Ex-Isobar MY chief Sean Wong takes on leadership role at Marqetr

Tech platform marketplace Marqetr has appointed Sean Wong (pictured) as co-founder and chief commercial officer. According to his LinkedIn, in this new role, Wong will work together with founder and CEO Mawarni Adam to build the business.

This includes growing the brand equity and driving commercial excellence while ensuring customer satisfaction to retain the sustainability of all new and existing partnerships, ultimately achieving revenue growth for the purpose of profitability and business continuity.

Wong had been working with Marqetr as a freelance senior consultant in May 2021. He was formerly CEO of Isobar Malaysia, where he led a team of over 40 individuals while reporting to then CEO Nicky Lim. Prior to that, Wong was VP, executive business director and founding member of Ensemble Worldwide, Mediabrands’ creative arm in Malaysia. Before that, his career spanned over two decades across a range of industries, working in roles covering finance, sales, marketing management and big data solutions consulting, including roles at Abric, dunnhumby, Tesco, and Citi. 

He told A+M that his and Mawarni's paths have crossed several times after they both left Citi and he was interested in her ambitions for Marqetr. "That was almost a year back and we kept circling back to the topic of us working together. i believe in this idea of hers as well as the idea of a start-up democratising the marketing services offering to clients and companies that need it. "It's something which I think has plenty of legs and will work when the market is mature enough. Also, we get along very well," he added.

Meanwhile, Mawarni said she was seeking a co-founder whom she can trust and one of the main reasons why she chose Wong was because they have both known each other for a long time. On top of that, he's experienced in marketing, having built agency teams previously. "He has plenty of strong points that I'm looking for in a co-founder and is someone who can drive commercial excellence for the company, that's why I brought him on board," she explained.

Mawarni added that both of them have experience working in the US, which is helpful in Marqetr's aspiration to expand into North America. "We have similar experience and there's also mutual understanding, trust, and vision," she added.

The firm recently partnered with Akademi GA, the exclusive partner of General Assembly in Malaysia to simplify access to marketing experts for start-ups and SMEs. Both parties aim to fulfil their goals and objectives for this partnership through various ways, such as placement referrals for GA Malaysia's marketing students or graduates for project opportunities on Marqetr, and for Marqetr to be able to recommend and refer new and existing marketers to upskill and reskill themselves at GA Malaysia. 

Separately Marqetr sought its first equity crowdfunding campaign last October, targeting a minimum of RM250,000 in return for 1.81% equity, and a maximum of RM3.25 million in return for 19.35% equity. According to the company, this would value it at RM13.5 million pre-money. All the capital will be used to amplify its marketing activities, increase headcount, access new markets in Asia, and build its next-generation tech platform. In particular, the company said then that five new employees will be added to the team over the next 15 months, which will strengthen its capabilities to build a multi-device, full-stack and end-to-end managed marketplace tech platform, CRM, loyalty and gamification, smart-matching algorithm and machine learning. At the same time, the funding would allow Marqetr to broaden its feature set to create a global network for marketing experts and expertise. 

Additionally, Marqetr expanded into Singapore early last year. According to Mawarni then, Singapore was chosen because of its strategic location, a competitive workforce, pro-business environment, and forward looking economic policies, which makes it the world's gateway to Asia, and Asia's gateway to the world. The expansion into Singapore was also in line with the vision of the business to scale its presence and serve clients regionally and globally. "While this expansion signifies an ambitious strategic move for our business growth, we will however, continue to operate based on an asset light, digital-driven and lean business model, and be open to collaboration with strategic partners and independent consultants globally," the company said then in a statement.

Related articles:
Sean Wong replaces Isobar's Ben Chew, takes on new CEO role
Mawarni Adam's Marqetr to crowdfund at least RM250k for regional expansion
Mawarni Adam's consultancy partners Vase.ai to boost brand building offering
Mawarni Adam's marketing consultancy sets foot in SG, names advisory board