After series A, Indonesia’s Jualo is ready to compete in Southeast Asia’s ecommerce battle

Jualo founder Chaim Fetter (center) with Shane Chesson.

(Update August 29, 2016: Jualo just announced that investors Susquehanna (SIG), Lionrock, and Alpha JWC Ventures put more money into the startup, adding another “multimillion US dollar” amount to its war chest. It’s a continuation of the series A round announced in January. “What made us very interested in SIG joining is their extensive experience in the e-classifieds space,” Jualo co-founder and CEO Chaim Fetter told Tech in Asia.  Alpha JWC invested in Jualo for the third time.)

Jualo, an online marketplace in Indonesia started in January 2014, announced today that it has raised a series A investment led by NSI Ventures. Existing investor Alpha JWC Ventures also participated. The size of the investment was not made public, but founder Chaim Fetter dropped a clue during the press event by calling it a multi-million dollar investment.

The funds will be used to attract talent and to expand to Southeast Asian countries beyond Indonesia. In April last year, the startup received seed investment from Mountain Kejora and Alpha JWC Ventures.

“Jualo is optimistic about expanding to Southeast Asia as we see there is indeed still an opportunity for marketplaces, not only in Indonesia,” Chaim said. Jualo is run by a team of 10 people based in Jakarta.

Latecomer

Shane Chesson, partner at NSI Ventures, said Jualo did well in solving one of Indonesia’s biggest problems. “Jualo solves users’ lack of trust in online transactions with its features and location-based search,” he said.

He adds Jualo has a passionate team, and has recorded solid growth. “We saw the growing number of transactions on Jualo. This pushed us to go forward with the investment.”

NSI has made investments in several notable startups across the region, including TradeGecko, Go-Jek, and Redmart.

Chaim believes with recent funding, Jualo is ready to compete with marketplaces like Lazada, Tokopedia, Bukalapak, and OLX.

The startup has a lot of catching up to do. Its main rivals were launched years ago and have brand recognition in the country.