Day: April 8, 2021

Indonesia’s e-commerce enabler SIRCLO announced today it has acquired local parenting platform Orami for an undisclosed amount.

Post-acquisition, Orami will operate as an independent entity that will be integrated within SIRCLO’s line of services.

SIRCLO will leverage its technical capability as well as infrastructure to strengthen the enabler services and bridge brands to a broader consumer base.

At the same time, Orami’s role within SIRCLO will be to serve as the extended effort to make that mission a reality — with a strength that lies in the community network of mothers who actively shop for their parenting needs through e-commerce.

As per the deal, Orami CEO Ferry Tenka and President Hendrawan Kartika will take on the roles of SIRCLO’s CMO and CFO, respectively.

Founded in 2013, SIRCLO helps businesses across various scales sell online. It claims to have served over 100,000 well-known brands across 34 provinces in Indonesia.

Last year, SIRCLO claims to have recorded up to a four-fold transaction surge, owing to changes in consumer behaviour that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, Orami is a Jakarta-Indonesia-based company that enables the combination of parenting content, commerce, and community under one ecosystem.

Also Read: [Updated] Orami is raising another round of funding, set eyes on acquisition

Backed by the likes of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, Ardent Capital, and Velos Partners, Orami claims to be recording over five million monthly active users.

“We see this synergy as a really big opportunity to accelerate Orami’s growth. In parallel, it enables us to accommodate the needs of brands and consumers,” said Tenka.

“This corporate action can expand the enabler services that SIRCLO offers to brand owners who are seeking to enter the online market. Orami has a shopping site that facilitates established brands from the mom and baby category in selling their products. Therefore, we have a joint mission to combine our strengths in helping brands sell online in a more strategic, scalable, and efficient manner,” SIRCLO founder Brian Marshal added.

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Image Credit: SIRCLO

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Singapore-based VC fund management company SEED Ventures has announced the launch of a new sector-agnostic venture debt fund.

Christened ‘Venture Debt Fund 1’ (VDF1), it plans to provide an interest-free loan of US$15,000-US$37,500 to 30 seed-stage ASEAN startups each by the end of 2021.

What makes the fund unique is that it is able to dispense funds in just five days of completing due diligence (typically one to two weeks), with a repayment term of two years.

“It is definitely tough to get a bank loan within the first two years of starting up. VDF1 allows the fund to disperse US$15,000 within just five days,” Nison Chan, Business Development Partner at SEED Ventures, told e27.

“At the seed stage, due diligence is pretty straightforward, so cash flow will be easier for our portfolio companies. Our General Partners and Limited Partners do have the network to either provide sales channels or further fund-raise at the next stage,” he added.

Although SEED Ventures won’t be taking interest from startups in exchange for investment, it has clarified that the shareholders of the fund will be incentivised with small amounts of equity.

“We will be taking maximum equity of up to 10 per cent. It can, however, be decreased to a base minimum when companies complete their debt repayment in about six months. At the end, we will still hold a base equity of 2-5 per cent per startup,” Chan explained.

Also Read: What will VC funding look like post-COVID-19?

For instance, if a startup pays back the loan six months earlier, the 10 per cent equity it provided to the shareholders at the beginning will come down to eight per cent.

Besides financial support, SEED Ventures will also assist its portfolio companies with strategic industry help in business, distribution and sales.

Moreover, it will support startups with accounting and data protection services at near cost, so startups can use their funds on revenue-generating operations.

VDF1 is receiving interest mostly from F&B companies.

“What sets us truly apart is our relationship with the founders of the portfolio companies. We focus very much on the morale of our founders and CEOs. They seek business advice at different stages and we do meet up once a week, depending on the situation. We do check in from time to time to ensure that their morale and health of the company are well. In this current era, maintaining great relationships with founders/CEOs means almost everything in business,” Chan concluded.

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Image Credit: SEED Ventures

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Hyperganic, a German company developing software that generates 3D printings, is expanding into Singapore. This comes off the back of its US$7.8 million funding round co-led by German funds HV Capital and VSquared Ventures.

As per a press note, Hyperganic will use Singapore as a key pillar of its development strategy.

The company shared this decision was driven by the city-state’s investment in deeptech, specifically in advanced manufacturing technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics and industrial 3D printing.

Hyperganic is partnering with the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC) to “orchestrate and implement” strategies for the future of production. NAMIC was set up as part of Singapore’s five-year RIE (Research, Innovation, Enterprise) plans.

Also Read: Uncovering the rise and challenges faced by deep tech startups in Singapore

Founded in 2017, Hyperganic aims to accelerate innovation in design, engineering and production of physical objects. The company uses computer algorithms to create digital renderings of complex parts such as rocket engines.

The resulting objects are traded digitally and manufactured in digital factories based on industrial 3D printing.

“Humanity’s biggest challenges can only be solved through a giant leap in technology. We’ve created Hyperganic to fundamentally change how we design and build the things around us,” shared Lin Kayser, co-founder and CEO.

“Singapore is one of only a few countries that have recognised the seismic shift happening through digital factories based on additive manufacturing (3D printing). The products designed by our Singapore AI engineers will be game-changers for many industries that are highly relevant to the region,” he added.

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Image Credit: Hyperganic

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Play Ventures, a Singapore-based VC firm focused on funding gaming startups, has announced it has hit the final close of its second fund at US$135 million.

This brings the firm’s total assets under management (AuM) to US$175 million.

Launched in 2018, Play Ventures portfolio consists of 24 early-stage gaming startups across over 10 different countries. Investees include Vietnam-based Gamejam, Singapore’s Potato Play and Finnish firm Savage Game Studios.

“With Fund II, we continue to believe that gaming will be the most impactful and dominant form of entertainment in the 21st century,” Play Ventures said in a statement.

Also Read: Charting the rise of hyper casual gaming: An insight into the massive mobile industry

The firm has its sights on investing in Indian and Latin American gaming startups. “We have a strong conviction that the best gaming teams can be founded and built anywhere in the world,” it noted.

Play Ventures disclosed that it recently invested in India’s All-Star Games’s US$1.5 million pre-Series A round. It is currently in the process of closing multiple new deals worldwide.

Driven by lockdowns brought about by the pandemic, the gaming industry has outperformed both movies and sports combined last year as the biggest moneymaker in entertainment.

Globally, the gaming industry was valued at US$162 billion in 2020, with analysts expecting the figure to double within the next five years.

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Brankas, Curlec among the 4 Asian startups selected for VISA programme

The story: Visa has picked four Asian startups which, over the next four to six months, will focus on creating defined commercial opportunities to collaborate on new payment solutions with Visa and its extensive network of bank and merchant partners

The startups are:

Brankas (Singapore)

A fintech startup that provides financial software and solutions for companies.

Curlec (Malaysia)

A fintech company that makes it easy for businesses of all sizes to collect recurring payments.

Open (India)

A neo-banking platform for small businesses.

DigitSecure (India)

An omnichannel payments acceptance platform that supports small businesses in managing and streamlining their operations digitally.

Facebook, Google partner to boost internet capacity in Southeast Asia

The story: Facebook is planning to build two new undersea cables to connect Indonesia, Singapore and the US and boost internet capacity in Southeast Asia.

More about the story: Facebook will be partnering with Google and Indonesian telco XL Axiata to complete the cable by late 2023.

It will also team up with Telin, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Telkom, and Singaporean conglomerate Keppel, for the development of a separate cable named Bifrost, which will be finalized in 2024.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: AirAsia to fly into Grab’s territory in Malaysia; SEA gets new massive startup funds

Canva raises US$71M in latest funding, valuation rises to US$15B

Investors: Dragoneer Investment Group,  T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund, Blackbird Ventures, and Skip Capital.

More about the story: Canva said that it has surpassed US$500 million in annualised revenue this year, a 130 per cent year-on-year increase while remaining profitable.

As of today, it has more than 55 million monthly active users.

MDEC launches new work in tech initiative

What it is: A training and hiring incentive programme aimed at boosting the digital business services sector and developing tech talents in Malaysia.

Who can join: Only Malaysian citizens

More about the story: The programme is estimated to create 6,000 job opportunities and produce at least 1,000 quality tech talents.

About MDEC: MDEC is an agency under the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia and is tasked with spearheading the development of the country’s digital economy.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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