Beauty-tech startup Social Bella today (05/5) announced the latest funding of IDR 818 billion or around $57 million led by L Catterton, an investment company based in the United States. Indies Capital with two previous investors, East Ventures and Jungle Ventures, are also participated in this round.
Previously, in the middle of last year, Social Bella has received funding worth $58 million from Temasek, Pavilion Capital and Jungle Ventures. Recently, the company is aggressively expanding its omnichannel channel by opening offline shops in various cities. Currently their B2C business “Sociolla” already has 21 stores in 9 cities in Indonesia and 1 shop in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
“Amidst the challenges [of the pandemic], we are very proud to see the consistent efforts of the Social Bella team to bring the best omnichannel service to our customers [..] The cooperation and investment from L Catterton, Indies Capital, East Ventures, and Jungle Ventures will drive our maximum potential to be the leading technology-based innovations as well as the best products to our customers in Indonesia, Vietnam and other regions,” Social Bella’s Co-founder & President, Christopher Madiam.
With its technology, omnichannel stores are designed to be interactive and directly integrated to the Sociolla website and the SOCO application. In order to get information and reviews about the products, visitors can simply scan the barcode on the SOCO application. In other way, if the visitor already has a wishlist of products to buy in the shopping cart on Sociolla, they can immediately make a transaction in the payment section.
In fact, the business concept is still running amidst various restrictions due to the pandemic. Last October 2020, at a media gathering, Social Bella said that there was an increase throughout the year of nearly 50% in terms of shopping at Sociolla. There are more self-care products, because the average consumer is motivated to take advantage of their moments of activity at home to take care of themselves.
“The beauty and personal care industry penetration in Southeast Asia continues to grow rapidly with innovative ‘players’ such as Sociolla providing more choice, premium products and expanding both online and offline to its consumers [..] Innovations made by Sociolla is able to satisfy both consumers and brand principal equally,” L Catterton’s Principal & Investment Lead for Southeast Asia, Yock Siong Tee said.
Meanwhile, East Ventures’ Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Willson Cuaca added, “Sociolla has the elements that a beauty tech-company needs to have; integrated content, community, commerce, and retail. Moreover, looking at the results of our market research as well, we’re very excited to continue working with Social Bella.”
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian
