The start of the week saw a slew of funding rounds from Indonesia to China.
Indonesian Beauty Startup Social Bella Raises $58 Series E
Indonesia-based beauty startup Social Bella, which operates lifestyle ecommerce platform Sociolla, has raised $58 million in a Series E funding round, the startup announced on Monday, according to a press release on Monday.
The latest funding round saw participation from returning investors Temasek, the investment arm of Singapore Government, Pavilion Capital, and Jungle Ventures.
The latest funds will be used to scale up the startup’s tech infrastructure and fuel its growth in Indonesia, according to the reports.
Social Bella had raised $40 million in September last year in a Series D financing round co-led by EV Venture Growth and Temasek, with participation from Pavilion Capital and Jungle Ventures. With the latest capital injection, Social Bella’s total funding has exceeded $110 million.
Founded in 2015 by former Kellogg employee Christopher Madiam, along with current CEO John Rasjid and ex-graphic designer Chrisanti Indiana, the startup now claims to have served over 30 million users in 2020. Taking an omnichannel approach, the startup also owns six offline stores in Jakarta and Surabaya in East Java.
The startup claims to have experienced rapid growth since its inception and has evolved from the fastest-growing beauty e-commerce to a complete ecosystem in Indonesia, whose beauty and personal care market is expected to grow to US$8.5 billion by 2022, according to Euromonitor.
Along with Sociolla, the most popular beauty and personal care ecommerce store in Indonesia, Social Bella also offers SOCO, the largest online consumer review platform for beauty and personal care products in Indonesia, and has Beauty Journal, the leading beauty and lifestyle online media with end-to-end O2O marketing service, and recently launched ‘Lilla,’ a comprehensive beauty and personal care e-commerce service focussed on Indonesian mothers and her loved ones.
Social Bella also offers end-to-end distributor service for beauty and personal care brands, and is trusted by numerous leading international manufacturers.
According to the press release, the startup experienced a significant uptick in organic traffic to its platform during the quarantine period, and noticed a record high basket size for Sociolla.
Social Bella President Madiam said, “This pandemic has massively challenged almost all businesses globally. However, we are adapting quickly to the challenge and continue to serve our consumers’ needs. With our integrated ecosystem backed by technology and based on deep understanding of Indonesian consumers, we can still serve our consumers in a relevant way while remaining competitive.”
Chinese Payroll-focused SaaS startup eRoad Raises US$28M Series C3
Chinese payroll-focussed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup eRoad Software has raised $28 million in its third tranche of Series C funding round, exclusively from Huaxing Growth Capital, according to a company statement on Monday.
With the latest investment, eRoad has amassed over $85 million cumulatively in its Series C financing round alone.
Headquartered in Shanghai, eRoad caters to mid-and-large enterprises in over 20 countries by offering one stop “Payroll, Social Insurance, Tax and Benefits” services, according to its website.
The startup’s other backers include Hillhouse Capital, SIG Asia Investments, Ivy Capital, Eastern Bell Capital, among others.
Chinese Biotech Startup neoX Has Raised $10M Pre-Series A
Chinese AI-based biotech startup neoX Biotech has raised $10 million in a pre-Series A round, the startup announced on WeChat on Monday.
The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital China and Vision Plus Capital, with participation from existing investor Morning Venture Capital.
Founded in 2018, this Beijing-headquartered startup develops macromolecular drugs in the field of immuno-oncology, by combining AI with biophysics. neoX has also developed a platform for early discovery of therapeutics by characterizing protein-protein interaction (PPI).
The startup was co-founded by MIT graduate Michael Chen, currently serving as CEO, and CTO Liu Fan, who has a PhD from California Institute of Technology.
According to neoX, the latest funds will be used to develop the startup’s team, develop high-throughput laboratories, and advance drug candidates.
Header Image by Michael Longmire on Unsplash
