Day: September 3, 2020

Singapore-headquartered PropertyGuru Group said today it has secured an additional investment of SGD300 million (US$220 million) in recent funding rounds by leading global investment firms global private equity giants TPG and KKR.

The proptech giant will use the funds to further invest in identified strategic areas of growth, including PropertyGuru Finance, its recently-launched mortgage marketplace, and PropertyGuru FastKey, an end-to-end sales enablement solution for property developers.

Hari Krishnan, CEO and Managing Director, PropertyGuru, said: “The additional investments from TPG and KKR will enable us to continue building Southeast Asia’s property trust platform and accelerate our momentum in key markets like Malaysia and Vietnam.”

Also Read: PropertyGuru’s CPO shares the secret sauce of building a highly productive remote team

The realty-tech group had earlier raised US$144 million from KKR in October 2018.

Launched in 2007, PropertyGuru provides solution to resolve home-seekers’ pain-points using data and digital tools. This way, it aims to improve transparency in the property ecosystem for consumers, developers, and agent partners across Southeast Asia.

Over the decade, the group has expanded into multiple markets in the region with a portfolio of property portals, including Batdongsan.com.vn (Vietnam), DDproperty.com (Thailand), and Rumah.com and RumahDijual.com (both Indonesia).

The group claims it provides “the widest option of more than 2.7 million homes” and in-depth insights and solutions for property seekers in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

It said the group recorded 24 per cent revenue growth y-o-y and continues to lead in Southeast Asia with 57 per cent market share.

Olivier Lim, Chairman of the Board, PropertyGuru Group, said: “We have scaled rapidly across Southeast Asia by anticipating and addressing consumer needs with a data-driven strategy, underpinned by a talented team of ‘Gurus.This year, amidst the changing business realities, the demonstrable strength of our platforms has solidified our relative market leadership and provides new opportunities to accelerate both organic and inorganic growth with new investments.”

In October last year, PropertyGuru had decided not to proceed with its proposed initial public offering (IPO) on the Australian Securities Exchange on account of the IPO market sentiments then.

Also Read: Can SEA’s proptech come back to its pre-COVID-19 glory? Experts speak

As behaviours adopted during the pandemic reshape consumer habits and preferences in a new normal, digital transformation is accelerated across sectors.

As per the latest report by Bain & Company and Facebook, nearly 70 per cent of Southeast Asians are expected to be digital consumers by the end of 2020.

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Image Credit: PropertyGuru

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Digital media group REV Asia Berhad today announced that it has agreed to acquire iMedia, a Malaysian digital media company focussing on content, technology, and social influencer marketing.

iMedia owns and represents digital properties in the country which the company claims to have a combined reach of over eight million Malaysians monthly.

iMedia is expected to make over US$723,000 in net profit after tax in 2021, which would see a total acquisition price of US$9.6 million, if achieved.

REV Asia noted that the founders of iMedia are taking the entire consideration in shares in REV Asia. As part of REV Asia, access to capital markets and liquidity is expected to allow the company to accelerate its acquisition and growth plans.

Nielsen Malaysia recently reported that digital advertising spent in Malaysia from January to May 2020 exceeded US$104 million, accounting for more than 22 per cent of total advertising spend in the country. This has placed iMedia to capitalise on the opportunity in digital advertising spend in Malaysia and other key Southeast Asian markets.

Also Read: Media Prima Digital set to buy Catcha Group’s REV Asia for US$24M, becomes largest Malaysian digital media company

Voon Tze Khay, CEO, and Co-founder of iMedia said, “There are hundreds of independent digital media and advertising businesses in Malaysia that would be better under one unified roof where they can share technology, data, content, sales teams, and clients. We aim to be that single digital home for Malaysian digital media properties. We are looking to invest in or acquire numerous companies in this exact space in both Malaysia and then across the region.”

iMedia’s social influencer marketing platforms were built in Malaysia, and they have powered influencer campaigns across the top 1,000 influencers in the country.

In 2016, REV Asia its group of companies announced that its 70 per cent-owned subsidiary, namely Rev Digital Sdn Bhd has entered into a Business Assets Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Netnion Technology Sdn Bhd for the proposed acquisition of popular Chinese social news and content websites, Viralcham and Rojaklah.

Shortly after, it followed with the acqusition of three popular Malay content portals called Siraplimau, Myresipi, and Kongsiresep.

In 2017, however, REV Asia was acquired by Media Prima Digital, a subsidiary of the Malaysian media giant Media Prima for US$24.2 million. The deal fully incorporated REV Asia into Media Prima’s digital platform, making the platform the largest Malaysian digital media company.

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Image Credit: REV Asia

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Blanja.com, an Indonesian e-commerce platform co-owned by US behemoth eBay and state-owned telco firm Telkom, has ceased operation per September 1, its official statement read.

Blanja.com was founded in September 2012 as a C2C marketplace. According to the article released by Tech In Asia, it was known for its gadgets offering that’s bundled with an internet data package from Telkomsel, Telkom’s wireless network unit. In its development, Blanja also offered items such as beauty products as well as food and beverage.

In 2016, both Telkom and eBay reportedly injected US$25 million into Blanja.com.

Blanja.com had had a hard time competing with unicorns such as Tokopedia and Bukalapak, as well as Shopee, in terms of customer acquisitions and retainments.

According to iPrice data, by Q1 2020, Blanja.com fell to 27th place, with just over 400,000 monthly web visits.

Also Read: How aCommerce, Blanja, and Pinjam maintain employee retention

In 2018, Aulia Marinto who was the company’s CEO, resigned from Blanja.com to return to Telkom Group.

So far, the company only left steps on its site for its customers to withdraw their e-commerce balance from Blanja.com’s e-wallet before the end of September.

This is the latest notable shutdown that has happened in the Indonesian e-commerce scene since the start of COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Previously, fashion e-commerce site Sorabel also announced its shutdown in July.

In our special report, Sorabel CEO Jeffrey Yuwono revealed that the company’s cash reserves were already depleted as the pandemic hit, even though it has managed to secure several investment offers. The pandemic had made the situation worsen as foreign investors were unable to travel to Indonesia to follow-up the deals.

In Indonesia, even unicorns such as Traveloka are struggling during the pandemic, despite their ability to continue on closing new funding rounds.

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Image Credit: Blanja.com

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PasarPolis, an Indonesia-based online insurance aggregator, announced today it has closed US$54 million in a “heavily oversubscribed” Series B round of financing.

Investors of this round include LeapFrog Investments, SBI Investment, AlphaJWC, Intudo Ventures and Xiaomi, in addition to its existing Series A investors, including Go-Ventures, the VC arm of gojek.

With the funds, the insurtech firm will be able to advance its Artificial Intelligence technology and leverage Big Data to build tailor-made insurance products for the digital ecosystem.

Also Read: PasarPolis confirms Series A funding round by Indonesian unicorns Go-Jek, Tokopedia, Traveloka

The Jakarta-headquartered firm also aims to make deeper penetration into its existing markets, including Vietnam and Thailand where it forayed into in May last year.

“Through this funding, we will continue this mission in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. As we move forward into a more digital world, the presence of insurtech has become an essential aspect of the industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased awareness and demand of insurance, but consumers’ online purchasing lifestyle has resulted in insurtech becoming indispensable,” said Founder and CEO Cleosent Randing.

The LeapFrog partnership will accelerate its efforts in making insurance available for emerging consumers, whereas Xiaomi will help it create an easily accessible insurance through mobile-first technology.

Also Read: How insurtech is changing the game in Southeast Asia

Founded by Randing and Michael Saputra, PasarPolis aggregates insurance products from over 30 insurance companies in Southeast Asia, and has built a network of over 10,000 agents across Indonesia.

In 2019, PasarPolis said it issued more than 650 million policies to first-time insurance purchasing consumers, ride-hailing drivers, delivery couriers and online SMEs.

In February, PasarPolis announced a partnership with gojek to launch GoSure, a platform that offers insurance products to users.

“With 30 insurance companies, and 25 digital partners, together serving over 4,000,000 new customers in June 2020 alone, the opportunity for PasarPolis to expand its offering and geographic reach is extraordinary. There is huge potential for positive social impact,” said Fernanda Lima, Partner, LeapFrog.

“As part of our investment, LeapFrog will focus on helping PasarPolis improve its consumer insights and product innovation capabilities, and expansion in other markets,” he noted.

In 2018, the firm had confirmed a Series A fundraise from gojek, Tokopedia, and Traveloka.

Since then, the number of monthly policies issued by the firm grew more than 80x and the number of partners grew 4x, it said in a statement.

As per a study, the insurance penetration rate in ASEAN remains low at approximately 3.6 per cent.

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Image Credit: PasarPolis

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Mobio Interactive raises US$1.8M seed funding

The story: Singapore-based Mobio Interactive has raised US$1.8 million in seed funding, according to Mobihealthnews.

Investors: Verge HealthTech Fund, Atlas Asset Management, Creative Ventures and SOSV

More about the story: The startup will use the funding to improve its deep tech capabilities and clinical validations for its Am Mindfulness (Am) app.

Also Read:  Meet the first batch of e27 Pro Perks partners

About the company: Mobio Interactive builds software to prevent, measure and treat mental illness. Its Am app enables users to quantify stress through a machine learning tool without using a wearable device.

GoBear cuts off 11 per cent of its workforce

The story: Singaporean fintech startup GoBear has let go of 22 employees, (about 11 per cent of its workforce), according to Vulcan Post.

Out of the 22 employees, about 50 per cent are locals and the rest are permanent residents.

More about the story: This news comes weeks after the company raised US$17 million from Walvis Participaties and Aegon.

The reason: The company has said that the layoffs are due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and is a way to “future proof” the business.

“We have had to take measures to adapt our business to overcome challenges and future-proof it for what lies ahead, by focusing on our growth engines of digital lending and digital insurance brokerage,” Adrian Chng, CEO of GoBear said.

The company: Founded in 2015, GoBear was initially meant to be a metasearch engine before making a transition into financial services. It currently has over 100 commercial partners, including banks and insurance providers, and is used by over 55 million people.

Myanmar’s Zay Chin raises funding

The story: Online grocery store platform Zay Chin has raised an undisclosed amount of funding to enables customers to shop for groceries from wet markets in Myanmar.

Investor: Indonesia’s UMG Idealab

More about the story: The fresh funding will be used for regional expansion, operational upgrades, and technological enhancement to create a better shopping experience.

Also Read: PropertyGuru raises US$220M from TPG, KKR to accelerate growth in Malaysia, Vietnam

According to the company, traditional wet markets grocery products are high in demand among local housewives in the country.

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Image Credit: GoBear

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