Growsari, a business-to-business (B2B) platform in the Philippines for sari-sari retailers, or neighborhood stores, has closed a $5 million funding round led by international investor Oppenheimer Generations Asia.
The money will be used by the e-commerce startup to fund its three business divisions and give early-stage investors and staff access to liquidity.
There are 1.3 million independent business owners in the Philippines that manage modest mom-and-pop shops that actively participate in the decisions and lives of their communities. But typically, their growth has been hampered by ineffective supply networks and limited access to funding.
Growsari aims to level the playing field by giving small business owners more democratic access to technology, enabling them to increase their income by twofold.
Growsari, a company founded in 2016 by ER Rollan, Shiv Choudhury, Andrzej Ogonowski, and Siddhartha Kongara, offers growth tools to 100,000 sari-sari retailers throughout 400 towns in the United States. Its three business segments are last-mile logistics (Tranko), MSME financial services (SariPay), and B2B e-commerce (SariMart).
It gives store owners access to convenient service levels and reasonably priced FMCG products. Free delivery of the goods to the stores is offered, along with flexible payment alternatives such as cash on delivery, digital payments, and credit. There is also no minimum purchase size.
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By offering digital services (prepaid telco load, bill payment support, e-wallet top-ups, insurance, online shopping, etc.) to its end users through the Growsari app, the platform also enables store owners to expand their businesses.
Additionally, store owners have access to a range of company administration products, such as cash management, payments, credit, and insurance.
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Since completing a US$77.5 million Series C investment round in 2022, the firm claims that its sales has grown two times and that it is now almost profitable.
Growsari has received funding from Robinsons Retail, JG Summit, KKR, International Finance Corporation, Wavemaker Partners, Pavilion Capital, Tencent Holdings, Saison Capital, ICCP-SBI, and Endeavor Catalyst totaling more than US$110 million to date.
About Growsari
GrowSari, a tech-enabled B2B platform, equips the Philippines’ over one million sari-sari stores with the infrastructure and tools they need to transform themselves from FMCG outlets to comprehensive service hubs for grassroots communities.
