iPrice Group Notches $10M In Series B Investment

With a round led by ACA Investments, comparison shopping platform iPrice Group has notched $10 million in Series B funding. The round also came with participation from Daiwa PI Partners as well as returning investors Asia Growth Fund, Mirae Asset-Naver, and Line Ventures, according to reports.

iPrice will reportedly utilize the funding to work on product discovery functions, with the inclusion of professional product reviews as well as recommendations. The platform, as of now, teams with “super apps” such as Home Credit and Line. Its last announcement for fundraising was in 2018 from the venture capital arm of Line.

The company’s total funding to date is approximately $19.8 million. It claims to have over 20 million visitors a month, and approximately 5 million transactions were conducted via its platforms last year. The core iPrice unit ran at a 30 percent EBITDA margin and comprised about half of its revenue.

iPrice started by accumulating discount codes and coupon codes at the time that it rolled out prior to growing into price aggregation to aid consumers find their way through an expanding list of online shopping platforms in Southeast Asia like Lazada, Shoppee, and Zalora. The platform, for its part, is split up into sections with the inclusion of automotive and fashion.

It now purports to bring together over 1.5 million items from over 1,500 online shopping partners.

In separate Asia eCommerce news, all-in-one eCommerce and technology firm Commerce.Asia has purchased a 30 percent stake in business platform BizApp, which aids brand as well as businesses in managing their order fulfillment and daily operations. The deal was reportedly approximately seven figures in terms of ringgit, the monetary unit of Malaysia.

The company says it has more than 8 million small and medium-sized businesses within seven countries.  Founder and Executive Chairman Ganesh Kumar Bangah said per past reports, “We believe that through this strategic investment, Commerce.Asia and BizApp can leverage each other’s platforms to encourage the rural communities to partake in social commerce.”