Acquisitions Driving Strong E-Commerce Growth For Society Pass In Southeast Asia

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Society Pass Inc. SOPA is on track to take advantage of the fast-growing digital marketplace in Southeast Asia through strategic acquisitions.

The regional market has grown to 400 million internet users, up 40 million in just two years, according to a recent survey by Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL Google, Bain & Co. and Temasek Holdings Ltd.. The report also predicts explosive expansion in regional e-commerce to a projected $120 billion this year — a 62% hike from 2021. Long term, that growth is expected to nearly double to $234 billion by 2025.

Society Pass (SoPa), headquartered in Singapore, has worked since 2018 to capture that growth through its e-commerce platforms and targeted acquisitions. As an example of the latter, the company in 2019 added to its merchant-facing business – where historically most of its revenues had been generated – by acquiring #HOTTAB, a provider of software and hardware solutions to merchants, including point of sale and payments. The provider also enables merchants to manage marketing, technology, financing and many other services. 

The company is also aggressively expanding its efforts in consumer-facing digital commerce. A prime example is the company’s 2021 acquisition and relaunch of Leflair, a Vietnam-based lifestyle platform for premium brands such as Victoria’s Secret VSCO. Leflair complements SoPa’s existing consumer e-commerce interfaces, which include its food and beverage app and SoPa.asia food and beverage marketplace website.

The acquisition strategy has been enormously successful, as illustrated by the company’s earnings for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31. Total revenue soared 890% over the previous year, largely owing to SoPa’s relaunch last September of Leflair. Dennis Nguyen, founder and CEO of SoPa, highlighted the impact of Leflair over the course of just a few months when discussing the earnings report.  

“(Fiscal year) 2021 was a strong year for SoPa in spite of the impact from the Delta and Omicron variants. And despite operating in only the last four months of 2021, Leflair recognized monthly, double-digit revenue growth in the fourth quarter,” Nguyen said.

That revenue growth will be augmented this year by SoPa’s February purchase of the Pushkart grocery delivery business in the Philippines. One of the country’s fastest growing e-commerce platforms, Pushkart boasts a customer base of more than 125,000 registered users and 20,000 mobile app downloads. The purchase also kick starts SoPa’s expansion into the country at an opportune time, as the Philippines’ internet economy is expected to reach a value of $40 billion by 2025, an increase of 24% from 2021.

And expect more acquisitions going forward this year from the e-commerce aggregator, which will continue to add high-growth retailers focused on lifestyle, food and beverage, travel and merchant software. Those additions will be possible thanks to a successful initial public offering (IPO) last November on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The IPO raised approximately $25 million, leaving SoPa well capitalized to pursue more businesses in Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The company notes that its loyalty points program and personalized, data-driven approach to customer engagement delivers a competitive advantage. Its leadership team also plays a critical role. Nguyen has a long, successful track record of building and selling businesses in China and Southeast Asia. The rest of the management team includes seasoned entrepreneurs from leading e-commerce companies, investment banks and management consulting firms with decades of regional and international experience in technology, marketing, and supply-chain management.

That management experience has built a next-generation loyalty and data-focused marketing platform in Southeast Asia that now boasts 1.6 million registered consumers and 5,500-plus merchants or brands over multiple interconnected operating platforms.

“SoPa’s healthy pipeline and strategy for acquiring rapidly growing e-commerce platforms will allow us to capture exciting growth,” Nguyen said. “We expect 2022 to be a stellar year for SoPa as we continue to build out our next-generation loyalty platform and acquire more leading e-commerce companies in Southeast Asia.”

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice.