Hypefast, an e-commerce brand aggregator in Indonesia, has secured US$19.5 million in a Series A round of investment led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.
Jungle Ventures and Strive also joined the round.
So far, the startup has raised to date more than US$22 million in equity funding, in addition to an undisclosed amount of debt capital from undisclosed regional and global investors.
The startup was founded by Achmad Alkatiri (CEO). He has in the past worked at Lazada (as its Indonesia CMO) and Shopee.
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Launched in January 2020, Hypefast partners with top e-commerce native brands in Southeast Asia and hyper scales the brands by bringing capital support, team, and a centralised retail ecosystem and infrastructure.
Hypefast claims it puts in significant effort post-acquisition on delivering growth through its end-to-end retail team, technology, efficient processes, market insights, economies of scale and centralised back-end operations optimisation.
Hypefast, which has just emerged from stealth mode, has acquired more than 25 brands so far. Its recent acquisition is an Indonesia-based baby and kids brand that grew from US$3 million to almost US$8 million revenue in the past six months.
“There are very few reasons preventing SEA brands from growing into multi-million USD EBITDA. These brands already have access to cost-efficient manufacturers and a substantial market with strong e-commerce penetration,” said Alkatiri. “Most importantly, these local founders understand the needs and want of the local consumer community much better than international competitors in terms of style, size, fit, aesthetics, and price point.”
“Hypefast is at the vanguard of e-commerce 2.0 in Southeast Asia — a shift towards the brand- and seller-centric buying. The increasingly sophisticated digital consumer in Southeast Asia cares about who she buys from and who else is buying. Hypefast is building the foremost digital platform that will empower emerging brand owners and entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia to hypercharge their businesses.” Kuo-Yi Lim, co-founder and managing partner at Monk’s Hill.
Currently, the firm has more than 200 team members across Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.
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The e-commerce brand aggregation industry has been gaining momentum in the recent past. In Singapore, there are already the likes of Una Brands and Rainforest.
Days ago, Una Brands raised US$15 million in Series A financing co-led by White Star Capital and Alpha JWC. This round came just a few weeks after it launched with a US$40 million seed round.
Rainforest launched a few weeks ago with a seed financing round of US$36 million from backers such a Nordstar and Insignia Venture Partners.
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