JadoPado, a global marketplace platform, announced that it has sold a significant minority stake to an investor consortium led by BECO Capital, a venture capital firm focused on technology investments in the Middle East, valuing the business at Rs 3.95 billion.
JadoPado allows sellers from around the world to set up a store in a few minutes and start selling their products to a global audience. Featuring JadoPado’s industry leading design and user experience, buyers and sellers can trade new, used and refurbished products. Over 2500 sellers from around the world have signed up to sell with the platform, while products available to buyers has increased six-fold to over 55,000. Traffic has tripled over the same period.
The investment of Rs. 565 million will be used to accelerate the company’s growth and expand its services across the Middle East and other emerging markets. “JadoPado has seen exponential growth since re-positioning as a marketplace platform earlier this year,” said Omar Kassim, JadoPado’s CEO. “BECO Capital’s investment is indicative of our strong market positioning and we’re incredibly excited to bring them on as our partners in revolutionising commerce in emerging markets.”
JadoPado will use a significant portion of the investment to ramp up its operations in Sri Lanka by hiring exceptional talent to expand its existing engineering, content and accounting and finance teams in Sri Lanka. “We’re incredibly excited to be able to continue to invest in a more significant manner in Sri Lanka” said Omar Kassim. “The incredible talent pool and the fast growing economy excites us about the possibilities for the future of what we’re building.”
With a current investment portfolio including stakes in Propertyfinder and Careem, BECO Capital, focuses exclusively on supporting technology startups in promising sectors. Dany Farha, CEO of BECO Capital, said: “We are thrilled with the progress and the rate at which Omar and his team have grown their offering. With the increase in consumer traffic and merchant acquisition, JadoPado is changing how businesses in the region are selling to consumers and how consumers are buying products and services.
JadoPado has created a disruptive marketplace that will bring about a dramatic transformation in the sector. It has an incredibly strong and scalable platform, and offers an efficient solution to reach customers in rapidly growing e-commerce markets. We are delighted to partner with the team, and look forward to working with them and fully backing them to accelerate their growth in building a leading marketplace for the future.”
“Online behaviour in the emerging markets continues to evolve rapidly and consumers are making more astute choices when it comes to shopping online. We’re seeing steady growth in brick and mortar retailers looking to add an e-commerce channel and trying to figure out how to turn themselves into omni-channel retailers. We see JadoPado as an important part of that mix, allowing retailers to go to market quickly and test the waters before they throw millions of dollars towards change,” said Omar Kassim.
The move marks BECO Capital’s first investment in a marketplace platform and couldn’t be better timed. The e-commerce market in the Middle East and Asia is nascent, but is growing exponentially as it continues to take share away from traditional retail. Rising internet and mobile phone penetration over the last five years has fundamentally altered the way businesses reach their customers. JadoPado aims to play a vital role by creating market entry opportunities for sellers looking to invest in the sector.
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