SCI Ecommerce Announces Final Close of Growth Fundraising
[July 1, 2021] – SINGAPORE – SCI Ecommerce, Southeast Asia’s leading cross border e-commerce enabler, has announced the final close of its recent fundraising round, bringing the total capital raised to approximately S$85 million for this round.
The first tranche of this round, led by Asia Partners, was originally announced on May 3, 2021. The expansion tranche which completed this round was 3.1x oversubscribed and includes Asian-based global investor EDBI, ANSCOR, Financial Investments Corporation, and a number of renowned investors from Asia, North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
Founded in Singapore in 2014 by Joseph Liu Jiannan, SCI Ecommerce specializes in cross-border e-commerce, a high growth segment within the rapidly expanding e-commerce industry across Southeast Asia and China. With offices in Singapore, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, SCI plays a key enabling role across many of Asia’s most important e-commerce trade routes.
SCI Ecommerce was the third fastest growing company on the Financial Times’s 2021 Asia Pacific ranking, and the fastest growing e-commerce enabler, having grown its revenues more than 75x over three years. It has been cash flow positive and profitable since 2019, a rare milestone among the region’s fastest growing internet companies.
“The expansion of our fundraising round is a strong endorsement of our integrated e-commerce business model, which already serves many of the world’s most iconic consumer brands,” said Liu, who is also SCI’s Group CEO. “With these resources in hand, we look forward to investing in new technologies and capabilities to serve our clients, while completing our preparations to become our region’s first publicly traded e-commerce enabler.” Two of Alibaba’s eighteen co-founders, Singapore-based venture capital firm Jubilee Capital, Mr. Sam Goi’s family office and several ultra-high net worth technology entrepreneurs from across Asia are among SCI’s existing investors.
SCI provides a comprehensive suite of services to its brand partners, which include Unilever, Abbot, Stanley Black & Decker, Crayola, Nestle, Vinda, and Danone. Over the past quarter, SCI has welcomed the 121 year old Singapore-based beverage company Yeo’s, the Singapore-based wellness company Kinohimitsu, and the Switzerland-based computer peripherals company Logitech to its community of brand partners.
Q2 2021 also marked a special innovation milestone for SCI: its first partnership with TikTok. Starting with a launch in Indonesia, the collaboration is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. With the help of SCI, brand partners can carry out sales directly through the TikTok app, activating an important new channel for social commerce on one of the world’s most popular mobile apps. SCI is the only ecommerce enabler in Southeast Asia with this dual capability across both marketplace e-commerce and social e-commerce platforms.
“SCI’s exponential growth is testament to its ability to offer global and local consumer brands end-to-end e-commerce services integrated with a vast network of Asian marketplaces through its platform,” said Chu Swee Yeok, CEO and President of EDBI Pte Ltd. “With plans to deepen R&D capabilities in data analytics and automation tools at its HQ here, SCI is well placed to strengthen Singapore’s position as a global e-commerce hub, enabling accelerated market scaling for its partners and promoting trade flows across Southeast Asia and East Asia.”
“Cross-border e-commerce is transforming economies, enhancing quality of life, and bringing the people of Asia closer together,” said William H. Ottiger, Senior Vice President for Corporate Development and Treasurer of the A. Soriano Corporation. “We look forward to working with Joseph and his team as SCI continues to expand its brand partner ecosystem and office footprint across the region.”
“We have been investors in high growth companies for over 50 years, and whenever we see a company growing as quickly as SCI, we know from experience that strong leadership and a strong company culture are the key pillars that have enabled that success,” said Jennifer W. Steans, President and CEO of Financial Investments Corporation, a private asset management firm with over $2 billion in investment commitments under management. “We are delighted to be partnering with Joseph and the SCI team, who are building the next generation of e-commerce in Asia.”
“With this expanded round, we are one step closer to achieving our vision of becoming the Number One e-commerce solutions provider in Southeast Asia,” said Liu. “Our six core values of putting our customers first, our results-orientation, our ownership mentality, collaboration and teamwork, self-reliance, and embracing change collectively create the crucial foundation of trust – trust with our employees, trust with our brand partners, and trust with our investors – that will enable us to reach our goals.” “Joseph and his team have gone from strength to strength as they play an increasingly important role in building bridges between global brands and e-commerce customers in Asia,” said Nicholas A. Nash, a co-founder of Asia Partners and a Board Member of SCI. “Cross-border trade makes the world more prosperous and more cohesive, raising standards of living and quality of life. We look forward to working closely with Joseph and his very capable team over the years to come.”
