Daraz, Kaymu merge for greater market access

Daraz and Kaymu, two leading e-commerce companies, have merged to strengthen their position in the growing Bangladeshi market.

After the merger, both platforms will remain active with their current brand names, but the new entity, Daraz Group, will soon integrate operations under one banner, said a statement issued by Daraz yesterday.

However, the companies declined to disclose financial matters or their shareholdings in the merged company.

“We don't want to reveal the numbers at the moment,” said Naushaba Salahuddin, head of communications of Daraz Group. She said the merger will be effective soon.

Daraz will continue to operate as a business-to-consumer marketplace for brands and original products, to help professional sellers scale up their business.

It will also continue to provide its customers with a 7-day return policy for its wide range of original, quality products from local and international brands.

Kaymu will keep operating as an open marketplace for smaller businesses and individuals, to interact directly with customers through a community based platform.

Bjarke Mikkelsen, co-CEO of Daraz Group, said, “Daraz and Kaymu have both built successful operations in their respective markets. The merger is now the next step to offer our sellers the best possible solutions to grow their online business, and to start capitalising on the synergies between the platforms.”

Benjamin de Fouchier, managing director of Daraz Bangladesh, said, “We are very excited to start building an integrated platform with our colleagues from Kaymu. There are numerous synergies we can exploit to take the business to the next level.” 

Quazi Zulquarnain Islam, managing director of Kaymu Bangladesh, said, “By uniting Kaymu's expertise in C2C (customer-to-customer) and the best-in-class B2C operations of Daraz, we will be able to achieve more together than we could ever imagine individually.” There are around 160 e-commerce companies in Bangladesh. The merger of Daraz and Kaymu is the second instance after OLX and Cellbazar.

According to industry insiders, the business turnover of e-commerce companies would be around Tk 100 crore a year. But Light Castle Partners, a market research organisation, estimates the size to be around Tk 400 crore.