Jualo secures Series A funding from NSI Ventures

Source: Jualo. The Jualo team at work.

Jualo, the Indonesian marketplace for secondhand goods, has secured a multimillion-dollar Series A funding round from NSI Ventures, a regional VC firm with strong ties to Indonesia. Last year Jualo obtained seed funding from Mountain Kejora and Alpha JWC Ventures, both seasoned Indonesia-focussed VC firms. Alpha JWC Ventures is also participating in the Series A round.

Jualo was founded in 2014 by Chaim Fetter and close friends. It is based in Jakarta, Indonesia with a team of 15 including a strong tech development team. Boasting such features as Jualo escrow, geo search and home delivery, the business has positioned itself as a hybrid with the functionality of a marketplace and the broad product choice of a classic e-classifieds platform. It offers a seamless mobile and desktop experience to make transactions. The fresh funds will help to expand the business, attract prime talent, increase customer satisfaction, Jualo said.

“NSI Ventures is very pleased to lead this investment round in Jualo and help them to accelerate their product development and growth. We have been impressed by the progress of Chaim and the team and their sharp focus on innovation and value creation for buyer and seller in a rapidly developing market” commented Shane Chesson, Partner of NSI Ventures.

Building user trust, as well as a smooth fulfilment and payment process are considered the main challenges in running an e-classifieds marketplace platform. Jualo continuously collects detailed feedback from the Indonesian consumer at all levels to help solve key pain points and build new services. Jualo has generated revenue from day one, monetised through both the user and advertisements and is progressively layering in value-added transaction services over the platform.

Since its launch in January 2014, Jualo's numbers have grown rapidly without significant marketing expenditure, reaching more than 2 million monthly active users and displaying 500,000 active listings. The team has an in-depth understanding of the rapidly developing Indonesian market, and blends cost-effective guerilla-entrepreneurship with a lean operating approach.

"Any business should generate revenue to be able to claim its rights of existence," Fetter said. 

Jualo is now the second largest marketplace for second-hand goods in Indonesia and aims to use the proceeds of this capital raise to build toward Indonesian market leadership over the next 18 months as well as offer Jualo in additional regional markets. Jefrey Joe, a co-founder of Alpha JWC Ventures added, “Jualo’s product-focus approach and deep understanding of the local market will be a key success factor in this space. We are happy to see the strong organic growth continue, and are confident that the Series A investment will propel Jualo to the next level.”

"With strong backers such as NSI Venture, Jualo will be able to become the marketplace of choice across Indonesia and emerging Asia," said Fetter.

Interested?

Read the TechTrade Asia blog post about Jualo receiving seed funding.