Skype co-founder backs Singapore startup

Here’s why $3M worth RedMart is attracting big investors.

RedMart bills itself as disrupting traditional grocery retail by enabling customers to restock their pantry with non-perishable home essentials without going to the store. “You no longer need wait in line and lug home heavy, bulky everyday essentials such as diapers, bottled water, toilet paper, and snacks. We deliver to your door for free within the 2 hour delivery slot you choose,” said RedMart co-founder Roger Egan.

Egan shared that he and Vikram Rupani started working on RedMart during their INSEAD MBA program in SG in 2010. “As busy students,we wanted to save time and avoid the hassle of going to the store and lugging home heavy, bulky home essentials and groceries. We both put a bit of money in, took no salaries (sweat equity), and raised funds from INSEAD professors, friends and family.”

In December 2011, Skype co-founder, Toivo Annus invested. “He heard about us from our INSEAD classmate and advisor, Taavet Hinrikus, who was Skype's first employee and Director of Strategy.”

More recently, Egan said that Golden Gate Ventures, East Ventures, and PropertyGuru founders, Steve Melhuish and Jani Rautiainen invested.

Boon Ling Yee, former Commercial Director of Tesco China, also invested.

To-date, the company has over $3M funding and Egan shared that they will be raising a bigger round this year, but rather not disclose the amount.

According to Egan, RedMart's online grocery service model has several advantages over traditional grocery stores. First, the high operational costs required to run a store like real estate, utilities, personnel are significantly lowered and some of these savings can be passed along to customers, he said. Second, Egan noted that the physical contraints of the store are removed, so that a wider range of products can be offered, including those that would not be economically viable in a store. And third, the location constraint of the store is removed, he said, as customers can order from anywhere and have their order delivered to their door.

“RedMart is all about empowering our customers and 'Wow'ing them with our service.The result is a better offer to consumers, and better economics for the service,” boasted Egan.

Egan said that the company has been growing over 30% month over month since it started and will be expanding into other product categories and geographies in 2014.

“We plan to expand into other product categories and expand internationally. However, the market for home essentials in Singapore is actually very large - USD 5.2 Billion. So there is huge potential in SG alone. The worldwide trend shows that people are increasingly buying their groceries and home essentials online. The growth is exponential. We believe Singapore will follow and feel that RedMart is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this trend. There is no reason to go to the store, wait in line, and lug these heavy, bulky goods home. There are so many better ways to spend your time. Our mission is to save our customers time and money for the things that really matter in life!”

Moving forward, Egan said that the company will be be launching an iPhone app. “We're all about convenience, and real convenience is being able to shop for your groceries anywhere, any time. We think our app's user experience design is very 'out-of-the-box' and simple to use.”

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Name of the company: RedMart.com
Founder/Founders: Roger Egan (Co-founder & CEO), Vikram Rupani (Co-founder & CFO), and Rajesh Lingappa (Co-founder & CTO)
Website: https://redmart.com/
Major Investors: Toivo Annus (Co-founder and former Head of Engineering at Skype), Golden Gate Ventures, East Ventures, and Boon Ling Yee (former Commercial Director of Tesco China).
Total funding at hand: Over SGD 3M raised to date.
Source of funding: Investors mentioned above.
Start of operation: October, 2011