Malaysia-based iPrice Group, which provides a price comparison platform in Southeast Asia, has raised US$5 million from Japan’s Itochu Corporation and the KDDI Open Innovation Fund III (operated by Global Brain Corporation).
With the new funding, iPrice stated it will expand its services to the lending market by helping users find the best e-commerce offering and the best consumer loans to fund their purchases.
iPrice Group operates under its own brand iPrice and through various partnerships with apps, such as SmartPay (Vietnam), GoRewards (Philippines), Home Credit (Indonesia) Visense (Singapore), Robinsons rewards (Philippines) & Boost (Malaysia). It also runs a site in Hong Kong.
The Kuala Lumpur-headquartered firm recently launched a Price Watch service allowing users in Indonesia to receive alerts of their desired products’ price drops directly at iPrice App. The service will continue to roll out in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand throughout 2022.
Also Read: Southeast Asian e-commerce group iPrice raises funding from LINE’s corporate VC arm
iPrice claims it compares and catalogues over 7 billion e-commerce offers from more than 8 million sellers, attracting more than 130 million unique users in 2021 across the region.
The company’s new investor Itochu has vast experience in lending, and its subsidiary PT ITC Auto Multi Finance operates a lending business in Indonesia under the brand Payku. Aside from Payku, iPrice’s other lending partners include Home Credit (Indonesia), Julo (Indonesia), Cashalo (Philippines), Smartpay (Vietnam), and ZIP (Singapore, launching in H1 2022).
In May 2018, iPrice Group had raised an undisclosed sum in fresh funding led by LINE Ventures, the corporate venture arm of LINE Corporation. A year later, it announced a partnership to launch LINE SHOPPING in Indonesia.
A Facebook and Bain & Company report indicates that in 2021, the number of platforms used by SEA digital consumers has steadily risen to 7.9 websites per user on average, nearly 52 per cent more than 2020. A Google report predicts that digital lending will hit $92 billion in transactions by 2025 due to its current acceleration in Southeast Asia.
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