Muslimarket Raises Series A, Aims to be the “Zara and H&M” of Muslim Fashion

Indonesian halal e-commerce platform Muslimarket has raised a Series A funding that puts the company’s value to around US$10 million, according to a report by Dealstreet Asia.

500 Startups, an unnamed local investment firm, and a few undisclosed individual investors participated in the round.

The company plans to use the funding for promotion, marketing, and expansion in their next stage of growth.

While Indonesian cities such as Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, and Makassar are the platform’s biggest source of traffic, Muslimarket is looking forward to enter UK, Turkey, and South Africa in the long term.

It also plans to launch its own private label brand of Muslim fashion line SUQMA in the next Islamic holy month Ramadan, which will commence in late May.

To promote this new brand, Muslimarket plans to include an O2O element by setting up two retail outlets in Jakarta as well as hosting bazaars, pop-up stores, and roadshows.

Muslimarket co-founder Riel Tasmaya said that the company expects SUQMA to become “the H&M and Zara for Muslim fashion wear.”

Muslimarket was founded by Tasmaya and Ben Soebiakto in June 2015. Tasmaya is known as the founder of a boutique investment bank while Soebiakto is the founder of media network Kapanlagi. The two co-founders remain the biggest shareholders in the company.

The platform sells Muslim fashion products for men, women, and children. It also features halal-certified home appliances, beauty products, and worship kits such as prayer mats.

It claimed to have 100-150 Islamic fashion brands on board with 7,000 SKUs and 330,000 monthly page views by Q1 2017.

Fashion e-commerce startups targetting the Muslim audiences in Indonesia includes HijUp and Berrybenka‘s Hijabenka, while in Singapore there is Aladdin Street which provides premium halal products.

Pew Research Center stated that the fastest growing religion in the world is Islam, with the global Muslim population expected to jump from 1.6 billion to 2.76 billion by 2050. For businesses, this means an untapped opportunity to reach into a rather large market, particularly in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Originally published on www.e27.co