By Nicole Chew
StarBiz 7 | Saturday, Nov 22, 2025
Custa is a Kuala Lumpur–headquartered customisation eCommerce platform founded in 2023 by Joe Takagi. The platform enables businesses and individuals to design and order customised products with transparent pricing, clear lead-times and extensive configuration options.
Built to address inefficiencies in the traditional customisation industry, Custa focuses on digitalisation, transparency and scalability for both customers and suppliers.
Joe Takagi is the former Chief Operating Officer and Chief Growth Officer of Raksul, Japan’s largest printing eCommerce company. During his tenure, he played a key role in Raksul’s public listing and acquisitions, including Danball One (Japan’s largest packaging eCommerce company) and Netsquare (a leading digital printing business).
Through his exposure to global markets, Takagi identified a lack of advanced digital customisation platforms outside Japan, particularly in South-East Asia and other Global South regions.
“When I travelled to South-East Asia as well as other countries in the Global South, I could not find these kinds of platforms. I decided to build a business that would lead the charge for digitalisation in the customisation industry within these regions.”
Traditional customisation services suffer from:
Customers often lack experience in customisation and design, resulting in quotation processes that can take five to eight working days. On the supplier side, reliance on agents makes demand forecasting difficult and revenue unpredictable.
Custa centralises market demand on a single platform, standardising order items and routing them directly to suitable production partners. This approach provides:
“What makes us unique is our overwhelming transparency. We are able to present price, lead-time, specifications and customisation options in a clear, accessible way through the website.”
Since launch, Custa has delivered over 500,000 customised items across Malaysia and Singapore.
In its most recent fiscal year, the company achieved nearly 10× revenue growth.
A recent full-scale platform upgrade includes:
Custa serves a broad customer base, ranging from individual consumers to large enterprises and government agencies.
The platform significantly lowers the barrier for SMEs, which are often excluded from traditional printing services due to small order volumes.
“Our platform offers business owners the same level of quality at an affordable price, along with a system through which they can easily and efficiently place orders.”
Takagi applies principles from his management experience in Japan, particularly a strong emphasis on customer-value centricity.
“Ultimately, it depends on how much value we provide to our customers. It is crucial we maintain a mindset that starts from the customer.”
He also highlights the importance of sound unit economics, noting that many startups in South-East Asia struggle by prioritising growth over sustainability.
Custa faces a classic platform ‘chicken-and-egg’ challenge:
Takagi’s approach is measured, focusing on step-by-step scaling while maintaining quality.
Looking ahead to 2026, Custa plans to:
Despite global ambitions, the company’s immediate focus remains on strengthening its Malaysian market presence.
“If we can successfully build a global platform from here, I’d proudly consider Malaysia a large part of that success.”
@ 2025 CUSTA. All rights reserved
CUSTA SDN. BHD. (Company Registration
No. 2023010003516 [1522349-U])