Malaysia’s iPrice Group raises $5M from Itochu Corporation and KDDI Corporation

iPrice Group, Malaysia-based price comparison platform, announced Wednesday that it has raised $5 million of additional funding led by Japan-based firms Itochu Corporation and the KDDI Open Innovation Fund III (operated by Global Brain Corporation).

The additional funding will bolster iPrice’s role in finding shoppers the best deals as Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market becomes increasingly difficult to navigate, iPrice said in a statement.

IPrice recently launched a Price Watch service allowing users in Indonesia to receive alerts of their desired products’ price drops directly at iPrice App. The service will continue to roll out in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand throughout 2022.

With the new funding, iPrice will expand its services to the lending market by helping users find not only the best e-commerce offering but also the best consumer loans to fund their purchases.

A Google report predicts that digital lending will hit $92 billion in transactions by 2025 due to its current acceleration in Southeast Asia, and the comparison platform intends to meet consumer demand.

iPrice Group is Southeast Asia’s online shopping companion. With a mission to bring a greater level of transparency, convenience, and trust to the e-commerce market across Southeast Asia in order to help people save money, the company today operates in seven countries across Southeast Asia namely Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Hong Kong.

Currently, iPrice compares and catalogues 7+ billion e-commerce offers from more than 8 million sellers, attracting more than 130 million unique users in 2021 across the region. It currently operates under its own brand iPrice and through various partnerships with leading apps, such as SmartPay (Vietnam), GoRewards (Philippines), Home Credit (Indonesia) Visense (Singapore), Robinsons rewards (Philippines) and Boost (Malaysia).

Cited a Facebook and Bain & Company report, iPrice said that in 2021, the number of platforms used by Southeast Asia digital consumers has steadily risen to 7.9 websites per user on average, nearly 52 percent more than 2020.

This trend creates a reinforced need for a curated catalogue to provide transparency across platforms and help users save money among multiple marketplaces. iPrice addresses this need by aggregating the best offers from more than 7 billion products and 8 million sellers on a single platform. In 2021, more than 125 million unique users across the region used iPrice platform.

“Besides comparing products, prices, sellers’ reputations, and delivery conditions, we are continually deepening our expertise to help shoppers in various ways – be it aggregating seller vouchers, creating an app that alerts users of their desired products’ price drops, or finding the cheapest loans to fund their purchases,” said iPrice Group Chief Executive Officer Paul Brown-Kenyon.

iPrice is also excited to welcome Itochu as part of the capitalization table. Although known for its trading operations, Itochu has vast experience in the area of lending and its subsidiary, PT ITC Auto Multi Finance, operates a lending business in Indonesia under the brand Payku.

“We’re very excited that we can leverage our investors’ extensive lending experience. The first step in our strategic cooperation will be adding Itochu’s subsidiary, Payku, as a key lending partner in Indonesia. Their expertise will be vital as we further penetrate the lending market,” added Brown-Kenyon.

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