taembe.com, Vietnam’s leading online baby retailer and marketplace for third party sellers and second-hand goods for Moms, today announced that it had closed a $228k seed (5 billion VND) funding round led by Swiss Founders Fund.
taembe.com’s Don Phan (wearing green) practice pitching at JFDI 2015A Demo Day
The round is supported by Binh Tran, former CTO & co-founder of Klout, and Eddie Thai, a local startup advisor who spent time working with Fortune 500 companies, together with an international syndicate of angel investors.
taembe.com started by selling diapers and other baby products directly to customers and has since expanded the service to include other bulky home consumables such as detergents. The business is fast approaching profitability and has been growing revenues 20% month-over-month this year.
taembe.com CEO Don Phan said: “Swiss Founders Fund was the ideal choice for us because its partners know how to build sustainable businesses in Southeast Asia.”
taembe.com co-founder Jason Smith takes the stage at JFDI 2015A Demo Day
The investment highlights the growing attractiveness of Vietnam as a place to build tech businesses. In addition to strong development talent, the country’s population is pushing 100 million people, with 1.5 million babies born every year and 64% of the population under the age of 35. 12% of households in Vietnam have children below 1 year old. According to a recent Nielson report, more than one in ten consumers in Vietnam report having a baby below the age of one in their household, the highest levels in the region and double the global average of 5%. A further 19% of consumers in Vietnam have children aged 1 to 2 years old in their household compared to just 9% globally.
Patrick Degen, Partner at Swiss Founders Fund, said: “We’ve been following developments in Vietnam closely and we believe the baby market is a winner-take-most market. taembe.com has the most traction and is the most likely to win the market.”
Don Phan founded taembe.com after shopping for groceries with his wife. They noticed a young mother struggling to drive a motorbike while holding her baby and large packs of diapers. The idea for a diaper delivery service was born.
The company’s mission is: ”làm mẹ dễ dàng hơn” – Making Mom’s Life Easier.
In 2015, taembe.com became the first Vietnamese startup to graduate from the JFDI.Asia’s accelerator program following an investor demo day in July this year.