BANDUNG, Indonesia, May 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Evermos, Indonesia's largest social commerce platform, successfully raised USD39 million in its Series C funding round. Led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) — a member of the World Bank group — and followed by returning partners such as Jungle Ventures, Shunwei Capital, UOB Venture Management, and Telkomsel Mitra Inovasi, this funding round also saw investment from new partners, SWC Global, Endeavor Catalyst, and Uni-President Asset Holdings. With this latest funding round, Evermos remains firmly on track towards its mission of elevating local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) to make a positive impact on the national economy and beyond.
Evermos founders (from Left to Right): co-founder Ghufron Mustaqim, CEO; co-founder Ilham Taufiq, Chief of Strategy; co-founder Iqbal Muslimin, Chief of Sustainability; and co-founder Arip Tirta, President
Ghufron Mustaqim, Co-Founder and CEO of Evermos said, "We have stayed true to our commitment to supporting local brands since day one. In the process of solving the logistical issues Indonesian brands face due to the country's unique geographical and economic challenges, we have realised that brands face diverse challenges beyond distribution. We will thus continue to harness innovation to connect local brands and customers in lower-tier cities more efficiently. This achievement reflects the trust of our investors in executing our mission and their dedication to empowering vulnerable communities by providing them with a sustainable and flexible source of income through our connected distribution network and services for commerce."
Since being founded in November 2018, Evermos has been dedicated to solving the complex challenges impacting local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME), which account for 99.9% of businesses in Indonesia, according to the Republic's central bank. Though MSMEs contribute to 60.3% of GDP[1], not more than 0.5% are able to scale up, in part because of the logistical challenges that abound in Indonesia's market. With more than 17,000 islands that span 5,100 kilometres from west to east, the Indonesian market's unique geography makes nationwide expansion costly and time-consuming, especially in lower-tier cities.
Evermos has thus been committed to mitigating these logistical challenges since its inception, in order to ensure a level-playing field for all Indonesians, regardless of geographic location, income level, or gender. This includes establishing direct relationships with local brands to bring them closer to consumers and offering comprehensive solutions for each brand's specific commerce needs. By joining Evermos' ecosystem, brands are able to tap into 500 cities, where its 160,000 resellers can operate without requiring capital-intensive resources.
Evermos will channel this latest funding towards strengthening its reseller network by deepening penetration in Java and expanding to Sumatera, making it faster for brands to reach more of Indonesia's growing population in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Evermos will continue driving its efforts of empowering local brands to make a positive impact on the Indonesian economy, expanding services across the retail value chain to support their continued growth. In addition to growing its reseller network, Evermos will continue to spearhead upskilling efforts for resellers to expand their customer base beyond personal network through digital advertising. The company saw 18x higher sales of resellers who leverage digital tools compared to those relying on personal network only. Further, the proceeds will fuel the development of Evermos' array of AI-powered tools and solutions for resellers to understand consumers better through customer relationship management.
Evermos is Indonesia's largest social commerce network, with 160,000 monthly transacting resellers as of January 2023. Founded in November 2018 by Ghufron Mustaqim, Arip Tirta, Iqbal Muslimin, and Ilham Taufiq, Evermos has experienced tremendous growth. Since the pandemic, Evermos has shown 17x gross merchandise value (GMV) growth from Financial Year 2020 to Financial Year 2022.
"Scaling up tech-enabled social commerce platforms such as Evermos can spur economic growth and make a huge contribution towards unlocking access to markets, creating jobs, and lifting prosperity for millions of MSMEs and entrepreneurs, many of whom are women and are the backbone of Indonesia's economy," said Randall Riopelle, IFC Acting Country Manager for Indonesia and Timor-Leste. "Our investment in Evermos will not only promote shared prosperity and financial and digital inclusion, but it will also contribute significantly to further advance the rapidly ever-growing digital economy in Indonesia."
Yash Sankrityayan, Managing Partner at Jungle Ventures added, "Jungle Ventures is proud to back Evermos for the third time since leading the Series A round in 2019. Since that time, Evermos has established the largest distribution network of consumer discretionary products across Indonesia while also adding meaningful household income to hundreds of thousands of Indonesians living in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. "
Wendi Xiang, Vice President of SWC Global said, "We are thrilled to support Evermos, which has clearly demonstrated their ability to meaningfully impact the economy over the past four years. As SWC Global focuses on growing Asia's start-ups across multiple sectors such as mobile internet, deep technology and consumer IoT, we have found that Evermos delivers impressive growth with solid business fundamentals that have brought positive social impact to resellers in Indonesia's lower-tier cities and rural areas. We are confident that our investment in Evermos will drive meaningful change for generations of the future while creating value for stakeholders."
About Evermos
Evermos is a social commerce platform that empowers local brands and underserved communities by providing a connected distribution network and commerce services focusing on curating Sharia-compliant products. It is a one-stop platform that provides local brand partners with comprehensive commerce solutions, and resellers with required tools for success including training, helping to level the playing field for all resellers regardless of their gender, educational background, geographical location, or income level.
Founded in November 2018, Evermos has built Indonesia's largest reseller-based social commerce network with more than 160,000 active resellers across Indonesia and 1,600 brand partners.
Evermos has garnered significant industry accolades to date, such as Forbes Asia 100 to Watch in the Asia-Pacific region, the UN Women 2022 Indonesia Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Award, and inclusion into the Endeavor Entrepreneur global network. Evermos is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Innovators Community, an invitation-only group of the world's most promising start-ups and scale-ups that are at the forefront of ethical technological and business model innovation.
For more information, please contact:
Redhill, on behalf of Evermos
evermos@redhill.asia
[1] https://unctad.org/publication/asean-investment-report-2022
