Indonesian B2B marketplace Ralali has wrapped the first tranche of its Series D funding round, raising an undisclosed amount.
As Tech in Asia reported Monday (March 21), the company says it is still open to strategic partnerships with companies in the banking, logistics, point-of-sales, and API industries. Ralali says it will use funding from this round to provide more services for its customers.
Read more: B2B Market Ralali Looks to Raise $50M in Series D
The Tech in Asia report cites data from VentureCap Insights that shows Ralali raised around $11 million in February month, bringing its valuation to north of $168 million.
Founded by Joseph Aditya in 2013, Ralali connects suppliers with small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through its marketplace.
But rather than primarily catering to mom-and-pop stores — the way its rivals Warung Pintar, Gudang Ada and Ula do — Ralali says it follows a model similar to the Alibaba marketplace, which connects suppliers and wholesalers with buyers in several categories, including agriculture, automotive and building materials.
Last year, Ralali said it hoped to raise $50 million in the Series D. Around the same time, the company reported it had more than 1.5 million customers using its platform. Over the years, it has expanded its business to include healthcare, private label, and social commerce brands, with the goal of reaching 6 million end customers by the end of this year.
Ralali also recently debuted an agent-based network called Ralali Agent and acquired
East Ventures-backed healthy noodle brand Fitmee. According to the Tech in Asia report, Ralali says its total transactions on its platform grew almost threefold compared to the same period in 2020. Investors in the Series D have included Bee Accelerate and SBI Group, with participation from ICMG Partners, Beenos Asia, and Arbor Venture.
Job cuts in government, technology and retail led the way as U.S. employers announced the largest number of cuts in one month since May 2020.
Among the 275,240 job cuts announced in March, 216,215 were in government, 15,055 were in technology and 11,709 were in retail, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a report released Thursday (April 3).
“Job cut announcements were dominated last month by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plans to eliminate positions in the federal government,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president and workplace expert for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in the report. “It would have otherwise been a fairly quiet month for layoffs.”
The total number of job cuts made in March was more than three times the 90,309 cuts announced in March 2024, according to the report.
By sector, compared to March 2024, government job cuts were almost six times higher, technology cuts were about 6% higher and retail cuts were nearly twice as high, per the report.
All the government job cuts made in March occurred in the federal government, the report said.
The top reason employers gave for cutting jobs in March was “DOGE impact,” which was cited for 216,670 of the month’s cuts, according to the report.
Other common reasons included store, unit or department closing, to which 17,666 job cuts were attributed, and market/economic conditions, which accounted for 11,594 cuts, per the report.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas also said in the report that employers are planning to hire fewer workers than they were a year ago. Companies’ hiring plans dropped by about 37%, from 21,102 in March 2024 to 13,198 in March 2025, according to the report.
The specter of uncertain job security may accelerate a spending pullback that is already in motion, PYMNTS reported Wednesday (April 2). Consumer confidence that was already shaken may have been further impacted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest snapshot of the labor market released Tuesday (April 1), which found that the labor market slowed in February, with a decline in job openings over the past year.
The Conference Board reported March 25 that consumer confidence slipped for the fourth straight month in March, due in part to a plunge in consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business and labor market conditions.
