Day: January 2, 2020

Grab Holdings Inc announces that it has formed a consortium to apply for a digital full bank licence in Singapore with Singtel, the communications technology group.

Grab will have a 60 percent stake in the consortium entity while Singtel will hold a 40 percent stake.

In a statement, it is stated that Grab and Singtel seek to contribute to the financial services sector with a differentiated offering that addresses the unmet and underserved needs of consumer and enterprise segments in Singapore.

“The digital bank will aim to cater to the needs of digital-first consumers, who have come to expect greater convenience and personalisation, and SMEs which cite lack of access to credit as a key pain point,” the statement reads.

The consortium will offer relevant products and services and become a partner for consumers and enterprises. It plans to include banking and financial services into the everyday lives of Grab and Singtel’s base of customers.

Also Read: The factors driving the success of Grab and what it took to become a market leader

Reuben Lai, Senior Managing Director, Grab Financial Group, said, “In the past two years, we have launched and scaled financial services such as e-money, lending, and insurance distribution into Southeast Asia’s fintech ecosystem. The natural next step is to build a customer-centric digital bank that will deliver a variety of banking and financial services that are accessible, transparent, and affordable.”

Arthur Lang, CEO of Singtel’s International Group, said, “Just as we’ve been building an ecosystem of digital services to improve the way customers live, work, and play, we want to fundamentally change the way consumers and enterprises bank.”

“Together with Grab, which has extensive digital expertise and experience in this region, we have a set of assets and synergies to make banking more accessible and intuitive, and deliver much-needed product simplicity, speed, and affordability,” he continued

If successful in their application, Grab and Singtel said it will present a new banking experience for everyday banking needs with personalisation, financial technology, and innovation.

Earlier in December, ride-hailing giant Grab announced the launch of GrabPay Card, a numberless physical and digital card that enables its users to access rewards ecosystem and conduct payments.

Also Read: Strengthening its expansion into fintech, Grab introduces GrabPay Card

The card is the result of a partnership between the company and Mastercard, which was first announced in October last year.

It will enable users to transact in any online or offline merchants that accept Mastercard around the world, regardless of their banking status.

In June, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that the government is set to issue up to five digital banking licenses to provide an opportunity for non-bank finance industry players to enter the banking scene, which is currently dominated by traditional banking institutions.

Several companies have expressed their interests in applying for the Singapore digital banking license, including Grab and Razer.

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Image credit: Grab

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Fintech lending platform Investree has announced that it has acquired half of the stake in Mbiz, a B2B procurement startup, DailySocial reported.

No financial details were disclosed.

The acquisition is an effort to build an infrastructure to support SMEs beyond the financial scope.

According to Co-founder Investree Adrian Gunadi, with this deal, it will sit as a Board observer at Mbiz, a position at a Director level with no business decision making a vote.

The acquisition of Mbiz was a decision made for “SMEs digitisation through e-procurement that is done with a transparent, reliable, and competent product and service supply”.

Through Mbiz.co.id and Mbizmarket platforms, SMEs together with product and service vendors will get capital access to market its businesses. The pressing issue all this time is that vendors often have troubles to continue with production because of unfriendly cash-flow terms.

Also Read: B2B/G e-commerce platform Mbiz announces Series A, reveals milestones in 1st anniversary

With this synergy, the companies expect to be a support for companies and suppliers to buy them time, space, and the ability to pay their vendors to continue with their business.

“Moving forward, Investree will offer not only financial service but also SMEs-addressed solution. Instead of building our own procurement infrastructure, it’s better to form a partnership and become a stakeholder,” Gunadi explained.

Gunadi added that the acquisition process was started almost a year ago, beginning with capital financing for suppliers. There are several Mbiz users that are vendors and buyers who already enjoyed the US$6.5 million financings.

Indonesian SMEs only account for 8 per cent or 3,92 million out of 59,2 million SMEs in the country. In a report by McKinsey & Co, it’s stated that the country’s e-procurement potential will reach US$125 billion in 2025, estimated from the total number made of global corporate services (US$18 billion), B2B marketplace (US$76 billion), dan B2B services (US$36 billion).

CEO Mbiz Rizal Paramarta said: “So far we’ve only facilitated buyers and sellers with a platform to transact, while the big picture has always been about an end-to-end ecosystem for procurement solution. We entered into the early stage of financing because B2B transaction is entirely dependent on the capital need.”

Also Read: Indonesian P2P lending site Investree to enter Vietnam, launches sharia-based service

Investree is the second external investor for Mbiz after Tokyo Century Corporation in its Series A funding in 2017, receiving US$72 million.

Mbiz is the Multipolar’s subsidiary, a part of Lippo Group established in 2015. Lippo was also the angel investor that backed Mbiz in its early days.

Investree plans to expand to the Philippines in January next year, which aims to provide e-procurement financing solutions. Gunadi confirmed that it will be the first of the upcoming acquisitions of SMEs-targeted companies in Southeast Asia.

Investree already had operations in Thailand and Vietnam under the name eLoan. “We may change eLoan into Investree Vietnam once the regulation is done,” said Gunadi.

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Image Credit: Investree

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The most exciting part about writing early stage funding announcement is seeing the variety of startups that are being invested in. But this month, the excitement doubled as we also begin to see a wider variety of investors getting into the market.

Legalku
Funding: Undisclosed seed funding round
Investor(s): UMG Idealab

Founded in December 2017, Legalku runs two business lines: An on-demand legal consultation service for medium- and small-enterprises (MSMEs) and a SaaS platform for legal practitioners.

Kopi Kenangan
Funding: Series A extension
Investor(s): Arrive, Serena Ventures, Sequoia India, Chris LeVert, Jonathan Neman

With this Series A extension, Kopi Kenangan said it plans to add more than 1,000 new stores over the next two years and expand across Southeast Asia.

Telio
Funding: US$25 million in Series A
Investor(s): Tiger Global, Sequoia India, GGV Capital, and RTP Global

Telio connects small retailers with brands and wholesalers on a centralised platform that provides them with more choices, more affordable pricing, and more efficient logistics.

Bambooloo
Funding: Undisclosed seed funding
Inevstor(s): Angel investors from US and Singapore

The startup will use the funding to expand Bambooloo in the domestic market and also overseas. It also plans to create additional marketing and brand licensing support materials as well as perform talent acquisitions.

Also Read: From coffee to dentistry: The top 10 funding news that rocked the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem in 2019

Glee Trees
Funding: Undisclosed funding
Investor(s): 500 Startups

Robotic Process Automation startup Glee Trees plans to use part of the new fund to enhance capabilities such as a document-extraction feature that can read documents in multiple Asian languages, including Chinese and Indonesian.

Sleek
Funding: US$5 million in seed funding
Investor(s): MI8, Pierre Lorinet, Fabio Blom

In addition to supporting its expansion to Hong Kong, Sleek plans to use the new funds to expand its tech team, develop new features, and increase its operational capability.

Intrepid Group
Funding: Undisclosed Series A
Investor(s): Kairous Capital, Sun SEA Capital, 500 Startups Vietnam

Founded by ex-Lazada’s co-founders, Intrepid Group offers brands one-stop-shop access to Southeast Asia’s e-commerce.

Sunday
Funding: US$11 million in Series A
Investor(s): Quona Capital, Vertex Holdings

The company said that it will use the new funding to enable Sunday to expand its business and build enhancements to its proprietary core technology, which utilises machine learning to price premiums for health, motor, and travel insurance in real-time.

Neuron Mobility
Funding: US$18.5 million in Series A
Investor(s): GSR Ventures, Square Peg Capital

The company will use the fresh capital to accelerate its Australian and New Zealand roadmap, its foray into other Asia Pacific markets, and further development of its technology.

Ezay
Funding: Undisclosed seed funding
Investor(s): EME Myanmar, undisclosed angel investor

Founded in August 2019 by former Oway employee Kyaw Min Swe, Ezay provides a mobile platform that connects rural ‘mom-and-pop’ shops with wholesalers.

Also Read: Indonesian legal tech startup Legalku raises seed funding from UMG Idealab

Interloan
Funding: US$500,000 in seed funding
Investor(s): Phoenix Holdings

Interloan is one of the winners of Fintech Challenge Vietnam 2019, which was organised recently by the State Bank of Vietnam.

Evermos
Funding: US$8.25 million in Series A
Investor(s): Jungle Ventures, Shunwei Capital, Alpha JWC Ventures

Founded in November 2018, the Evermos platform focuses on bringing the everyday needs of Muslims by providing halal products in various verticals, including fashion, food, cosmetics and home and business opportunities that comply with Sharia laws.

Populix
Funding: US$1 million in seed funding
Investor(s): Intudo Ventures, Gobi Agung, Pegasus Tech Ventures

With this round of financing, Populix aims to develop new product features to provide more dynamic and in-depth insights to clients, ramp up marketing efforts to build awareness and attract more respondents to use the platform, and bring on new employees to help the company scale.

TADA
Funding: US$5 million in Series A
Investor(s): SV Investment, Central, SIMWON

The financing will be used to fund the company continued expansion within its existing markets and the development of the mobility ecosystem built on MVL’s blockchain protocol.

Komunal
Funding: Undisclosed seed funding
Investor(s): East Ventures, Skystar Capital

The company said that the investment will be used to accelerate Komunal’s mission to bridge the funding gap much-needed by the growing population of underbanked Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia.

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Image Credit: Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The post That time of the year: A look back into the early stage funding rounds of December appeared first on e27.

There are reasons why the later stage funding rounds that we managed to cover in December are ground-breaking.

We saw the highest ever funding round ever secured by an edutech startup in the market. We also saw leading US athletes and celebrities getting into the Southeast Asian market through their investment.

Most importantly, after spending years going crazy over the unicorn phenomenon, in December, some startups began to put profitability as part of their goal for the new year.

Here are those phenomenal funding rounds:

Ruangguru
Funding: US$150 million in Series C
Investor(s): Global Atlantic, GGV Capital, EV Growth, UOB Venture Management

The funding round is meant to support the company’s expansion effort to Vietnam, where it has launched under the brand Kien Guru.

AWAK
Funding: US$40 million
Investor(s): Vickers Venture Partners, Advanced MedTech, SEEDS Capital

The medtech startup will use the proceeds from this round to complete the pivotal clinical trial of its AWAK PD wearable dialysis device.

Also Read: From coffee to dentistry: The top 10 funding news that rocked the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem in 2019

Travelio
Funding: Series B extension
Investor(s): Samsung Ventures

Travelio said it plans to use the investment to accelerate the company’s target in 2020 with deeper integration and partnership with the conglomerate’s network, technology, and electronic-related ecosystem.

Carsome
Funding: US$50 million in Series C
Investor(s): MUFG Innovation Partners, Daiwa PI Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, Ondine Capital, Gobi Partners and Convergence Ventures

The capital will help “consolidate Carsome’s market leadership in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, with expansion into more cities in Southeast Asia”, and to accelerate financing product offerings for dealers and consumers with multi-country roll-outs over the next 12 months.

Style Theory
Funding: US$15 million in Series B
Investor(s): SoftBank Ventures Asia, Alpha JWC Ventures, The Paradise Group

The company said that it plans to use part of the funding for developing its tech platform. The company also plans to start using RFID tagging and will attach passive RFID tags on each of its rental items to manage its inventory.

Hummingbird
Funding: US$19 million in Series B
Investor(s): Mirae Asset Venture Investment, GNTech Venture Capital, Heritas Capital, Seeds Capital, Delian Capital, Mirae Asset Capital, DAValue-GiltEdge, HB Investment, Wooshin Venture Investment, Kiwoom Investment-Shinhan Capital

Hummingbird Bioscience is a biotherapeutics company that brings the discovery and development of new precision antibody therapeutics for difficult-to-treat conditions.

Modalku
Funding: Undisclosed debt funding
Investor(s): Triodos Microfinance Fund, Triodos Fair Share Fund

The company said it will use the funds to accelerate its vision of driving financial inclusion and widening credit access for the region’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Also Read: Indonesian legal tech startup Legalku raises seed funding from UMG Idealab

Kredivo
Funding: US$90 million in Series C
Investor(s): Asia Growth Fund, Square Peg Capital, Singtel Innov8, TMI (Telkomsel Indonesia), Cathay Innovation, Kejora Intervest, Mirae Asset Securities, Reinventure, DST Partners

This funding round brings the total capital raised by the company in 2019 alone to more than US$200 million, across both debt and equity, with the debt being provided by a consortium of lenders including banks and credit funds.

Collab Asia
Funding: US$7.5 million in Series B
Investor(s): Gorilla Private Equity, Samsung Ventures, PKSHA SPARX Algorithm Fund L.P., NCORE VENTURES, Altos Ventures

Collab Asia said it plans to use the funds to create localised content for Asia and focus on helping creators and content companies produce, distribute, monetise, and build audiences across multiple digital platforms.

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Image Credit: Andrew Neel on Unsplash

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