Chilindo.com exits to CP Group for US$18 million

Early 2014, Chilindo founders Caspar Bo Jensen and Thomas Kjeldgaard reached out to Alpha Founders Capital. Two weeks after launching Chilindo, the auction ecommerce platform had taken off. They urgently required capital to expand the inventory buying. AFC invested US$ 400,000 equity and additional US$3.3 million unsecured debt over the course of 5 years.

With this capital, the company grew to an ARR of ~US$85 million by 2020, lately also benefitting from the uplift in consumer demand by Covid19. Today, Chilindo.com occupies the #4 position in ecommerce in Thailand, competing with much larger platforms including Alibaba-owned Lazada, Singapore-based Shopee and JD Central, a joint venture between Central Group and China’s JD.com.

In 2019, AFC reached out to Series B investors to raise growth capital for Chilindo. We got introduced to Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group), Thailand's largest family conglomerate.

To strengthen the ecommerce business, CP Group decided to acquire Chilindo fully for US$18 million. The acquisition was made by Ascend Commerce, the digital subsidiary of the conglomerate. "Chilindo is intended to complement the WeMall online shopping platform under Ascend Commerce. We support Thailand’s digital economy amidst the Covid19 pandemic", CEO Suphachai Chearavanont said in a statement.