Paul Srivorakul: Helping aCommerce Make E-Commerce Easy in Southeast Asia

A positive online experience and reaching a target audience are two important parameters for promoting products effectively. aCommerce comes in with its regional expertise in Southeast Asia to help brands pursue opportunities in the region. They help brands in their pursuit of growth by helping them through their platform. 

Founded in 2013, aCommerce is the leading brand e-commerce platform and service provider that offers end-to-end and e-commerce solutions for brands in Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

aCommerce has four offices and four fulfillment centers all over Southeast Asia and has a team of over 700 people that strives to deliver e-commerce consulting, digital marketing, IT development, store ops, customer care, fulfillment, and delivery. The company develops all of its core technology in-house on a single integrated and end-to-end platform to make e-commerce easy for many brands across the region.

A 2021 IPO

Consistent funding reflects on the health of enterprises. aCommerce has raised $119 million in funding to date. The company most recently raised $15 million from Singapore-based investors Indies Capital Partners to focus on its ‘2.0 Strategy’ for cash-flow positive in 2020. aCommerce today counts KKR’s Emerald Media, Australia-based Blue Sky Ventures, DKSH, Inspire Ventures, Indonesia’s Sinarmas, NTT Docomo, and Indies Capital Partners as its investors.

But every company reaches a point when it is ready to raise capital from different investors and go public. aCommerce has scheduled the much-anticipated launch of its IPO through which it plans to raise over $200 million for 2021. The startup is planning to debut on the stock market by the first half of next year.

Although the company is growing organically at approximately 40-50% year-on-year, the company is ready for a bigger global expansion and an IPO would definitely help. “We plan to list on a recognized stock exchange and do a fully marketed international offering. We may list on the main board of the Thai SET (Stock Exchange of Thailand), but are still finalizing options,” says Paul Srivorakul, CEO and Co-founder of aCommerce.

In 2018, aCommerce’s revenue grew by a remarkable 73% to over $100 million. It was an important year for the company as its core market of Thailand turned in profits. Last year, the company announced its strategic plan called “aCommerce 2.0” to achieve multi-leveled targets for 2020 and go for multi-year targets. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected a material change to aCommerce’s business too. While some of its segments like consumer staples and healthcare have seen year-on-year growth rates that were in triple digits, the non-discretionary luxury and fashion and consumer electronics segments are seeing year-on-year growth of up to 40% as brands go online for distribution as sales decline offline. 

Additionally, the company has seen an increased share of sales volumes from direct-to-consumer channels like social platforms, B2B, and also from company-branded web stores – brand.com. The sales in this segment have jumped from 20-30% to as much as 50%. “The decisive actions we took last year have yielded higher levels of operating leverage from our incremental revenues, which has rapidly brought forward our group profitability target,” says Paul Srivorakul.

The Techpreneur

Paul Srivorakul, CEO and Co-Founder

Paul is a well-known entrepreneur who has built three successful companies. Prior to aCommerce, he founded a few companies including Ensogo Group, DMS Group, New Media, and Admax Network. He started his career at Ask Jeeves Inc (ask.com). He is the co-founder and chairman of Ardent Capital, a $20 million private capital fund that focuses on internet companies across Southeast Asia. He is also an investor and chairman at Helpster, which is Southeast Asia's first "On-Demand" Staffing platform.

Paul moved from the U.S. back to Thailand, his homeland after graduating from UC Berkeley and after his short stint at Ask Jeeves Inc in 2000. Today, he is one of the most important figures in Thailand’s fast-growing startup ecosystem.

“We collect your products in our fulfilment centers around Southeast Asia, assure their quality control and ship to your end customer.”

“Use a single platform to track your orders and inventory across multiple online retailers and optimize your retail strategy.”

“aCommerce is the largest regional ecommerce enabler that provides end-to-end and ala carte ecommerce solutions for brands in Southeast Asia.”