Southeast Asia’s ShopBack moves into personal finance with its first acquisition
“We can [expand beyond Asia Pacific] but we’ve got a fair bit on our plate now,” said Chan with a laugh.
Outside of Southeast Asia, Chan said that ShopBack’s Australia business — launched almost 1 year ago — continues to be its most market that was “ in terms of growth. ”
The question to ask is whether that deal is really a precursor to a potential acquisition.
“A whole lot has changed in the previous year and a half, Ebates has a very strong focus on the U.S… since we are not competing, so it is reasonable to partner and also to understand,” he added.
Now, it is currently diminishing down with this deal that sees participation EDBI, from another backer, the corporate investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board. Shopback has raised close to $85 million from shareholders, which include AppWorks Credit Saison Blue Sky, SoftBank Ventures Korea, Singtel Innov8 and Qualgro.
ShopBack claims some 300,000 registered users in Australia, where it stated purchases through its stage have grown by 1,300 percent between May 2018 and March 2019. Needless to say, that’s growth from a initial base and ShopBack didn’t supply raw figures on sales.
So, is it?
“Ebates brings working experience from the cashback area,” Henry Chan, ShopBack co-founder and CEO told TechCrunch within an interview.
Already the company is starting to think about reaching beyond Asia Pacific. Chan maintained that the company has a proven playbook — especially side — therefore it can enter a market” isn ’ t going to occur in the future, although when it chooses.
For its growth, ShopBack is looking closer to home with Vietnam its target. The nation is currently home to one of its three R&D centres — the other two are located in Singapore and Taiwan — and Chan reported the startup is currently hiring for a general manager to head up the Vietnam business that is soon-to-launch.ShopBack said that it saw that a 250 percent increase in orders and sales last year which translated to nearly $1 billion in earnings for its merchant partners. The business said it managed $400 million. It added that it typically handles over 2.5 million transactions for upwards of seven thousand users.
(Left to right) Henry Chan, co-founder and CEO of ShopBack, welcomes new board member Amit Patel, CEO of Rakuten -owned Ebates [Picture via ShopBack]
Chan said that, because the former funding round, ShopBack has seen its business in emerging markets like Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines eliminate and reevaluate its own attempts in more developed countries like Singapore. However, he said, the organization benefits from the diversity of the area.
ShopBack functions in seven markets in Asia Pacific — Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia and Indonesia — using a core rewards service that gives consumers rebates for spending on areas like e-commerce, ride-hailing, food delivery, online travel and more. It’s moved offline, too, with a new service for paying for meals which initially launched in Singapore and finding.
“We re superseding incumbents he explained.
Trade such as Singapore and Taiwan, where online spending is more established, let ShopBack to “learn beforehand how different businesses will develop” since the internet economy matures in Southeast Asia,” Chan — who began the company with fellow co-founder Joel Leong — clarified.
For learning “ it’s squarely and for growth,” Chan stated in reaction. “It is logical for us to associate with someone with the know-how. ”
Cuaca is a familiar face since his East Ventures company, which launched EV Growth alongside Yahoo Japan Capital and SMDV was an investor in Shopback, although the addition of Patel is important for its startup. Indeed, when I previously wrote about ShopBack, I contrasted the startup directly to Ebates, that was bought by Rakuten for about $ 1 billion in 2014.