Rakuten Capital invests in ShopBack
By Digital News Asia April 10, 2019
- Rakuten Capital and EV Growth co-lead this investment round of US$45 million
- New capital injection brings ShopBack’s total funding to US$83 million
RAKUTEN Capital, the investment arm of Rakuten, Inc, on April 10 announced a strategic investment in ShopBack, the one-stop rewards and discovery platform headquartered in Singapore.
Rakuten Capital and EV Growth are co-leading this investment round of US$45 million (RM184.28 million) with participation from EDBI, a Singapore government-linked strategic investor, and existing investors.
The new capital injection brings ShopBack’s total funding to US$83 million (RM339.83 million), and adds Rakuten Capital as a significant shareholder. Amit Patel, CEO of Ebates Inc, a Rakuten company, has been appointed to the company’s board. Rakuten and ShopBack will also explore future synergies with product offerings to better serve consumers across the Asia Pacific region.
“Rakuten is committed to empowering great companies around the world and I’m incredibly excited to join as a member to the ShopBack board,” said Amit.
“ShopBack has established itself as a strong leader across the Asia Pacific region and has a rare combination of dedicated customer service, a passionate customer base and an extremely talented team.”
ShopBack’s new round of funding will be deployed into simplifying shopping experiences, expanding data capabilities to fuel personalisation and business insights, as well as accelerating growth in key markets.
The company remains focused on building rewards and discovery features to enhance both online and offline shopping experiences for consumers across the Asia Pacific.
“Our rapidly growing pool of loyal users is a strong testament to the value we bring to merchant partners and consumers across Asia Pacific,” said ShopBack co-founder and chief executive officer Henry Chan.
“We are super excited to welcome Amit to the board and we look forward to his guidance in accelerating our next stage of growth.”
In 2018, ShopBack saw 250% year-on-year growth in orders and sales. The company was powering over 2.5 million monthly transactions for more than seven million users in seven Asia Pacific countries, delivering close to US$1 billion (RM4.1 billion) sales for over 2,000 merchant partners in both the online as well as offline spaces.
ShopBack also entered Australia, its first market outside Asia last year and opened research and development hubs in Vietnam and Taiwan, driving a threefold increase in its Engineering, Data and Product Management talent pool.
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