UrBox – Vietnam B2B e-reward platform raises $2.2 million in Pre-Series A financing round led by Touchstone Partners
UrBox, a B2B Commerce platform for gifting and loyalty rewards has raised $2.2 mil in Pre-Series A funding led by Touchstone Partners. Co-investors include Pavilion Capital and existing shareholder VinaCapital Ventures.
Founded in 2017, UrBox is a digital gifting and loyalty platform for enterprises with a network of more than 200 suppliers and 15,000 points of acceptance online and offline across Vietnam. The startup has been providing services for more than 500 top domestic and international brands across multiple industries in Vietnam: Vietnam Airlines, Samsung, AIA, Hanwha Life; FWD; Mastercard; JCB, VIB, HSBC, VPBank, Starbucks, Grab etc.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is a catalyst for digital transformation in Vietnam, especially in customer acquisition, retention and employees’ rewards among many industry incumbents. We have a track record in providing enterprises with more efficient distribution channels, robust customer management tools and a more effective employee benefit program enabler. This round of funding will enable UrBox to build other innovative solutions for enterprises and optimize end-user experience such as a closed-loop payment ecosystem where goods and services from brands are tokenized and offered in bundles/packages or in exchange for other goods and services of other brands. These new models will enable brands to run very creative and efficient marketing and branding campaigns. Other new features will also open doors to further C2C market which is a sizable portion of the ever-growing retail industry in Vietnam”, said Mr. Nam Bui, Co-Founder of UrBox.
“With more than 30 times growth in revenues compared with 2019, despite the pandemic, UrBox has demonstrated that they have a strong technical product and business development capabilities to enable long-term values to their enterprise clients. Started out with an interesting but quite new offering to an emerging market (Vietnam), UrBox has now become a valuable partner to many local and international corporate clients. It’s a testament to the exceptional execution capabilities of the UrBox team of founders who always impress us with their humility and eagerness to grow. We’re excited to bring in Pavilion Capital, a reputable global co-investor to partner with UrBox to help achieve their goal of becoming the leader in digital engagement for millions of enterprises and SMEs in Vietnam and beyond ”, said Mr. Khanh Tran, Managing Partner of Touchstone Partners.
According to Allied Market Research, the global digital gift industry generated $619.25 billion in 2019, and is anticipated to generate $1,922.87 billion by 2027 (witnessing a CAGR of 15.4%). In Vietnam, key market drivers include both digital transformation willingness across the economy and substantial digital spending among the digital natives of GenZ. By 2024, The Vietnamese digital gift & lifestyle industry is forecasted to generate approximately $2.4 billions and the country digital retail market is forecasted to grow by 29% CAGR to $57 billions in 2025 (according to Google and Temasek’s “e-Conomy SEA 2021”).