Singapore-based Giosis, the parent company of Pan-Asian eCommerce platform Qoo10, has raised US$82.1 million in new funding led by Singapore Press Holdings.
Other investors in the mix included eBay, Saban Capital Group, UVM 2 Venture Investments LP, Brookside Capital and Oak Investment Partners.
Qoo10 operates six online eCommerce marketplaces across Asia – in Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China. Qoo10 has 17.6 million registered users across the region and combined, turned over US$408 million in 2014. Of the six markets in which the company operates, Qoo10 Singapore is the best performer with 1.8 million registered users as of June 2015 and US$182 million in gross merchandise volume in 2014.
“Through this Series A investment, Giosis will deploy the new funds to accelerate Qoo10’s technology growth and service development, while investing in additional infrastructure and talent acquisition,” the company said in a statement.
“The new funds will also help Qoo10 strengthen its position as a leading Pan-Asian platform in its key markets Singapore, Japan and Indonesia, and accelerate its expansion in its other rapidly growing Asian markets Malaysia, Hong Kong and China.”
As the lead investor in this Series A round, SPH will also partner with Qoo10 to explore strategic collaborations on the e-commerce platform across various content, marketplaces, retail, advertising and classifieds opportunities.
Alan Chan, SPH CEO, said Qoo10 is the number one ranked eCommerce website in Singapore and its parent company Giosis has established itself as a market leader in the region’s e-commerce space.
“The investment in Qoo10 will enhance our portfolio of digital assets and open up opportunities for future marketing collaborations. With the region’s eCommerce market poised to grow, this investment puts us in a good position to tap on the industry’s growth and be an active player in this space.”
A joint venture between Gmarket Inc founder Ku Young Bae and eBay, Qoo10 was founded in 2010 with US$20 million seed capital, after Gmarket was acquired by eBay in 2009 for US$1.2 billion.
Ku Young Bae, CEO of Qoo10, said: “From the beginning Qoo10 has strived to be a hyperlocal eCommerce platform which enables local merchants, big and small, to sell their products to a local and regional customer base across Asia. Today, 90 per cent of our staff and merchants are local, in order to provide consumers with a seamless shopping experience in a specialised marketplace. With this new funding, we aim to further strengthen our position as the leading Pan-Asian marketplace.”
