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Malaysia-based iPrice, which aggregates a multitude of ecommerce sites in Southeast Asia into a single shopping destination, today announced it raised US$1.2 million in seed funding – its second round.
Existing investor Asia Venture Group led the investment, while 500 Startups, IMJ Investment Partners, Venturra Capital, F2 Capital, and Startstrike Ventures participated.
This new amount brings iPrice’s total funding to US$1.75 million to date.
See: Ecommerce aggregator iPrice raises $550,000, sets sights on Southeast Asian markets
Established in October 2014, iPrice allows online consumers to discover and shop for products in an intuitive way. Whereas other aggregators are all about comparing prices, iPrice focuses on narrowing down the vast volume of products online to suit a user’s preference. It offers an easy-to-use search and filter interface and personalizes the shopping experience through algorithms that learn from the consumer’s behavior.
iPrice has now signed on over 150 merchants and hosts a catalogue of over 15 million aggregated products from different ecommerce sites in the region. It currently clocks a million visits a month across seven markets – Malaysia (iprice.my), Indonesia (iprice.co.id), Singapore (iprice.sg), Vietnam (iprice.vn), Thailand (ipricethailand.com), Philippines (iprice.ph), and Hong Kong (iprice.hk).
iPrice aims to double those figures in the next quarter and has identified mobile as the key driver.
“Internet consumption in Asia is heavily driven by mobile platforms, and our traffic data firmly backs this up. Apportioning part of this funding to enrich the mobile viewing experience is, in our opinion, the most logical way to grow,” says co-founder and CEO David Chmelař.
He explains that plans revolve around the same goal: easy product discovery. “Thus we need to ensure that visitors will have same simple, visual search possibility to find the desired products as on desktop. And we know that consumers are much more picky with regards to mobile experience, they have higher expectations and are less patient. We will react to that and master the experience.”
Right now, mobile accounts for 50 percent of iPrice’s traffic and this is expected to further grow, David tells Tech in Asia.
Besides enhancing the mobile experience, iPrice is also tapping media publishers around the region to extend its coupon and deal offerings. The company has already established exclusive partnerships with two digital media groups, REV ASIA in Malaysia and Rappler in the Philippines, and is looking to get more on board.
“Partnerships with media networks allow iPrice to address an even wider audience. This not only builds more traction with the consumer, but also helps iPrice to grow its merchant network by offering more coverage for their products and deals,” says Kai Kux, managing director of Asia Venture Group.
Kai explains all these efforts are geared toward boosting traffic on the site and growing the company’s revenues so it could achieve its next milestone, which is to raise series A funding.
iPrice gets a commission of between five and 15 percent of every merchant sale. David says the site has generated “several millions of dollars” of gross merchandise value for its partners so far.
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