Indonesian mobile marketplace Kleora is dead, will relaunch in new form

Startups tend to keep bad news to themselves. That’s why Tech in Asia learned only by chance that ecommerce site Kleora had to shut down sometime in October, only a few months after it raised its seed round.

When we visited the site on October 19, it read:

As of today we decided to shut down Kleora. Thanks to all our beloved users for a really good year. You’re awesome.

Below that text, the site says, in Indonesian: “Still have financial issues with Kleora? Take out your Kleora points,” with a link.

The shutdown page also hinted that Kleora’s team is moving on to a new service called Prelo.

Kleora’s shutdown page as seen on October 19, 2015

What happened?

The pivot moment

When we got in touch with Kleora’s founder Fransiska Hadiwidjana, she explained Kleora is undergoing a change of concept and that there’s no need for concern. When we checked again today, the page mentioning the shutdown was no longer accessible.

“It’s actually okay because it’s just a rebranding,” she says. “We are actually very excited about Prelo.”

Kleora was an ecommerce marketplace targeting female shoppers, providing an environment for sellers to link up their social media accounts, post products, and handle transactions. The upcoming service Prelo shares some of Kleora’s features but wants to address a more general audience, and emphasizes secondhand items from top brands.

Kleora’s team and investors were all on board with the decision, Fransiska says, and will continue working together in the same constellation. The funding Kleora raised from Rebright Partners and angel investors in May still fuels the startup, even after the pivot.

“Our funding situation is all good. We did a good calculation of fund allocation for the next projected years after we gained investments early on. We stayed lean and used the money wisely, so all funds are still well available to build Prelo,” Fransiska adds.

We asked how exactly the decision to shut down Kleora came about, and what data points convinced the team to follow through with the pivot, but Fransiska remains tight-lipped about the details.

Funding the founder