Buko Ventures is excited to invest in ChatGenie, the leading developer of mini-apps and chat-based e-commerce storefronts in the Philippines.

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We are big believers that as e-commerce continues to transform the Philippines’ economy, the major generalist e-commerce platforms Shopee and Lazada will continue to grow, but there will also be a proliferation of additional channels for online commerce. One of the most exciting is the new concept of “mini-apps” that operate “on-top” or “within” large social media, messaging, and e-wallet superapps. This new e-commerce channel was pioneered in China where Tencent’s WeChat super app has enabled an ecosystem of over 4m mini-apps already doing over $200 billion dollars of annual GMV.  

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Facebook and other platforms have been eager to follow a similar strategy. In many ways the Philippines is the perfect market for this expansion as one of the most vibrant social media markets in the world - the Philippines often ranks #1 in the world in average daily social media consumption at roughly 4 hours per person per day (roughly 2x the average in the US and China and 3x the average in Europe). We’ve seen this “social commerce” economy already happen informally in the Philippines for years with “Buy & Sell” chat groups, and in the years to come this will formalize and expand as the platforms enable businesses to build storefronts directly ‘on-platform.’

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ChatGenie is building the tools to power this and they are already off to a solid start. Since March 2020, they have already signed up over 2,000 merchants and processed over $3m USD in transactions through their storefronts. Their mini-app technology is already integrated into the largest social platforms in the country Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Viber and the largest e-wallet platforms Gcash and Paymaya.

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The ChatGenie storefront already includes a powerful suite of features optimized for customer conversion and seamless business operations. All within the Messenger or Viber chat thread, customers can easily browse through the merchant’s menu of SKUs, select their order, enter their shipping details if needed, and pay via credit card or various other payment methods including cash on delivery, which remains the preferred e-commerce payment method in the Philippines. On the merchant side, ChatGenie provides a helpful order management dashboard and is working on additional business tools and integrations with logistics providers and other 3rd-party e-commerce service partners.

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Similar to Shopify that has thousands of small shops but also mega sellers doing $1+ billion in annual sales, ChatGenie’s digital economy storefront tools can power both the smallest local barangay C2C seller as well as large corporate clients with strong brands but minimal technical e-commerce experience. Founder & CEO Ragde Falcis and his team have done a great job building a flexible system that works for both small and large clients across a diverse range of industries.

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Ragde has solid tech experience having already built a successful software development agency and previously been co-founder and CTO of an earlier travel startup. As a software engineer himself, and having already established a solid tech team at ChatGenie, we are confident in the team’s ability to scale and continue adding important features to their mini-app e-commerce toolkit.

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We’re very excited to back the ChatGenie team as they help power the future of the digital economy in the Philippines.

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