Day: September 30, 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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