Lapasar allows companies to purchase supplies for their businesses via a system that acts very much like a ‘add-to-cart and checkout’ service used in B2C marketplaces

Lapasar Co-founder and CEO Thinesh Kumar

Kuala Lumpur-based Tenderin, the startup behind online B2B procurement platform Lapasar.com, today announced it has secured a new round of investment totalling US$500,000, led by Singapore-based VC firm SeedPlus, wth participation from early-stage investor NEXEA.

Lapasar will use the capital to support product development to further automate ordering and request for quotation (RFQ) processes as well as to support business development activities.

Lapasar was founded in 2016 by Thinesh Kumar (CEO), along with Lakshman Das (COO) and Dannis Raj (Chief Process Officer). The platform allows companies to purchase supplies for their businesses via a system that acts very much like a ‘add-to-cart and checkout’ service used in B2C marketplaces. According to the founders, Lapasar helps corporates save time and cost, and makes it easy for them to buy in bulk.

Lapasar’s corporate clients include Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB), Telekom Malaysia, and Tenaga Nasional Berhad.

“Corporations used to spend days before they could place an order for a product but with Lapasar, that task can now be accomplished within a few minutes– making efficiency an essential part of their corporate culture,” said CEO Kumar.

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“In the past twelve months, Lapasar has been experiencing an impressive transaction growth of over 20 times. Currently, our platform has already a database of over 10,000 suppliers of products and services from all over Malaysia,” he added.

“In Malaysia, to accelerate e-commerce growth, government interventions such as accelerating seller onboarding and adoption of e-procurement have been key focus areas. We hope to work closer with government initiatives to support this with Lapasar,” Kumar went on.

Tiang Lim Foo, Partner at SeedPlus, said: “As companies become more proactive in optimising and managing their supply chains, we expect the sector to grow strongly in the next five to ten years across Malaysia and the wider Southeast Asia region. One of the core tenets that enables growth is greater efficiency and transparency for B2B and enterprise workflows. We think that Thinesh and his team at Lapasar have created a unique platform positioned to leverage growth tailwinds.”

In early 2018, Lapasar raised a pre-seed round of funding from NEXEA. The startup, which currently employs close to 30 people, also received a grant from Cradle in that year.

SeedPlus is a Jungle Ventures-backed VC firm looking to invest in and partner with founders building globally disruptive start-ups across Asia. Some of its investments include Moglix, Homage, CardUp, Evie.ai and CoveIOT.

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