Malaysia's Supplycart raises seed funding to keep your office well-stocked

It just raised a seed round of $500,000 from seed-stage venture fund KK Fund, reports Tech in Asia

Have you ever noticed there are never any paper clips around when you need them? What is that about? Kuala Lumpur-based Supplycart can’t give an answer, but it can help your office shop for supplies quickly and easily through its website.

For its trouble, it’s just raised a seed round of $500,000 from seed-stage venture fund KK Fund, Malaysia’s Cradle Fund, and private investors.

Supplycart gives small and medium-sized enterprises a way to buy office supplies, equipment, and even snacks and food for the workplace. The website offers price comparison from a number of vendors, hoping to be a one-stop shop for office procurement.

Supplycart is a companion of Freshcart, an online grocery joint founded in 2014 by Jonathan Oh and Soh Shangrong. Freshcart sells groceries to both consumers and business customers, stocking the pantries of companies like Unilever, BP, and Alliance Bank.

After the funding, Supplycart becomes the operation’s main brand, Jonathan tells Tech in Asia. The Freshcart component will continue offering business-to-consumer services, but the company plans to eventually roll it into Supplycart in order to offer more diverse services. "Supplycart allows us to have a wider reach, to attack a different vertical without confusing branding," Jonathan explains.

The team says it realised businesses lacked automation and the right technology to find the right suppliers for their needs. 

The start-up does not hold inventory of its own and works with partners for deliveries and fulfilment. "We believe in working together with partners that are good at what they are doing and leave it to their strengths to deploy for us, keeping assets and operational cost low," Jonathan explains.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here