Scentses + Co, Malaysia’s first designer perfume subscription service that allows subscribers to discover different designer perfumes every month, has announced a strategic partnership and a lead investment from Malayan United Industries Bhd (MUI) through its venture arm, Pan Malaysia Ventures Sdn Bhd under Pan Malaysia Corporation Bhd.
By leveraging the strength and backing of the conglomerate, Scentses + Co is set to further catapult the company’s growth towards achieving an annualised monthly revenue of over RM10 million. Having already established a positive cash flow position, Scentses + Co will mainly deploy its fund into deepening and expanding its core marketing capabilities.
Commenting on the announcement, Scentses + Co’s founder and CEO, Sadira Yeong, said, “We are grateful to have the recognition and support of The MUI Group. This partnership is momentous and mutually beneficial as we believe we will be able to fast-track our growth trajectory by leveraging on their immense retail experience and footprint. “
“We are excited to deploy experiential marketing to drive successful business transformation across the retail industry.”
The collaboration is set to be beneficial to the MUI Group as well as it will see the group tap into Scentses + Co’s forte in digital marketing to complement its digitalisation and O2O (Online to Offline) transformation plan while it retools business strategies in this new normal.
Conversely, the physical presence of the MUI Group’s subsidiaries has provided Scentses + Co’s customers with a plethora of offline value-added services such as self-collection for their convenience and promotional offers.
The cross-brand collaboration aims to leverage a rapidly increasing e-commerce market that has been buoyed by the pandemic accelerating digitalisation and normalising online shopping.
The MUI Group chairman and CEO Andrew Khoo said: “This drive and bold spirit of young entrepreneurs, who have successfully innovated the centuries-old fragrance market, appeals to The MUI Group. We are proud to be able to support the endeavours of a standout in this category. Not only do we see value in what Scentses + Co can achieve but equally important, we see value in how they can complement and contribute to our portfolio of brands as we continue to invest in diversifying our sales approaches to appeal to a more dynamic and younger audience.”
Prior to Scentses + Co, Yeong founded a Cradle Fund-backed startup, Readpublic, which is a platform to compare the prices of books across local and global bookstores while serving as a way to also sell second-hand books.
Since its inception, Scentses + Co, has already amassed a significant following with over 10,000 subscribers and more than 700 SKU of perfume products within their portfolio. Prior to this, Scentses + Co has raised a round of angel funding from Yeoh Chen Chow, the co-founder of the Fave Group who will also be participating in this seed round.