Singaporean e-grocer RedMart raises $4.6-million in series A funding

The Singapore-based online grocery store RedMart has closed its Series A round of funding. Yesterday, the company announced that the funding will bring its total sum of investments up to US$4.6-million.

RedMart received more than US$3-million from not a venture capitalist, but a tech company. Garena, a local startup that focuses on connecting gamers though a website as well as providing a chat messaging service.

RedMart, on the other hand, is a e-grocer that delivers for free if a customer’s order is above US$60. Founded in 2011, the young company had US$5-million in annual sales with 11 000 registered users. As TechCrunch also reports, customer retention rates are “high” and users were returning 1.5 times a month on average to make purchases.

The e-grocer, as The Next Web notes, does not share obvious resemblance with a gaming oriented company such as Garena. The article notes that, although having secured a sizable investment considering its small market, it could still prove to be fruitful if snatched up by the likes of Internet Rocket — the German funding firm that has an enduring appetite for e-commerce startups in emerging markets.

“I know Singapore is a small market, so most startups want to expand out, first thing. But for fast-moving goods, it’s a US$5.2-billion market in Singapore alone.” This said, both startups by themselves are forced to stay local because of the lack of current regional attention. Though together, they might have a chance of expanding geographically as well as their markets.

RedMart’s co-founder and CEO Roger Egan mentioned that they are looking to expand to Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong in 2014 after the company has finished further developing its infrastructure in Singapore.

Redmart has about 25 people working in its office, and 50 in its warehouse. Though, the company announced a whole new set of staff hires including some big names such as former eBay marketing director Todd Kurie recently. RedMart also plans to use this new funding injection to continue to work on its logistics software.

Image via Tech in Asia