Brief: Brick-and-mortar retailer MDS ups investment in sister company MatahariMall

Hadi Wenas, CEO of MatahariMall (L). Photo credit: Lippo Group.

The news (extracted from DealStreetAsia):

• Indonesian retail firm Matahari Department Store (MDS) has increased its stake in local ecommerce startup MatahariMall to almost 16 percent.
• Lippo Group affiliate MDS has now invested a total of US$41.8 million in B2C-focused MatahariMall, which is also a Lippo Group-backed venture. It reportedly has plans to pump an additional US$13.5 million into the startup by the end of the year to take its stake to 18 percent.
  
• MDS had first acquired a 10 percent stake in MatahariMall in January 2016 as part of a US$13.5 million seed investment across multiple tranches. 

Why it matters:

• MatahariMall launched in 2015 with the ambition to become the “Alibaba of Indonesia.” Lippo Group said it would invest US$500 million into the venture, but it was facing fierce rivals along the way, including Alibaba itself.
• Alibaba led a US$1.1 billion funding round for MatahariMall rival Tokopedia. It also acquired Lazada last year, which operates regionally and is one of the leading players in Indonesia.
• MatahariMall has tweaked its model to optimize integration with the brick-and-mortar stores under Lippo Group’s umbrella. For example, Matahari Store, the online version of the MDS chain, has its own dedicated segment on Mataharimall.com.