Tjaara is a Singapore-based B2B marketplace that connects small to medium-sized wholesalers to its network of Mandarin-speaking manufacturers

Global payments operator and fintech investment firm Senjō Group, through its investment arm Senjō Ventures, today announced a partnership with and funding for Singapore-based B2B marketplace Tjaara.

Senjō Ventures has committed US$1.2 million to the startup while extending an additional US$20 million in trade finance.

Tjaara (“Marketplace” in Arabic) connects small to medium-sized wholesalers to its network of Mandarin-speaking manufacturers in order to access factory-direct prices. It negotiates, does quality control checks from factory to port, and even acts as an escrow service to manage buying process between Chinese manufacturers and foreign companies.

The startup claimed that it has been “secretly researched” for almost two years, and was recently incorporated in August. Currently operating in an invite-only basis, it is developing a mobile app and set for a soft launch in Q1 2017, with a grand launch coming in Q3 2017.

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It will initially focus on UAE, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, and North African market.

“We realised that a lot of smaller and medium-sized retailers were unable to navigate Mandarin-only manufacturer listings or access factory-direct prices. Tjaara was built to help our end-users unlock a larger variety of products and larger profit margins through economies-of-scale. Unlike typical agents, Tjaara is also able to assist with product evaluation by obtaining samples for end-users; this is possible because of our close relationship with manufacturers,” explained Tjaara Co-Founder Fred Then in a press statement.

“It is known that Chinese wholesale e-commerce platforms like Alibaba offer lower prices for local purchases, and when non-Chinese IP addresses are detected, the price is typically inflated. This is why Tjaara will always get better pricing as all buying is done locally through our China operations. And by consolidating the orders of small wholesalers, we’ll get more bulk discounts,” he added.

Senjō Group itself is an investment company specialising in global electronic payments, trade finance and e-commerce. It is comprised of five business units Senjō Payments, Senjō Commerce, Senjō Ventures, Senjō Trading, and Senjō Finance. With a headquarter in Singapore, it has regional offices in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Luxembourg and the UK, and operations in most major markets across Asia, Europe, North America and Africa.

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