Malaysian baby estore Applecrumby & Fish scores funding from 500 Startups

Applecrumby & Fish, an online boutique carrying all-natural and organic baby products, today announced it obtained a fresh round of seed funding worth US$300,000 from Silicon Valley-based VC 500 Startups. The company will use the money to establish itself as the top-of-mind online site in the region for safe baby essentials.

Founded by husband and wife Sean and Jesmine Tan in late 2012, Applecrumby & Fish started out with only 900 products. It has since grown to 9,000 products and now offers its customers free same-day delivery in its home market, Malaysia. Since its inception, the company has raised its revenue by twelvefold or about 1,200 percent, Jesmine tells Tech in Asia.

The market may be niche, but that figure confirms that there’s demand. After all, Applecrumby & Fish’s promise of listing only safe products is appealing to all parents.

Like other parents, they resorted to importing their preferred brands.

Sean and Jesmine are parents themselves. They had their first child in 2011 and at the time, they fell in love with certain organic brands that were not easily available in Malaysia. Like others, they resorted to importing those brands in bulk, all the while bearing hefty postage fees. This led them to create Applecrumby & Fish.

“We are very sensitive to the needs of parents who are looking for the best they can afford for their baby, at fair prices,” says Sean.

Applecrumby & Fish sells everything – from skincare and toiletries to food and supplements, as well as gear and toys. It now carries a lot of big brands, including Gerber, Stephen Joseph, Enfa, MamyPoko, Putto, Bellamy’s, Drypers, Spectra, and Quinny. The estore will add other brands that are otherwise unavailable online.

“Being the exclusive online partner for these brands, we will be able to offer competitive pricing and support our customers,” notes Jesmine.

Expanding footprint

The team plans to spend the funds it just raised on developing its own in-house brand for baby products, starting with wipes and diapers.

It also wants to boost its content marketing and have it in Bahasa to gear up for its launch in Indonesia as well as Brunei.

While Applecrumby & Fish still has no ground operations in those other markets, it now ships goods there as well as to other countries such as Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Applecrumby & Fish will also leverage the expertise of 500 Startups in its regional expansion.

The company was among the second batch of startups that made it to the Distro Dojo program in Malaysia – an annual 10-week program led by 500 Startups that focuses on customer acquisition, growth hacking, and distribution.