Social commerce startup Evermos has announced its series B funding of $30 million or the equivalent of 427.3 billion Rupiah. This round was led by UOB Venture Management through the Asia Impact Investment Fund II. Several other investors involved include MDI Ventures, Telkomsel Mitra Innovation, Future Shape, and supported by previous investors, including Jungle Ventures and Shunwei Capital.
The fresh funds will be used to strengthen the leadership team, expand and develop technology. We previously reported the Evermos series B round since August 2021, including the participation of 2 Telkom Group’s CVCs.
“Our vision is to empower one million micro-entrepreneurs in the next five years. One of the main factors influencing the way we do business is by measuring the sustainability and social impact of our platform,” Evermos’ Co-Founder & President, Arip Tirta said.
He also said that the company’s income has been mostly supported by individuals and SMEs in tier-2 and 3 cities. In order to strengthen its presence in the area, they are currently running a pilot program “Evermos Village”, involving nearly 100 villages. In this program, less productive local residents are empowered to become reseller partners — including being trained on entrepreneurial principles.
Evermos social commerce concept
Was founded in November 2018 by Arip, Ghufron Mustaqim, Iqbal Muslimin, and Ilham Taufiq; Evermos has acquired around 100 thousand active resellers in 500 cities. They partner with more than 500 brands with 90% of them coming from curated local SMEs.
The products offered are mostly Muslim clothing commodities, halal health/beauty products, food and beverages, and others — most of them prioritize halal products. From a business perspective, they claim to have grown up to 60 times in the last two years.
Evermos facilitates people who want to become resellers. These users can sell the products in the application to their network, via WhatsApp or social media. There is a profit sharing or reward applied. Evermos alone, in addition to providing products, also helps in terms of logistics management, customer support, and technology.
Evermos’ Co-Founder & Deputy CEO, Ghufron Mustaqim said that his business philosophy is based on ‘Economy Gotong Royong‘, prioritizing collaborative economic empowerment. Through the existing reseller network, Evermos wants to be a vehicle for local SMEs to grow their business, on the other hand, it will generate additional income for resellers.
Social commerce potential in Indonesia
The total GMV generated from online trading business continues to grow rapidly in Indonesia – to date, it still has the largest proportion in the region. According to Bain & Co. data, as visualized by Statista, in 2020 the total GMV for online trading businesses in Indonesia has reached $47 billion.
Although the majority come from e-commerce or online marketplaces, social commerce services have quite a big contribution, which is around $12 billion.
Meanwhile, according to McKinsey, the social commerce business is projected to experience rapid growth of up to $25 billion by 2022. Pandemic becomes one of the catalysts, this is related to changes in the way people shop and the job opportunities offered by social commerce.
UOB Venture Management’s Senior Director, Clarissa Loh explained, Evermos’ social commerce model can be a bridge in answering this gap, by enabling its resellers to market the products of local SMEs.
“The Evermos platform also empowers local brands and creates a source of income for the lower middle class people with minimal access and opportunities, but already own and use smartphones (underserved communities),” Clarissa added.
Social commerce players in Indonesia
In Indonesia, there are already several platforms that offer similar services. Throughout 2021, several other social commerce startups also received funding from investors, including:
| Startup | Funding |
| RateS | Series A |
| Raena | Series A |
| KitaBeli | Series A, 114 billion Rupiah |
| Super | Series B, 405 billion Rupiah |
| Dagangan | Pre-Series A |
Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian
