KUALA LUMPUR: Jocom International Holdings Sdn Bhd (Jocom), Malaysia's first grocery mobile app, has listed part of its share capital on 1exchange (1EX), Singapore's first regulated private securities exchange and raising $S5.6 million in aggregate proceeds.
This starts a new chapter to expand its presence locally and abroad as it raises capital for business growth and development of new technologies, strategic partnerships, and investments which will also further strengthen the company's position as Malaysia's first mobile grocery delivery service platform.
JIH founder and chief executive officer Joshua Sew said the company is ready to share its growth story with investors and kickstart a new brand journey for Jocom.
"Our outperformance during Malaysia's Movement Control Order (MCO) at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic has proven our resilience and relevance as an essential, mobile-enabled business and we believe this is an opportune time to launch an overhaul of our own platform.
"Funding aside, our new status as a listee on a private securities exchange backed by the SGX will also expose Jocom to a new pool of investors and enhance its positioning for more business opportunities in the future," he said in a statement today.
The listing is 1EX's second cross-border listing as well as the third private securities exchange listing of its kind in Singapore.
Established in 2015, Jocom, which is an acronym for 'Just Order Conveniently on Mobile', operates a mobile grocery store through its subsidiaries Jocom MShopping Sdn Bhd (JMS) and Jocom Ethirty seven Sdn Bhd, and has built a sizeable base of three million users, 500 vendors and 15,000 stock keeping unit (SKU) as at today.
It started out as Malaysia's first grocery mobile app and has evolved into one of few end-to-end platforms for grocery shopping in Malaysia.
With this latest round of funds obtained through the 1EX listing, the company is now ready to complete its transformation as a fully-online platform and a gateway for both consumers as well as local producers in Malaysia who want to break into the Malaysian market and beyond.
1EX chief executive officer Choo Haiping said the exchange welcomes Jocom, Malaysia's fastest growing mobile commerce platform.
"For many customers, Jocom's specialist mobile app has been a reliable, convenient, and efficient one-stop shop for their groceries and lifestyle needs.
"Jocom has also contributed greatly to the digital transformation of many traditional businesses in Malaysia, through its accessible mobile commerce solutions.
"Jocom can count on the 1EX platform as it continues on its growth journey," he said.
Riding on the increasing popularity of online grocery shopping in Malaysia, Jocom has generated approximately US$40 million in sales revenue between 2015 and 2020.
As the world grappled with supply chain disruptions and the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Jocom's sales leapt 30 per cent year-on-year, boosted by an increase in online grocery purchases of essential items as people complied with the MCO.
The company plans to invest significant resources into developing an AI-powered back-end system which will analyse big data such as demographics, customer preferences and spending power, and transform it into actionable insights for targeted marketing activities.
The AI-driven analytical insights will also support delivery logistics, inventory management and merchandise pricing, streamlining of processes and generating of cost efficiencies.
Beyond Malaysia, Jocom has started making inroads in China, channelling sales of Malaysian products to Chinese consumers.
Moving forward, it plans to expand its operations to markets such as Indonesia and Australia, positioning itself as a gateway for Malaysian producers to make their products available to overseas markets.