 "Thailand’s StylHunt gets funding to bring ease to shopping on social media")
Unlike US online shoppers, who prefer using Amazon for a myriad of purchases with their credit card or PayPal, Southeast Asians are more likely to shop through Facebook groups and pay via bank transfer.
Keeping this in mind, Thailand’s StylHunt wants to offer locals the type of experience that someone using an established, large-scale ecommerce portal gets. Its mobile app enables search and discovery of online vendors based on the trust they enjoy on social media. The startup says that this way, shoppers can find what they want faster and more easily.
The startup has been doing well enough to score a pre-series A funding round worth close to $500,000, led by CyberAgent Ventures and joined by 500 TukTuks, Expara Ventures, Singapore Angel Network, and Thai TV personality, author, and entrepreneur Paul Pattarapon Sinlapajan.
The funding will be used for recruiting for senior and junior staff in software development, community management, and business development. The goal is to scale within Thailand, leading to a series A funding that will allow the startup to expand to other countries with “similar ecommerce behavior” like Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
The startup was part of Singapore-based accelerator JFDI Asia’s 2014 A cohort.
This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.
