E-Commerce Service Valued at $235 Million Targets U.S. IPO

SCI Ecommerce, the online shopping service provider backed by two of Alibaba’s earliest employees, has raised more than S$50 million ($38 million) to expand in Southeast Asia ahead of a potential Nasdaq listing.

Asia Partners led the new funding round, which valued the seven-year-old startup at $235 million, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified. Armed with an aggressive expansion strategy in Southeast Asia, the startup is planning to pursue a primary listing in New York as early as the end of this year with a target market valuation of $1 billion, Chief Executive Officer Joseph Liu said in an interview over Zoom. The company, which last year obtained in-principle approval to list in Singapore, will consider a potential secondary listing in city’s stock exchange, he added.