Sendo raises US$51 million in Series B funding
Sen Do Technology JSC, the operator of Vietnamese customer-to-customer marketplace Sendo, has announced that it has secured an investment of $51 million in Series B funding led by the SBI Group from Japan, with SoftBank Ventures Korea, Daiwa PI Partners, and SKS Ventures as new investors.
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Nguyen Dac Viet Dung, executive chairman and co-founder of Sendo, said that the funding would help the company to expand Sendo’s customer-to-customer (C2C) platform, launch the business to customer (B2C) marketplace SenMall, and making SenPay the leading fintech platform in Vietnam.
“Our ultimate goal is to continue supporting hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese sellers to prosper, and along the way help creating millions of jobs for the Vietnamese people.
Having achieved the annual gross merchandise value (GMV) of $330 million, the company is on track to surpass US$1 billion of GMV in 2020,” Dung said.
Daniel Kang, partner and managing director of SoftBank Ventures Korea, said that Vietnam is at an inflection point, bolstered by rapid GDP growth, young population, and willingness to adopt to technology.
“Against this backdrop, e-commerce has strong growth potential and we believe Sendo’s marketplace model will benefit the most.”
In a fast-growing e-commerce market, Sendo has set itself apart by focusing on not only Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City but the untapped tier 2 cities, home to 70 million Vietnamese people.
Being a homegrown company also gives the company deep understanding of the Vietnamese local market and culture. Sendo currently serves more than 300,000 sellers and millions of buyers in all 63 provinces in Vietnam.
To achieve its current fast growth, Sendo have been focusing on utilising the strength of its partners in the ecosystem, such as merchants, third-party logistics providers, and advertising companies.
The company also provides SenPay, a mobile wallet service and fintech solution on the Sendo platform as well as the off-line world.
