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HappyFresh gets $65 million in series D, plans expansion in RI
The online groceries marketplace will use the funds to expand operations to more areas of Indonesia and improve quality control as it expects the online shopping trend to outlast the coronavirus pandemic.
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nline groceries marketplace HappyFresh has raised US$65 million in a series D funding round and plans to use those funds to expand to more cities in Indonesia.
The new round of investment was led by Japan’s Naver Financial Corporation and Amsterdam-based Bafina B.V. Other participants include Mirae Asset Indonesia and Singapore as well as South Korean venture capital firms STIC Investments and LB Investment Inc.
“We are going to expand our service area in Indonesia through partnerships with more local and national supermarkets,” HappyFresh Indonesia managing director Filippo Candrini said in a press release on Tuesday.
The company has operations in Greater Jakarta as well as in Bali and in the cities of Bandung in West Java, Semarang in Central Java, Makassar in South Sulawesi, and Malang and Surabaya in East Java.
HappyFresh CEO Guillem Segarra said the company would also use the funds to grow operations with its retail supermarket partners as well as to increase services and quality control.
He went on to say that the company had seen “unprecedented growth” in the past 18 months as HappyFresh’s traffic had grown 20-fold in all its markets, namely Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
“We see a huge change in consumer behavior; [customer] retention rates and shopping frequency have increased significantly, while the overall basket size has grown consistently. We attribute this to [the] offline-to-online spending shift that will continue,” Segarra said, adding that the company was inching closer to long-term profitability.
Read also: Shopping: Changes in consumer behavior force retailers to adapt
HappyFresh estimated the Southeast Asian groceries market at around $350 billion, providing ample room for the company to grow.
A report from management consulting company Redseer shows that the online groceries segment was the biggest gainer and gross merchandise value (GMV) driver in the e-commerce industry during the first half of 2020.
The survey showed that most consumers started using online groceries services during the COVID-19 social restriction period and that people would likely continue to go online for shopping even after the pandemic and would buy more fresh fruit and vegetables.
Read also: Online grocery shopping to drive e-commerce growth as PSBB reimposed: Experts
Redseer predicted that the online groceries segment would grow 5 to 6 times in 2020, accounting for a sizable portion of online retail going forward.
Specialized grocery marketplaces like HappyFresh and Sayurbox were partnering with bigger firms operating across different industries, such as Tokopedia, Shopee and Bukalapak, to increase consumer awareness and scale up their businesses.
Redseer’s report noted that HappyFresh had listed its shops on all major e-commerce platforms but was serving Bukalapak’s demand as a priority.
