Day: April 2, 2021

Endowus, a Singapore-based investment platform, has raised S$23 million (US$17 million) in a Series A funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Softbank Ventures Asia, the global early-stage venture arm of SoftBank Group, also participated.

The fresh funds will fuel the company’s expansion plan in Asia, starting with Hong Kong. This is the first external fundraise by the company, which to date had been bootstrapped by its employees hailing from companies, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and UBS.

Launched in 2019, Endowus offers retail, accredited, and institutional investors a platform to invest cash, Central Provident Fund (CPF) and Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) savings. Endowus claims it provides access to expert personalised advice and “best-in-class” funds at a lower cost with no sales fees and a complete trailer fee rebate.

Endowus noted it has experienced 20X growth in clients investing on the platform, with an eightfold increase in assets under advice.

As per a statement, it is on track to hit its target of S$1 billion (US$743 million) in assets under advice by Q2 2021, just over 18 months after its full-service launch.

Riding on the increased preference for impact investing, Endowus also recently launched sustainable ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) investment portfolios for retail investors in Singapore.

Also Read: What do I need to know as a first-time impact investor?

“Endowus will use the additional resources and the support of our VC partners to go deeper and broader in the Asia market where we want to continue helping all investors achieve their investment goals. We began “Day 1” with the mission to solve the greatest challenges and problems of wealth and finance such as retirement adequacy,” said Samuel Rhee, founding partner and chairman of Endowus.

“As the first-and-only CPF digital advisor and now the fastest growing digital wealth platform in Singapore, Endowus is achieving that goal and the new fundraising will help us bring that mission of the company and vision of the future into reality for all Singapore-based investors,” he added.

“The success we’ve seen in Singapore this past year proves that our solutions are meeting the needs of investors, with one in two clients acquired on our platform investing across multiple wealth streams. And with the same rigour, we will expand our offerings to other key markets in the region, starting with Hong Kong,” said Gregory Van, founding partner and CEO of Endowus.

“Endowus’s mission is to solve saving and investing for individual investors and meet global retirement challenges aligned with our understanding of what was needed in the market. Their innovative business model, ambition and commitment to a higher standard of fiduciary duty speaks of a team that is at the cutting edge of the fintech space,” noted Harsha Kumar, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.

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Image Credit: Endowus

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YJ Capital (YJC), a subsidiary of Z Holdings Corporation, has announced a merger with LINE Ventures to form Z Venture Capital Corporation (ZVC).

By joining forces, ZVC looks to launch a JPY$30-billion (US$271 million) “ZVC 1 Investment Partnership” fund that will focus on opportunities in Japan, Southeast Asia, South Korea, the US, and China.

“Today, the CVCs (corporate venture capital) of Yahoo! JAPAN, and LINE have become one,” Shinichiro Hori, CEO of ZVC, said. “By providing growth capital to startup companies and access to ZHD’s ecosystem, we look forward to working together with companies to evolve our services and make tomorrow’s society better.”

For global investments, ZVC will adopt a sector-agnostic approach but with a strategic focus on sectors like consumer internet, e-commerce, fintech, and O2O mobility.

Also Read: Asia Partners maiden fund hits final close at US$384M

At the same time, in advanced markets like the US, the VC firm will analyse the fields of AI, robotics, deep-tech, and blockchain. It will provide startups with global expansion support, product implementation/marketing support, partnership opportunities, and knowledge-sharing opportunities.

Z Holdings, itself a joint venture between SoftBank and Yahoo!, is one of Japan’s largest internet service companies.

LINE Ventures is the CVC arm of Line Corporation, the creator of the mobile messaging app LINE. It focuses on providing funding, industry knowledge, and operational support to its portfolio companies across the globe.

LINE had also joined ZHD in another merger on March 1, 2021.

Southeast Asia is becoming an increasingly strategic region for global investors. As of 2020, there are 61 VC funds in the market to raise capital for the region, of which 49 are by VCs headquartered in Singapore.

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Image Credit: Echelon Thailand, May 2017

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Will SEA become a dominant force in the digital currency space?; A survey reveals two ASEAN countries rank second and third among countries with the highest rates of cryptocurrency adoption; These are Vietnam and the Philippines, which have 21% and 20% of their respective populations saying that they have used or owned digital assets in the past year. More here

The SEA fintech ecosystem sees a flood of investments this new year; Mynt’s US$1bn funding announcement is one of 15 listed in the region in January; Other funding announcements include Singapore’s Lendela, Pintek and Alami from Indonesia, Malaysia’s microLEAP, GPay, and Momo from Vietnam, collectively garnering investments over US$50mn. More here

Singapore faces talent crunch for engineering and product manager roles: Report; Salary differences for senior roles relative to junior roles were the highest in Vietnam for both tech and non-tech talent compared to Singapore and Indonesia; The report was jointly done by Monk’s Hill Ventures and Glints. More here

B Capital launches US$415mn fund; to expand investment activity in India, Indonesia; Named Elevate, the new fund will provide follow-on capital to high-performing, later-stage companies in B Capital’s portfolio; The VC firm also said will formally launch in China; The Chinese unit will be based in HK. More here

AirAsia to launch ride-hailing services in Malaysia; This move comes after it launched a food delivery service in Singapore; Understanding the potential comparison with existing ride-hailing giants such as Grab, CEO Tony Fernandes says AirAsia can become successful in this sector even with the heavy competition, citing history where the company managed to raise funding quicker than any other airline company. More here

A startup within an MNC: How Thales Digital Factory spins a new take on corporate innovation; The factory has developed a solution called DIVA (distributed intelligent video analytics), which leverages existing CCTV cameras to enable effective crowd management at train stations and onboard trains. More here

YJ Capital, LINE Ventures merge to form a new US$271M fund; Z Venture Capital Corporation invest in startups across Japan, Southeast Asia, South Korea, the US and China; For global investments, ZVC will adopt a sector-agnostic approach but with a strategic focus on sectors like consumer internet, e-commerce, fintech and O2O. More here

Ajaib, which aims to be the ‘Robinhood of Indonesia’, bags US$65mn Series A from Ribbit Capital; This comes after the investment platform raised US$25mn in a Series A round led by Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures; Ajaib claims to have processed 10mn+ transactions in the last four months and has over 1mn monthly users on its platform. More here

Endowus snags US$17mn Series A to grow its investment platform regionally; Investors include Lightspeed and Softbank Ventures Asia; Singapore-based Endowus offers retail, accredited, and institutional investors a platform to invest cash, CPF and SRS savings. More here

Blockchain firm Ripple buys 40% stake in Malaysia’s Tranglo; Ripple is a provider of enterprise blockchain solutions for global payments whereas Tranglo is a cross-border payments firm; The partnership will allow Ripple to expand the reach of on-demand liquidity, which uses the digital asset XRP to send money instantly and reduce working capital needs. More here

Dash Living secures US$8.8mn+ Series A; Backers include Grosvenor Asia Pacific, Gobi Partners, and Mindworks; Dash provides serviced living and co-living spaces in HK and Singapore; It plans to launch in Japan and Australia and expand its asset-light management model for long-stay and SaaS for landlords. More here

Singaporean firm specialising in supply-chain risk management Nimbly raises US$4.6mn pre-Series A; Investors are Insignia Ventures (lead), Sovereign Capital and Saison Capital; Nimbly enables companies to monitor and verify the implementation of SOPs in multiple locations, uncover data-driven operational insights and track issues until resolution. More here

Singapore’s fintech firm Tazapay lands US$1.75mn; It provides a digital payments platform for SMEs engaging in cross-border trade; Investors are Sequoia’s Surge, Saison Capital, RTP Global, and January Capital; The fintech firm also provides SMEs with fast, simple background checks on potential business partners. More here

Fundiin receives financing for its Vietnam-focused BNPL platform; Investors include 1982 Ventures and Zone Startups Ventures; The funds will go towards bankrolling market expansion plans as the startup seeks to serve a “growing waitlist of merchants and their customers.” More here

Vietnam launches first autonomous vehicle; Manufactured by local conglomerate Phenikaa Group, the self-driving vehicle boasts AI features including 3D maps, Lidar sensors, simultaneous localisation and mapping technology, and incorporates machine and deep learning within its software. More here

Ex-Zilingo exec joins Singapore VC firm Smile Asia as chief strategy officer; Billy Naveed spent the last two years at Zilingo as head of strategy; Apart from managing the company’s US business, he helped its fintech unit and assisted with the acquisition of nCinga, a software-as-a-service business based in Sri Lanka. More here

This startup is elevating smart security through sound detection; Singapore-based startup SoundEye whose IoT solutions allow for emergency monitoring, home monitoring, and security surveillance; SoundEye’s solution employs edge computing – meaning the system selectively records sound anomalies in an environment as they happen. More here

Singapore fintech firms Stacs and Bluecell to transform green finance; They will partner to push for industry-wide adoption of blockchain-powered infra to support effective green and sustainability-linked loans; Bluecell, an aggregator of lenders, will connect its loans matching engine to Stacs’ blockchain-based sustainability-enabling tech infra, GreenStacs. More here

Successful subscription models are like a well-choreographed dance; Essentially, a subscription relationship is a continuous dance with your customer and the data is your instructor; There are several important steps to this dance — from attracting new customers, to retaining them, to renewing them — and perfecting those steps is no small feat. More here

Iceland fintech startup Meniga plans APAC growth; The digital banking solutions firm entered the Southeast Asian market in 2019, when it opened a new office location in Singapore; It has since successfully launched some of the most popular banking apps in the region, including for UOB. More here

Singapore trials solar-powered buses; The 1.6mm-thick panels will convert solar energy into electricity to charge the buses’ batteries; This reduces the load on the vehicle’s alternator, and in turn, saves fuel and reduces carbon emissions. More here

Mall Group eyes return to e-commerce; The Thai company will start afresh by launching two shopping websites — M Online and Gourmet Market Thailand — and also approach customers on other platforms such as social commerce and online marketplaces; Despite being behind other players in digital commerce, there is still an opportunity for growth for the company as the ratio of e-commerce to retail businesses in Thailand is still small. More here

Can fintech partnerships solve the challenges of micro and small businesses?; Simplified access to basic financial services can be a vital catalyst for small business owners to recover from the fallout of this pandemic; This is where fintechs can play a vital role by analysing alternative data-sources, building new credit-scoring models and expanding financial access without bias. More here

Indonesia’s next digital boom lies beyond metropolitan cities; E-commerce, digital payments and lending is poised for mass adoption in tier 2 & 3 cities and expected to grow 30-50% annually for the next five years; In particular, e-commerce GMV could hit US$45bn, five times that of 2020’s estimated US$9bn. More here

In Asia Pacific, SEA consumers are most receptive to challenger banks: Study; It polled 5K digital banking customers in ten key APAC markets to gain better insights on consumer preferences, interactions and engagements; Thailand scored the highest with 78% of respondents stating they were open to consider a fintech, followed by Vietnam with 77%, and Indonesia with 69%. More here

How Alibaba’s technology is changing the face of philanthropy; Teaching farmers how to promote their products with livestreaming, connecting engineers with welfare organisations in need of digital experts and using its platform to encourage users to “go green” are just some examples of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s philanthropic efforts. More here

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Photo by Harrison Kugler on Unsplash

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Conicle, a Thai edutech startup focused on providing learning solutions for corporates, has raised US$3 million in a Series A funding round.

Participating investors included InVent, the corporate VC arm of Intouch Holdings, besides 500TuksTuks, Stormbreaker Venture and Stundi.

The fresh funds will go towards bankrolling Conicle’s business growth plans, which includes being the local market leader for corporate learning solutions and overseas expansion.

Founded in 2014, Conical’s learning management platform help organisations enhance employee capabilities and efficiency. Its ConicleX offering is akin to a “cloud university” where employees can learn skills including business acumen, data analysis and personnel management.

The company shared it serves over 50 organisations and has more than one million users.

“At Conicle, we focus on developing new technologies and services that can educate people and simplify learning. This will improve personal capabilities and provide organizations with better tools and processes for people development. Learning is not limited to a physical campus but will become a lifelong activity,” said Nakorn Phuekphiphatmet, co-founder and CEO of Conicle.

Also Read: How edutech startups can accelerate active learning

“Because the body of knowledge is growing and new skills are required all the time, Conicle has developed a platform similar to an online university where people and organisations can learn throughout their lives. The design concept has been geared towards the redefinition of learning, not just e-learning or online courses, but the perception of learning as a combined process and tailored to different personal demands,” he further shared.

“The investment in Conicle is based on promising growth that follows changes in learning behaviour, and is in line with the conceptual framework of the companies in the group to focus on people development by upgrading education to enhance the nation’s competitiveness,” remarked Narongpon Boonsongpaisan, Head of InVent.

“Within the next three to five years, over 47 per cent of tasks will be undertaken by robots so about half the existing jobs will disappear. AI and robotics will be the base for a new wave of digital disruption. Inequality will widen, not to mention a wider gap in technological knowledge. Therefore, reskilling is an urgent issue,” said Krating Poonpol, Managing Partner of 500 TukTuks and founder of StormBreaker Venture.

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Image Credit: Conicle

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Undertaking large-scale farming is near to impossible in a country like Singapore with a land area of just 724.2 square kilometres (279.6 square metres).

According to Singapore Food Agency, only two square kilometres of the country’s land is available for farming, which is much lesser when compared with Malaysia, which uses more than 11 times the land for farming. This explains why over 90 per cent of the food items in the island nation is imported.

Despite the active measures taken by the Singapore government to transform the agriculture sector, local farmers often whine that highly nutritious items like root vegetables, fruits, herbs, goat milk and frog meat aren’t getting adequate support.

But this issue is just the tip of the iceberg — when the environmental implications of conventional farming methods are taken into account.

In general, traditional farming methods are the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Coupled with the rising population, farmers often heavily rely on nitrogen-based fertilisers to increase the yield, which inadvertently leads to nitrous oxide emissions, which further exacerbates climate change.

To take this problem head-on, Benjamin Swan started an agritech company in Singapore six years ago, which relies on a more efficient and sustainable way of farming. 

The green stop

As offbeat as it may sound, the idea for a vertical farm occurred to the Australian when he couldn’t find fresh salads in Singapore’s grocery stores.

“When I first moved here from Australia over 12 years ago, I was frustrated that it was so difficult to get good produce here,” he told e27 in an interview.

But he knew that the problem did not lie with distributors or farmers because, by the time the produce is flown to Singapore from different countries, the greens are already wilting in the bag.

“The other thing that frustrated me was the food waste that would accumulate at the bottom of the bag if I didn’t eat the greens within 12 hours,” he said.

Also Read:  How Fefifo aims to make farming cool again for the younger generation

But funnily enough, it was a Facebook post that brought in the real motivation for Swan to go deeper into vertical farming. 

“When I read a Facebook article about vertical farming, I thought to myself, ‘hey, this is cool and I can grow myself a great salad at home’,” he said.

To gain more knowledge of the industry, Swan travelled to different countries and met experts in traditional farming. As he gained more knowledge, he realised that traditional farming is harmful to the environment.

This is when he started testing out by growing plants indoors while still holding on to his full-time job as an engineer.

Initially, he began to grow kale in the basement of a swimming pool at over 42 degrees, which was hitherto unheard of, as the item generally grows at a temperature of 18 to 20 degrees.

After 18 months of heavy research, he, along with his co-founder Martin Lavoo, launched Sustenir Group, a vertical farm that sells its products in stores like Redmart and Cold Storage.

How it works

Sustenir Group uses methods like controlled environment agriculture (CEA), vertical farming and hydroponics to grow 52 varieties of microgreens, along with plants like strawberries, kale, lettuce and spinach.

The indoor farming facility has sensors operating 24 hours to provide the company with data on the health and status of all its plants. The parameters used include humidity, temperature, and light. 

After receiving data from the sensors, its system adjusts the environment for each plant accordingly.

While the majority of farmers use pesticides to manipulate the physical appearances of fruits and vegetables, Sustenir Group doesn’t use any.

“We use zero pesticides. Our produce is 100 per cent clean, meaning they go beyond organic. As we know, organic products still use pesticides, albeit lesser harmful ones. Not only do we use zero pesticides, but we also make sure haze/pollution doesn’t come to the room,” Swan said.

Since Sustenir uses no chemicals, Swan claims its vegetables and fruits are not only more nutritious but also taste better — with customers coming back in surprise, seeking where he gets the vegetables from because their children enjoy the vegetables very much.

Also Read: Tunas Farm raises pre-seed funding from Gayo Capital to launch its urban farming technology

While traditional farming is a highly laborious occupation with hours spent toiling under the parched sun, the farming experience for employees at Sustenir is far different.

“Instead of someone working day and night, what happens is that everything inside the indoor farm is pre-scheduled. So we know when a plant needs to move and be harvested because we can control exactly how much solar radiation goes to the plant. It is all pre-planned,” he explained.

“It’s not like outdoor farms where you might have too much cloud coverage this month. So we have to leave the plants in for another couple of days. Everything is planned and scheduled. It’s all within our stride,” he remarked.

The future plans

In the future, Sustenir Group plans on leveraging both indoor and outdoor farming methods.

“As of now, it’s not possible to grow products like bok choy on an indoor farm. That’s why it is necessary for us to still leverage outdoor technology and improve it somewhat, so we can become more efficient with our products that are going out on land. Because the reality with indoor farming is that we can only grow limited products here,” he said.

Last year, Sustenir expanded into Hong Kong and Malaysia.

“We have just got the third market under our belt with big ambitions to build across Southeast Asia and North Asia in the coming years,” he said.

Although Sustenir’s farm is cash-flow positive, Swan said that the company is more focused on growth rather than profits.

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Image Credit: Sustenir Group

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