Nuren Group, a Malaysian-based company that runs community and e-commerce sites for women, has raised a $2 million Series A led by Gobi Partners.
The capital will be used for hiring and to add more services and e-commerce features to Wedding.com.my and Nuren.sg, Nuren’s wedding sites, and its upcoming parenting marketplace Motherhood.com.my.
Combined with its seed round, Nuren’s Series A brings its total raised to $2.25 million. The company was founded in 2013 by CEO Petrina Goh, CTO Kelvin Leow, COO Stacey Lee, and CSO Alice Ong. The company’s services are currently available in Singapore and Malaysia, but it will launch in more Southeast Asian countries over the next two to three years.
Goh tells TechCrunch that Nuren’s sites focus on “important life stages where women spend the most time and money.” Wedding.com.my and Nuren.sg are meant to be one-stop shops for wedding planning, where women can find a dress, reserve a venue, book catering and other services, and plan their honeymoon. Nuren has a wedding consulting team that generates leads and sales to vendors, who pay the company marketing fees in return.
Since its launch, Nuren says it has served 300,000 couples, connecting them with 1,500 vendors. The company claims that Wedding.com.my is Malaysia’s top wedding platform, while Nuren.sg takes the number three spot in Singapore.
Motherhood.com.my, which will launch in the second quarter of this year, will have an e-commerce shop for baby products, as well as a marketplace/directory for service providers.
The new markets Nuren plans to enter are Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In Southeast Asia, there are two million weddings per year, with couples spending $18 billion in total while planning them, says Goh. The company’s goal is to eventually serve eight out of 10 brides in Southeast Asia.
“The wedding industry in Southeast Asia is still very conventional, lack of price openness and trusted information online. People largely still rely on word of mouth to find ideas and vendors they need,” Goh says. “I believe within the next three years, we will transform the traditional wedding industry into a transparent and connected network.”