Social commerce firm RateS scales back operations

RateS co-founder and CEO Jake Goh / Photo credit: RateS

RateS, an Indonesia-based social commerce firm, says it has scaled back operations due to the current economic conditions.

Jake Goh, the firm’s co-founder and CEO, denied reports that his startup was shutting down according to a now-deleted post on the company’s official Instagram account.

“Since we are no longer putting our own cash to our own inventory, we’re announcing that the current orders from our warehouse partners will be our last,” Goh told Tech in Asia when asked about the Instagram post.

He added that the majority of FMCG sales agents on its platform were laid off due to the company’s decision to no longer offer products in this vertical to resellers.

Goh founded the startup in 2016 alongside Jing Rong Lim. RateS offers dropshipping solutions with an inventory management concept that allows everyone to start a business without having to stock items.

The CEO noted that its two ecommerce enabling services – a Shopify-lite product for resellers and a feature for resellers to sell as a team – are still operational.

RateS has raised around US$10 million since its inception, according to Tech in Asia data. Most recently, it raised US$4.5 million in a series A+ round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India in January 2022.

At the time of the investment, RateS said it had about 100 employees scattered mostly across its tech, sales, and community teams. The funds were used to expand the firm’s presence in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in Indonesia.

Goh added that the startup is targeting a new funding round.

See also: Indonesia’s social commerce startups double down on rural FMCG space