Ula is a horizontal multi-category wholesale B2B e-commerce marketplace that combines modern retail technology with the lean cost structure of traditional micro-retail. The platform offers over 6,000 products and serves more than 70,000 traditional retail stores, and the company reports it has grown 230x since launch. Ula provides selection, pricing, and working capital solutions aimed at increasing small store owners' income. With Series B capital, Ula plans to expand geographically into tier 2-4 cities, grow its product catalog and team, and broaden its buy-now-pay-later offering. The company also intends to incorporate advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence to help retailers improve business management and enable small business owners to sell within their communities. Ula, founded in January 2020, builds a one-stop e-commerce marketplace and supply-chain platform to connect suppliers to small retailers and micro shops across Indonesia. Its core product combines inventory sourcing with a technology overlay and credit/working-capital offerings so retailers can restock without waiting on customer payments. The startup currently operates in FMCG and food & vegetable categories and serves more than 20,000 stores. Ula relies largely on feet-and-street sales teams and word-of-mouth referrals to onboard new shops. The company plans to deploy recent capital to reach more small retailers and expand further within Indonesia, and intends to broaden its assortment to apparel and eventually electronics. Founders include Nipun Mehra, Alan Wong, Derry Sakti and Riky Tenggara, who bring experience from Flipkart, Amazon, P&G and Lazada/aCommerce. Ula operates a wholesale e-commerce marketplace aimed at helping small, family-run retailers streamline sourcing and access working capital. Launched in January and headquartered in Jakarta, the startup is currently in private beta. It uses data science to underwrite working capital credit and reduce the need for retailers to buy large, inefficient bulk orders from many suppliers. Ula says its business has grown tenfold since launch, with several customers returning to buy significantly more and increased purchases in May amid the pandemic. The company plans to use new funding to expand across Indonesia over the next year and to service more inventory categories, including apparel and electronics. The founding team includes Riky Tenggara, Derry Sakti, Nipun Mehra and Alan Wong, who bring backgrounds from Lazada, P&G, Amazon, Flipkart and Pine Labs.

Total raised

$54M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Nov 2021