Poptron, a Kuala Lumpur-based lifestyle social commerce platform, announced a $1 million funding from a NASDAQ listed company.
This strategic investment enable the company to scale its operations and technology toward being a key regional social commerce platform, Poptron said.
Poptron is planning to fundraise the remaining $375,000 on pitchIN – an equity crowdfunding platform in Q1 2021.
“These investments will be used to develop the platform’s version 2.0, expected to be up in January 2021 as well as expand the team and begin operations in Singapore by Q1 2021,” the company said.
The curated e-commerce site was launched on 4th September 2020 to offer microbrands selling high quality, natural and eco-friendly products or artisanal goods a platform to connect with like-minded global users.
Over 100 microbrands with more than 700 different types of product listings have since come on board, ranging from personal care, fashion items, arts and crafts, to pets necessities and home & living products.
There are almost 2.2 million microbrands globally in 2020, with the Total Available Market of $7.6 billion. Out of this, the Serviceable Available Market for Poptron is worth $3.8 billion, which counts for 1.5 million out of the expected 3.79 million global microbrand market in 2025.
Poptron said it aims to capture $1.6 billion of the market share with 600,000 microbrands generating Poptron’s global revenue in 2025.
Poptron’s founder, Brian Johnson Lowe said, “Before the Movement Control Order (MCO), I used to frequent local arts bazaars and discovered a lot of interesting, high-quality products from small brands and businesses. Due to the pandemic, bazaars came to a halt, so these brands are depending on online sales, usually gathered from various social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Online demand generation became a critical area of focus, and it became quite evident that securing new customers online isn’t as easy as it seems”. – BusinessNewsAsia.com