Meet Desty, an Indonesia-based e-commerce startup that just raised $5M in an extended Pre-Series A. It makes creating landing pages and online stores easy as pie.

• It was founded in 2020 by two former Alibaba executives and now has a team of 60.
• The total value of its sales (aka, GMV) surged 50% in the past six months.

Who cashed in? East Ventures led the round with Jungle Ventures, Fosun RZ Capital and January Capital joining in.

⚙️ How it works

For merchants. You've got your own Shopee or Carousell store, but you probably don't have a website. One, it's complicated to build. Two, it's expensive. (We're looking at you, Ecwid and Shopify!).

Desty's got you. Quickly build your online store with no setup or monthly fees. With its tools and partners, easily accept payments, manage and ship orders and view store analytics.

• Desty's partners include GoPay, ShopeePay, Visa, Mastercard, J&T Express and Ninja Van.

For creators and influencers. Create your own "link in bio" landing page in minutes for your social media profiles. Apart from an about me, you can link to your other social accounts, blog, online store or product catalog. The best part? It's free.

• No coding experience required. Plus, it's better than spending hours learning to use a website builder for a simple site.
• The "link in bio" page is key to promoting more products and services or engaging your audience.

Zoom out: In Indonesia, the top three most trusted shopping channels are online marketplaces (like Shopee and Lazada), businesses' own websites and social media.

• No better time to go online: In 2020, Indonesia saw online transactions jump 18.1% to $98.3M and 12M new e-commerce shoppers joined the mix.