Brand Aggregator Tjufoo Wants to Rank Up Local D2C Brand Developers

The increasing number of e-commerce rollup business models or brand aggregators in Indonesia is being used by various startups to provide a platform for D2C entrepreneurs to strengthen their business.

One platform that is trying to provide such services is Tjufoo. Just launched in early 2022, a startup founded by a former Grab employee, TJ Tham, wants to become a brand aggregator with the concept of “House of Brands”.

Namely helping local brands to improve performance through a suite of digital technologies, data platforms, artificial intelligence, and experienced teams.

TJ Tham emphasized that unlike other platforms that offer similar services, Tjufoo specifically wants to focus on the Indonesian market as a whole. Thus, it can help brand owners in various regions maximize their business even more.

Regarding the brand category, TJ Tham is reluctant to target one category specifically. The complexity of the types of D2C brands in Indonesia, makes Tjufoo prefer to be agnostic and accept all relevant brands.

“It’s still too early for us to determine the specific brand we want to target. From my experience asking investors to well-known consultants, they still haven’t been able to find the ideal brand concept for D2C business in Indonesia. For that we choose agnostic,” he said. TJ Tham.

In Indonesia, the existing brand aggregator platforms include Una Brands, Hypefast and OpenLabs.

Want To Be A Strategic Partner

In terms of brand curation, the Tjufoo team still has a customized investment ticket size. And the way they see the brand to invest in: Are they ready for a strategic partnership with Tjufoo?

If they are not ready, Tjufoo offers brand owners to join the Sarinah Pandu incubator program. Sarinah Pandu is a form of PT SARINAH fostering MSME players through a series of trainings with a systematic syllabus and collaborating with stakeholders.

The company also provides support in the form of business funding, mentoring, and an ecosystem for the development of the digitalization of Sarinah’s MSME referrals.

They are committed to accelerating the growth of MSMEs by acquiring local brands in the D2C category or selling without intermediaries.

Tjufoo’s Plan

The company plans to accelerate the growth of the MSME business in Indonesia by acquiring potential local brands this year.

For this reason, the company is committed to developing MSMEs and local brands from various categories and levels by investing in business development capital with an acquisition value of Rp. 1.8 trillion which will soon be implemented as a short-term plan.

“With this capital support, we hope that Indonesia will be able to produce hundreds of local brands that can compete in the global market,” said TJ Tham.

This year there are several plans that Tjufoo wants to carry out, including building a strong foundation for the D2C ecosystem and continuing to recruit an unlimited number of brands, as long as there is a match between them.

Tjufoo also wants to be a partner for the brand, which not only provides around 51% investment, but also wants to be a partner that helps brands manage their business to help them recruit the best digital talent.

To be able to grow sustainably in accordance with the times, Tjufoo also continues to provide mentoring from superior individuals from large cross-sector companies such as Apple, Grab, Amazon, SAP, and JP Morgan.

“Most brand aggregators choose the exit method, which is to buy the brand in full. But at Tjufoo, apart from offering this method, we also want to build a better brand together and act as a strategic partner,” said TJ Tham.

Currently, Tjufoo has completed the pre-series A funding. Two venture capitals have already provided funding to them, including TNB AURA and Venturra Discovery. This year Tjufoo has plans to continue fundraising activities for the series A stage.