BUSINESS NEWS | investmemt

Parenting-focused e-commerce startup edamama raises $20M in Alpha JWC-led Series A

By ICON Executive Asia
Published August 18, 2022

edamama, the Philippines’ leading parenting-focused e-commerce platform founded by husband and wife founders Nishant D’Souza and Bela Gupta, has secured $20 million (P1.11 billion) in Series A funding during a round led by Alpha JWC Ventures – a Jakarta-based venture capital investor.

In an oversubscribed fundraising round, which it claims is one of the largest early-stage rounds in the country, Edamama received significant support from existing investors, namely the Sy family’s GenTree Fund, the Gokongwei’s Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., Ayala-backed Kickstart Ventures, Temasek-affiliated Innoven Capital, Foxmont Capital Partners, and angel investor Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng. 

According to Eko Kurniadi, Partner of Investments at Alpha JWC Ventures, edamama fills the buyer confidence gap of having limited options for quality parenting products by giving parents access to the best shopping experience with a wide range of quality SKUs, “We are very impressed by the caliber of the team and the top-notch processes that were developed despite edamama being at an early venture stage. It shows that edamama centers on deep customer understanding with best-in-class operations. This foundation sets edamama up for exponential growth and we look forward to partnering with Bela, Nish, and the team!”

This latest round will be used to fuel the expansion of its operations by suggesting same-day and next-day delivery solutions to more locations across and outside Metro Manila. It also aims to enhance its content and community elements, launch its offline stores and scale its private label portfolio.

Launched in the midst of the pandemic in May 2020, edamama offers a personalized shopping experience through content, community, and commerce-driven strategies that simplify decision-making for parents. The startup helps bridge the trust gap in the Philippine retail landscape for safe, authentic, affordable parenting products and services.

Since its founding, the startup has maintained strong momentum, having delivered over 1.5 million products to the doorstep of Filipino families across the country by leveraging its embedded warehousing and logistics fleet. It claims that it has witnessed 100x growth, which it achieved amidst the global pandemic that ultimately unveiled the need for digitally accessible parenting products and services for families across the Philippines.

With recent developments, evident growth, deep regional experience, and the network of its founders and investors, edamama continues to evaluate opportunities for expansion into adjacent geographies to become the top parenting brand in Southeast Asia.

Source: 

https://www.edamama.ph/discover/play-learn/edamama-closes-us-20m-series-a-funding