CUSTA Raises $4.3M to Tackle Southeast Asia’s Fragmented Custom Products Market

CUSTA is positioning itself as infrastructure for a largely offline industry, as it scales across Malaysia and Singapore with fresh funding from regional investors.

Malaysia-based CUSTA has secured around $4.3 million in funding, including a Pre-Series A round led by Delight Ventures and Global Brain. Rather than positioning itself as a typical consumer marketplace, the company is focusing on improving how businesses source customised products—an area that still relies heavily on manual processes and fragmented vendor networks.

The capital will be used to expand the platform, hire key talent, and grow its presence in Malaysia and Singapore, with Southeast Asia identified as the next phase of expansion.

Customised products play a routine but important role in business operations across Southeast Asia. From corporate gifts and promotional merchandise to event materials and brand kits, these products are widely used by companies to engage customers and partners.

In Malaysia, this demand is reinforced by the scale of small and medium-sized enterprises, which contributed nearly 40% of GDP in 2024. At the same time, the combined Malaysia and Singapore market for customised products is estimated at around $6.7 billion, with further growth expected across the region.

Despite its size, the market remains inefficient. Businesses often rely on informal networks of suppliers, leading to inconsistent pricing, uncertain delivery timelines, and difficulty managing smaller or urgent orders. These challenges have limited the sector’s ability to scale in a predictable way.

Building a System Around Customisation

CUSTA’s approach focuses on standardising how customised products are ordered, produced, and delivered. Instead of operating as a simple marketplace, the company is building a platform that integrates multiple parts of the value chain into a single system.

A key part of this effort is the use of artificial intelligence to improve operational efficiency. The company is applying AI across several functions:

• Customer service and order management
• Creative production and design workflows
• Production planning and scheduling
• Logistics coordination and delivery tracking

By integrating these processes, CUSTA aims to reduce uncertainty and improve reliability—two of the biggest constraints in the customised products industry.

“We are building infrastructure that makes custom products easier to access—faster, more transparent, and more dependable,” said CEO Joe Yudai Takagi.

Early Traction, but Operational Complexity Ahead

The company reports that it has already built a catalogue of more than 4,500 items and delivered over 500,000 products across Malaysia and Singapore. These figures suggest that the platform has achieved a degree of operational scale within its initial markets.

However, scaling this model across Southeast Asia will be more complex. Unlike purely digital platforms, CUSTA’s operations depend on coordinating suppliers, managing production quality, and ensuring reliable logistics across different locations.

This introduces challenges that are less visible but critical to long-term success. Growth will depend not only on attracting customers but also on maintaining consistency across an expanding network of partners and service providers.

Why Investors Are Backing the Model

The participation of Delight Ventures and Global Brain reflects a broader shift in investor interest toward startups that digitise traditional industries.

“The customized products market is a huge sector, but it remains largely analog,” said Kosuke Nishida, Partner at Delight Ventures. “CUSTA has demonstrated execution in Southeast Asia at real scale and is well-positioned to modernize how these products are purchased and delivered.”

Rather than focusing on high-growth consumer applications, investors are increasingly looking at platforms that address structural inefficiencies in supply chains—particularly in markets like Southeast Asia where fragmentation is common.

CUSTA’s growth is also supported by broader economic activity, particularly in business events and corporate engagement.

Malaysia’s events sector remains a significant demand driver. According to the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau, nearly 400 business events were secured in 2025, generating over $1 billion in economic impact. These events require a wide range of customised products, from promotional materials to branded merchandise.

At the same time, SMEs continue to rely on such products as part of their marketing and relationship-building efforts, ensuring steady demand even outside large-scale events.

A Regional Opportunity with Execution Risk

Southeast Asia presents a large opportunity for platforms like CUSTA, but also introduces additional complexity. Each market comes with its own supplier networks, pricing structures, and logistical challenges.

Expanding beyond Malaysia and Singapore will require the company to adapt its model while maintaining operational consistency. This is often where supply chain-driven startups face difficulties, as scaling requires both local adaptation and centralised control. The company’s ability to balance these factors will determine whether it can move from early traction to sustained regional growth. CUSTA’s funding round highlights a broader shift in Southeast Asia’s startup landscape, where attention is increasingly moving toward digitising traditional industries.

The company is not attempting to reinvent customised products themselves, but to rebuild the system through which they are produced and delivered. This approach addresses a long-standing gap between demand and operational efficiency in the sector. If successful, CUSTA could help transform a fragmented, relationship-driven market into a more standardised and scalable system. However, as with many infrastructure-focused startups, the outcome will depend less on the initial concept and more on consistent execution across the supply chain.

Quick Takeaways

• CUSTA has raised $4.3 million to expand its platform and scale across Malaysia and Singapore.
• The company is targeting a $6.7 billion customised products market that remains largely fragmented and offline.
• CUSTA’s model focuses on standardising sourcing, production, and delivery, rather than just offering product variety.
• The platform is integrating AI across operations to improve speed, pricing transparency, and delivery predictability.
• Early traction includes 4,500+ products and 500,000+ deliveries, but scaling across Southeast Asia will require strong execution in supply chain management.
• Investor interest reflects a broader trend toward digitising traditional, operationally complex industries rather than purely consumer-facing apps.
• Execution risk remains key, particularly in maintaining consistency across suppliers, logistics, and regional expansion.