Nuren, an ecommerce firm for brides and mothers, scores $2m series A from Gobi Partners

Anyone who’s gotten married will tell you – weddings are stressful. It’s a ton of work and drowning in the details, which can take away all the excitement for what’s supposed to be the best day of your life.

That’s why Malaysia-based Nuren wants to simplify the whole planning process for brides-to-be. The startup operates ecommerce sites (Wedding.com.my in Malaysia and Nuren.sg in Singapore) that offer tips and advice on each step, and link you with vendors who can help you with whatever you need.

Co-founded by Petrina Goh, Kelvin Leow, Stacey Lee, and Alice Ong, the company also offers consulting services via its in-house team of experts to help couples manage the A to Z of their wedding.

Today, Nuren reveals it closed a US$2-million series A funding round led by China’s Gobi Partners. It will use the investment to expand its operations and hire new talent.

Nuren doesn’t only focus on weddings, but all the important life stages of women. It’s about to launch a marketplace for baby products,Motherhood.com.my, where mothers and expecting mothers will be able to buy products and services across the maternity, infant, and children categories.

Nuren has so far connected over 300,000 couples with 1,500 wedding vendors in Malaysia and Singapore.

“We’ve achieved a very attractive bucket size with brides transacting high-value items such as complete wedding catering packages, photography, videography, and decoration on our platform. Our wedding consulting team is now capable of handling six weddings per week. By the end of 2016, we aim to reach one million brides and plan over 150 weddings per year,” says Petrina.

She adds that they also aim to establish a presence in three other markets in Southeast Asia – Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand – over the next two years. “Weddings in Malaysia are a US$7-billion industry, with 300,000 marriages per year. In Southeast Asia, it is over two million marriages at US$18-billion in spending per year, and that’s where we want to be.”

---

This article by Judith Balea originally appeared on Tech in Asia, a Burn Media publishing partner.