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Ula recently raised US$20 million in series A round and is aiming to transform the SME supply chain by providing small retailers with relevant technologies.
FREMONT, CA: Indonesia based micro-retail e-commerce platform Ula raised US$20 million in the Series A funding round. The round was co-led by B Capital and Quona Capital. The latest investments will enable Ula to increase its geographic coverage and expand its products and services into new retail categories.
Ula currently has teams in Indonesia, Singapore, and India. Ula offers micro-retailers with tools necessary to digitize their supply chains, inventory, and capital management. Nipun Mehra, Co-founder, and CEO of Ula, in an interview, said that small stores have immense importance and potential in the economic and cultural fabric of Indonesia. They have highly cost-effective operations compared to other modern retailers. Despite this, they are the most vulnerable section of the retail market due to their small scale and limited product availability, along with high prices and poor services. In several markets, traditional in-store retails amount to nearly 80% of the total market, and the size in Indonesia is US$200 billion, which grows annually.
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The small retailers have up to 10% cost advantage over modern retailers, as they are often run by families who work together and the entire operation takes place out of their homes. Though inefficient product sourcing and limited access to technologies hamper their growth.
Ula aims to solve these issues by helping them procure suitable and affordable logistics and letting them cost-effectively carry their operations. Ula has a retailer-first approach, intending to empower small retailers by providing them a wide range of products and services. Kabir Narang, Founding General Partner at B Capital Group, claimed that Indonesia’s retail expenditure is expected to cross the US$0.5 trillion mark in the next couple of years, which is a cumulative expenditure of millions of small retail shops. Ula will help transform Indonesia’s SME supply chain providing these retailers with relevant and affordable technologies.
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