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Every time Jeff Bezos does something mundane like stepping out for dinner or running up and down 14 floors, it makes headlines. So it’s no surprise the celebrity rocket man’s recent tweet on proving critics wrong got quite a bit of attention.
His post was a news clipping from 1999 claiming that the idea that Bezos “has pioneered a new business paradigm is silly,” and that the businessman, who recently took a trip to space and regularly features in the list of the world’s wealthiest people today, was “just another middleman.”
A picture of a bomb with Bezos’ face on it accompanied the story. Just goes to show that some things take time to blow up – but maybe not in the way you expect them to.
Other times, things are more predictable. Just ask Nipun Mehra, co-founder of Indonesia-based Ula, which follows a somewhat familiar playbook, padding its ecommerce product with a buy now, pay later (BNPL) option for merchant partners.
Bezos thinks this business-to-business startup that’s only 18 months old is on to something. His recent investment in Ula was his first ever in Southeast Asia’s ecommerce space.
The BNPL idea is selling like hotcakes in Indonesia but the uniqueness of Ula’s approach lies in its target audience: Instead of consumers, it targets underserved neighborhood retailers, or warungs.
Ardi Wirdana pens our big story this week on how Ula’s most recent maneuver, propped up by a US$87 million series B funding round, could be a gamechanger for the company.
— Nikita
THE BIG STORY
Bezos-backed Ula’s winning combo may be commerce and credit
Image credit: Timmy Loen
While Ula’s target segment is notorious for having high credit risk, the B2B ecommerce player believes that it has the right model and approach.
DEEP READS
1️⃣ Can Indonesia’s Shopify-like startups dethrone ecommerce giants?
TRENDING NEWS
STARTUP WATCH
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