KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — Helpr, one of Malaysia’s first on-demand concierge service, has launched Giftr, the first local gifting marketplace.

Helpr also announced a fresh round of funding from SEGNEL Ventures, an investment firm based in Singapore that has also backed other startups such as Fave (previously KFit), Saltycustoms and many others.

With the introduction of Giftr, users are now able to not only look for gifts but also set reminders for all their important moments by using Chatbot for Facebook Messenger, as well as provide recommendations for gifts.

Speaking about the launch, CEO Ang Kok Seong said: "When we started out Helpr, our goal was to be the go-to person whenever people need help to get any products or services, anytime and anywhere.

"Throughout the two year journey, we’ve received a lot of gifting related requests, thus we are building this new platform to provide gift seekers an easy way to browse and purchase gifts.”

"With Giftr, we now hope to take our original mission of being everyone’s virtual assistant one step further to specialise on gifting vertical, by being there at their most important moments. Birthdays, anniversaries and so on.”

Giftr, being the first gifting marketplace in Malaysia, has seen 6.7 times growth in total gross merchandise value since the soft launch in October 2016, featuring more than 1,200 assortments from over 90 gift sellers in Malaysia.

"We noticed that most of our users are looking for gifts, especially custom made gifts like flowers or cakes from individual sellers which only utilise Facebook or Instagram as sales channels.

"We are helping these sellers to set up their online store and list their products at zero fee. Our business model is based on shared success, where we only take a cut when sellers make money, " said Ang.

Founder of SEGNEL Ventures, Hideki Fujita said that Helpr’s founders have the experience of scaling an e-commerce business throughout Asia Pacific.

"We believe that there is huge business opportunity by creating a product that provides seamless experience for users to place orders easily.

"Specialising on a niche vertical as a gifting marketplace helps to strengthen the company’s brand and aligned with company’s mission to help users to get anything they want with no hassle,” said Fujita.

Giftr is presently only operating in Malaysia with plans to go regional by the end of the year.

Aside from SEGNEL Ventures, Helpr is currently backed by 500 Startups, Yeoh Chen Chow (Co-founder of Fave) and other angel investors.