THE all Filipino founding team behind electronics retailer Poundit.com has secured $629,763 in seed funding from Cocoon Capital Partners Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based venture capital firm specializing in early stage investments.
As a leading ecommerce retailer of gadgets and accessories in the country, Poundit.com attracted international attention with its fast growing customer base, strong partnerships and winning the retail startup award at the 2015 Rice Bowl Startup Awards in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The investment marks Cocoon Capital’s first foray into the Philippine market which has seen great improvements in its domestic ecommerce industry in recent years.
“Poundit.com is one of the most impressive startups we have seen in Southeast Asia since we started investing,” said Will Klippgen, co-founder at Cocoon. “They’re transitioning to be more professional, customer-centric players that ensures their customers have an excellent journey from browsing to unboxing.”
Originally known as YouPoundit, the company was founded in 2014 by former BlackBerry country manager Kristian Salvo. The online store quickly earned a reputation as a customer-centric gadgets hub where people can buy authentic and authorized goods at a discount.
To date, the company has strong partnerships with global electronics manufacturers such as Sony, GoPro, ASUS, JBL, Harman Kardon, and Otterbox. Poundit’s status as an official retailer allows it to render better post-sale customer support than most other distributors.
“We plan to bring this to the next level,” said Salvo. “Poundit is a piece of our manifesto and we believe in merging people with technology. Matching them to the right products and then inspiring them to create beautiful things like art, music, and film.”
According to Salvo, the boost in capital will be utilized to expand the business and improve the Poundit.com customer experience. Areas of focus will include customer service, marketing and product line expansion.(PR)