AppWorks, a Taipei-based early-stage VC firm and an investor in companies like Carousell and ShopBack, has raised US$114 million for its third fund, DealStreetAsia (DSA) has reported.

The new fund, with a target corpus of US$150 million, will seek to invest in startups in the AI, Internet of Things, blockchain and decentralised finance sectors, said the report, quoting its chairman and partner Jamie Lin.

The initial plan was to close the third fund at US$100 million, but it later decided to increase the target size to US$150 million after it observed a funding gap for Series A and B startups in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

While AppWorks’s previous fund focused on angel and seed investments, the new US$150-million fund will be used to invest in fast-growing Series A and B startups.

Also Read: AppWorks Founding Partner Jamie Lin discusses the outlook for Taiwan’s startup ecosystem

Founded in 2010, AppWorks is one of Southeast Asia’s largest startup accelerator and VC firms, having invested in a total of 395 startups and 1,331 founders within its ecosystem, producing a total turnover of US$8.05 billion.

Four of AppWork’s startups — Uber, NetPublishing, KuoBrothers, and MobiXwent — on to launch IPOs.

The company invests between US$200,000 and US$400,000 in seed-stage companies, up to US$3 million in Series A and US$10 million in Series B firms.

AppWorks launched a virtual Startup Showcase in November 2020, featuring 20 early-stage startups from Greater Southeast Asia (Taiwan and SEA).

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Easy Eat, a Singaporean Artificial Intelligence-powered foodtech startup with operations in Malaysia, has closed a new round of funding with a clutch of investors such as Silicon Valley veteran and former Uber chief product officer Manik Gupta.

Exiting investor Bala Chandra (Managing Partner of Vernalis Capital) also participated in the new round, which comes less than a year after its secured its pre-Series A.

Co-founder and CEO Mohd Wassem shared with e27 that Easy Eat will utilise the fresh capital to ramp up its team and regional presence, as the startup is seeing “great adoption and engagement” for its products among F&B outlets in Malaysia.

Also Read: AI startup Easy Eat aims to transform restaurants into tech firms and make dining more interactive

The foodtech venture was established in early 2020 by friends Wassem, Rhythm Gupta, Abdul Khalid and Akshay Chauhan.

In a nutshell, Easy Eat digitises all customer-facing interactions in restaurants — from browsing menu, ordering and tracking to payments. It also personalises and rewards users’ dining experience. The firm’s AI solution even suggests customising options based on users’ preferences and history; the more a user uses Easy Eat AI tech, the more personalised it gets.

“F&B is the least digitally-advanced industry globally. Sooner or later, the industry will have to empower its customers to take charge of their ordering, be it dine-in, take-away or delivery,” said Wassem.

“Our technology allows customers to place and customise their orders, request services and make payment via their smart phone. This establishes direct connection between the customer and the restaurant, enabling the latter to promote delivery, take-away or advance bookings,” he explained.

During the COVID-19-induced lockdown, Easy Eat’s restaurant partners generated nearly 60-70 per cent of their pre-lockdown revenue, thanks to its technology. Wassem also claimed that almost 95 per cent of its restaurant partners, which were on-boarded in 2020, are still using its solutions.

According to investor Gupta, even though food delivery is the main focus right now due to the pandemic, dine-out and take-out present multi-billion dollar opportunities.

“Easy Eat has a great product, and its understanding of the market and customers are amazing. It helps restaurant owners weather the ongoing crisis with a new technology stack with a great attention to detail. I’m confident that Easy Eat will become an iconic company which will redefine how dining is done in future,” noted Gupta.

Also Read: Coping with consumer behaviour during the COVID-19 crisis

Southeast Asia’s F&B industry is estimated to be around US$100 billion in size, where majority prefer eating out. In some countries, more than 90 per cent of people consume at least one meal outside a day. Plus, the region has a high female working population. All this bodes well for Easy Eat.

Wassem has previously built and exited Bobble Keyboard, for which he raised multiple rounds of funding from SAIF Partners, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (co-founders of Flipkart), Deep Kalra (founder of MakeMyTrip), Amit Ranjan (co-founder of Slideshare) and Prashant Malik (co-creator of Cassandra).

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Image Credit: Easy Eat

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Last month, we covered at least four notable acquisitions in the Southeast Asian tech startup ecosystem, involving startups from various sectors and markets.

In Indonesia, there was the acquisition of B2B e-commerce platform Bizzy Digital by new retail platform Warung Pintar for US$45 million, as part of the latter’s effort to expand its offering to the B2B segment. This acquisition is another proof of the rising popularity of platforms that enable digital transformation for conventional businesses, particularly SMEs. In the past months since the pandemic started, this sector has become more significant as businesses look for ways to respond to challenges.

Green tech also continued to dominate headlines. In addition to investment into RWDC Industries by Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr’s fund, we also saw the acquisition of electric vehicle (EV) company BlueSG by Goldbell. While there might be some challenges to face for full-on EVs to dominate the local market, the acquisition indicated that Singapore remains a promising market for the technology.

As part of its effort to compete with social media giant TikTok, global media and entertainment company ZASH acquired 80 per cent stake in Singapore-based video-sharing platform Lomotif. Since its launch in 2014, the platform to have increased its average monthly community by over 400 per cent with over 740 million videos shared on the platform. It also claimed a “tremendous” presence in Latin America and Asia.

LottieFiles, a platform that builds tiny, open-source animation file format, announced its acquisition of India-based design asset marketplace Iconscout. Acquired for an undisclosed amount, the move was made following LottieFiles’s recent US$9 million Series A funding round.

Also Read: Dropezy bags funding from Taurus Ventures, Kopi Kenangan to scale its next-day grocery delivery service in Indonesia

Focus on the Philippines

Another highlight of February is the number of notable investments happening in the Philippines. While the scandal involving property tech startup Revolution Precraft has been stealing headlines in the last weeks of February, these funding announcements indicated that the market remains promising for up-and-coming innovation.

Tyme, a subsidiary of the South Africa-based digital bank, announced a US$110 million Series B funding round and its plan to secure digital banking license in the country. Previously, there have been reports about the Philippines being one of the most promising SEA markets for digital banking services, but investors’ interests in the sector further strengthened this idea.

In line with the trend of digital transformation, Mosaic Solutions, the company that builds digital solutions for F&B, retail and hospitality industries, raised an additional US$1 million in a pre-Series A preferred equity offering.

Supply chain and logistics are also gaining popularity among investors throughout the pandemic, and the US$4 million seed funding round raised by Expedock proved that. In addition to raising a massive amount of funding, the startup also managed to gain the attention of Ali Partovi, who is known for his investments in household names such as Airbnb, Dropbox and Facebook.

Avion School, an edutech startup that focussed on software development training, also announced its entry to the prestigious Y Combinator programme.

Beyond these funding announcements, fintech player Ayannah also revealed to e27 its plan to raise a Series B funding round. The company aims to fuel its expansion to Vietnam and India.

Also Read: Advotics secures funding led by East Ventures to expand supply chain solutions for SMEs in Indonesia

What the rest is doing

February also saw the launch of funds that are focussing on specific verticals or investing in startups that are working in solving a particular problem. Examples of these funds would include Rainmaking with its US$22 million fund. It will work together with SEEDS Capital to invest in maritime tech startups in the region.

Dole Asia also announced a US$2 million fund that is aimed to support startups in sustainability, food access and waste.

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Employment Hero bags US$35M to bring integrated HR platform into SEA

Investors: Led by returning investor SEEK. Others are OneVentures and AirTree Ventures, Salesforce Ventures.

What will the funding be used for: To support Employment Hero’s continued growth in its local Australian market and facilitate an expansion of its business across Southeast Asia, starting with Singapore and Malaysia.

Also Read: When is the right time for a startup to hire an HR person?

About Employment Hero: The Australian company has created an HR platform that offers an integrated suite of people, payroll and benefits solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The company claims its core platform reduces time spent on administrative processes by up to 80 per cent. Employment Hero has over 6,000 paying businesses, collectively managing over 250,000 employees.

Apna raises US$12.5M to expand vertical professional networking platform for India’s working class

Investors: Sequoia Capital India and Greenoaks Capital (both co-lead), and existing investors Lightspeed India and Rocketship.vc.

What will the funding be used for: To strengthen its presence in existing cities, expand into new geographies, invest in exceptional talent, and improve engineering and product capabilities.

About Apna: Founded in 2019, the company helps grey and blue-collar workers unlock professional, networking and skilling opportunities. The app comprises vertical communities for skilled professionals like carpenters, painters, field sales agents and others. Users in the app can get access to local job opportunities, network with peers, and practice interviews together.

Apna claims it has more than six million users and 80,000 recruiters on its platform. It has grown over 50x in the last eight months alone and currently serves users in seven cities in India, with plans to expand into new metros and tier two cities in India this year.

Drone specialist ideaForge snags US$2M

Investors: The fresh funds came from Blacksoil, an India-based venture debt firm.

What will the funding be used for: To expand its team for it to service its increasing order book.

Also Read: EPS, Schulte Group back F-drones that develops autonomous drones capable of delivering 100kg payloads over 100km

About ideaForge: The Indian startup provides drones for homeland and security agencies in the country. The company revealed it recently received a US$20 million order from the Indian Army. It has applied for more than 20 patents in India and abroad for its drone technology and has deployed more than 1,000 drones.

Quest Ventures, ScaleUp Malaysia to invest in 11 Malaysian startups

Amount invested: The duo disbursed a total amount of MYR 2.8 million (US$680,000) in investments for their second cohort. These companies will receive an investment of MYR250,000 (US$61,000) each to grow their business regionally.

The 11 startups are:

ERTH (e-Waste Recycling Through Heroes): A social enterprise that specialises in collecting and recycling e-waste from household and businesses.

Fefifo: Pioneering digitalised, standardised farming in ready-to-farm modern farm spaces, to bring sustainable and profitable smallholder farming into Southeast Asia.

Hatio: Specialising in supply chain and logistics. Its services span warehouse automation, smart logistics, robotics, artificial intelligence and the internet of things.

Hauz: A data-driven enterprise solution that manages and monitors mobile workforce operations in the service industry.

Homa2u: An O2O firm building materials and interior finishes marketplace for house projects.

Kiddocare: An online platform that connects parents with trained Malaysian baby sitters and early childhood education providers for personalised, on-demand services.

Load2Go: An on-demand logistics platform for booking trucks for large freight, construction and manufacturing industries.

MMC: A food-based company that operates several different businesses, including a central kitchen, food mart, cafe and vending machines.

MyBump: A car wrap advertising company that matches brands with drivers for data-backed creative execution outdoor advertising.

Pomen: A SaaS automotive maintenance platform that specialises in connecting fleet companies and vehicle owners with workshops and service providers.

Quadby: The Nextdoor for universities. Quadby is a community app for students to find and chat with peers on campus.

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Image Credit: Employment Hero

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Citics, a Vietnamese online real estate platform, announced today it has raised US$1 million in a pre-series A round from a group of international and domestic investors.

The investors include Vulpes Investment Management, a seed investor in Singapore-based unicorn PropertyGuru, Nextrans and TheVentures.

Previously, the startup has raised US$700,000 from multiple angel investors, many of whom also participated in this round.

The startup plans to use the new funds to further develop its proprietary SaaS and DaaS products, as well as expand its footprint across Vietnam.

Also Read: How proptech is set to empower the Southeast Asian property market

Citics was founded two years ago by Tran Minh Long, a real estate veteran and former CEO of real estate broker Cen Group’s Southern Vietnam region.

By digitising and centralising many fragmented data sources, Citics aims to build a comprehensive real estate data platform “to power trustworthy, speedy, and seamless real estate transactions that include real estate valuation, sales-purchase, lease and mortgage.”

Its first product is a Data-as-a-Service offer that banks use to validate the value of real estate employed as collateral for loans.

By using a proprietary valuation map, bankers can now check the details and preliminary values of properties with just a few clicks. The official valuation report is completed within three hours, equal to only one forth the time it takes other valuation services.

More importantly, Citics Valuation enables banks’ risk department to control mortgage risks related to property values and locations by digital price map technology.

Currently, Citics has data of more than nine million properties across Vietnam and has estimated values for nearly four million of them and growing, as per a press release.

Also Read: Owning a house in Vietnam is no longer a distant dream, thanks to Homebase

Since launching its product in early 2020, Citics claims to have been able to sign contracts with 10 banks and achieved a monthly growth rate of more than 30 per cent.

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Image Credit: Citics.

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