chrisanti indiana

Outside the box

“What started out as a desire to make the beauty shopping experience easier and better for women has grown into something bigger than I could ever have imagined,” says Chrisanti Indiana. She’s the cofounder, with John Rasjid and Christopher Madiam, of Social Bella, an online beauty platform. It has an e-commerce brand, Sociolla, and two brick and mortar stores, O2O, at Kota Kasablanka and Lippo Mall Puri. Social Bella offers customers hundreds of brands, from local cosmetics to high-end imports.

“Starting the business at a young age in 2015, and having a lack of experience in this industry, I faced a lot of challenges and selfdoubts,” admits Indiana, who is the holder of a Bachelor’s degree from Billy Blue College of Design in Australia. “During the early days, I learned that having the right support system around you is very crucial. Every time I feel stuck I try to put myself outside the box, to see the bigger picture.”

In her role as Chief Marketing Officer, Indiana provides education about beauty and personal care. “While amassing some 3 million users, my team developed a community platform where members become content creators by writing reviews, and articles, and making videos. Earlier this year, we opened our first O2O stores, to get closer to customers.”

By its very nature, Social Bella is an enterprise that has embraced the new technology. If anyone doubts that selling cosmetics online works, consider that the company recently closed its Series D funding round of US$40 million, co-led by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and venture capital fund EV Growth.