lending market," said iPrice Group CEO Paul, welcoming Itochu as part of the capitalization table.
On top of Payku, iPrice's other lending partners include Home Credit and Julo from Indonesia, the Philippines’ Cashalo, Smartpay from Vietnam), and ZIP in Singapore.
According to a Facebook and Bain & Company report, the number of platforms used by SEA digital consumers in 2021 has steadily risen to 7.9 websites per user on average, nearly 52% more than 2020. iPrice addresses this need by aggregating the best offers from more than 7 billion products and 8 million sellers on a single platform.
"Besides comparing products, prices, sellers' reputations, and delivery conditions, we are continually deepening our expertise to help shoppers in various ways - be it aggregating seller vouchers, creating an app that alerts users of their desired products' price drops, or finding the cheapest loans to fund their purchases," added Brown-Kenyon.
iPrice recently launched a Price Watch service allowing users in Indonesia to receive alerts of their desired products' price drops directly at the iPrice App. The service will continue to roll out in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand throughout 2022.