Malaysian grocery mobile app Jocom has announced a successful listing of part of its share capital on Singapore’s first regulated private securities exchange, 1exchange (1X), raising aggregate proceeds of S$5.6 million (over RM17.1 million).
Editor’s Note: Information in the above paragraph has been edited to reflect factual accuracy.
These 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 analyse 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.
With the fresh funds, the company said it’s ready to complete its transformation as a fully-branded online platform and a gateway for both consumers and local producers in Malaysia who want to penetrate the Malaysian market and beyond.
Future Prospects Look Bright
First established in 2015 by co-founders Joshua Sew and Agnes Chua, the grocery mobile app has since 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.
As of today, it boasts 3 million users, 500 vendors, and 15,000 SKUs.
Mobile app aside, a significant portion of Jocom’s business over the last 5 years involved behind-the-scenes operations of virtual shops and order fulfilments on online marketplaces.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jocom’s sales leapt 30% YoY, boosted by an increase in online grocery purchases of essential items.
Joshua commented on this, saying, “Our outperformance during Malaysia’s MCO at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic has proven our resilience and relevance as an essential, mobile-enabled business and we believe this is an opportune time to launch an overhaul of our own platform.”
He added, “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.”
Since 2015, Malaysia’s e-commerce market tripled in size to over US$3 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach US$11 billion in 2025, according to the Malaysia Economic and Strategic Outlook Forum 2021.
This, Jocom believes, bodes well for its future prospects. Currently, it’s also already started making inroads in China, channelling the sales of Malaysian products to Chinese consumers.
- You can learn more about Jocom here.
Featured Image Credit: WOBB