Rakuten Ventures joins $1.5m round in Malaysian B2B groceries platform

Secai Marche, a marketplace that connects farmers with food and beverage (F&B) businesses in Malaysia, announced that it has raised a US$1.5 million of pre-series A funding led by Beyond Next Ventures. Rakuten Ventures also joined the round.

The company will use the new funds to expand fulfillment services, step up hiring, and boost marketing.

Photo credit: Secai Marche

Established in 2018 by Ami Sugiyama and Shusaku Hayakawa, Secai Marche helps F&B retailers, hotels, restaurants, and cafes to purchase groceries directly from the farmers.

While both co-founders are Japanese, Sugiyama has experience in trading Japanese products in Southeast Asia and running food services in Kuala Lumpur. The company, however, is headquartered in Japan.

Secai Marche currently has more than 300 customers and processes monthly transactions worth 450,000 ringgit (around US$108,000).

However, it’s still challenging for the startup to connect smaller farmers to small businesses, given the perishable nature of fresh produce. “We see this is as the reason why nobody came into this service like us. Hence, even if it is very challenging, we will put our focus on the fulfillment service with this fresh fund,” Sugiyama told Tech in Asia.

Secai Marche is also planning to offer more products including seafood, meat, and dairy products. In terms of geographical expansion, it’s looking to enter Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia, as well as add farmers from more regions from where it can source produce. Currently, half of its products come from Malaysia and 30% are from Japan, while other Southeast Asian countries supply the rest.

Currency converted from Malaysian ringgit. Rate: US$1 = 4.14 ringgit.