SATURDAYS, a D2C (direct-to-consumer) eyewear brand, announced today that it has raised undisclosed seed funding from VC firms JWC and Kynesis Group. Alto Partners also joined the round.

The company intends to use the new funding to expand its online and offline platforms across Indonesia, it said in a press statement.

SATURDAYS was co-founded in 2016 by CEO Rama Suparta and Andrew Kandolha to make designer-quality eyewear affordable for people. Its eyeglasses are made in-house with premium materials like Italian acetate and ultra-lightweight Japanese titanium for consumers in Asia.

Aside from having physical stores across Indonesia SATURDAYS also launched an app to make it easy for customers to try out eyewear virtually. The app will also include features such as vision test booking conducted by licensed opticians at home. Customers will also be able to pick a try-on date at home with 10 frames of their choice and a specialty coffee for free. 

Also Read: Online eyewear retailer Lenskart raises US$21M in Series C funding

“We also want to provide an unmatched experience for customers, who have been accustomed to shopping for eyewear in dull, conventional manners. We will keep innovating our products and services to become the dominant market leader in Indonesia,” added Suparta.

The brand currently operates eight stores in the Greater Jakarta Area and had managed to add three more stores to its list of stores despite the pandemic. 

SATURDAYS is one of the latest non-tech companies that Alpha JWC Ventures have invested in. In the past, the firm has been investing in non-tech companies that are undergoing a digital transformation by combining offline presence with digital tech.

Examples of such companies in Alpha JWC’s portfolio include Kopi Kenangan, Goola, and Bobobox.

According to BlueWeave Consulting, the  Asia Pacific Eyewear Market is expected to be USD$114.4 billion by 2026 from USD 63.8 billion in 2019, at a CAGR of 8.7 per cent from 2020 to 2026.

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Image Credit: Axle Adamos

 

 

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Updates: This article has been updated with more details on the platform as communicated by co-founder Naga Tan

ErudiFi, a startup that provides access to affordable education financing in Southeast Asia, has raised US$5 million in Series B capital, co-led by Monk’s Hill Ventures and Qualgro.

The Indonesia-based startup will use the capital to make key hires across product and engineering, marketing and operations, business development, and data functions.

The company also has plans to scale its services, deepen its footprint in its existing markets (Indonesia and the Philippines), and accelerate product innovation.

Founded in 2017, ErudiFi is a tech-enabled platform that helps financially underserved students get access to quality education centres with its “Study Now, Pay Later model”.

What makes ErudiFi different from other similar players in the market is its B2B2C approach, unlike other platforms that have a sole focus either on B2B or B2C.

ErudiFi operates in the name of Danacita in Indonesia and Bukas in the Philippines.

Also Read: Meet the 7 startups from edutech accelerator EduSpaze’s second cohort

Aside from not being able to enroll in higher learning, student retention is also a challenge in Southeast Asia. Many schools experience a 10-15 per cent dropout rate annually, largely due to financial difficulties faced by families.

To address these challenges, ErudiFi has launched a service that provides partner schools with a way to track disbursements and provide real-time analytics for dropped students.

So far, the startup claims to have onboarded over 50 leading universities and vocational schools in Indonesia and the Philippines, including President University, UNTAR, IT PLN, Wall Street English, PHINMA Education, Far Eastern University, Adamson University, and Mapua University.

“Access to affordable tertiary education remains a huge pain point in Southeast Asia where the cost is nearly double than the average GDP per capita. ErudiFi is tackling an underserved market that is plagued with high-interest rates by traditional financial institutions and limited reach from peer-to-peer lending companies,” said Peng T. Ong, co-founder and Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures.

“By taking a first-principles approach, Naga and his team have been laser-focused on bringing a tech-enabled and data-driven solution that provides students with access to education,” Ong added.

On being asked how the pandemic has affected the startup, co-founder Naga Tan told e27 that the pandemic has only widened the inequality across different income segments, as those with limited household income/savings drop out of school altogether.

“Many of our current school partners have seen a corresponding drop in enrollment rates and an increase in student attrition as a result. This means that our financing solution is even more critical in this environment in providing support to schools and ensuring their continued viability,” he said.

According to HolonIQ, edutech is a growing sector in Southeast Asia and the region has managed to raise a total of US$480 million in investment for startups operating in this sector over the last 5 years.

In Southeast Asia, there are many edutech startups such as Topica (Vietnam), Taamkru (Thailand), Ruangguru (Indonesia), and Classruum (Malaysia) that are helping plug the educational gap by increasing the quality or access to education.

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Image Credit: ErudiFi

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The worst-kept secret in venture capital? VCs love software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups.

With SaaS startups bringing in predictable and recurring revenue, often at more or less the same fixed costs, the upsides to their businesses make them an attractive investment. Besides, unlike their consumer counterparts, SaaS companies can scale globally right from the get-go.

Despite the promising proposition, SaaS startups within Southeast Asia have not enjoyed as much success as their European and American counterparts. Compared to the West, success stories have been few and far between in the region.

However, Akshay Bhushan, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, remains optimistic about the sector. He believes the large concentration of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within Southeast Asia, coupled with the push towards digitalisation, would make the region a fertile breeding ground for SaaS companies.

e27 sat with Bhushan to dig deep into the region’s SaaS industry. Below are the edited excerpts from the interview:

What are some aspects of the SaaS model that have made it a favourable vertical for investors to invest in?

When it comes to SaaS, investors are most interested when the startup has early product-market-fit with enterprises. At that point, the risk for the investor is more on execution rather than the business model or product. This attractive risk-reward perspective makes it alluring to investors.

The other attraction is the inherent nature of SaaS products such that they can be developed anywhere and built for global markets.

For instance, the SaaS solutions of our portfolio companies Yellow Messenger and Darwinbox were first developed outside of Southeast Asia. However, their current clientele chiefly comprises enterprises operating across the world, including several customers in Southeast Asia.

Also Read: 5 things Saleswhale learned about building a global SaaS platform from Southeast Asia

Due to the pandemic, enterprises have gotten more comfortable with remote sales, making it easier for SaaS companies to scale their business. Besides, many enterprises were forced to digitise, even in sectors that were previously resistant to change.

What are the common challenges faced by SaaS companies in their early stages of operations?

For SaaS products, the iteration and testing cycles are typically longer than other types of startups. Hence, achieving a product-market-fit takes longer.

This is because the process of getting feedback from enterprise users (which often spans multiple individuals across multiple types of organisations) is longer relative to a consumer startup that can directly monitor user behaviour and speak to them and make direct inferences.

How do you see SaaS as a vertical grow within Southeast Asia in the next one to three years?

We are optimistic about the prospect of SaaS in the region, especially in leading markets such as Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. These countries have very prominent SME sectors in which many enterprises are seeking to adopt digital solutions.

Certain countries, like Singapore, are also strategic launchpads for SaaS companies in the region. It is a gateway to Southeast Asia for regional and international corporates who base themselves out of there and an ideal hunting ground for customers early on.

With two of your portfolio companies (Chilibeli and Ula) focused on working with SMEs, what were some initial challenges faced getting warung owners to digitalise and how did both companies overcome these?

Chilibeli and Ula are unique in the way that they’ve lasered their focus to one particular SME segment — microbusinesses, which in countries like Indonesia, are mostly known as warungs. SME digitalisation is already a challenge in itself, but it is more pronounced for microbusiness owners as their needs are more nuanced.

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

Microbusinesses typically have less capital to invest in software and may not be as digitally literate as larger enterprises. Hence, solutions geared for this segment need to meet ‘must have’ needs’ rather than ‘nice to have’ needs.

More often than not, the biggest question an SME owner asks is: “How can the product either make me more money or save a substantial amount of money?” Hence, the value proposition for the owner has to be clear from the beginning.

Does the rise of SPACs interested in acquiring Southeast Asian tech startups bode well for the startup ecosystem as a whole?

Essentially, anything that helps drive liquidity is good for the startup ecosystem. SPACs are just another vehicle to help stakeholders generate more value through liquidity.

Also Read: What does Peter Thiel-backed Bridgetown’s IPO mean for SEA’s startup ecosystem?

While SPACs aren’t new, we are cognizant of how it is trending as a channel for liquidity, so it’s something that Lightspeed has been tracking very closely.

With the increased attention on SPACs and the value they provide for companies in helping them go public, could we see a scenario where companies rush their public exit and list prematurely (without strong fundamentals and a sustainable business)?

There’s a possibility of companies reacting this way. However, companies would generally choose the avenue they think is most beneficial. This means that this selection would happen on a case-to-case basis, and is highly dependent on the company itself and the specific situation it is in.

What are some sectors you are looking at within Southeast Asia that have great potential to grow in the near future?

Southeast Asia is rife with opportunities and there are many sectors primed for growth. We believe that the ‘foundational’ sectors are very interesting. These include sectors that power the infrastructure of the digital economy such as fintech (payments), logistics-tech and commerce use cases.

Another very interesting area is in the consumer sector — namely, the rise of the creator economy. We’ve observed that there’s tremendous growth in online social behaviour in fast-growing markets like Indonesia and Vietnam. This rise has also contributed to the growing influence of new-age content creators.

As such, Lightspeed has been looking closely at next-gen commerce models leverage such influencers. The current generation — pioneered by social selling and video-based influencer selling — represents the tip of the iceberg when it comes to commerce penetration.

We believe that, as the role of online creators grows, there will be many new models of commerce which will get unlocked.

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Image Credit: Lightspeed

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Filmplace raises US$220,000 to help influencers, media houses shoot content in unique rented spaces

Investors: New York’s Admiralty Holdings.

What the funding will be used for: Bolster infrastructure, marketing capabilities and tech solutions to expand further into Southeast Asia.

About Filmplace: Based in Singapore, Filmplace is a platform that connects brands and the media production industry with unique locations to shoot. It helps film companies and influencers secure a location within a short period of time at an affordable rate.

More about the story: Lincoln Lin founded the company when he experienced the difficulty of sourcing for locations while working as a director in the film industry.

“Currently, production companies need to hire a location manager which costs US$300-US$500 per day to nail down a couple of locations. The companies will then need to receive the locations, so it is very labor-intensive and manual,” Lin said.

“Traditionally, the location manager takes four to seven days to scout a location. On top of that, there is no fixed price, the catalogs are outdated, and multiple risks such as unsecured payment transactions are involved,” he added.

Filmplace has branch offices in Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea and India.

Rephrase.ai, a mail-chimp like startup for videos, nets US$1.5M seed funding

The story: Rephrase.ai, a synthetic media production platform, has raised US$1.5 million in seed funding

Investors: Lightspeed Ventures and AV8 Ventures.

What the funding will be used for: To scale its platform, strengthen its presence in North America, and hire across engineering and research roles.

About Rephrase.ai: An AI-powered platform that helps businesses create personalised, customisable video content for sales and marketing.

More about the story: Rephrase.ai was founded in 2018 by three Indian Institution of Technology graduates — Ashray Malhotra, Shivam Mangla, and Nisheeth Lahoti.

“Our goal at Rephrase.ai is to reimagine how we communicate to better match our visual culture,” Malhotra said.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Philippines set to take rare top spot for IPOs in SEA; Why Robert Downey invested in a Singapore startup

“Now, enterprises can create high-quality video content for targeted sales and marketing initiatives while saving time and money. This technology will change the way we think about video production, both for business communication today and filmmaking in the future,” he added.

Line Financial, Mizuho Bank invest US$112M into their online bank

The story: Line Financial and Mizuho Bank have invested US$112 million into their planned internet bank, Line Bank.

The aim: The companies said in a joint statement that the necessary steps are being taken as they proceed to establish a user-friendly online bank connected to the LINE app in Japan by 2022.

More about the story: To further strengthen cooperation between LINE Financial and Mizuho Bank, a co-CEO management structure will also be introduced.

As opposed to the current CEO headed by LINE Financial, a co-CEO will now be appointed by Mizuho Bank.

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Image Credit: Filmplace

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The past month has been interesting for the Philippine startup ecosystem — with a report on the massive capital raise by a startup, an update on the prospectives offered by the archipelago’s digital banking sector, a news report about an edutech startup‘s acceptance into Y-Combinator and another on the regional expansion plan announced by a fintech company.

But the one who stole the show in the past few days was Robbie Antonio, who was forced to resign from real estate developer Century Properties following allegations of scandals involving its property-tech platform Revolution Precrafted (RP).

Let us take a little trip down memory lane. In 2017, RP made headlines by becoming the first unicorn to originate from the Philippines. But things turned rocky for RP when leading media publications such as The Ken and Dealstreet Asia exposed the slow — if not disappointing — executions of its various projects.

The episode hit a nadir last Thursday (February 18) when ABS-CBN reported that National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) of the Philippines has opened an investigation into RP’s “questionable” deals, forcing Antonio to put down his papers.

The report detailed that nine contractors and suppliers filed a complaint, claiming that they were lured into different contracts by RP. During the process, they were informed that they would win the contracts in RP’s real estate development projects if they pay 10 per cent of the contract’s value.

These contractors claimed the contracts to be “dubious” as RP was said to have failed to secure permits for the projects.

Those who follow the ‘RP saga’ may feel a sense of déjà vu: two years ago, co-working space giant WeWork’s failed IPO triggered a conversation about financial sustainability for startups — and accountability.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Filipino fintech Mynt nears unicorn status; EVs in Singapore: how much is just hype?

When the unicorns step out of the lanes

It is not that the unicorns of Southeast Asia (SEA) have never been involved in any kind of troubles/scandals. In fact, if you look at e27‘s past news coverages of major companies such as Grab and gojek, there is bound to be at least one story that is borderline scandalous. Think of how gojek had to fight against regulators when they tried to ban ride-hailing services in Indonesia years ago, or when Grab (and Uber) was fined by the Singapore competition watchdog for their merger.

But at some point, there is a need to address the gap between expectation and reality.

For investors, investing in a company means having a set of expectations that they would demand the company to deliver, in exchange for the financial commitment.

On the other hand, for customers, the value of using a platform goes beyond monetary investment; it is also the promise of solving a pain point that has been bugging them for a while.

Meeting these expectations is more significant than attaining and being the product of unicorn status. Having said that, a company is not solely responsible for its faults. In all its honesty, everyone — from the media to government agencies — is equally responsible for a startup’s fault because they, too, are in search of the next unicorn to put them under the spotlight, often disregarding what really matters at these companies.

It was like we are telling startups that becoming a unicorn is enough and that having a high valuation is all it is cracked up to be — until Something Big occurs and we realised that the party is over (if there has ever been one).

Chances for redemption

So, how should we view what RP is going through at the moment?

I recently saw a tattoo on Instagram that was so beautiful I just cannot get it out of mind. It was an image of the word “relapse” but the “lapse” part was crossed out with red lines — and the artist added “start” on top of it. So I took that the meaning of the tattoo was that relapsing (or making any mistake) is actually an opportunity to restart.

When unicorns go bad, the first priority would be to demand and deliver accountability. This would not be easy for everyone involved, particularly when we add the elements of shame into the equation. But this is the moment for us to clear the air and focus on the work that really matters.

Last year, when the world came to a standstill thanks to the restrictions imposed in many countries, we were given a chance to rethink our direction. For those who had managed to go through this process with patience and a good sense of responsibility, the reward is the promise of a better day.

Will RP be able to get out of this crisis? Will customers and partners be able to take back what is theirs? We can only wait and see in the next days.

The ball is in their court now.

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Image Credit: Rosalind Chang on Unsplash

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