Lummo Announces VC Jeff Bezos Involvement in Series C Funding Round

Having previously announced the acquisition of a series C funding of $80 million (over 1.1 trillion Rupiah), business liaison software solutions provider startup Lummo announced the participation of Jeff Bezos in the same funding round.

Jeff Bezos through his personal asset management office, Bezos Expedition, is following the investment round led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India.

Bezos’ participation in this funding series aims to strengthen Lummo’s ambition to accelerate business growth for entrepreneurs and brand owners in Indonesia and throughout Southeast Asia.

This is Bezos Expedition’s second investment in an Indonesian startup, having previously entered the Ula funding round.

“This investment further strengthens Lummo’s efforts to develop D2C solutions to provide greater added value to business owners in Indonesia, accelerate their business growth, and maximize operational efficiency by leveraging Lummo’s SaaS solution,” said Lummo CEO Krishnan Menon.

Lummo COO Lorenzo Peracchione said the fresh funds would be focused on expanding product offerings in order to serve more MSME entrepreneurs and brands.

With the inclusion of Jeff Bezos as part of their investor, it is expected to provide more benefits to Lummo, seen from Jeff Bezos’ previous achievements in building Amazon into a leading global e-commerce service.

“We are pleased with the presence of Jeff Bezos in the team and it is an honor for us to get someone who is skilled in digital e-commerce. This investment is also a validation of the work we have done,” said Lorenzo.

According to him, what is important is that this investment is a strong signal of investor confidence globally, and also changes foreign investors’ perceptions of Indonesia’s current potential and growth.

Prioritizing The D2C Concept

The D2C approach which is claimed as Lummo’s competitive advantage has had a sustainable impact on their business development. In addition, D2C solutions also open up more business potential for small and medium-sized businesses in the midst of challenging online business competition.

Armed with in-depth experience of the market in Indonesia, Lummo is optimistic that it can create technological solutions that are able to solve business challenges faced by entrepreneurs.

In early 2020, Lummo, previously known as BukuKas, had rebranded TOKKO which was under BukuKas, and was also rebranded to become LummoSHOP.

In particular, LummoSHOP, helps businesses and brand owners who want to optimize their business growth by helping them build relationships and sell direct to customers (D2C), in order to maximize operational efficiency across multiple channels and build their own brand online.

Lummo Startup Profile

Just like Ula, Bezos also injected funds through Bezos Expedition. Lummo was founded by Krishnan Menon and Lorenzo Peracchione who both worked at Lazada.

Krishnan is now the CEO, while Lorenzo is the COO. Lummo is a business liaison service provider startup that uses a direct-to-consumer (D2C) approach.

This approach allows brands to create strong relationships with their customers. This company was previously known as BukuKas which was launched in December 2019. In November 2020, BukuKas changed its name to TOKKO and then re-branded again to Lummo in January 2022.

A month after changing its name to Lummo, the company conducted a series C funding round led by two major firms, namely Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India. The funding round raised 80 million US dollars (approximately 1.14 trillion) in capital.

It is not stated how much investment Bezos made for Lummo. Lummo CEO and Founder Krishnan Menon said the company will leverage Bezos’ investment to develop D2C solutions for business owners in Indonesia, accelerate business growth, and maximize the company’s operational efficiency.

“Support of this scale underscores our belief that Indonesia and Southeast Asia are the right destinations for technology investors,” said Krishnan in a written statement received by KompasTekno, Thursday (17/2/2022).