Malaysian B2B procurement platform nabs seed funding for market expansion

Dropee is a Malaysia-based B2B e-procurement marketplace specializing in the food and beverage, fast-moving consumer goods, and retail market segments. Its platform connects suppliers to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in real time to streamline procurement processes.

Founded in 2016, Dropee is active in Malaysia with a focus on three main cities: Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Johor. It’s looking to increase its business coverage across the country.

To achieve this, Dropee raised US$350,000 in a seed funding round led by Vynn Capital. Investment firm Prasetia Dwidharma, which targets early-stage tech startups, also joined in.

Photo credit: Dropee

Dropee plans to use the money to introduce product features “to cater to more SMEs, especially in rural areas as well as recruit new talent.”

It currently supports over 800 brands with more than 6,000 stock keeping units and serves over 1,000 businesses in Malaysia. Its business partners include Unilever, Lee’s Frozen Food, and Network Foods.

The startup also hopes to set up operations in other Southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Dropee will be competing with the likes of Bizzy (Indonesia), ThaiTrade (Thailand) and Kamereo (Vietnam).

“The challenges of going into these market for us are localization, language, and finding the right logistic/warehousing partners and distributors,” explained co-founder and CEO Lennise Ng.

While she didn’t give a timeline for this expansion, Ng said that the company has identified strong key partners in the three countries and will be announcing the partnerships soon.

Dropee previously raised financing from undisclosed angel investors and a grant from Cradle Fund, bringing its total raised capital close to US$490,000.

“For now, we have no intention to raise further rounds as we believe we are able to be a sustainable business with the current funding,” said Ng.