Day: December 13, 2019

Centauri Fund, a new growth-focussed venture capital fund jointly established by KB Investment, a business unit under Korea’s financial institution KB Financial Group and MDI Ventures, the corporate venture capital initiative under Indonesia’s state-owned telecommunication company TelkomGroup with headquarters in Jakarta and Seoul.

The fund is set to close at US$150 million, and it will begin investing in January 2020 managed by Managing Partner of MDI Ventures Kenneth Li alongside CEO of KB Investment Jong Pil Kim, both act as Centauri Fund’s General Partners.

Centauri Fund is said to be focussed on startups that cover financial technology, e-commerce infrastructure, software-as-a-service, big data, and “digitally native vertical brands”.

Centauri Fund aims to invest between US$1 million and US$5 million in rounds that range from pre-series A to series B stage in tech startups throughout ASEAN, with an emphasis on its largest market, Indonesia.

Li of MDI Ventures joined the fund right after being able to generate seven exit events within three years of its first investment.

Also Read: Meet the VC: How Indonesia’s MDI Ventures managed 3 overseas exits within a month

Meanwhile, Kim joins Centauri Fund after cultivating multiple investment exit scenarios for KB Financial Group.

“The launch of Centauri Fund is a commitment by both TelkomGroup and KB Investment with the aim of expanding their horizons deeper into the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem, as well as supporting Indonesia and the regional startup space,” explains Achmad Sugiarto, Director of Strategic Portfolio of TelkomGroup.

The fund’s thesis revolves around a principal issue of solving for low success rates and the inability of many startups to transition to the next phases of maturity. Therefore, the fund proactively seeks to mitigate this effect by providing direct support from corporate partners.

Kim adds, “By partnering with Telkom on the Centauri Fund, KB is showing how serious it is about further expansion into ASEAN. We believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that by placing a greater focus on Indonesia, we will be able to effectively realize this mission. We see Centauri Fund as the culmination of two industry powerhouses collaborating to forge a new path of discovery.”
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Photo by Fikri Rasyid on Unsplash

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What is the gig economy and why is everyone talking about it? Gig work has been around since the beginning of time, but as far as the modern era goes it hasn’t been quite as standard in the employment landscape until very recently.

“Gig” is a term that was coined by Jazz musicians around the turn of the last century that referred to their performances. It was around that time that organized labor was also pushing for more regular work schedules, and by the postwar era, one-income households with 40 hours a week jobs were considered the norm. By 1995 in the United States, only about 10% of workers were in nontraditional jobs and working arrangements.

During the time of the industrial revolution the economy was changing in very noticeable ways, and workers needed to fight for reasonable work hours and working conditions. Labor and employers agreed upon the 40-hour workweek, which gave people greater predictability in their lives.

But now the economy is changing again and workers need greater flexibility in order to participate to their fullest. The gig economy is taking over, and in just a few years gig workers are expected to outnumber traditional employees.

Worldwide, however, there is a different story. The global gig economy is worth US$4.5 trillion as of last year. The prevalence of smartphones and internet access worldwide are making it much more attractive to people who may lack access to traditional employment.

Apps like Airbnb, which was created to help roommates make rent, can help people rent out extra rooms in their house or extra properties on their land to tourists and business travelers. Lyft and Uber can help people afford vehicles who might otherwise not be able to by putting that vehicle to work. Postmates and Instantcart type services can help people who are lacking in employment options find work delivering food to those in traditional employment who need assistance with day-to-day tasks.

In the United States, gig work is still mostly seen as harmful to the workers, and there are constantly new legal challenges to it, mainly because of issues of liability and workers’ rights. But the system is helping many people in most cases. The average gig worker is someone who works in addition to their regular job, and they can expect to add US$1122 a month to their income because of it. Only 16 per cent of gig workers are working in the gig economy as their only source of income, even though they would prefer traditional employment, and 13 per cent are using gig work to cover all their monthly living expenses. The majority are involved in gig work in order to increase their spending power a little more.

By 2025, the gig economy is expected to add US$2.7 trillion to the global economy while increasing employment worldwide by 72 million full-time equivalent positions. An estimated 10 per cent of the global labor force will be impacted. Learn more about the history and future of the gig economy from the infographic below!

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SingSaver.com.sg, Singapore’s financial comparison platform, has launched instant digital insurance comparisons and secured a brokerage license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

With the license, the platform is now able to offer its instant digital insurance comparisons for its travel, home, and main categories insurance products ranging in over 100 policies by 12 providers.

The insurance providers include AXA, Allianz, FWD, HL Assurance, Ergo, MSIG, NTUC Income, Tokio Marine, Ergo, Sompo, Allied World, and Etiqa TIQ.

The platform’s new license as an insurance broker in itself is a milestone for the business as it diversifies beyond credit cards and personal loans. With it, SingSaver’s broking team are able to advise consumers applying for a range of insurance products.

Also Read: SingSaver’s parent CompareAsiaGroup raises US$20M funding led by Experian

Rohith Murthy, Founder and Country Manager at SingSaver said: “It used to be the case that banks and insurers sold you a product; now that model has been flipped upside down. As we become more digital savvy and less loyal to brands, a new generation of shoppers spearheaded by the Millennials and Gen Z’s want to instantly compare and apply for financial products like insurance online — and increasingly on mobile.”

SingSaver investors include Goldman Sachs, IFC World Bank, Alibaba, and Experian.

In 2019, SingSaver parent CompareAsiaGroup (CAG) secured US$20 million in Series B1 funding from Experian, a global provider of data and analytical tools, in August. The group is backed by institutional investors including Goldman Sachs, IFC World Bank, Alibaba, and Experian.

Founded in 2015, SingSaver’s mission is to empower people to lead healthier financial lives through increased financial literacy, helping them save money while becoming more financially independent. SingSaver provides financial comparison tools that allow users to quickly and easily compare credit cards, personal loans, and insurance for free.
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Picture Credit: unsplash.com/nitin_mathew

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Indonesia’s largest private lender by assets, Bank Central Asia (BCA) has pumped up its venture capital arm Central Capital Ventura (CCV) with IDR 200 billion (US$14.26 million) to pursue fintech investments according to a DealStreetAsia report.

CCV typically backs Series A plus startups with the ticket size of US$500,000 to US$2 million. Its investment thesis covers fintech, insurtech, big data, deep tech and IoT bets related to the financial services space.

In a filing with the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) last week, BCA said that CCV has a strategic role to collaborate with fintech companies and CCV president director Armand Wijaya told the media that this investment will be allocated as additional capital in fintech startups. BCA holds a 99.99 per cent stake in CCV and it is the eighth sister company under the BCA Group.

Also read: AI startup 6Estates closes Series B funding round from GDP Venture, Central Capital Ventura

The company set aside an allocation of US$15 million in 2017 for investments in fintech and thus CCV has nine companies under its portfolio: Qoala (Jakarta-based insurtech firm), Airwallex (Australia-based cross-border transaction provider), GPN (national payment gateway), Element (US-based artificial intelligence), KlikACC (P2P lending firm), JULO (marketplace lending), Pomona (ad platform), Impact Credit Solutions (credit aggregator for consumers), and Wallex (currency payment processor).

Indonesia saw the launch of the country’s first bank-led VC in 2015 when Bank Mandiri set up Mandiri Capital Indonesia. The move was followed by BCA two years later. Now, other state-controlled lenders – Bank BRI, BNI and BTN – have set up VC firms to invest in fintech companies to add synergy to their core line of business.

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Image credit: Afif Kusuma on Unsplash

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We fund the founders creating the future of local and urban transportation. The micromobility revolution, motivated by a rapidly changing world, has started.

Micromobility is unbundling the automobile, and liberating resources.

These resources will yield countless market opportunities, and create economic incentives that make mobility universally available, accessible, and affordable.

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This article was first published on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: Sunyu Kim on Unsplash

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