Month: September 2020

Indonesian fintech company BukuWarung has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from several investors in the US and Asia as part of its Y-Combinator demo day.

Backers in the round include partners of DST Global, GMO Venture Partners, Soma Capital, HOF Capital, VentureSouq, William Hockey (Plaid), Justin Mateen (Tinder), Rahul Vohra (Superhuman), Scott Belsky (CPO Adobe), Josh Buckley, Manik Gupta (ex-CPO Uber), Sriram Krishnan (Spotify), Harry Stebbings (20VC), Nancy Xiao (Bond Capital), Alison Barr Allen (Fast), along with angel investors from WhatsApp, Square, and Airbnb.

This gives the company over eight-figure US dollars in funding, spread over three rounds in 2020.

The fresh funds will be used for hiring and product development so that the company can continue to build a range of financial services on the app by integrating monetisation products such as payments, credit and savings.

On the development front, BukuWarung has also recently partnered with major Indonesian fintech companies such as OVO and Dana to launch a digital payment feature, which it claims to be the first of its kind in the region.

BukuWarung is a fintech company which makes it easier for Indonesian micro-businesses to manage cash and credit transactions.

Also Read: How BukuWarung is changing the back alleys of Indonesia

The company was started by Chinmay Chauhan and Abhinay Peddisetty, who were former executives at Carousell and Grab. They said that coming from families from small neighbourhoods that ran small stores, they were “fully aware of the operational challenges that small businesses face” which led them to launch the startup.

Since its inception in 2019, BukuWarung has more than 1.2 million merchants on its platform across 750 cities and towns in Indonesia and claims to have recorded several billion US dollars in gross transactional value, which grew by 100 times in 2020.

“Our hyper-growth has been driven by a product-led and capital-efficient strategy. We’ve kept our product as simple, fast and native as WhatsApp, which is used by almost all MSMEs in Indonesia. This focus has resulted in great retention and engagement among underserved merchants who’re coming online as a business for the first time,” said Chauhan.

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Image Credit: Buku Warung

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iWEECARE, a Taiwanese startup the has developed a smart thermometer called Temp Pal, announced today it has raised US$2.4 million in extended pre-Series A financing, led by TransLink Capital, a Silicon Valley-based VC firm with a specific focus on Asia.

The round also saw investment from Taiwan’s National Development Fund, BE Capital, Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology Corp, NCTU Angel Club, Might Electronic, and existing investors Verge HealthTech Fund (Singapore) and Darwin Venture (Taiwan).

Also Read: How Taiwan can boost your startup in unexpected ways

The funds will be used to accelerate marketing activities to address the demand for remote patient monitoring technologies in the US and China.

iWEECARE’s Temp Pal is a remote wearable thermometer initially developed to assist in pregnancy planning and baby care. The product  has received medical certification in Europe, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan.

Temp Pal has already been deployed in China, Ireland, Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan as a solution to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection and reduce the burden on health systems by reducing the physical contact between caregivers and their patients, the startup said in a press release.

iWEECARE’s Co-founder and CEO Glen Tseng said: “Temp Pal received an overwhelming amount of inquiries for coronavirus use from the US and China earlier this year. The new funding will be used in accelerating our global footprint to satisfy the demands from these markets and ultimately improve patient safety and outcomes.”

Also Read: Why Taiwan’s AI ecosystem is a fast-emerging opportunity during the pandemic

TransLink Capital Co-founder Jackie Yang said: “Under the COVID-19 pandemic and shift to remote patient monitoring, we see huge potential for iWEECARE to expand globally. We hope the new investment can help the brand to develop and establish an international presence.”

In July 2019, iWEECARE secured US$1 million in pre-Series A round of investment, led by Verge HealthTech Fund.

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Image Credit: iWEECARE

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KKday, a leading online travel experiences platform in Asia, has announced the close of US$75 million in a Series C funding round, led by Cool Japan Fund and National Development Fund.

Existing investors, including Monk’s Hill Ventures and MindWorks Capital, also participated.

The new funding will be used by the Taipei-headquartered firm to continue to expand in Asia and globally and to build out Rezio, an all-in-one booking management platform for travel operators and activity providers, globally.

Also Read: TruTrip looks to cash in on the massive business travel market as the world emerges out of the crisis

KKday will also continue to expand its team and operations in Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia.

Founded in 2014, KKday aims to provide users with “seamless access to endless lifestyle experiences” — from local theme parks and top restaurants to staycations and multi-day hiking trips.

Currently, it offers more than 30,000 unique experiences in over 550 cities and 92 countries, and claims to have five million users and 10 offices across Asia.

Since May 2020, the company has been seeing a surge in demand for local experiences with the opening up of domestic travel in certain markets, including Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Rezio provides a suite of services, including a simple setup for an online store and real-time inventory management across different booking channels, customised vouchers for various booking scenarios, and integration with local payment gateways. According to the company, the platform reduces operational costs and increases efficiencies for experience providers.

KKday began piloting Rezio in Taiwan and Japan in March 2020. In six months, over 300 providers adopted the platform across these two markets. Providers include small-scale travel and activity providers to large scale operators such as H.I.S., an online travel agency in Japan.

Also Read: How travel startups can survive when investors withdraw

As of today, Rezio has served over 150,000 customers.

“We believe that KKday’s strong execution and innovative mindset will drive the tourism industry in Japan even under adverse conditions. We expect that they (the founders) will leverage a wealth of experience in digitalising the tourism industry and tap into the rise of independent travelling both in Japan and globally,” said Kazushi Sano, Managing Director of Cool Japan Fund.

“We expect traveler demand to bounce back quickly when leisure travel opens up again. The human desire to travel, experience and connect is fundamental. We have high conviction in KKday’s leadership team and believe the company is primed to seize the immense opportunity ahead of us,” said Kuo-Yi Lim, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures.

In November 2018, KKday had secured an undisclosed amount in Series B-plus, co-led by LINE Ventures and the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund. This came close to six months after it raised investment from Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund and launched a flagship store under Fliggy, Alibaba Group’s travel portal in China.

Prior to that, in February, the firm raised US$10.5 million Series B funding round led by Japanese travel giant H.I.S.

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Image Credit: KKday

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James Perry, CFO of leading cross-border fashion marketplace Zilingo, has left the firm after serving for nearly one and half years, says a Bloomberg report, quoting unnamed sources.

Perry is going back to Citigroup as its Singapore-based MD and Co-Head (Technology Investment Banking) for Asia Pacific.

Also Read: Zilingo CEO Ankiti Bose on failures, challenges, handling depression and more

The report comes at a time when Zilingo is undergoing challenges due to the COVID-19 crisis, which in April led to a reduction in its workforce.

Perry joined Zilingo in July 2019. Prior to this, he was MD and Head of Asia Pacific Technology Investment Banking. As per his LinkedIn profile, he served Citi for over 22 years where he helped technology clients raise over US$150 billion, including 40 IPOs in the US and Hong Kong, and advised technology companies on over US$80 billion in M&A transactions across six continents.

Established in October 2015 by Ankiti Bose (CEO) and Dhruv Kapoor (CTO), Zilingo is an online marketplace that connects online sellers/retailers in Southeast Asia with fashion lovers across Asia.

Also Read: We want to blur the lines between offline and online worlds: Zilingo CEO Ankiti Bose

In February 2019, it secured a massive US$226 million in Series D round of funding from a host of investors, including Temasek, Sequoia Capital India, Singapore-based Burda Principal Investments, Sofina (Belgium) and EDBI.

Fashion is one of the industries devastated by the ongoing pandemic. The crisis forced many companies to scale down and/or cut workforce. In July, Indonesia’s fashion e-commerce platform Sorabel shut down.

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Image Credit: Zilingo

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Neuron Mobility, a Singapore-headquartered electric scooter rental operator, has added US$12 million into Series A, bringing its total funding raised in this round to US$30.5 million.

The new tranche of investment was co-led by existing investors Australian VC firm Square Peg Capital and GSR Ventures.

The fresh capital will be used by Neuron to accelerate its international expansion, particularly in Australia and New Zealand post COVID-19. It has partnered with councils across these to nations to operate in nine locations.

The company also plans to expand into at least five new cities across the region within the next 12 months and aims to create 400 jobs.

Also Read: Neuron Mobility expands to Australia, to operate 600 e-scooters in Brisbane

In addition, it has launched in Slough in the UK, which will be operational before the end of the year.

Neuron Mobility CEO Zachary Wang said: “Cities across the world are rethinking their transport systems and increasingly people are looking for a safe, inexpensive and socially-distanced way to travel post COVID-19. This presents a great opportunity for micromobility providers. Our experience of operating in Australia and New Zealand, combined with fresh funding, will help us accelerate our growth across the region and beyond.”

Founded in Singapore in 2016 Wang and Harry Yu, Neuron operates e-scooter sharing services across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand and Australia.

It has also introduced a range of other innovations, including a topple detection feature that can detect if an e-scooter has been left on its side which then alerts an operations team to reposition it safely; an emergency button which can tell if someone has had a fall and helps the rider call the emergency services; and, a “follow my ride” feature that allows the rider’s friends and family to track an e-scooter trip in real time for added safety and peace of mind.

Since the last funding round in December 2019, Neuron has launched in a further eight cities in Australia and New Zealand and has announced its entry into the UK market.

Also Read: Bike-sharing is so 2016, Singapore startup Neuron Mobility is rolling out a smart e-scooter sharing service

Currently operating a fleet of 4,000 e-scooters, the company’s 400,000 Australian and New Zealand riders have completed close to two million trips and four million kilometers of city travel.

In December 2018, Neuron had secured a US$3.8 million seed round from a cluster of early-stage VCs, including SeedPlus, 500 Startups, SEEDS Capital, ACE Capital.

E-scooters gaining momentum in post-pandemic cities

Against the backdrop of COVID-19, cities and consumers across the world are realising the potential of e-scooters as a safe, convenient and socially-distanced transport option, says Neuron.

With international and interstate travel restrictions still in place, people are traveling locally more than ever before and in many cities e-scooters are providing a boost for the local economy.

During the COVID-19 lockdown in Australia, Neuron claims to have reported that one in five users had never ridden an e-scooter before, and since then many have actively chosen to change their travel habits.

Increasingly concerned with social distancing, Australian and New Zealand riders have increased their average e-scooter trip distance by 23 per cent to 2.6km, while the average duration has risen by 10 per cent to more than 14 minutes.

Also Read: Scooterson launches light-weight foldable smart e-scooter; to be available in Singapore from Oct

Square Peg, which manages over US$1 billion of committed capital, has invested in the likes of Canva, PropertyGuru, Stripe and Fiverr.

GSR Ventures is a global VC firm founded in 2004 with US$3 billion under management. It invests in early-stage technology companies in enterprise software, consumer platforms, and digital health. GSR Ventures was the first institutional investor in the ride-sharing giant Didi.

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Image Credit: Neuron Mobility

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Early to late-stage venture capital firm Gobi Partners has appointed former Digital Ventures MD Paul Ark as advisor, according to his recent public statement on Facebook.

Explaining his reason behind the move, Ark said that a large part of his decision comes down to his “longstanding friendship with Shannon Kalayanamitr”, who recruited him into the fund.

“Shannon and I have always had a shared interest in merging social and ecological progress with business and innovation,” he said.

“While I am taking on a rather simple and unassuming title of advisor, it belies just how truly grand, ambitious, and visionary the scope of the work that Gobi and Shannon have in mind, and the role I now have the privilege to play in trying to turn those visions into a tangible and impactful reality. Getting to collaborate with Shannon is nothing new, but sharing a platform in which we get to act on our wild-eyed optimism while leveraging amazing talent and resources is terribly exciting,” he added.

Also Read: Why Kay Mok Ku of Gobi Partners thinks VCs will become like influencers in a post-pandemic world

He also noted that he is not at full liberty to go into the specifics about his scope of work.

Ark left Digital Ventures at the end of January 2020, after being in the company for four years. He cited his idea of taking a “sabbatical” before moving on to the next phase of his life.

During his time in Digital Ventures, the company made direct investments in several VC firms and companies such as Ripple, Golden Gate Ventures Fund II, SBI AI & Blockchain Fund, DemystData, Pagaya, AsiaCollect and many more.

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Image Credit: Paul Ark

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Singapore’s leading online cashback platform ShopBack and budget hotels aggregator RedDoors today said in separate statements that confidential consumer data was not compromised, even as the reports of data breach emerged early this week.

Singapore’s privacy watchdog, the Personal Data Protection Commission, have already launched an investigation into the incidents.

In an emailed statement, a RedDoorz spokesperson said: “Earlier this week, we became aware that one of our IT databases suffered a breach. For now, no sensitive data pertaining to financial information such as customer credit cards or passwords was compromised to the best of our knowledge.”

Also Read: The third world war may already be happening online. Here’s why you need better cybersecurity

“We are taking all the necessary steps to investigate this further and at the same time we are conducting a thorough review of all our IT systems and protection. Data privacy is something we take very seriously at RedDoorz and we have implemented the necessary security measures to ensure all our customers’ personal data remains secured,” the spokesperson added.

Separately, ShopBack admitted that it is currently confirming what data has been compromised. However, it has no reason to believe that any of its consumers’ personal data has been misused, even though the possibility still exists.

The company has already removed the unauthorised access and engaged cyber security specialists to assess the extent of the incident. Besides, it has tightened the monitoring of internal logs to ensure heightened detection of unauthorised access, if any were to occur.

“Apart from your email addresses (or alternative login IDs) and limited transactional information, ShopBack does not require you to provide information to us that is not related to our specific services or campaigns,” the company added.

Also Read: Cybersecurity threats on the rise as companies shift to the WFH model

The types of data that consumers may have provided include their name, contact information, gender, date of birth, and bank account numbers for those who cash out to their bank accounts.

ShopBack cautioned consumers who have provided their bank account numbers to be wary of potential phishing attacks.

Cyber incidents – including data breaches – rank as the most serious business risk globally, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer 2020. They are becoming more damaging, increasingly targeting large companies with sophisticated attacks and hefty extortion demands.

Southeast Asia has seen a rise in data breach incidents in the recent past.

In May, Indonesian unicorn Tokopedia reported that more than 15 million of its user accounts were compromised.

In June, e27 was hacked by a hacking group identifying themselves as “Korean Hackers” and “Team Johnwick” that asked for a “donation” to provide information on the vulnerabilities they have exploited in the attack.

In December last year, personal data pertaining to 2,400 Ministry of Defence (Mindef) and Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) personnel was put at risk and could have been leaked.

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Image Credit: ShopBack

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iMedia, a Malaysia-based integrated digital media group currently owned by Rev Media, has acquired a controlling stake in Goody Technologies, which runs the internet properties Goody25 and GoodyMY.

As part of the deal, all technology assets from the company will be fully merged into iMedia’s ecosystem.

Upon approval by regulators and shareholders, the Goody25 acquisition will be part of iMedia’s move to Bursa Malaysia.

Also Read: Malaysian media group REV Asia Group acquires Viralcham and Rojaklah

Early this month, iMedia was acquired by Rev Asia for US$9.6 million and is currently listed on Bursa Malaysia.

At present, iMedia is the exclusive sales representation partner for all brands under Goody.

Launched in 2015, Goody25 is a Chinese language social news media and content portal that primarily focuses on the latest news and trendiest stories on lifestyle, fashion, art, entertainment, travel, and food.

According to Google Analytics, Goody25 recorded an average of 10.8 million page views and 2.65 million users per month in 2020 (based on its January- August data).

GoodyMY, an English language social news portal, was launched in 2019 and is expected to record a visitor count of over 500,000 by the end of 2020.

Aaron Lim, Managing Director of Goody Technologies, said: “A lot of hard work have been put on building the Goody25 brand. We have grown fast independently in the past five years and are now looking forward to expand the company further with iMedia.

Also Read: Media Prima Digital set to buy Catcha Group’s REV Asia for US$24M

Voon Tze Khay, CEO and Co-founder of iMedia, said: “Over the last few months since representing Goody25 and GoodyMY as part of our sales network, we have shown our strength and expertise in providing integrated digital solutions and influencer marketing campaigns in generating greater revenue for the group. We will continue to expand on our revenue streams by working closer and merging the key opinion leaders (KOLs) under the Goody brands to be part of our larger influencer network.

iMedia owns and provides digital advertising and marketing, customised content production and solutions for popular local language sites and social influencer platforms.

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Goody Technologies

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Singapore-based startup Accredify has partnered with SG Innovate to launch a digital health passport that will help to accelerate the re-opening of travel borders. The app will be officially launched in October 2020.

The passport will allow individuals to store their medical information –including COVID-19 testing and vaccination reports digitally signed by accredited bodies– in the app. By using blockchain technology, medical records in the app can be traced back to the source.

“The health passport will be valid for Singaporeans and people from other countries as well. We will be making the application interoperable with different standards and bring on board all the accredited labs around the region,” said a spokesperson from the company.

Accredify will also be waiving set-up fees for the Digital Health Passport until the end of the year for healthcare institutions that sign up by December 31.

For users, they will need to log in via their SingPass or email and create an account on the Accredify app.

Users will receive their unique badges when they obtain the necessary COVID-19 documents required by the country where they want to travel to. Authorities can scan the document’s QR code in the app, to verify the authenticity.

Also Read: Traveloka confirms US$250M fundraise, admits historic drop in biz activity due to COVID-19

 

 

Digital health passports will play a big role as international travel begin to slowly reopen as governments start lifting their border restrictions to accelerate the economy. Taking this into consideration a health passport for travel post-COVID-19 will become extremely crucial.

In an official statement, Singapore also said that it will be reopening its borders for international tourists from select countries from September 1. Other countries such as Hong Kong are also slowly beginning to lift off border restrictions.

Accredify is an edutech management company that resolves the issue of fraudulent certifications and transcripts across educational institutions.

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Image Credit: Accredify

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Facebook has announced the completion of its second accelerator programme in Singapore.

The programme is being run in partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and is powered by Plug and Play.

The event saw 14 startups participating for partnerships and investment opportunities.

Also Read: Facebook partners with e27 to help empower community leaders in APACm.

Before the pitch day, all companies underwent a rigorous six-month training programme, which provided them with mentorships and networking opportunities to accelerate their business.

For this edition, startups were required to demonstrate the use of Facebook tools and trends, such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Messenger, and social commerce.

They were also intended to adopt trusted data and AI practices, such as IMDA’s trusted data-sharing framework and/or model AI governance framework.

All startups that pitched in the event will join Facebook’s startup “alumni programme” that will continue to connect them to a global network of startups.

“Supporting the startup community has never been more important as we all face the impact of COVID-19 and the disruption to our regular in-person programs. This cohort has demonstrated incredible resiliency as they worked to not only keep their startups going but take the opportunity to assess and realign their business priorities for the better,” said Virginia Yang, Director, Platform Partnerships and Programs APAC.

Below is the brief of the 14 startups:

Lucep (Singapore)

A sales and marketing tool that connects leads from FB ads directly with their sales agents.

Outside Voice (Singapore)

Helps enterprises conduct interviews with customers at scale via video chatbots.

Privyr (Singapore)

A mobile CRM  for sales professionals who run their businesses from their phone.

Trabble (Singapore)

A SaaS platform that helps businesses in the travel and hospitality industry automate guest engagement on their channels.

Also Read:  Facebook partners IMDA to launch Facebook Accelerator Singapore, welcoming applications for second edition

UIB  (Singapore)

A virtual assistant that facilitates frictionless on-boarding and seamless communications between people and devices.

Aris (Thailand)

A Facebook live tool that helps businesses to create a home-shopping experience on Facebook Pages.

Assemblr (Indonesia)

A platform to create, discover, share augmented reality experiences.

AVANA (Malaysia)

A social commerce enabler that helps businesses convert social media from promotional to transactional and automate business processes.

Ecomobi (Vietnam)

A social selling platform that enables brands to sell products directly to end-users via a social seller community and AI chatbot technology.

Halosis (Indonesia)

A social commerce platform that integrates AI chatbot and personalised solutions to help social media sellers convert chat into sales.

Infofed (Thailand)

An online platform to operate online e-sports management. It manages interactive contents created by tournament participants.

Qiscus (Indonesia)

A conversational platform that helps businesses deliver excellent customer experience.

Social Light (Philippines)

It places WiFi in low-income communities and monetises by collecting plastics and exchanging free WiFi subsidised by brands thereby giving them sales, consumption, competition data and CSR.

Also Read: Are you a community leader? Facebook wants you.

TravelFlan (Hong Kong)

A B2C digital solution provider that uses AI, Big Data and Machine Learning to provide end-to-end digital solutions.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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