Ecommerce site iPrice grew a scorching 6x, raises $4m from investors

Photo credit: iPrice

Ecommerce in Southeast Asia is becoming a giant’s game, with Amazon and Alibaba loading up for a titanic struggle. But startups may still have room to play.

Malaysia-headquartered iPrice, which aggregates over 50 million SKUs of products from various shopping sites in one location, saw its site visits in November grow six times compared to the same month in the previous year.

While SimilarWeb puts iPrice’s most recent monthly visits at 1.79 million, its CEO David Chmelar claims the actual number is more than double of that.

“We have been able to grow entirely organically and are approaching profitability even faster than originally planned,” he added.

Investors seem impressed. They’re pumping in another US$4 million in a series A round of funding, led by Asia Venture Group (AVG) and Venturra. Both reupped after joining previous funding rounds – likely a show of confidence in the startup.

iPrice was shy to disclose exact numbers though. Nonetheless, traffic drives revenue at the firm, so this is probably good news.

The company makes money through referral fees, so the more sales it drives to ecommerce sites like Lazada, the more money it makes. The top of its funnel grew sixfold, which translates to more conversions, assuming its conversion rate held steady.

Reunion party

The startup world is full of cliques, and iPrice is no different. The key thread here is AVG, an incubator and investor of businesses. Konstantin Lange, who just joined iPrice as its COO, co-founded Indonesian online grocer HappyFresh, which was started under AVG’s covering. AVG’s managing director Kai Kux is listed as founder of both iPrice and HappyFresh, although he was operationally involved only at the beginning.

The Rocket Internet imprint is also strong here. Venturra founder Stefan Jung was the managing director of Rocket Internet Southeast Asia.

Another iPrice joinee, Matteo Sutto, was the director of marketing at Zalora, Rocket Internet’s prime fashion ecommerce site in Southeast Asia. Matteo, which founded now-defunct fashion startup Tate & Tonic, is now the startup’s senior vice-president of growth.

iPrice CEO. Photo credit: iPrice

Now, consider the fact that Alibaba acquired Rocket Internet’s Lazada. This gives iPrice an inroad into one of the world’s most successful ecommerce companies.

Who really uses iPrice?

Unicorn in the making?