(L-R) CREA co-founders Alessandro Piscini and Aimone Ripa di Meana
Thai e-commerce enabler CREA has announced a US$25 million strategic investment from SuperOrdinary, a global accelerator for beauty and personal care brands, in exchange for minority equity.
This round brings CREA’s total financing raised to date to US$38 million.
The collaboration will help CREA attract new brands to Southeast Asia’s flourishing digital commerce ecosystem by offering a one-stop solution covering the US, China and Southeast Asia.
The minority investment forges a strategic alliance between CREA and SuperOrdinary, which will develop a new cross-border global platform network and allow each other’s respective portfolio firms to expand into new markets.
Through organic business expansion and revenue synergies from the partnership, CREA expects its revenue to triple in 2022 and grow by 500 per cent by 2023. Over the last year, its portfolio of leading brands, spanning beauty, FMCG and fashion categories, has grown over 400 per cent.
Founded in 2019 by Lazada co-founders Aimone Ripa di Meana and Alessandro Piscini, CREA offers the opportunity for global brands to win the millennial and generation Z consumer by providing end-to-end services to operate on the existing digital channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Line, TikTok, Lazada and Shopee and their own online brand store.
CREA’s core services include store and channel management, fulfilment, digital marketing, data insights, creative and omnichannel solutions. Its clients include Kiehl’s, Clarins and Nestle Dolce Gusto.
In March 2021, CREA expanded into Malaysia and Singapore and is planning to open in Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines shortly.
Established in 2020 by founder and CEO Julian Reis, SuperOrdinary is a global distribution partner and brand accelerator facilitating sustainable global expansion for beauty and personal care brands, including Drunk Elephant, Malin + Goetz, The Ordinary, and Supergoop!.
SuperOrdinary’s services include global demand generation, distribution, branding and marketing, consumer data analytics, and product registration.
Additionally, SuperOrdinary is implementing an M&A strategy of incubating, investing in and acquiring brands to optimise marketing, infrastructure and scale globally.
In 2021, SuperOrdinary expanded into the US by partnering with beauty brands to strategically scale in an ever-evolving digital-first marketplace.
According to the latest e-Conomy SEA 2021 report by Google, Temasek and Bain, the Southeast Asia e-commerce market is expected to reach US$234 billion by 2025.
The region’s beauty and personal care industry is expected to grow by more than 5 per cent annually, driven by digital commerce penetration, providing SuperOrdinary with an attractive market opportunity.
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Image Credit: CREA
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