Malaysian grocery app Jocom on Thursday announced that it successfully listed on Singapore’s first regulated private securities exchange 1exchange, raising SGD 5.6 million (USD 4.2 million). The funds will go towards the group’s expansion to West Malaysian states like Johor and Penang and to overseas markets, including Indonesia and Australia.
The company plans to invest significant resources into developing an AI powered backend system to analyze big data such as demographics, customer preferences, and spending power, transforming them into actionable insights for targeted marketing activities. It will also support delivery logistics, inventory management and merchandise pricing, streamlining of processes, and the generating of cost efficiencies.
Established in 2015 by Joshua Sew and Agnes Chua, the app has grown into an end-to-end platform for grocery shopping in Malaysia. It has full control over the entire order journey from purchase to fulfilment, and has ownership over the platform, proprietary software, delivery fleet, and storage facilities.
During COVID-19, Jocom’s sales leapt 30% YoY, boosted by an increase in online grocery purchases of essential items. As of today, it boasts 3 million users, 500 vendors, and 15,000 SKUs.
“Funding aside, our new status as a listee on a private securities exchange backed by the Singapore Exchange will also expose Jocom to a new pool of investors and enhance its positioning for more business opportunities in the future,” said Sew.
Since 2015, Malaysia’s e-commerce market tripled in size to over USD 3 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach USD 11 billion in 2025, according to the Malaysia Economic and Strategic Outlook Forum 2021.
This article was originally published by Vulcan Post.