Singapore based e-commerce solution provider Graas on Wednesday said it has raised over USD 40 million, about Rs 317 crore, in a funding round and will invest part of the fresh capital in India.
Graas’ first-ever round of funding was led by Galaxy (Kejora-led SPV), Performa (multi-billion European Asset Manager-led SPV), Integra Partners, Yuj Ventures (Xander Group) and AJ Capital. Some of Southeast Asia’s and India’s best known angel investors and industry leaders across deep tech, retail, ad-tech and private equity have also participated in the round, the company said in a statement
Graas has used part of the fund to acquire India’s D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) and data specialist firm Shoptimize. “The plan is to invest USD 7-10 million in India. The funds will be deployed into data science to help our predictive AI growth engine,” Graas co-founder and CEO Prem Bhatia said. The company plans to launch a category-defining technology solution ‘Growth-as-a-Service’ using the fund.
Graas uses predictive artificial intelligence to equip brands with automated e-commerce recommendations that impact their bottom line, driving profitable growth. Bhatia said that while India and SEA (South East Asia) are the fastest growing regions for e-commerce in the world with USD 200 billion in gross merchandise value, they still account for less than 10 per cent of all retail in the region.
He said that there is significant headroom to grow, however, brands are finding it increasingly difficult to manage profitability. “Graas’ vision is to demolish data silos, increase brands’ speed to market and create a streamlined, informed approach to marketing, inventory and content management — all in one dashboard. We are already seeing exponential increases in our clients’ growth via our solution and that’s why we have defined a new category for Graas: ‘Growth-as-a-Service’,” Bhatia said.
This first round of fundraising will also be used to drive Graas’ growth within the SEA region, including expanding team, which currently numbers over 350 employees across 11 offices in 7 countries.
