Compliance service is a blue ocean market in cross-border e-commerce. Existing players in the compliance market mostly focus on human-resources services. Not many compliance SaaS vendors can be found. At present, the market share of STAR & SEA Group is about 10% in 2022, ranking first in China's offshore compliance industry.
Recently, STAR & SEA Group, a compliance service platform, raised tens of millions of USD in Series C1, led by eWTP Arabia Capital (Chinese: 易达资本), with participation from Oriental Fortune Capital (Chinese: 东方富海), GSR United Capital (Chinese:金沙江联合资本).
The proceeds are mainly to be used for technological innovation, iteration of product systems, and international market expansion. The company is going to explore markets such as South America and Southeast Asia.
Currently, conflicts between global economies are intensifying, and countries continue to strengthen cross-border trade-related regulatory policies. For example, the EU is deepening VAT legislation. At the same time, more than 50,000 sellers were banned by Amazon in April 2021 due to compliance issues.
According to Marketplace Pluse, Chinese sellers account for 40%, 11%, 30%, and 62% of sellers on Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, and wish. It’s estimated that by the end of 2022, the cross-border e-commerce compliance market will be valued at 10 billion RMB.
Established in 2015, STAR & SEA Group is a global one-stop offshore compliance service platform. The Group owns well-known brands such as iipto, itaxs, Seller Growth, Accounting & Tax, and Sellerwant. It provides businesses with intellectual property services, tax services, product compliance certification services, overseas business services, tax compliance services, etc.
Other players in the compliance sector include Avalara, AVASK and Saibei (Chinese: 赛贝).