Today sees two big announcements from JFDI.Asia alum shopspot: the launch of a new mobile shopping platform and the closing of its $779,000 seed funding round. The platform is offered first on the iPhone, bringing fashion brands, retailers, trendsetters and offers together in one place on their mobile phones. The funding comes from Singapore-based Jungle Ventures and SingTel Innov8, following on from previous seed investments by a group of Thailand-based angel investors led by Kris Nalamlieng.
“In the past few years, e-commerce and mobile adoption have dramatically advanced in Asia, yet mobile commerce accounts for less than 11 percent of all online sales,” said ShopSpot Co-Founder and CEO Natsakon Kiatsuranon. “Our goal is to become a dominant player in this space by creating products that fit into the behavior and requirements of the mobile consumer as well as the Asian retailer”.
The platform has information and products from hundreds of online retailers in categories such as fashion, beauty, gift, and gadget. Its target market is fashion-savvy consumers.
“Over 25% of people in Southeast Asia own a smartphone. This means that one in four shoppers already have immediate access to an incredibly powerful device, no matter where they are. ShopSpot is leveraging that capability but is also making it more inspirational and fun with a fashion magazine meets social network style interface” said, Thomas Clayton, CEO of Sequoia backed mobile media company BubbleMotion, who also recently joined the Board of Advisors of ShopSpot.