Hong Kong startup Goxip is using image recognition and working with retailers to help make social commerce easier.

“When you see anything online or on Instagram, the frustration is that you can’t shop even when people are using it as merchants,” says Goxip CEO and co-founder Juliette Gimenez.

Her idea is “shoppable Instagram”, with the app that involves 400 to 500 merchants selling more than two million items from upward of 15,000 brands.

Goxip won the top startup award at the inaugural Rise conference last year, just months after being founded. It started out with an Android app, but over the past year has redeveloped it, launched a version for iOS and closed a $1.62 million seed-funding round.

That financing was led by the daughter of Malaysian billionaire Vincent Tan, chairman of Berjaya Group, with participation from early investor Ardent Capital. Gimenez, who worked for Groupon and later LivingSocial in Asia, says the money is being used to expand Goxip from Hong Kong into Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia.

App users upload images which are automatically matched with fashion items sold by its merchant partners. Users can sync their account with their Instagram account to post photos of their favourite outfits. They can tag up to five related items from Goxip retail partners.

Users can also search through photos uploaded by other users, and images can be uploaded without being made public.

The original idea behind Goxip was to meld celebrity and fashion news with commerce, and users can search for celebrities and find matches for their clothing.

“We have a worldwide outlook, but our primary focus is on Asia,” says Gimenez. “The opportunity lies in Asia where the mobile penetration rate is crazy.”