An Indonesian start-up, Pomona, creates sales and omnichannel marketing software for consumer brands. On July 24, it announced that it has raised a Series A-2 of $3 million led by Vynn Capital. This funding round featured new participants like Amand Ventures and Ventech China. The returning investors include Central Capital Ventura and Stellar Kapital.
The co-founder and CEO Benz Budiman said that the company raised an exclusive pre-A round in 2018. At that time the media reported it as a Series A. To avoid any confusion since the funding is not a Series B, the company decided to refer to it as a Series A-2.
The company was founded in 2016 by CEO Budiman and the current CTO, Ari Suwendi. Pomona’s software lets brands offer cashback incentives to participating Indonesian consumers. The software has tools that analyze offline sales conversion, customer engagement, and the effectiveness achieved by different advertising and marketing campaigns.
The company stated that it built its software with two brand categories in mind. These include consumer packaged goods that include cleaning supplies and toiletries and the fast-moving consumer packaged goods or the items that have a short shelf life and high turnover like seasonal items and food.
Currently, the company works with over 50 brands that include Sosro, Japfa, Sungai Budi, Unilever, Frisian Flag, and ABC President. Budiman says that the new funding will help the company add new services with the aim of becoming an end-to-end solution. The CEO also said:
“For brands, we aim to offer more information and data points so they can better understand local Indonesian consumers and design their engagement strategies to enhance outreach efficiency, cut costs and better address their needs.”
The Strategy
The company plans to enter into the Southeast Asia territory. However, it has not yet disclosed which countries it will get into. Pomona enables customers to redeem cashback offers by simply scanning a receipt using the Pomona app. Its partners may use Pomona’s white-label solutions to develop their localized branded cashback rewards app.
Pomona’s solutions can increase sales as well as offline-to-online conversion rates because a considerable number of purchases goes through the brick-and-mortar stores. Hence, companies can examine what motivates customer engagement and determine their purchasing behaviour.
Vynn Capital founding partner, Victor Chua, said in a press statement that Indonesia is increasingly becoming a major market for global brands. The country is also a significant driver for private consumption in the Southeast Asia region.
Therefore, understanding the behaviours of the local consumers is necessary for brands joining and operating in the dynamic market. Consumers become more educated with time and they become preferential in their spending options.
