Ascend Group

Ascend Group Co. Ltd.

Type of business	Private
Headquarters	Bangkok
Area served	Southeast Asia
Key people	Punnamas Vichitkulwongsa (CEO) Monsinee Nakapanant (COO) Chaiwat Ratanaprateepporn (CTO)[1] Teerawat Tilokskulchai (CSO) Dean Krstevski (COO, E-commerce) Seubsakol Sakolsatayadorn (General Manager, Ascend Commerce)[2]
Industry	Internet
Services	E-commerce, E-payment, Fulfillment and Logistics, Data Center and Cloud Services, Digital Marketing, Venture Capital
Parent	C.P. Group
Website	Ascend Group

Ascend Group is a privately owned e-commerce company headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand as a spin-off of True Corporation.^[3] It marked its $150-million expansion by launching their affiliates in the Philippines and Indonesia, Vietnam, and also hard to reach economies like Myanmar and Cambodia.^[4]

History

Launched in 2014, Ascend Group consolidates True Corporation's previous e-commerce and service ventures, in order to facilitate seamless inter-unit service. Ventures are classified under major subsidiaries: Ascend Commerce, Ascend Money and Ascend Capital, along with smaller independent ventures like TrueIDC and Egg Digital..

Subsidiaries

Ascend Commerce

WeMall

Launched in Thailand as a flagship business to consumer e-commerce platform, iTrueMart serviced an average of 14,000 orders per day in the fourth quarter of 2015. This put it a close second to Lazada Thailand in revenue and competed first for fulfillment options.^[5] Along with TrueMoney and another e-commerce platform WeLoveShopping, iTrueMart tapped Amazon Web Service (AWS) for easier online payment and logistics options.^[6][7] iTrueMart expanded to the Philippines last November 15, 2015 as its first satellite office,^[8] initially serving the Metro Manila and Luzon sector. Services were launched to the island groups of Visayas and Mindanao on April 26, 2016.^[9] iTrueMart is ongoing a rebrand as WeMall to also cater to marketplace sellers. iTrueMart PH ceased trading in September 2016 and has since closed the business in the Philippines.^[10]

Aden

Founded in October 2015, Aden has served more than 3 million customers in Thailand.^[11] Aden is backed by a large IT infrastructure, providing warehousing and inventory management. It manages warehouse facilities in Thailand, with high-value and air-conditioned storage with access control, and standard racking and shelving storage. The existing portfolio includes 10 logistics partners for marketplace operators, online retailers, and social media sellers.^[12]

WeLoveShopping

Established as the consumer to consumer platform to cater to resellers and small merchants,^[13] WeLoveShopping houses more than 320,000 stores in Thailand.^[14] It began as the flagship e-commerce platform of Ascend Group.^[15] Since 2015, it now boasts a staggering 300,000 site visitors every day and marks its market dominance as the largest e-commerce marketplace in Thailand, with full seller visibility.^[16] WeStore and YouStore are its main components for catering to large and small merchants and dealerships. WeLoveShopping has been marked as one of the top 12 e-commerce websites in the region.^[17]

Pantavanij

Founded in 2001, Pantavanij primes as Thailand's premier Total Procurement Solution and was recently acquired into the portfolio of Ascend Group. C.P. Group, Ascend's parent firm, owns a 90% stake in Pantavanij with Bangkok Bank owning the remaining 10%.^[18] It offers business-to-business services, with portfolios extending from consulting, marketplace and government services.^[19] s Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited, Siam Cement, and Benchachinda Holdings, PLC forms its core corporate client, along with parent firms of Ascend Group, C.P. Group and True Corporation.^[20]

Ascend Money

TrueMoney

TrueMoney was launched as an e-payment and financial service provider, catering to the underserved and unbanked market across Southeast Asia, now serving Thailand as a flagship venture, with presences in Myanmar, Cambodia and Indonesia. In Indonesia, it has partnered with Samsung to fulfill its target of 7,000 electronic data capture (EDC) modules to serve the archipelago of 14,000,^[21] and certified as compatible to Islamic banking laws by Indonesia's National Islamic Council.^[22] Cambodia launched its services on New Year's Day in 2016 while Myanmar has partnered with Asia Green Development Bank, the same service provider as Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT).^[23]

Ascend Nano

Banking on its growing cloud data consumer profile,^[24] Ascend launched Ascend Nano in April 2016. It includes a nanofinance and microcredit structure, designed to serve the entrepreneurial grassroots, SMEs and the underserved market.^[25] This will be in conjunction with Ascend's portfolio of e-commerce services, as an instant market and marketplace,^[26] and includes Nano Factoring to customize lending premium.^[27]

Ascend Capital

Ascend Group launched Ascend Capital as a platform for venture capital, investing on tech start-ups that can complement existing ventures and services.^[28] Focused mainly on financial technology, e-commerce, CRM, cloud computing and logistics, it actively funds prospects such as SendIt (which is actually party of Ascend Group) to complement its delivery portfolio,^[29] along with other existing services.

TrueIDC

Launched in 2003 as Ascend Group's data center, TrueIDC provides cloud data storage and computing service geared towards fulfilling the growing customer satisfaction and service needs of Ascend Group and True Corporation.^[30] TrueIDC now has ISO/IEC 20000-1, ISC 22301, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 50001 and CSA Star certifications for IT, information management and cloud safety.^[31] It is currently in the process of expanding its data center facility in Hemmaraj Industrial Estate, located in Chonburi, Thailand.^[32] TrueIDC also brings its global partners, notably, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google within reach of Southeast Asian businesses.^[33] An overseas expansion was started in Myanmar last September 22, 2015,^[34] a first for the formerly reclusive country and owing to its recent economic growth as tight controls eased. Expansions to Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines and Indonesia have been announced, but as of January 2017, no further news has been reported on these ventures.^[35]

Egg Digital

Egg Digital serves as the digital marketing and advertising unit of Ascend to cater to its growing market and services, along with the needs of its parent firm, C.P. Group.^[36] As part of its growing portfolio of services, Egg Digital aims to serve the small to medium enterprises (SMEs) that would otherwise not be able to afford the services of multimedia ad agencies. Currently, Egg Digital features a 70% large corporate clientele, only serving 30% of SMEs under its portfolio. With an additional US$2.9 million investment, the target would be to serve 70% of the 2.8 million SMEs across Thailand, and eventually Southeast Asia.^[37]

References

External links

• Ascend Group