In October 2018, OVO replaced TokoCash as Tokopedia’s official e-wallet feature

Several media reports announced that Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia has invested in Lippo Group-backed e-wallet platform OVO.

According to a Tech In Asia Indonesia report, an anonymous source said that Tokopedia has acquired an undisclosed amount of shares in OVO.

Both companies had declined to comment on the report.

Also Read: What Tokopedia does to ensure high quality customer relations management

In October 2018, Tokopedia and OVO announced a partnership that will see OVO’s e-wallet service being available on Tokopedia’s platform, replacing TokoCash as a primary payment feature.

OVO said that the partnership has enabled it to become the largest mobile payments platform in Indonesia by transaction volume and reach.

The company expected to add in Tokopedia’s 80 million monthly active users and four million merchants to its existing user base of 60 million.

More on this story as it develops.

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Image Credit: Tokopedia

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The startup aims to educate people who are in the culinary business both online and offline

Tempo (PT Info Media Digital), Indonesia’s seasoned media giant, announced that it has made an undisclosed amount of pre-seed investment in a culinary education startup Foodizz.id. The latter provides an online and offline learning platform for 18,000 of its community members with the purpose of educating culinary entrepreneurs.

Also Read: Tokopedia reportedly invest into e-wallet platform OVO

Foodizz.id said it will use the funding to further the service and facilities on the platform to educate all Indonesian culinary entrepreneurs — 5.6 million of them.

“Both Tempo.co and Foodizz.id share a common goal, which is public education,” said Toriq Hadad, the President Director of Tempo.co, during the “Indonesian Foodpreneur: Saatnya Menjadi Raja Kuliner di Negeri Sendiri dan Go Global” (Indonesian Foodpreneur: Time to Become Culinary King in Our Country and Go Global) seminar in Jakarta yesterday.

The new media-focussed investment is said to be a move on Tempo.co’s end to solidify its position as a leading online media portal in the country, Hadad added. Before Foodizz.id, Tempo.co had invested in PT Rombak Pola Pikir, a new media with animated education channel on YouTube called Kok Bisa, a millennials-targeted travel portal Telusuri.id and startup industry news portal Ziliun.com.

“Based on a survey, 90 per cent of culinary businesses that just started don’t survive. If they do survive, most of them only have one to three food stalls and stop growing, which is what this platform seeks to educate,” said Andrew Rian Pamungkas, CEO Foodizz.id.

This investment is also praised by Fadjar Hutomo, the Equity Access Deputy of Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy (Bekraf).

Foodizz.id began operation one year ago and on January 2019 just launched its online class program called “Foodizz Class” which managed to acquire 2,500 plus users and 250 paid users within 30 days after launching.

Also Read: Introducing our 12 most-read contributors so far in 2019

Furthermore, Tempo.co said it will support new media that it has backed with infrastructure to be a launching platform for media that has hiccups in publication and product distribution.
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Image Credit: Foodizz.id

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Gatecoin appeared to blame a payment service provider for crippling the company’s finances

Gatecoin, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, was forced to liquidate by an unspecified court on March 13 after a string of problems running the exchange.

The first major incident was a hack in May, 2016 that resulted in the company losing 15 per cent of its crypto-assets (worth around US$2 million at the time). The team suspects the company’s hot wallet (which means connected to the internet) was hacked via a server reboot.

After the hack, Gatecoin struggled to navigate its relationship with the banking industry and turned to a payment service provider (PSP) to help facilitate the transaction process.

It is at this point where Gatecoin appears to blame the PSP provider for its shuttering. In their closing announcement, the company wrote,

“However, that PSP failed to process most of the transfers in a timely manner which in turn almost paralyzed our operation for many months and caused substantial loss on our side.”

Also Read: Indonesian local media Tempo invests in culinary edu startup Foodizz.id

Gatecoin replaced the original PSP with another provider, but claims it did not help because the first company still controlled a chunk of the funds.

At this point, Gatecoin said it could no longer finance its operations and was ordered to liquidate by the court system. The company has been assigned a provisional liquidator who will oversee the re-distribution of Gatecoin assets to their creditors.

The collapse of Gatecoin is the end of a company that claimed to be the world’s first exchange to allow people to buy and sell Ethereum.

Also Read: Tokopedia reportedly invests in e-wallet platform OVO

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Photo by farfar on Unsplash

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Nutrition Innovation raises funding from Singapore’s VisVires New Protein (VVNP)

Nutrition Innovation, Singapore-based startup focusses on producing a low Glycemic Index sugar to promote healthier sweetener, announced that it has secured US$5 million funding led by VisVires New Protein (VVNP), foodtech-related VC firm in Singapore.

Besides VVNP, Enerfo the commodity trading company from Singapore and unnamed, UK-based family office also invested, as reported by Tech In Asia.

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According to VVNP, despite running operation in Singapore, Nutrition Innovation would be its first investment in a Singaporean company.

Nutrition Innovation tries to find the alternative sweetener for food and drink that is cost-effective and not a highly refined sugar or alternative sweeteners.

The startup noted that public knows that refined sugar isn’t a healthy option because it has a rather high glycemic index (GI), which many studies believed to be one of the causes of high diabetes risk and weight gain.

Simply put, this type of sugar is not adding values to a healthy body and has been processed heavily that it’s no longer has the natural benefits sugar supposed to provide, like antioxidants, calcium, and magnesium.

Sugar, both the artificial and natural one can be expensive to produce. So much so that it tends to not be affordable to be commercially offered in bulk and in beverage products.

Nutrition Innovation says that to come for both problems at the same time, it uses algorithms and tech that help to develop a consumable, low-GI sugar on an industrial scale and still retains the naturally-occurring benefits of antioxidants and minerals.

Nutrition Innovation noted that its proprietary algorithm is already rolling out in factories within top sugar-producing countries such as Australia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Their system also is currently being tested for its low-GI in food and beverages by several undisclosed food and beverage companies.

Also Read: Tokopedia reportedly invest into e-wallet platform OVO

Most recently, the company just revealed a new technology that it claims to be able to reduce sugar component of sweetened food and drinks by up to 70 per cent, while integrating healthy substrates such as protein and fibers.
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Image Credit: Nutrition Innovation

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The Vietnam-based VC firm also appoints advisory board chairman

VinaCapital Ventures, the venture capital arm of asset management company VinaCapital just announced that it has made an undisclosed amount of investment in digital gifting platform UrBox and in Wee Digital, AI and biometric-powered fintech startup. Both companies are Vietnam-based companies, as reported by Deal Street Asia.

Also Read: The Singapore-based startup that wants to cut bad sugar secures US$5M funding

“We notice that Vietnamese tech startups are still tackling some of the biggest inefficiencies in doing business. These investments are part of our continued effort to nurture the community and give consumers access to advanced products and services at reasonable costs,” said Khanh Tran, VinaCapital Ventures partner.

UrBox, the digital gifting startup has managed to partner with more than 3,000 retail outlets across Vietnam and with e-commerce sites such as Shopee, Tiki, Adayroi, and Grab. It received pre-seed funding from Vietnam-focussed accelerator and seed fund VIISA prior to this funding round.

Wee Digital, which was founded by serial entrepreneur Christian Nguyen, is said to be the first fintech that applies financial biometrics. This funding is its first VC funding.

Aside from the investments, VinaCapital Ventures also announced the appointment of Philipp Rösler as chairman of its advisory board. Rosler was a former German Vice Chancellor and was an advisor to US-based Founder’s Fund.

For the new role will provide counsel to both VinaCapital Ventures and its portfolio companies.

Also Read: This startup has Maideasy your search for a trained, trustworthy house cleaner in Malaysia

VinaCapital Ventures was launched in late 2018 with a US$100 million injected by VinaCapital to invest in both Vietnamese and Southeast Asian startups.
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