edamama, the Philippines’ leading online-to-offline (O2O) parenting platform, has successfully closed its Series A+ funding round. This brings edamama’s total funding raised since the platform’s launch to over US$35 million.
The funding round was led by the Ayala Corporation Technology Innovation Venture (ACTIVE) Fund, the largest venture capital fund in the Philippines, managed by Kickstart Ventures and backed by Ayala Corporation (AC) and its subsidiaries. Additionally, existing investors Kickstart Ventures, Gentree Fund, Innoven Capital also participated in the round, alongside new investor South Korean retail giant, GS Group.
Expressing enthusiasm, Nishant D’Souza, Co-Founder of edamama stated, “We are excited to strengthen our collaboration with the Ayala ecosystem with this strategic investment from ACTIVE Fund, especially to unlock further synergies across the Ayala Malls network as we expand our physical stores nationwide next year. We are immensely grateful for the continued trust from our repeat investors, and are honored to welcome our new partners, GS Group, with their first direct investment in the Philippines. This funding will accelerate our offline roll-out and private label product development, providing even more value and accessibility to our customers wherever they choose to be – online or offline.”
“We are truly inspired by the potential of the edamama platform to empower more Filipino parents and families. Building on our outstanding partnership with edamama through Kickstart’s initial investment in 2021, we are delighted to continue supporting them via Ayala Corporation’s ACTIVE Fund to help bring about a frictionless future where affordable, quality products are made easily available to more Filipino families. With this recent funding round, we are also thrilled to welcome Korea’s GS Group to the edamama cap table. Their experience and strategic insights make a significant and valuable addition to the growth of edamama,” commented Minette Navarrete of the ACTIVE Fund.
The fund raised from this round will fuel the company’s expansion strategy, intensifying its offline retail footprint across the Philippines. Following successful pilot pop-up stores in Robinsons Magnolia and Robinsons Manila malls, the company plans to mark another milestone with the launch of a new store at Ayala Vertis North before year-end.
Along with the funding news, edamama welcomed four seasoned e-commerce and retail professionals to strengthen its leadership team:
Joining edamama’s Board of Directors, Miguel Fernandez brings over two decades of experience from influential roles at e-commerce giants such as Coupang, Amazon, and Dell. His CFO expertise, honed during stints at Carsome and Philippine fintech unicorn Maya, will provide strategic guidance on Profit and Loss (P&L) at edamama.
Rohan Aggarwal, appointed as edamama’s Chief Commercial Officer, previously held the position of Director of Mobiles business at Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce platform. With substantial experience at Licious and Snapdeal in direct-to-consumer (D2C) and e-commerce sectors, Aggarwal aims to fortify edamama’s online business and position it as a vertical leader.
With valuable early-stage entrepreneurship experience in D2C and e-commerce services sectors, and deep domain knowledge in scaling parenting commerce categories in Flipkart and Snapdeal, Rachit Gupta joins edamama as its Senior Commercial Director to ensure the company’s sustainable revenue growth.
Stepping into the role of Offline Retail Director to oversee edamama’s offline business, Donna Manalastas draws from her extensive background of effectively establishing and expanding Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy’s (LVMH) Benefit Cosmetics in the Philippines. Her role at edamama focuses on expanding their physical retail presence across the country. Moreover, Donna’s addition significantly bolsters gender diversity within edamama’s leadership, surpassing 70%.
“We have made great strides in scaling our operations while improving unit economics over this past year. These appointments will further bolster our goal of delivering an industry-leading experience for parents in both the digital and physical retail worlds. With such world-class talent on board, we could not be more pumped for our future,” said Bela Gupta D’Souza, Co-Founder of edamama.