Singapore e-grocer packs $26M in funds, hires former Amazon exec
RedMart has packed in US$26.7 million after a new round of funding, as it looks to expand its operations to other Southeast Asian markets.
Based in Singapore, the online supermart also officially announced the appointment of Colin Bryar as its COO, pulling in the former executive of Amazon.com where he was most recently vice president and once served as technical advisor to the US company's CEO Jeff Bezos.
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Bryar's LinkedIn profile states that he joined RedMart in May 2015 and is responsible for the startup's technology, commercial, marketing, operations, catalog, and program management functions.
The latest round of funding was led by its previous investors including Singapore-based online games platform, Garena Online, Softbank ventures Korea, Visionnaire Ventures, as well as Facebook's co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who currently lives in Singapore.
RedMart in July 2014 raised US$23 million in Series B, which it then said would be used to build out its operational capacity and expand its product range to include fresh food. With the latest round, the startup's total funding has topped US$54 million as it looks to expand its operations to other markets in Southeast Asia.
RedMart CEO Roger Egan did not identify which countries he was targeting, but said revenues were growing "pretty rapidly", reported The Wall Street Journal. According to local reports, the startup said it was targeting a larger Series C funding exercise later this year to support its global expansion as well as grow its product offerings.
The e-grocer currently delivers more than 16,000 products and pledges to deliver orders within the customer's chosen two-hour time slot, or it will credit S$5 back into the customer's account. Last month, it unveiled RedMart Marketplace to provide a platform for third-party sellers, including retailers, wholesalers, and distributors, to set up online stores and peddle their products to the startup's customers. At launch, the marketplace offered more than 5,000 food, grocery, and household products from more than 100 sellers.