Indonesia-based marketplace for small retailers, Ula recently announced that it has raised $10.5mn in a seed funding round. The funding round was led by Sequoia India and Lightspeed India.
The funding round also saw participation from Indonesia-based venture capital fund, SMDV, growth-stage fund Quona Capital, early stage investor Saison Capital and Silicon Valley-based Alter Global. A clutch of angel investors including the founders of Indian B2B unicorn, Udaan as well as Rahul Mehta Managing Partner at DST Global also participated in the fund raising.
The company has its offices in India-, Singapore and Indonesia. Ula will use the funds to enhance its technological infrastructure. The company is currently setting up tech teams in India, Singapore and Indonesia and also hiring across roles in category management, analytics, credit as well as city leaders in Indonesia.
Launched in January 2020, Ula was founded by Nipun Mehra, Alan Wong, Derry Sakti and Riky Tenggara in January this year. The company says it operates as a multi-category wholesale marketplace that aims to help small store owners access product selections, prices and working capital to increase their incomes.
“Indian leaders have long been building from the region, for the world. And a lot of this is possible because of the strong tech talent pool that is available here. Having worked with the best of the business and tech leaders during my time at Flipkart, Amazon and more recently, Pine Labs – I believe talent in India, with their focus on impact, is uniquely placed to build the next-generation of cross-over companies”, said Nipun Mehra, co-founder, Ula.
Mehra previously was the Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Pine Labs, and prior to that worked as an investment advisor with Sequoia Capital.
Ula’s marketplace helps small shops in Indonesia to store less inventory by ordering daily, based on what they expect to sell. The marketplace also gives working capital credit to these small retailers allowing them flexibility in payment for goods.
“70-80% of the retailers in emerging markets like Indonesia are plagued by inefficiencies in supply chain, inventory and working capital management. With more and more Indonesian SMEs becoming open to adopting technology, platforms like Ula are an easy, affordable and scalable solution to help these retailers streamline their businesses,” said Abheek Anand, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore.
Ula’s current focus is on daily needs consumer goods (such as FMCG and Staples), and is currently in private beta and predominantly servicing East Java. Over the next year, it plans to expand across the Java island and expand across categories such as apparel and electronics.
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