Desty Announces Additional Funding of 71.3 Billion Rupiah

Startup developer of e-commerce platform enabler Desty announced the acquisition of further pre-series A funding of $5 million or around 71.3 billion Rupiah. This round was led by East Ventures with participation from Jungle Ventures and past investors Fosun RZ and January Capital.

He further explained, this fresh fund is an addition given by investors after Desty earned $3.2 million (around 46 billion rupiah) in a pre-series A round led by 5Y Capital in July 2021.

Desty will use the funds to accelerate their product development and merchant acquisitions as well as launch innovative products in the next few months. What’s even more impressive is that most of that growth has come from organic acquisitions, word of mouth.

“With attractive products and business growth, we believe Desty will create more value for online sellers and Indonesian creators,” said East Ventures Co-Founder & Managing Partner Willson Weather.

Main Products of Desty

This startup started as a digital platform for sellers, influencers, and creators since established in 2020, to build an online destination to market and sell their products.

Currently, there are two main products, namely Desty Page (for landing page creation) and Desty Store (online store creation), for users to develop their existence and business in the digital ecosystem.

Desty was born when Covid-19 entered Indonesia, when digitalization was massive. Sellers, influencers, and creators have used digital platforms to demonstrate their presence in a digital world that has become very important for growth.

“In the near future we will have 1 million creators and sellers using our platform. Some of our main sellers make Desty their main sales channel compared to other marketplaces,” said Desty Co-Founder & CEO Mulyono Xu.

Around 50% of the users are online sellers, while 30% are creators or influencers. Some well-known sellers who use their services include DAMN I Love Indonesia, Luna Habit & Nama Beauty by Luna Maya, Kurumi, Promise Jiwa, Haus.

The creators in the Desty ecosystem are Dagelan, Greysia Polii (Indonesian Olympic Gold Winner), Choky Sitohang, Tahi Lalats (Mindblowon Studio), Daisuke Botak, Marcella Eteng, Filda Salim, FootNoteStories, and many more.

Service Market Size

In Indonesia, more and more online sellers are technology-savvy because of the demands of today’s customers, both for interactions and transactions. Various groups, from big brands to MSME players, continue to maximize the use of services such as marketplaces to social commerce.

No wonder the Indonesian e-commerce sector has experienced double-digit GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) growth over the past year reaching $52 billion.

With this great opportunity, Desty has the ambition to maximize the momentum. They haveexperienced growth in traffic and GMV of 60% and 50% respectively for the last 6 months.

“This funding marks our third fundraiser in a year since the initial funding round in November 2020. With more than 60 people on the Desty team, we are constantly looking for new talent to make a more meaningful impact for millions of Indonesians in strengthening their digital presence,” added Mulyono.

According to the results of a survey summarized in the MSME Empowerment Report 2021 by DSInnovate, one of the main issues faced by MSME actors is marketing their products (32%).

They expect digital solutions that can help them manage online channels properly and correctly. This pain point was captured by the innovators, and gave birth to an e-commerce enabler service.

So far, most of the enabler players are still focused on medium and large businesses, helping well-known brands to manage their transactions on online platforms.

However, with the business potential of MSMEs – especially when looking at the quantity side – these enabler service providers have begun to provide services tailored to the needs of MSMEs.