Indonesia-based fintech platform Kredivo has finalised its acquisition of local financing company PT Swarna Niaga Finance for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition process has begun since the middle of last year.

Kredivo Indonesia CEO Alie Tan said that the move will not change the company’s business direction. According to the CEO, ever since the beginning, Kredivo’s financing scheme is dominated by consumer credit providers instead of cash lenders. This is also the reason why multi financing license is deemed more suitable for Kredivo.

“This is why we can expect to grow rapidly and serve 10 million users in the next few years,” Tan told DailySocial on Tuesday, October 6.

His statement strengthened that of Co-Founder Akshay Garg who said that Kredivo’s lending service will be able to grow through multi financing licenses.

The license is considered more secure as there is already a fully formed regulation by the authority. In fact, the license also enables Kredivo to channel 30 per cent of its financing to online lending platforms.

Also Read: Kredivo raises US$90M to expand its lending biz in Indonesia; to roll out low-interest education, healthcare, Shariah loans

In a statement letter by Financial Services Authority (OJK), following the acquisition, PT Swarna Niaga Finance changed its name to PT FinAccel Finance Indonesia. The letter was dated September 22; it also serves a license to operate for the company.

“The Commissioner Board of OJK is granting this financing business license as related to the name change of PT Swarna Niaga Finance to PT FinAccel Finance Indonesia,” wrote Dewi Astuti, head of non-bank finance institution supervisory board at OJK in the statement letter.

This means PT FinAccel Finance Indonesia has officially secured two licenses as P2P lending and multi financing providers. The company is registered under the POJK 77 Year 2016 regulation on March 21, 2018.

Kredivo and Akulaku

Tan declined to share further details on Kredivo’s plan with this new license. “We will soon share the roadmap as we are still working on it internally,” he said.

One thing for certain is that by becoming a multi financing company, it will be easier for Kredivo to channel multipurpose financing to other sectors, as with the typical multi financing companies. They can expand to vehicle, property, and electronic financing, for example.

For resources, they can rely on loans from banks through channelling or joint financing, obligation, on/offshore syndication, or IPO. There is a similarity between Kredivo’s business direction today with Akulaku, another leading Indonesian fintech company.

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The article was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Marsya Nabila for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

Image Credit: Kredivo

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Lanturn, a one-stop online corporate services startup based in Singapore, announced today that it has raised US$3 million in a seed funding round from a slew of investors, including East Ventures and Hong Kong-based CoCoon Ignite Ventures.

Also participating in the round were individual investors, including Alex Turnbull; Saki Georgiadis, Managing Partner at RVP Equity; Meiyen Tan, Head of Oon & Bazul’s Restructuring and Insolvency Practice; Chris Kelly, Partner at White & Case in the Asia-Pacific; and Tiang Foo Lim, a venture partner at Next Billion Ventures and a partner at SeedPlus.

The funds will be used to enhance Lanturn’s corporate service and accounting practices, continue to develop the Zave corporate services platform, and develop new service lines.

Also Read: East Ventures forms new US$88M seed fund for startups weathering COVID-19, announces first close

Started in 2018, Lanturn provides cloud corporate services for accounting and tax, corporate secretaries, incorporation, virtual CFOs, immigration and visa applications. Its clients include early-stage technology firms, SMEs and Singapore-based private equity firms, venture capital firms and venture debt funds.

“Nobody runs a tech firm, an SME or a fund because they want to do tax filings, accounting, visa applications, etc., and it’s often deeply frustrating how much time administrative tasks can take if you manage them in-house without the benefit of custom-built technology,” said Velisarios Kattoulas, CEO of Lanturn.

“We think it makes much better sense for our entrepreneurs and investors to focus on their core businesses. We also think that cloud technology can make corporate services, accounting and other services more efficient. That’s why we continue to invest in the Zave platform, the corporate services platform that we started building in 2017,” he added.

Also Read: Online corporate service platform Sleek secures US$5M seed round, focussing on Hong Kong market

“Many startups and other small businesses have innovative business propositions, but they often find it challenging to juggle developing their products and solutions for the market while handling routine bookkeeping, compliance checks and so on,” commented Batara Eto, Managing Partner and Co-founder of East Ventures, which recently closed its eighth fund.

“We are pleased to support solutions that enable agility and adaptability among businesses, especially in the wake of the pandemic, and Lanturn provides that by leveraging technology to streamline corporate services and empower businesses to make more informed data-driven decisions,” Eto said.

Lanturn has a competitor in Singapore. Sleek, which was founded in 2017, had raised US$5 million in an extended seed round in December 2019. This round was led by Asia-focussed private investment firm MI8, Trafigura non-executive director Pierre Lorinet, and angel investor Fabio Blom.

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Photo by Andrew Neelon Unsplash

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Malaysia-based startup Nikahsatu has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from 500 Startups, according to Utusan Malaysia.

“The funding will help us increase the average transaction value over the next 12 months by providing full wedding categories on a single platform to as many cities and towns,” Rushdi Razif, co-founder of Nikahsatu, said.

Founded in 2017, Nikahsatu is an all-in-one wedding solutions platform which also provides marriage financing solutions, and is particularly focussed in the Malaysian and Singapore market. The goal of the company is to provide quality and affordable solutions to underserved segments.

Recently the company launched a digital card through which guests can send cash gifts to the bride and groom.

Also Read: Tokopedia buys wedding directory BrideStory and children activity platform ParentStory

The company claims to have recorded a seven-figure annualised revenue in dollars terms and says that it has grown 2.4 times in February (pre-lockdown) despite the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down wedding industries.

That being said, the company definitely has plenty of competition in the Malaysian market from companies such as Bridalgram.

What makes Nikahsatu different is its mission of providing high-quality wedding services digitally to smaller town brides with below 40 per cent of income.

500 Startups Managing Partner Khailee Ng said that he did not see Nikahsatu as a wedding business, but rather as “a captive e-commerce and fintech business that has in-built viral user acquisition.”

“The cost of scaling and the margins they can retain is impressive. They don’t need much venture capital to get to US$100 million revenues at all,” he added.

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Image Credit:  Drew Coffman

 

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Tesla in early talks for potential investment in Indonesia; The archipelago is a major producer of nickel, a preferred chemical feed in the production of cathode materials for nickel-bearing lithium-ion batteries, primarily for EVs; The country has been increasing its capacity by 46 per cent year-over-year to 550K tonnes of nickel. Reuters

Singapore’s Sea is world’s best performing stock. And it can do better; With gaming, e-commerce, and now digital payments in its suite of offerings, the future of Sea is in its own hands; It has US$3.5B of cash in the bank; Tencent owns 22.9% of its outstanding shares. Channel News Asia

Lanturn, a Singaporean tech-enabled corporate services provider, raises US$3M; Investors are East Ventures, CoCoon Ignite Ventures; Lanturn’s services include helping companies incorporate in Singapore and handling visa applications for new hires. TechCrunch

Ant Group’s mega-IPO: Five things to know about the fintech king; Aiming for a valuation of over US$250B, the company hopes to raise US$35B in a dual listing split equally between Hong Kong and Shanghai; Ant is a virtual financial services mall for everything from loans to mutual funds, insurance policies and travel bookings. Nikkei Asia Review

Malaysia’s Cradle Fund mulls equity investments as funding tap runs dry for early-stage startups; The agency was asked by the Mahathir Mohamad government to focus more on grants instead of equity to avoid duplicating the work of other state-backed VCs; Subsequently, its investment programme DEQ800 was wound up. DealStreetAsia

Thai Union invests in Singapore’s Alchemy Foodtech, VisVires New Protein from its US$30M fund; Alchemy develops novel active food ingredients that fight diabetes whereas VisVires is a fund that invests in companies entrepreneurs in the sustainable agri-food industry. e27

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Bukalapak co-founders’ early-stage fund Init 6 invests in Indonesian edutech Codemi; The startup provides cloud-based learning management system for corporations; It has also appointed Achmad Zaky as Commissioner. e27

SBI Group, Sygnum launch early-stage fund to back digital asset firms in SEA; The primary focus is on financial market infra and enterprise solutions being developed for the emerging digital asset economy; The two firms intend to tokenise the fund structure in order to increase accessibility for investors and offer them the potential for greater liquidity post-investment. e27

Vietnamese podcast startup Waves has ceased ops and returned money to its investors; In Feb, the startup had raised US$1.2M seed funding, led by Insignia; Waves had 30+ original programmes and 50 programmes created with partners on the platform as of Feb; 500 Startups-backed Voiz FM is one of its competitors in the country. VietReader

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Malaysia’s Nikahsatu raises seed funding from 500 Startups; The platform provides digital wedding solutions, nuptial financing solutions, and curated one-stop wedding solutions for Malaysian and Singapore markets; It has so far attracted close to 3M visitors from across the region. Bernama

FROGS wants to become the first startup in SEA to fly passenger drones; The drone, which had a successful test run in Indonesia early this year, can carry up to two passengers, fly at 100 kmph and has a 30 minutes’ flight time; The startup also designs surveillance, cargo, sprayer and passenger drones. e27

Irish biometric authentication firm Daon opens in Singapore; It has appointed cybersecurity expert Trilochan Sehgal to lead its regional ops; The firm aims to capitalise on the demand for its biometric authentication and identity assurance solutions, amid the introduction of digital banking regimes in the region. Finews.Asia

How businesses can protect themselves from digital risks; In 2018 alone, WiFi connectivity downtime caused losses worth around US$51M for APAC-based enterprises; As per a survey, over 31% stated that outages have cost their business more than US$1.2M while a further 17% said such shutdowns hit revenues by more than US$6M. e27

Singapore’s Reality Detector (RD) raises US$370K from Draper Associates; RD is a deep-tech startup that delivers video-based deception detection software; Its purpose is to create a world where all people can access undistorted reality and accurately place their trust in others, restoring authenticity, realism and credibility in human interactions.

How can we build digital resilience?; Organisations should look to incorporate ‘security by design’ approach as a default mindset; They should integrate automation, machine learning and analytics to increase the efficiency of their security threat detection capability. Gov Insider

iVS launches in-stream video ads marketplace in SEA; It provides advertisers with a single point of access to in-stream video inventory across premium publishers in the region, whereas publishers get a platform with hosting, transcoding and streaming capabilities; In March 2019, iVS raised US$4.5M from Kickstart, SGInnovate, Monk’s Hill etc. e27

Bukalapak launches new fintech unit Buka Investasi Bersama (BII); It aims to turn 500,000 of its users into mutual funds investors by 2021; BII is an extension of the financial services Bukalapak has been providing since 2016; It already runs BukaReksa, which also provides mutual funds services. e27

3 Singapore startups on the list of 10 selected for Accenture’s fintech mentorship programme 2020; They are Symbo, Staple and UVAS; The programme is based on five themes: data & analytics, digital bank solutions, emerging tech, health insurance, and intelligent automation; The 2020 programme formally kicks off this week and culminates in December. e27

How these 6 Asian startups use the digital revolution for social good; The R Collective, Freedom Cups, Impact Terra, Lumitics, BukuWarung, iHandal Energy are impacting millions of people in Southeast Asia. e27

Malaysian government mulling review of existing fintech policies; This includes policies to address the tech gap between generations, SMEs’ readiness to adopt digital financial services, as well as developing the halal economy via the digital platforms. The Malaysia Reserve

Deliveroo partners with barePack to curb single-use packaging waste from food deliveries in S’pore; Customers can elect to use reusable containers for delivery and pick-up orders from over 50 restaurants; barePack’s boxes are made from food-grade silicone and come with BPA-free polypropylene lids, while cups are made from stainless steel. RetailNewsAsia

Revolut Singapore ties up with NTUC Income to offer lifestyle-based insurance; Bite-sized premiums of $0.30, $0.50 and $0.70 will be linked to daily lifestyle activities such as dining, taking public transport, spending using Revolut Visa debit card as well as clocking steps on Fitbit. Fintech News

Shopee, Lazada, Qoo10, Amazon are hiring in Singapore: Which is the best to work for?; Currently, Amazon is hiring for over 200 jobs based in Singapore; Lazada and Qoo10 are hiring actively, from data science to strategy to product management; Based on the overall e-commerce traffic in Singapore, the top five e-commerce players that emerged are Shopee, Lazada, Qoo10, Amazon, and EZBuy. Vulcan Post

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Despite one in seven Singaporeans experiencing mental health challenges at some point in their lives, only a quarter of those seeks treatment for it.

The uncomfortable truth is we do not perceive mental health to be as important as its physical counterpart. While there had been an increase in raising awareness and educating the community on mental health, few are doing what matters most – taking action to solve mental health issues.

That was the state of mental health in 2018. Back then, Joan Low was in the fast-paced banking industry. Having been a mental health caregiver for more than two decades, she saw gaps that needed plugging within the conventional mental healthcare system in Southeast Asia.

With a desire to solve hurdles impeding others from taking action on their mental health, she founded Thoughtfull. “We want to empower the community to take ownership of their mental health by making healthcare affordable and accessible to the masses,” Low tells e27 in an interview.

In line with their goal of providing accessible mental health solutions, its consultancy arm Thoughtfull Education works with corporates to implement end-to-end mental wellness programmes for their employees. Having interacted with thousands of working professionals through Thoughtfull Education, Joan realised the stigma surrounding mental health within workplaces was an issue that needed solving.

She shares that preventive mental healthcare was nascent within traditionally conservative Asian societies due to this stigma. “Majority only engage with mental health professionals upon reaching a breaking point where their issues interfere with their daily lives,” she says.

Also Read: Peace of mind: Meet the coworking space that aims to facilitate mental health professionals’ practices

Prevention is better than cure

“We wanted to shift the focus on mental health issues upstream to target the prevention of such issues from arising in the first place,” Low explains as she embarked on a quest to solve this issue.

The idea led to the birth of Thoughtfull Chat. The mobile platform connects users to accredited mental health professionals for daily conversations. Joan believes going digital adds an element of privacy that removes the stigma hindering potential users from engaging with their mental health issues.

“Daily engagements with professionals are a step towards normalising engagement with mental health,” Low opines. Online tracking of users’ mental health progress also serves as a barometer of one’s mental health condition and improvements in it encourages users to continue on the journey towards better mental health.

Acknowledging that mental wellness is a deeply personal topic, Low shares that Thoughtfull is mindful of providing a human-centric experience through their carefully crafted user experience on Thoughtfull Chat.

To ensure the quality and authenticity of a user’s journey on the platform, professional mental health experts on the platform are thoroughly screened and accredited by the relevant bodies before they are allowed to consult users.

Combating stigma with digitalisation

Leveraging on digitalisation to improve one’s access to mental health solutions, Low explains the long-term nature of conversations on Thoughtfull Chat is integral to preventing mental health issues from developing.

Further integrating mental healthcare into our daily lives, the chat app is easily accessible on mobile devices, making engaging with mental health manageable even for the busiest professionals. Thereby, further reducing the stigma associated with it.

Also Read: Holmusk closes US$21.5M Series A to build real-world evidence platform for mental health

Discussing the impact the pandemic had on their business, Low remarks the great groundwork done by the team since its founding in 2018 provided a strong foundation for them to capture the numerous growth opportunities presented this year. Having met its annual sales target within the first six months of the year, the Thoughtfull team is not resting on its laurels.

With new features released every fortnight, Thoughtfull Chat users can look forward to more products to enrich their mental wellness. The team recently launched a learning package within the app. Consisting of curated and evidence-based lessons packed with actionable tips, it is targeted at users keen to self-educate themselves on various mental wellness practices without the need for a coach.

“We are also working on implementing artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the user journey and provide more accurate and timely mental healthcare,” Joan closes.

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Image Credit: Thoughtfull

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