Aspiring unicorn ShopBack, a Singapore-based pioneering cashback and discovery platform startup, announced recently that it has landed US$75 million in an extended Series B round of funding led by Temasek, the Singapore government-owned sovereign wealth fund. Other participants of the cashback app’s extended financing round include existing investors EV Growth, a joint venture between Yahoo Japan Capital, East Ventures and SMDV; Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce behemoth that is often referred to as the Amazon of Japan; EDBI, a Singapore-based global investor in high growth tech sectors; 33 Capital, a group of global financial services businesses with a focus on startup advisory; and Cornerstone Ventures, a private equity and venture capital firm headquartered in the Gulf Cooperation Council region. The aspiring unicorn’s latest Series B funding round brings the total amount of funding raised thus far to over US$100 million since its establishment in 2014.
Henry Chan, chief executive officer and co-founder of ShopBack, said that the fresh injection of funding will enable the cashback app startup to create and build new user-oriented attributes that can help their consumers to make better informed purchasing decisions based on seamless, rewards-rich user experience to save precious time and be more cost-effective with their finances. In addition, the newly acquired capital will enable ShopBack to further bolster its growth in its existing markets in the Southeast Asia region, including Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, as well as in Australia and Taiwan. Besides that, the funding will also be utilized to further accelerate its technology capabilities to provide new data-driven insights and to increase its technology infrastructure for enhanced performance.
Henry Chan noted that the aspiring unicorn is in prime position to dominate a significant segment of the thriving online shopping space due to it being the leading provider in the rewards space. As the rewards and discovery platform startup’s core values revolve around a customer-centered approach and drive to develop better product offerings through diligent innovation, ShopBack has been able to innovate the rewards sector by offering consumers a seamless and user-friendly approach to saving while doing their online shopping. With the successful raise of its latest extended Series B fundraising round, ShopBack is able to expand its range of features so that customers are able to make better purchasing decisions to save even more time and money.
It is understood that Temasek has recently been on the lookout for aspiring unicorns in the region, which are startups that have a valuation of at least US$100 million but have not yet achieved the unicorn valuation standard of US$1 billion. The Singaporean state investor has already made notable investments in online fashion marketplace startup Zilingo, Indonesia-based online beauty products marketplace Sociolla, and Singapore-based global mixed martial arts sports media company ONE Championship.
ShopBack claims to have more than 19 million users, offering them cashback across a multitude of categories that include health, fashion, beauty, travel reservations and bookings, food delivery and general merchandise. With the backing of Temasek and other noteworthy investors, the aspiring unicorn will seek to grow its user base and accelerate the development of its technology capabilities to cement its position as a major player in the online shopping space.
