Ematic Solutions Closes Pre-Series A Funding with Telkom Indonesia’s MDI Ventures

Ematic Solutions Raises a Pre-Series A Funding Led by Telkom’s MDI Ventures

SINGAPORE AND JAKARTA, 25 February 2016 – Ematic Solutions, a Singapore-headquartered software company helping marketers improve digital marketing channels, has raised nearly US$1 million in pre-Series A funding. The investment comes from MDI Ventures, a corporate venture capital initiative by Telkom Indonesia, the country’s largest telecommunications services company. This takes total funding to US$2 million, including an earlier seed funding round. The company also announced the opening of its Jakarta office, and is actively recruiting a customer success team to work with Indonesian companies.

Paul Tenney, Ematic Solutions Founder and CEO said: “Indonesia has the largest internet population in Southeast Asia, which is set to grow at a blistering pace. There has been a huge pull for us from regional and local online retailers to be in Indonesia to help these retailers capitalise on this opportunity. MDI Ventures’ investment and market insight will help us to rapidly expand our market reach. Leveraging Telkom Indonesia’s 150 million customer base and its vast network, I believe Ematic will achieve even greater growth.”

Paul Tenney, a Silicon Valley veteran, founded Ematic Solutions in order to address the fundamental challenges associated with digital marketing in Southeast Asia. After graduating from Stanford University in 2002, he joined one of the premier Enterprise Email Marketing firms in Silicon Valley and started a journey that took him around the globe helping Fortune 500 companies like eBay, Hewlett-Packard and Expedia to build world-class, high-ROI email marketing programmes. He landed in Southeast Asia in 2010 and has made Singapore his long-term home.

The Ematic Solutions’ Jakarta office, its first customer-focused office outside of Singapore, will pave the way for online retailers in Indonesia to increase the effectiveness and return on investment of their digital marketing efforts in the midst of a rapidly growing market. Indonesian e-commerce is expanding rapidly, with retail e-commerce sales expected to hit US$5.29 billion in 2016. E-commerce sales grew by 65.6 per cent in 2015.

“Our Jakarta office will be able to provide digitally-driven companies the tools to modernise how they reach their customers, with lower investment and higher return,” Paul added.

Ematic Solutions has been working with e-commerce retailers in Indonesia since late 2015. They have a portfolio of more than a dozen clients, from luxury good e-commerce provider Luxola, to fashion e-store Berrybenka and lifestyle marketplace Bobobobo. An Indonesia team will provide local customers with in-market expertise, and campaign conceptualisation and management, supported by a team of technical specialists in Singapore, the United States and Europe.

Nicko Widjaja, CEO of MDI Ventures, said: “We believe that Ematic Solutions represents the future of adtech in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The company, which specialises in building an email intelligence platform catered to Asian companies and marketers, can address the needs of the growing e-commerce market in Indonesia. By investing in Ematic Solutions, we are helping to build the digital marketing infrastructure in Indonesia.”

Indonesia has the highest number of internet users in Southeast Asia, at 73 million. The country is expected to have the fastest growth rate for internet penetration in Asia, at 17 per cent. This gives rise to unique needs for digital marketers, including the need to cost-effectively identify their most profitable customers.

“Email marketing is the most important channel for digital marketers in Indonesia; we see it contributing between 25 to 35 per cent of total sales for the companies we work with. With a huge internet population, marketers need to be able to reach, and then engage and convert customers efficiently to sustain strong business growth. Our approach allows us to achieve desired long term results and improve all marketing metrics within a short period. But more importantly, our solutions are much more manageable for the small marketing teams that we often see in Southeast Asia,” Paul said.