HOMEGROWN e-commerce company GrowSari has closed its Series B Funding with more than $30 million in total funding from marquee investors worldwide, which it intends to use to expand its network of community stores nationwide.
“GrowSari aims to empower and significantly increase the earnings of sari-sari stores in the Philippines by providing direct access to a wide assortment of affordable products, e-businesses, and financial assistance,” said GrowSari Cofounder Reymund Rollan.
“With the fresh funds, we aim to more than double GrowSari’s existing coverage and service more than 300,000 sari-sari stores, including those in Visayas and Mindanao. This will also help us broaden our supplier marketplace with new third party partners and scale our financial service pilots.”
This round had participation from Pavilion Capital, China’s Tencent, International Finance Corp., ICCP SBI Venture Partners, and Singapore-based growth fund Saison Capital, along with existing investors, such as Gokongwei-led Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. and JG Digital Equity Ventures, as well as Singapore-based Wavemaker Partners.
Mom-and-pop retail establishments in the neighborhood, or more popularly known locally as sari-sari stores, are considered the backbone of the Philippine retail sector and are an integral part of the economy, with an estimated retail sales value of $100 billion.
Based on statistics, around 84 percent of Filipinos buy essential goods at the over 1.1 million stores across the country, with 60 percent of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) shopper spending happening in them.
These sari-sari stores are hyper-proximal, with 90 percent of consumers having a store less than 100 meters away from their home. On average, customers transact twice a day from these neighborhood stores.
GrowSari aims to tap into the sari-sari store’s potential to be the biggest and most accessible distribution channel in the country by driving efficiencies in route planning while collecting valuable insights on consumer behavior.
Through this app, sari-sari stores can double their earnings through access to better pricing for more than a thousand of fast moving stock keeping units or SKUs from the largest brands across all the major fast-moving consumer goods categories.
This is in addition to microfinancing support and assistance, and multiple e-services including telco, bills payment and remittance.