The funding was led by the Gokongwei Group’s investment arm, JG Digital Equity Ventures, with support from the country’s top businessmen and owners of Century Pacific Group, Landmark Department Store, Abenson.com. Also, regional investors such as Gobi Partners, through its local Gobi-Core PH Fund, and other notable investors, such as CARRO Chief Strategy Officer Kenji Narushima, joined this round. Ayala Ventures and Foxmont Capital, also returned for this round.
Etaily, a fast-growing Philippines-based e-commerce-enabling startup, has closed a US$4.3 million seed extension round, an addition to its initial $1.6 million funding round held in Q2 2021.
Founded in 2020, Etaily helps more than 20 brands including Landmark, Midea, Toshiba, and Terranova build their online retail operations. The startup offers a full suite of services such as content production, channel creation, and warehousing and fulfillment, among others. Etaily evolved to a mighty team of experts from Lazada, ZALORA, and other global e-commerce players that serve various local and regional clients in different categories such as fashion, beauty, consumer electronics, and home and living. In its first year of operations, Etaily processed more than one million transactions and made more than 50,000 unique products available across Southeast Asia. Etaily is part of a growing roster of SEA-based e-commerce enabler startups that have recently raised funding. Etaily wants to differentiate by providing a one stop solution that focuses on managing online marketplaces of brands and building direct-to-consumer channels through online and offline distribution channels.
The funding was led by the Gokongwei Group’s investment arm, JG Digital Equity Ventures, with support from the country’s top businessmen and owners of Century Pacific Group, Landmark Department Store, Abenson.com. Also, regional investors such as Gobi Partners, through its local Gobi-Core PH Fund, and other notable investors, such as CARRO Chief Strategy Officer Kenji Narushima, joined this round. Ayala Ventures and Foxmont Capital, also returned for this round.
Etaily will use part of the new capital to push its regional expansion as well as to continuously develop unique solutions for its brands. One of these solutions is an offline-to-online (O2O) cloud software, designed to integrate offline point-of-sales to allow instant commerce and fulfillment out of stores. Through the new platform, which will be launched in the upcoming months, retailers will be able to list their offline store inventory on their online channels, easily fulfill orders out of the store, and pick couriers based on preferred parameters such as instant or standard e-commerce deliveries.
“We are very grateful to receive so much trust in our growth stage. It legitimizes our traction in building a sustainable and scalable business model that can create value to the core businesses of our existing and future brands and, now even more excitingly, of our investors,” said Alexander Friedhoff, Co-Founder of Etaily.
JG Digital Equity Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of JG Summit Holdings, Inc. The VC is committed to investing in businesses that can contribute to the core businesses of the Gokongwei Group ecosystem, especially in the areas of e-commerce, fintech and supply chain and logistics. Aside from Etaily, the VC’s investment portfolio includes Tyme, Darwinbox, Wavemaker SEA SPV2 SPC, iPrice, Growsari, ZUZU, Zyllem, and Snapcart.
“JGDEV is always looking for innovative tech startups that can disrupt existing markets or create entirely new market spaces. When we invest, we make sure that value creation happens. With Etaily, we are able to leverage on the company’s expertise and provide our conglomerate’s ecosystem with its e-commerce innovations, thereby contributing more impact on people’s lives and the economy,” said Jojo Malolos, CEO of JGDEV.
Lance Gokongwei, President and CEO of JG Summit and Chairman of Robinsons Retail Holdings said that “in line with our long-term ambition to remain as one of the largest business conglomerates in the Philippines, we have also crafted important strategic enablers in the Gokongwei Group namely customer centricity and digital transformation. This is true to our purpose of providing better choices to our customers and shared success to all our stakeholders. While we have a very large ecosystem of businesses, we have also experienced the rapid changes in our business and operating models. To remain relevant and true to our purpose of providing better choices to our customers and shared success to all our stakeholders, we have started JGDev to serve as the gateway between new technologies anchored on digital models and talented entrepreneurs who will benefit from the Gokongwei Group’s ecosystem. One of JGDev’s recent investments is Etaily. We believe that this partnership will further create long term value and allow our businesses to thrive in the digital economy. Etaily fits perfectly in the pace of our technological progress in recent years.” he said.
Included in Etaily’s pool of major investors is Gobi Partners, which invests in Philippine-focused technology companies through a joint-venture partnership with local independent VC firm Core Capital. The Gobi-Core PH Fund, the joint venture’s first fund, has been supporting various Philippine startups for 20 years collectively, funding companies such as Kumu, Tier One Entertainment, Edukasyon.ph, Maria Health, CloudEats, and FlowerStore.ph.
“We are thrilled to have Etaily as part of our portfolio as it showcases that the Philippine retailers, with the right platform and support, can be in a sustainable acceleration,” commented Core Capital Co-founder Carlo Delantar. His co-founder, Jason Gaisano, concurred: “The startup exudes the vision we have for the Philippine startup community—that our local players can be movers of the economy with innovative and efficient solutions.”
Etaily also receives support from the Po family, the majority owners of Century Pacific Food, Inc. (CNPF) one of the largest branded food companies in the Philippines. According to Executive Chairman Chris Po, the group’s support stems from their successful experience as one of Etaily’s partners.
“We have tested Etaily’s operations, data, and analytics capability as clients. Recently, we launched our own pet food range, Goodest, with Etaily, and they have proven to be a strong partner, providing us with a seamless rollout and demonstrating operational and commercial excellence. This gave our group the confidence to invest in Etaily and be at the forefront of technology and innovation,” said Po.
To learn more about etaily and its services, visit: https://etaily.com/
