Startup tapping travellers to bring you stuff from abroad raises seed funding

The Airfrov team. Photo credit: Airfrov

Singapore-based Airfrov, a marketplace that lets you get stuff you can’t find in your country, has raised a seed round, it announced today. The round was led by venture capital firm East Ventures. The amount is undisclosed, but it is immediately available to the company.

“We have validated the market and have proven our ability to scale with a small budget,” CEO and co-founder Cai Li tells Tech in Asia. “We are now ready to expand and scale regionally. This funding is basically a booster to our growth.”

The startup will use the funding to keep improving its product and explore regional expansion possibilities. “We are definitely looking at expanding regionally, likely in the neighboring countries as we already receive a substantial demand from our existing users,” Cai Li says. It will also staff up, mainly looking for technical talent and country managers.

Tokyo Bananas and Legos

Airfrov offers a fresh twist on cross-border ecommerce. It allows users to get in touch with travellers and ask them to bring a particular item from overseas when they return to the country. It’s a neat way of acquiring items you can’t usually find in your country and circumventing steep shipping costs.

Popular items in the marketplace include country-specific snacks and lots of Legos.

You list the item you want on the marketplace, state the amount you’re willing to pay for it, and wait for a kind stranger who’s travelling from the country in question to offer his services as a courier. Airfrov holds the payment until you get your item, and then releases it to the traveller – keeping a 7 percent commission and a small service fee.

Popular items in the marketplace include country-specific snacks like the (delicious) Tokyo Banana, cosmetics, and limited-edition Starbucks cups. Oh, and Legos. Lots of Legos.

Airfrov shared first place at the Singtel Accelerator Challenge 2015, the local leg of the Singtel – Samsung Regional Mobile App Challenge, along with climate-control gadget maker Ambi Climate. It’s going up against startups like Melbourne’s ShopandBox, which raised seed funding in November 2015.

The startup has had a healthy month-on-month growth, Cai Li says, doubling its number of users and revenue every three to four months since launching in March 2015.