edamama, a new e-commerce platform designed for mothers in the Philippines, has announced that it has raised US$5 million in its latest pre-Series A round from investors.
Investors include Gentree Fund, Robinsons Retail Holdings, and Kickstart Ventures, who are the affiliates of SM Investments Corporation, JG Summit, and Ayala Corporation, respectively.
The round also saw participation from Foxmont Capital Partners, an early-stage VC firm based in the Philippines, besides unnamed Filipino and global angel investors.
The startup plans to use a part of the funds to expand its warehouse capabilities and improve its delivery services for customers to receive their goods more quickly.
Apart from this, it is also working on omnichannel expansion and providing new mediums of direct-to-consumer communication, such as selling through a live stream. “Our goal is to continue being vertically focused, so we could gain and build the trust of more mothers in the country,” said edamama co-founder Bela Gupta D’Souza.
edamama was established amidst the pandemic by the husband-wife duo of Nishant and Bela Gupta D’Souza, who saw the pain points of mothers as consumers when purchasing online. They noticed mothers spend many hours in search of the best products for their children only to end up with mediocre items with inferior quality from untrusted sources.
The Philippine startup aims to address the issue of quality, as well as the other challenges common among today’s e-commerce platforms — such as channel fragmentation, non-established brand trust, the lack of a discovery-led buying experience, and poor customer service.
The site is designed for mothers to “get easy online access to quality products and services while ensuring the lowest prices through a system that simplifies purchasing experience”.
Since its launch in May 2020, edamama claims to have served tens of thousands of expectant and new mothers through doorstep delivery of over 22,000 SKUs, plus a wide range of online classes and activities.
It operates several products designed to make shopping more convenient for moms and their families.
Through edamama’s Gift Registry, users can create gift wish lists for special occasions, from baby showers to birthday celebrations, and share these with loved ones. They will then receive their desired items gift wrapped and in time for their special occasion.
Another feature is Subscribe & Save, an online diaper subscription service launched in partnership with Pampers.
It also offers Explore, a one-stop destination for parents to book the best online classes, events, and activities for their children.
Moreover, its platform also delivers authentic parenting content, personalised promos, and a community for parents to make the right decisions. It has also developed “bean” rewards that can be converted to peso credits.
“edamama is leading the future of personalised e-commerce in the Philippines, offering mothers a safe forum to share experiences while integrating discovery-led experiences into their platform. edamama is underpinned by a strong content strategy that allows it to support mothers at every stage of parenting, a strategy that has won them a loyal following of mothers,” said Mark Sng, Vice-President of Gentree Fund.
Minette Navarrete, President of Kickstart Ventures, said: “edamama captures the essence of this ‘village’: an easy, trustworthy, and personalised shopping experience for busy moms; useful, curated, verified content; and safe community interactions that affirm and support parenting.”
“The developing e-commerce landscape that sells everything to everyone is a bit of a wild wild west, but through mindful curation and intense engagement, edamama is earning trust and repeat purchases, capturing a meaningful and growing share of the mommy market,” added Navarrete.
Also Read: Emotional leadership in a post-COVID-19 business world
The Philippine e-commerce market is the fastest growing in Southeast Asia. According to Google’s e-Conomy SEA 2020 report, it grew by 55 per cent at the height of the pandemic as the purchasing behaviour of consumers shifted from face-to-face to digital.
One of the major growth areas of the market is the maternity products segment, which is in turn being driven by the country’s high fertility rate. An HKTDC commissioned study predicts that the segment’s value will surpass the US$1 billion mark in 2022.
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Image Credit: edamama
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