BukuWarung co-founders back Singapore live commerce software startup

Singapore-based Upmesh, which provides ecommerce software to merchants who make real-time sales on social media, has raised US$3 million in seed round funding.

Team Upmesh / Photo credit: Upmesh

The round was led by Leo Capital and saw participation from BukuWarung founders Chinmay Chauhan and Abhinay Pedisetty. GoTo Financial executive Jonathan Barki, Zopim co-founders Royston Tay and Kwok Yang Bin, Beenext, iSeed, and Prasetia Dwidharma Ventures also participated in the round.

Incorporated last year, Upmesh helps sellers automate orders capturing and payment collection while selling physical goods on Facebook Live.

The platform will soon be rolling out for Instagram Live merchants, co-founder Shawn Teow told Tech in Asia. “We are also exploring other social media platforms like TikTok but those plans aren’t firmed up yet,” he added.

The Singapore startup currently processes almost US$40 million in annualized gross merchandise value and has onboarded nearly 300 merchants since its launch.

The platform captures comments on live content and tags them to the merchants’ inventory items. It also automatically sends a checkout link to customers. Merchants see their average transaction values grow by over 40% after onboarding, the startup claims.

“Enabling ecommerce functionality in live commerce is just the first step. Moving forward, we are working to make Upmesh become the best place for communities around live selling to gather and share great products in a transparent format,” said Wong Zi Yang, co-founder and CEO of Upmesh.

Live commerce – buying and selling goods in real time – has become popular in markets all over the world as consumers turn to social media to discover and purchase items. Top ecommerce players such as Shopee and Lazada are also tapping into the up-and-coming trend.

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According to a report, users streamed ShopeeLive in Singapore and Malaysia for 3x longer between February and June 2020. In April 2020 alone, up to 4,500 Singapore merchants signed up to Lazada’s LazLive, the report said.