HipVan
“Can a Singapore e-commerce furniture brand evolve into a multi-sided home & living marketplace (Communa) while running a fully embedded modern finance stack?”
Founded2013
HQSingapore
FoundersDanny Tan, Shobhit Datta, Deborah Wee
Total raised$4.7M
IndustryE-commerce / Retail
The story
HipVan was founded in 2013 as a Singapore-based online furniture retailer focused on affordable, design-led home furnishings. The company has scaled to 230,000+ customers and operates an Atelier Showroom at Clarke Quay. It recently expanded beyond pure retail by launching Communa, a content-first marketplace connecting shoppers, creators, and third-party brands — moving the business toward a multi-sided commerce model.
Product timeline
2013
HipVan founded as online furniture retailer in Singapore· launch
2024
Launched Communa, a content-first marketplace connecting shoppers, creators, and third-party brands· pivot
The stack
6 layers disclosed in HipVan’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
2C2PGrab PayLaterAtomeUOB (credit card instalments)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Card network
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
8 more providers across 5 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.