MANILA, PHILIPPINES — B2B ordering and store solution platform Growsari Enterprise has recently unveiled its new business units, SariMart and SariPay. In line with Growsari’s mission to serve the different needs of small and medium retailers across various industries and platforms, it has decided to unleash its business units and operate it separately from the Growsari platform. With this, there have been new leadership appointments to independently run these business units.
Maimai Madrid-Punzalan, currently Growsari Enterprise Chief Growth & Marketing Officer, will take the position of General Manager for SariMart, which is the B2B Ecommerce business arm of the platform. SariMart will have the mandate to be the country’s largest B2B ecommerce wholesaler for neighborhood MSMEs, such as sari-sari stores, carinderias, and bakeshops, and will operate independently from Growsari’s platform, including partnering with other offline and online players.
Maimai joined GrowSari in late 2020 as Chief Growth & Marketing Officer driving the acquisition, retention, and customer experience of Growsari’s network of users/ stores, which now has expanded to 250,000 strong base nationwide.
Maimai shared, “I am thrilled for this opportunity to continue serving the needs of sari-sari stores and other small retailers beyond Growsari’s current network to provide them convenient access to a broader range of products at affordable wholesale prices so they can maximize their earning potential.”
Sandeep Bhalla will elevate his role as the General Manager of SariPay. SariPay is the independently run financial services company that aims to support the MSME network with working capital loans, cash management, remittances, and similar products. It has already been working with multiple partners (retailers, wholesalers, distributors) outside the Growsari network to offer credit to customers and support cash management.
Sandeep started in the company in 2021 as the finserv lead within GrowSari and led all the efforts to develop digital inclusion of store owners, define the broader fin-serv ambition, and secure the right regulatory licenses.
“Small stores have been left out of basic financial services by mainstream banks and companies. At SariPay, we want to continue building a financial ecosystem that is inclusive and easy to understand for the millions of MSME’s in the country,” Sandeep shared.
Both Maimai and Sandeep bring in more than 20 years of commercial leadership from different large multinational companies, with Maimai who was a Regional Senior Director of P&G and J&J Asia, and Sandeep who was a senior adviser at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and former Managing Director of Citibank Asia, where he launched several financial services.
With the establishment of independently led businesses of Growsari Enterprise, both Sarimart, and Saripay will now be able to expand their operations beyond the Growsari platform and network of users, and into other B2B platforms and assist Distributor operations.
Growsari Co-founder ER Rollan commented, “We are excited for this new chapter of Growsari as we spin off these new independent business lines. With MaiMai and Sandeep’s deep expertise coupled with the license to operate independently, we will be able to unlock faster growth via external partnerships. The platform in the meantime will continue to bring as many products and services to the small stores as possible. I am thrilled to see how we can scale our social impact to bring more value to more MSMEs nationwide.”
