Singapore-headquartered e-commerce startup Graas has raised over $40 million in a Series A funding round led by Kejora-backed special purpose vehicle Galaxy, Performa, Integra Partners, Yuj Ventures and AJ Capital, according to media reports on Tuesday.
The round also saw participation from some of Southeast Asia and India’s “best know angel investors and industry leaders,” across deep tech, retail tech, adtech and private equity, per the reports.
Graas was set up earlier this year by serial entrepreneur Prem Bhatia and former Facebook Asia-Pacific managing director Ashwin Puri.
The company is looking to launch a growth-as-a-service solution involving predictive AI to detect trends and offer recommendations for brands in the areas of marketplace storefronts, social and conversational commerce, performance marketing, inventory management, warehousing and last-mile logistics.
According to its website, Graas currently has over 250 customers while its AI predictive engine processes over 45 million data points in a month across more than 4 million stock keeping units.
The funds raised will be channelled towards expanding its operations and headcount across Southeast Asia and India. At present, the platform has over 350 staff across seven countries.
“While India and SEA are the fastest-growing regions for e-commerce in the world with $200 billion in GMV, they still account for less than 10% of all retail in the region. There is significant headroom to grow; however, brands are finding it increasingly difficult to manage profitability,” noted Bhatia, co-founder & CEO of Graas.
In line with this, the SAAS company also announced that it has acquired Indian direct-to-consumer platform Shoptimize as well as cross-border e-commerce player SELLinALL.
The founders of both companies have joined the board of Graas and will continue to be a part of the combined entity.