Shoplinks

SINGAPORE, 12 October 2021 — Shoplinks, the FMCG precision marketing platform, today announced a USD 900k seed funding round led by early-stage venture capital firm Cocoon Capital with participation from the Indonesian Women Empowerment Fund (IWEF).

Shoplinks offers FMCG brands and retailers an intelligent, digital end-to-end marketing platform that simplifies the distribution of personalised coupons. This helps brands optimise their promotions and shoppers to claim great deals both online and offline.

FMCG brands in Southeast Asia spend approximately $28bn each year on promotions. However, up to 70% of this spending goes to waste due to the lack of personalisation and proper targeting. To add to this, the lack of digitisation in mom-and-pop stores and supermarkets makes it very difficult to distribute promotions to shoppers. This results in lost revenue opportunities for retailers already struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since its launch in 2020, Shoplinks has been working with major FMCG brands such as Procter and Gamble, Unilever and Johnson and Johnson, processing thousands of redemptions per month. With Shoplinks, these brands have doubled their return on their promotions investment, with redemptions doubling month on month. Shoplinks has also helped retailers like supermarket chain TipTop grow their shopper transactions by over 30% in the last month.

Shoplinks was founded by serial entrepreneurs Teresa Condicion and JD Lee. Before her previous role as the CEO of a cashback app, Teresa spent 17 years in P&G, with her last role as head of retail and shopper analytics for Southeast Asia, giving her deep insights into the problem Shoplinks is currently solving. JD leveraged his business acumen and software development skills to found multiple companies in advertising technology, data collection and analytics.

Shoplinks will use the funds to strengthen its foothold in Indonesia before expanding into other Southeast Asian markets. Additionally, the funds will be used to grow its team and invest more in product development. The company also plans to expand its network of partners in both enterprise retail and ‘warungs’, the mom-and-pop stores that account for 70% of Indonesia’s retail spend.

“We are very excited to partner with Cocoon Capital and IWEF to democratise retail technology in Southeast Asia and create a win-win for brands, retailers and shoppers. This is an industry that is ripe for technology revolution, seeing how retailers in more developed regions like the US and Europe have embraced technology and thrived. I believe the partnership with Cocoon and IWEF will accelerate our progress,” said Teresa Condicion, Co-founder and CEO of Shoplinks.

“We are extremely impressed with the Shoplinks team and their ability to execute. Shoplinks is creating the missing link between FMCG promotions and consumers in Southeast Asia, solving a billions dollar problem. The Shoplinks platform will not only bring highly attractive discounts to consumers, it will also dramatically increase the efficiency of the FMCG brands’ marketing spend. We are excited to join Shoplinks on their journey to accelerate digital transformation for retailers in the region,” said Michael Blakey, Managing Partner at Cocoon Capital. Blakey recently joined the Shoplinks board of directors.

“Shoplinks can significantly help small retailers, which are often run by women, and Teresa and her team strongly align with IWEF’s mission to support women entrepreneurs across Indonesia,” said the joint fund managers for IWEF, Adelle Tanuri,Head of Impact Investments of YCAB Foundation, and Tom Schmittzehe, Managing Partner of Moonshot Ventures.