Singapore beauty social e-commerce Raena receives US$9 million in Series A funding

Raena noted that the $9 million raised in the Series A round will be used to expand the company’s team from 15 employees to more than 100 people over the next three months .

It is understood that Raena was founded in 2018. It identifies , sources and aggregates products directly from brands or local manufacturers , and then sells them to micro-entrepreneurs on an online technology platform.

Data shows that Raena 's monthly income increased more than 50 times in 2020 and maintained double-digit growth every month.

Moreover, Raena has up to 1,500 micro-enterprises in Indonesia and Malaysia and distributes products from more than 50 brands to these micro-enterprises on its platform .

Chandra Tjan, co-founder and general partner at Alpha JWC Ventures , said Raena is tapping into a large market that is expanding as the middle class grows in Indonesia and Southeast Asia .

Tjan also said that with the expertise of the founding team and the support of many investors , we believe Raena can grow into a dominant player in the regional beauty field.

Indonesia’s social e-commerce market is expected to grow to $25 billion by 2022, according to a McKinsey report .

In addition to Raena raising $9 million in Series A funding, a few days ago, social e-commerce startup RateS announced the completion of a Series A funding round co-led by Vertex Ventures and Genesis Alternative Ventures, the amount of which has not been disclosed .

However, it is understood that the funds will be used to drive its expansion into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in Indonesia .

In Southeast Asia, some of the most notable companies in the beauty products space include Social Bella , which recently entered the Vietnamese market.

Raena's co-founder and chief operating officer said in a statement that while most brands are eager to enter emerging markets such as Indonesia , distribution partners are limited .

On the other hand, platforms such as Shopee , Instagram and WhatsApp make it easy to sell to end consumers, but the back-end supply chain cannot cater to these micro-entrepreneurs .

Cross-border e-commerce market

Southeast Asia