Bootstrapped and profitable: Singapore’s 9-figure D2C secret

Sant Qiu has built a business that has raked in US$340 million in sales since it launched in 2018 – and he’s done it without VC backing.

Despite being a well-known figure in Singapore’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) circle, the serial entrepreneur has managed to remain under the radar. And he prefers that it stays that way, at least for now. He’s asked that the name of his firm’s D2C brand not be revealed in this story.

The brand is operated by Maneuver Marketing, a firm that “builds, operates, and scales hypergrowth health and wellness ecommerce brands.” It was founded by Qiu in 2001 as a business and marketing consultancy firm.

The firm is ranked no. 4 on a recent list of Singapore’s fastest-growing companies compiled by Statista and The Straits Times. With revenue expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 231% between 2018 and 2021, it outranked big names like SCI Ecommerce, Sea Group, and Aspire.

So far, though, Maneuver Marketing operates just one brand, which sells health supplements mainly through online channels like Shopify and Amazon. The firm is bootstrapped – it is mostly self-funded, with a little boost from working capital loans – and it has been net profitable since its second year of operations.

Its product catalog is humble. At the moment, it offers fewer than 10 products that range from natural energy and immunity boosters to natural sleep aids and supplements supporting gut health.

But it caters to a large, evergreen market that’s growing together with a generation of baby boomers getting older. This is a demographic with strong spending power and major health concerns, Qiu notes.

A health revolution is also taking shape among younger generations, with a survey finding that the number of millennials buying vitamins and supplements is growing.

To date, Maneuver Marketing’s D2C brand has served more than 2.1 million customers on Shopify, having fulfilled over 3 million orders through the platform. That’s not counting the 43% of orders that come through its Amazon store as well as those from other channels like Walmart and Google Shops.

Its products are formulated with patented ingredients and in consultation with experts. Every month, it ships 400,000 bottles of supplements to customers, majority of whom are based in the US, with the rest coming from Australia, Canada, and the UK.

The brand serves customers aged between the mid 30s and 60s, with most of them in the mid 40s to early 60s range.

While ecommerce sales globally have slowed or stagnated following the easing of the pandemic, Qiu’s firm has bucked the trend and continued to grow.

This year, the brand is targeting a 50% year-on-year growth as it focuses on “improving infrastructural capabilities” before pushing for faster growth in 2024.

Long road of capital accumulation

D2C, but make it SaaS

Survival of the fittest

Next up, phase 3