Singapore-headquartered B2B cross-border payments company Thunes announced today it has received US$60 million Series B growth round, led by global private equity and VC firm Insight Partners.

Existing existing shareholders, including GGV Capital, Helios Investment Partners and Checkout.com, also participated.

“[This] will help us speed up investment in our operations, product and technology,” said Peter De Caluwe, CEO of Thunes.

Also Read: Payment network Thunes closes US$10M Series A led by GGV Capital

The latest round of investment comes exactly two years after Thunes bagged US$10 million in Series A in 2019.

Thunes is building a payment network that interconnects financial institutions and businesses in developed and developing markets and allows any payment player to transfer money across borders instantly without the need for countless integrations to multiple systems.

Its platform is used by global banks, money transfer operators, platforms and other businesses to make payments to bank accounts, mobile wallets and cash pick-up providers around the world.

Currently, it claims to connect more than 260 customers and network partners from across 110 countries to send and receive money globally.

Besides Singapore, Thunes has regional offices in London, Shanghai, New York, Dubai, and Nairobi.

Grab, PayPal, M-Pesa, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Western Union, Remitly, and NTUC Income are among its customers.

Thunes is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK.

“Taking an innovative approach to solving the problems of an extremely fragmented and complex global payments ecosystem, Thunes has created a unique platform that provides accessible, fast, and reliable payment solutions. We see the company as poised for massive growth as it expands its infrastructure,” said Deven Parekh, Managing Director at Insight Partners.

Also Read: Indonesia’s Transfez raises seed funding to venture into B2B money remittance sector

Insight Partners will provide financial and operational resources to promote Thunes’s rapid and sustained growth.

Insight has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and more than US$30 billion in capital commitments.

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Image Credit: Thunes

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Big Idea Ventures (BIV), along with Grand Hyatt Singapore, organised its first in-person and virtual tasting for plant-based foods called Tasting Big Ideas 2021.

The culinary tasting experience took place last week and was Big Idea Ventures’s third tasting event showcasing alternative protein innovations.

BIV is a global VC firm-cum-accelerator in the plant-based food space. Its first fund, the New Protein Fund, recently raised over US$50 million.

“Working with these plant-based products is a great opportunity to share with like-minded guests who care deeply for food — things like where the ingredients come from and how it is being produced,” said chef Lucas of Grand Hyatt.

“It was like a black box competition, you receive the products, it all comes in boxes, you open and see — wow these are the products, then we think what we can create with that,” he added.

Here are the top trends that came out of the event:

Fermentation drives more options to alternative protein

Fermentation can develop everything from seafood to sustainable oils, and innovations in these areas will rise in 2021. The development of new alternative solutions entering the market will go some way to replacing their traditional products.

Also Read: Conscious consumption is driving the trend in foodtech: Study

Examples of companies developing such products are Aquacultured Foods, a whole muscle seafood alternative created through microbial fermentation, and Farmsow, a B2B ingredients company developing alternatives to tropical oils and animal fats.

Alternative protein dine-in and take-out options growing

Plant-based options have thrived despite the pandemic, and many products have launched throughout the world.

Angie’s tempeh is a Singaporean plant-based protein tempeh company launched during the pandemic and is now available in multiple grocery stores. Haofood’s from China also developed the first peanut protein-based chicken and is now served in over six restaurants in Shanghai.

In light of the pandemic, Tasting Big Ideas 2021 and 2020 also offered a virtual tasting option where guests can opt to have a tasting kit delivered to enjoy in the comfort of their homes or offices.

Improving taste and texture for alternative protein

As more consumers adopt the new diet, plant-based foods are required to have not just the right taste, smell and price but also the right texture.

Increasingly, technologies and companies like “Meat. The End” is needed that will allow plant-based foods to be indistinguishable from traditional meats.

Cell-based products futuristic concept overseas but a growing trend in Singapore

Singapore was the first country in the world to give approval to the commercialisation of cell-based meat. In late 2020, the Singapore Food Agency gave the approval to Eat Just to sell cultured chicken to customers.

Companies from BIV’s portfolio company, such as Animal Alternative Technologies and Innocent Meat, foresee this trend and provide end-to-end solutions to scale the production of cell-based meat in a cost-efficient manner.

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GOOD Meat, a division of US-based sustainable food company Eat Just, has secured US$170 million in new funding.

Investors include UBS O’Connor, a hedge fund manager within UBS Asset Management, Graphene Ventures and K3 Ventures.

The company will use the fresh capital to increase capacity and accelerate R&D for high-quality, real meat without slaughter.

Also Read: SGProtein to launch large-scale production facility to accelerate Singapore’s alternative protein market

With this transaction, GOOD Meat has become a subsidiary of Eat Just, which
secured US$200 million in funding in March this year.

GOOD Meat is a meat made from animal cells instead of slaughtered livestock.

In recent months, GOOD Meat has been focused on expanding the team, technology and manufacturing infrastructure to meet the surging demand in Singapore and to prepare for market entry in the US.

The company will quickly scale production in North America and Asia through multi-million-dollar investments in facilities in the US and Singapore, while evaluating collaboration and acquisition opportunities in the fast-growing sector.

The finding news comes during a week of a historic milestone for the food industry in Singapore. Madame Fan, the renowned Cantonese restaurant run by The JW Marriott Singapore South Beach, is the first restaurant in the world to replace conventional meat with cultured meat during set times.

The new chef-inspired dishes include Asian-inspired chicken salad, steamed chicken dumplings and chicken vegetable stir-fry.

GOOD Meat will replace conventional chicken for delivery on Thursdays beginning May 20, and for once-a-week dine-in starting soon.

As per a recent survey conducted by a leading management consulting firm, two-thirds of consumers polled said they were open to substituting conventional meat with cultured meat. More than 80 per cent of restaurant operators said they envisioned cultured meat replacing all conventional meat in the next 10 years.

“This investment, along with the historic decision by JW Marriott Singapore South Beach, points to what’s ahead: meat without killing animals will replace conventional meat at some point in our lifetimes. The faster we make that happen, the healthier our planet will be,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just.

Also Read: How to become a millionaire investor while scaling sustainability impact in the world

“The US$2-trillion global market for meat and poultry is likely to experience significant change and disruption over the next 10 years as consumers increasingly recognise the environmental impact of their diet choices and search for healthier and more sustainable products like GOOD Meat to replace conventional animal proteins in their diets,” said Kevin Russell, Chief Investment Officer, UBS O’Connor.

“As part of a global organisation aimed to cut food wastage, partnering with a purposeful company such as GOOD Meat was the perfect collaboration to support our ‘Source Responsibly’ efforts whilst we continue to deliver exceptional culinary experiences,” Marco Pedrelli, Director of Food & Beverage and Culinary, JW Marriott Singapore South Beach.

Eat Just aims to build a healthier, safer and more sustainable food system in our lifetimes. Its expertise lies in functionalising plant proteins to culturing animal cells.

It is the company behind one of America’s fast-growing egg brand, which is made entirely of plants.

Of lat, the alternative protein items, such as plant-based meat, egg and milk, has caught the imagination of Southeast Asian consumers, particularly in Singapore. The city-state recently witnessed the emergence of companies such as Shiok Meats, Turtle Tree Labs and Next Gen, attracting VCs and partnerships.

In a recent interview with e27, Next Gen’s COO Andre Menezes said that global demand for plant-based meat products will be driven mostly by flexitarians.

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Image Credit: GOOD Meat

 

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Malaysia’s online shopping aggregator iPrice Group announced today it has raised US$1.5 million financing from South Korean foodtech company Woowa Brothers.

This news comes off the company’s Series B funding led by ACA Investments in March 2020, which was later joined by JG Digital Equity Ventures in September.

The fresh capital will go into enhancing iPrice product and accelerating the rollout of partnerships.

Founded in 2014, iPrice helps customers find a wide selection of products and brands from hundreds of its partners in Southeast Asia. Users can use the platform to save money by comparing products, prices, sellers’s reputation, and check delivery conditions.

Currently, iPrice has partnerships with Home Credit (Indonesia), Thairath (Thailand), GoRewards (Philippines), Boost (Malaysia), ViSenze (Singapore), and SmartPay (Vietnam).

Also Read: iPrice adds more funding into Series B to accelerate growth in Philippines

“As the Southeast Asian e-commerce market develops, the competition among e-commerce platforms is intensifying and the number of sellers is increasing. We believe that iPrice’s role of helping users find the right platform and save money will continue to be vital to the region,” Joshua Dhong, Senior Investment Associate of Woowa said.

“Consumers increasingly expect shopping experiences embedded in their phones – be it in various apps or even in the native camera apps for visual shopping. We, therefore, built a product to bring e-commerce to those places, becoming the prime partner for leading platforms and super apps in the region,” iPrice Group CEO Paul Brown-Kenyon added.

While COVID-19 has affected almost all the industries globally, e-commerce has largely been spared and it has shown immense resilience and continues to grow strong.

According to a Google-backed report, Southeast Asia’s e-commerce industry is expected to reach US$180 billion by 2025. With e-commerce’s recent accelerated adoption, the industry is expected to experience an even stronger boost.

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Singapore-based clinical-stage biotech company Hummingbird Bioscience has announced the close of its US$125 million Series C financing round, led by Novo Holdings.

The round also saw participation from new investors including Frazier Healthcare Partners, Octagon Capital, EDBI, AMGEN Ventures, DROIA Ventures, Morningside Ventures, Pureos Bioventures, Polaris Partners, Affinity Asset Advisors, Ally Bridge Group and Altrium Capital Management.

Existing investors including SK Inc, Heritas Capital, and Mirae Asset Venture Capital also joined the round.

The company will use the funds to advance the clinical development of its assets including HMBD-001, a HER3 antibody for NRG1-fusion and HER3-driven tumours, and HMBD-002, an anti-VISTA neutralising antibody for advanced solid tumours.

Also Read: Singapore biotech firm Austrianova secures US$100M investment

The funds will also be used to expand the capabilities of Hummingbird’s proprietary Rational Antibody Discovery platform (RAD) and progress the development of its next-generation pipeline of precision therapeutics, including HMBD-009, a BCMA-TACI dual-specific T cell engager.

“These new funds give us further resources to invest in our early-stage pipeline, as well as supporting the clinical development of our two lead programmes that we believe can deliver very meaningful benefit for patients,” said co-founder and CEO Piers Ingram.

“We believe that Hummingbird’s novel data-driven, systems biology approach brings new precision to the field of antibody drug discovery and development,” said Kenneth Harrison, Partner at Novo Ventures.

“There is significant potential for novel antibody-based therapeutics and through Hummingbird’s RAD platform, we can now discover high value antibodies for challenging targets. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Hummingbird to solve complex challenges in antibody development, and deliver highly differentiated therapies to patients in need,” Kiel Kim said

Hummingbird Bioscience is focused on developing precision therapies against hard-to-drug targets to improve treatment outcomes. It harnesses the latest advances in systems biology and data science to better understand and solve the underlying causes of disease and guide development of our therapeutics.

Enabled by its RAD platform, it discovers and engineers precision therapies against optimal yet elusive epitopes that have not been successfully drugged, unlocking novel mechanisms of action.

In May 2020, Hummingbird closed its extended Series B round at US$25 million.

Harrison, along with Dan Estes (General Partner at Frazier Healthcare Partners) and Kiel Kim (VP, SK Inc.) will join Hummingbird’s board of directors.

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Image Credit: Hummingbird Bioscience

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2021 may still be finding its feet, but the tech companies continued their exuberance into the new year. Not only in the stock market but also in censorship. The Capitol Hill attack on January 6 caused the Silicon Valley overlords to finally take action against big names.

Donald Trump was handed a lifetime ban from Twitter for incitement of violence and it was followed swiftly by a temporary two-week ban on Facebook and Instagram. Four months later, Facebook’s Oversight Board has decided to uphold the ban while Donald Trump has launched his own website.

Parler, the social media app with a significant user base of Trump supporters, was banned from Apple, Google, and Amazon’s platforms for a month. Like him or not, the ex-POTUS was the top 10 most-followed account on Twitter with a whopping 88 million followers.

A few impactful decisions made by a handful of big tech executives have caused one man to lose his voice to billions of people.

Social media platforms have revolutionised our ability to connect and communicate across the globe. Content can now be shared and reach millions of individuals in an instant. News, information, and educational content has never been easier to access.

At the same time cyberbullying, fraud, and scam cases are growing rapidly. Social media allows for opportunities to democratise expression and diversify public discourse, but this can often lead to the spread of disinformation and hate speech.

There has been a range of views towards censorship and freedom of speech on social media. Banning bad content on bigger platforms can be socially riskier over the long term, as it could be shunted elsewhere to more hidden places.

Also Read: Thailand starts new internet censorship campaign as SEA tighten grips on freedom of speech

Some have suggested that engaging with hate speech head-on would be more productive than an outright ban, but challenges appear when trying to achieve this at scale. Social networks have been fairly aggressive in removing hate speech content over the past few years. Below are some key numbers quoted by The Economist:

Facebook	YouTube
Removal of hate speech has risen 10x in the last 2 years	Removed 8.4billion user comments in 2020, up 18x from 2 years before
17 million fake accounts are disabled every day	Removed around 45 million videos in 2020

These efforts have been made easier with artificial intelligence, with most offensive comments being deleted before users have a chance to flag.

Facebook now employs some 15,000 people to moderate content and has even agreed to pay US$52 million to moderators who developed PTSD from looking at the worst of the internet. Although these actions from the platforms help with issues around censorship, there are deeper issues that lie within this nuanced topic.

Ultimately what this Twitter saga showed, along with the Parler episode, is that de-platforming decisions are made based on interpretation. The decisions by the social media companies to ban Trump and Parler are based on moral judgment, which sits above the legal standard which the platforms are required to comply.

Essentially it becomes a subjective decision based on what the person said, what they intended when they said it, and on the outcome of the event. Many believed the ban was the right decision but some thought a temporary ban would have sufficed in order to give time to plan for the next course of action.

Nevertheless, the focus has shifted from Trump as a polarising individual to one of an argument about free speech and censorship. The more pertinent issue now lies in the concentrated power in the hands of social media platforms.

These platforms operate in the free market when it wants to, but operates as a quasi-governmental organisation when it feels like it. So what are some of the solutions for this growing issue? What speech should be allowed online and who should decide?

Also Read: “The police are watching. Everyone, be careful”: Sina Weibo censorship report

American law and culture limit the government’s power to regulate speech on the internet and elsewhere. Congress has offered protections to tech companies by freeing them from most of the liabilities for speech that appears on their platforms. The US Supreme Court decided that private companies, in general, are not bound by the First Amendment.

However, some activists support new efforts by the government to regulate social media. Although some platforms are large and dominant, their market power can disintegrate and alternatives are available for speakers excluded from a platform. The history of broadcast regulation shows that government regulation tends to support rather than mitigate monopolies.

Speech on social media directly tied to violence—for example, terrorism—may be regulated by government, but more expansive efforts are likely unconstitutional. Preventing harm caused by “fake news” or “hate speech” lies well beyond the jurisdiction of the government and tech firms appear determined to deal with such harms leaving little for the government to do.

Silicon Valley has toyed with the idea of drawing up a distinction between freedom of speech and “freedom of reach” by leaving posts up but reducing their visibility and virality. In 2019, Youtube programmed its algorithm to leave posts up but recommended them less.

This was an attempt to balance a broad and fair range of opinions while making sure that outright dangerous information does not spread. Youtube may remove video comments that violate their Community Guidelines but content creators have the option to allow all comments or hold potentially inappropriate comments for review.

Twitter released an improved version of its “prompts” feature recently discouraging users from sending potentially harmful or offensive replies, encouraging users to think twice before sending any mean tweets. Platforms are also labelling content in order to show users that the content could be misleading.

In October 2020, Facebook launched their Oversight Board made up of a global independent panel of 20 people from a diverse mix of backgrounds. From academia to political and civic leaders, that also included former Prime Minister of Denmark.

The Board makes content moderation decisions and helps remove decision making from the hands of a few executives, which allows for less decisions to be made by external and political pressure. The Board can only decide on whether deleted posts should be reinstated and cannot make decisions on posts that have been demoted by the algorithm.

QAnon’s removal, Donald Trump’s controversial posts, and the removal of Holocaust denial content, were all decisions outside the Board’s scope. The idea to create a “social media council” has also been suggested — an independent body not linked to the government — that could help become unbiased decision makers for social media platforms.

The solutions to the problem of free speech vs. censorship is not a simple one and currently lies heavily in the hands of big tech cos. The issue has shown its ability to have significant political and economic impacts around the world, strongly affecting how countries and democracies are run.

Censoring, to a certain extent, is the mark of moral failure in society. It is called for when people endanger the good order of their community through communication. In an ideal world, a society that shares high standards of morality, loyalty, and seemliness would render censoring unnecessary.

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Esports Players League (ESPL), a Singapore headquartered e-sports tournament organiser, today announced that it has closed a “seven-digit” pre-Series A funding

RightBridge Ventures AB led the round with participation from Genting Ventures, Warner Music Asia, Datuk Wira SM Faisal, Puncak Geliga Capital Sdn Bhd, iCandy Interactive Ltd, Sedania Innovator Berhad, and angel investors Michael Broda and Kin Wai Lau.

The company will use the freshly raised capital for product enhancement and to further grow its platform.

Launched in late-2019, ESPL offers an integrated tournament model of both hybrid online and on-ground tournaments for the grassroots gamer community. With this model, it intends to create a bedroom-to-champion pathway for aspiring e-sports enthusiasts to be able to participate and be given a chance to be a world champion.

The company claims to have organised more than 312 tournaments across 16 countries in Asia, Europe, and America, viewed by close to 11.6 million e-sports enthusiasts.

Also Read: Gobi, Warner Music Group back Philippine e-sports entertainment startup Tier One 

The e-sports platform is managed by its headquarters in Singapore and regional offices in Cologne and Los Angeles.

“ESPL is one of the fastest-growing amateur esports tournaments and media platforms that we have seen. The combination of geographical focus, competitive mobile gaming and non – endemic brand penetration were decisive to our investment decision,” Carlos Barrios, CEO of RightBridge Ventures AB, said.

The global e-sports industry is one of the few that has been thriving despite the widespread economic catastrophe caused by COVID-19.

In 2019, the e-sports gaming scene saw more than 50,000 competing teams. An Esports Charts report highlighted Arena of Valor (ROV) and PUBG Mobile as the top two leading games in the Asian market

Interestingly, more initiatives are now being taken to further accelerate e-sports gaming in Southeast Asia.

For example, e-sports was recognised as a medal sport in the SEA Games in the Philippines, and it will also be recognised in the 2022 Asian Games and potentially in the Olympics.

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BukuKas, a digital ledger app for MSMEs in Indonesia, announced today that it has raised US$50 million in Series B funding.

The round includes participation from angel investors Gokul Rajaram, an executive of DoorDash, and Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of Wise (formerly known as TransferWise).

This news comes just four months after the company’s US$10 million Series A fundraise led by Sequoia Capital India.

According to the press statement, the new money will be used to strengthen BukuKas’ leadership team, engineering, and product
capabilities both in Jakarta and Bangalore. The company also intends to expand the range of services offered to merchants.

BukuKas was founded in 2019 by Krishnan M Menon who realised how MSMEs were excluded from the tech revolution during his trips to rural Indonesia.

He noticed that many small businesses still managed their finances using pen and paper. Furthermore, they struggled to get visibility on their finances.

To solve the problem he decided to launch BukuKas along with his long-time friend and former Lazada executive Lorenzo Peracchione.

BukuKas app provides a simple book-keeping solution that can record sales, expenses, accounts receivable, and debt. It can also send reminders to customers to pay back and analyse customer insights.

As of April 2021, the company claims to have onboarded 6.3 million small traders and shop owners across its platforms, with their users recording an annualised transaction value of nearly US$25.9 billion. By the end of 2022, the company aims to onboard 20 million MSMEs.

Also Read: BukuKas raises US$9M pre-Series A from Surge, Credit Saison, others

Bukukas has also recently launched a new payment feature called ‘BukuKasPay’, a feature which enables small business owners to pay their suppliers on time and collect money digitally from their customers through various digital payment methods such as Bank Virtual Accounts, QRIS, and popular electronic wallets such as OVO, DANA, GoPay, LinkAja, and Shopeepay.

BukuKas has also made several strategic moves. In September 2020 they acquired a digital ledger app ‘Catatan Keuangan Harian’ to expand market share.

Soon after, they launched a commerce enablement platform ‘Tokko’ to help merchants to sell more effectively on social commerce channels and set up online stores.

“Indonesia is home to more than 60 million MSMEs who generate over 60 per cent of the country’s GDP. Small merchants are increasingly looking for simple digital solutions to their daily problems, from being on top of their cash flows to generating and
handling more WhatsApp orders,” said Peracchione.

“BukuKas wants to become the preferred merchant ecosystem partner to help small business owners thrive and grow in our digital age. Following the launch of BukuKasPay, we will continue to build trust with our merchants and support them with full suite banking and commerce solutions in the near future,” he added.

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Image Credit: BukuKas

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Affable.ai, a Singapore-based influencer marketing startup, announced today that it has raised US$2 million from Prime Venture Partners, Decacorn Capital, and SGInnovate.

The company plans to expand into international markets such as the US with the newly raised capital.

With influencer marketing processes being extremely manual, time-consuming, and based on guesswork, Nisarg Shah and Swayam Narain decided to launch a solution that would help brands streamline their micro-influencer marketing process.

They founded Affable.ai in 2017 during their time in Entrepreneur First with the aim to bring more transparency and clarity to influencer marketing.

Affable.ai not only uses advanced machine learning and big data analytics to help brands run high-impact influencer marketing campaigns but also detects fake followers, discovers follower interests, and classifies social media users based on brands, fan pages, etc.

Also Read: Ex-Grabbers; startup Evo raises seed funding to help influencers, live-streamers optimise back-office ops

The company said that it tracks more than three million influencers across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.

Some of its clients include top brands and agencies including Huawei, Wipro, Pomelo, Fresh, Omnicom, Dentsu, and We Communications.

“We see a huge opportunity in working with brands to enable the much needed, data-driven influencer marketing campaigns. The industry-leading brands and agencies we work with reinforce our belief in the need for analytics to streamline the micro-influencer marketing process,” Shah said.

“Data-driven analytics is the need of the hour in the influencer marketing ecosystem which is a new and upcoming marketing channel and has picked up steam in the last three to five years. We believe that influencer marketing will become a mainstream marketing channel for brands with a significant budget allocation. We are excited by the demand and the potential for this service and are delighted to back founders who are passionate and have deep expertise in this field,” Shripati Acharya, Managing Partner of Prime Venture Partners, added.

A global rise in digital consumption continues to propel influencer marketing campaigns among brands across all sectors.

Being a mobile-first region along with its youthful demography and growing popularity of social platforms, Southeast Asia has become an ideal ground for influencer marketing to flourish and the market is estimated to reach US$2.59 billion by 2024.

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Launching a company in an emerging market can be extremely beneficial.

Many opportunities in these markets arise out of necessity, or the drive to solve a need or a social problem. Further accelerated by COVID-19, the adoption of digital technology has now become an imperative rather than simply a choice in markets where previously large populations had little access to tech.

Thus, these markets offer huge opportunities for disruptive technology. In fact, according to the World Bank. growth in South Asian countries between 2013 and 2016 increased from 6.2 per cent to 7.5 per cent while growth rates of other developing nations remained flat and sometimes even turned negative.

While the economic potential of South Asian countries continues to flourish, e27 celebrates the 19 startups and their nominees that are solving problems in emerging markets via its Luminaries list.

The information in this article has been acquired from the e27 Startup Database and other platforms including Tracxn, Crunchbase, and LinkedIn.

Here are the startups:

Ayannah (Philippines)

A fintech startup that aims to provide digital financial services to the middle-class in emerging markets. Its services are available for both local Filipino users and those living abroad.

Its two main platforms are Sendah and Sendah Direct. Sendah is a B2C platform that allows overseas Filipinos to send mobile top-ups, electronic vouchers as well as physical goods. While Sendah Direct is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that partners with brick-and-mortar retailers to offer services like mobile top-ups, online game credits, and, more recently, domestic remittance.

For e27 Luminaries, Ayannah nominated Marlon Ramirez and credited him for his role in growing the business throughout the pandemic.

Latest funding: US$3.1M

Investors: 500 Startups, Life.SREDA

Team size: 54

Didian (Malaysia)

A digital B2B property marketplace for agents and agencies to source and sell residential projects from Malaysia’s top developers. Through its app, “Didian Agent App”, agents can find their desired projects, can check the unit availability, book a unit, and track a sale’s progress all the way up to the commission stage.

The company nominated Lead Software Engineer Ching Yaw Hao, for developing a product that enables property agents to sell online during the pandemic.

Latest funding: Self-funded

Team size: 16

Expedock (the Philippines)

An AI-powered automation service that powers back-offices for businesses in cross-border container trade to revolutionise the workflow of businesses in the supply chain. It claims to help clients generate savings of up to 90 per cent by eliminating all data extraction and data entry work for airway bills, bills of ladings, invoices, whilst decreasing turnaround time by up to 10x.

The company named Chief Product Officer Jig Young as nominee for developing a product that has gained the attention of both investors and customers.

Latest funding: US$4M

Investors of latest round: Ali Partovi, eBay, Salesforce, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Team size: 20+

Finantier (Indonesia)

An Indonesia-based fintech startup that uses Open Finance API platform to provide infrastructure and data products with financial institutions to create “seamless and personalised” experiences for consumers, who can benefit from their data. The startup is currently still in its beta phase and is also a part of  Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 startup batch.

The company nominated Senior Engineering Manager Victor Oloan for building the Finantier platform from scratch in the midst of a pandemic.

Latest funding: Pre-seed undisclosed

Also Read: Meet the 4 Luminaries startups that made a pivot to tide over COVID-19 crisis

Investors of latest round: East Ventures, AC Ventures, Genesia Ventures, Two Culture Capital

Team size: 20+

GajiGesa (Indonesia)

A financial wellness platform that aims to improve the long-term financial health of employees and companies by providing them with financial education, and other financial management tools.

Through its app employees can track their earnings, access their earned wages, and pay bills, among other uses. For employers, the platform allows HR teams to measure the effectiveness of financial well-being strategies and get visibility over engagement, productivity, and employee financial health.

GajiGesa nominated their Country Head for Indonesia market, Ade Yuanda Saragih for e27 Luminaries. Saragih led the company’s operation in Indonesia throughout the challenges of COVID-19.

Latest funding: US$2.5M

Investors of latest round: Defy.vc, Quest Ventures, GK Plug, and Play, Next Billion Ventures, Alto Partners Multi-Family Office, Kanmo Group.

Team size: 20+

Gojek (Indonesia)

Gojek is Indonesia’s super app that was initially started as a motorcycle ride-hailing company but has since expanded to different verticals, like digital payments, food delivery, logistics, and many other on-demand services. It has recently announced its merger with fellow Indonesian unicorn Tokopedia.

Gojek nominated CTO Severan Rault for e27 Luminaries nomination.

Latest funding: US$300M

Investors of latest round: Telkomsel

Team size: 22,000+

GudangAda  (Indonesia)

A B2B e-commerce platform for FMCG wholesalers, manufacturers, and retail businesses. Through its platform, traders can connect to meet and transact online with wholesalers and mom-pop retailers of all sizes.

GudangAda named Andre Widjaja, Chief of Business Development, as its nominees for e27 Luminaries. Widjaja built the company’s sales and BD team and prepared it for expansion.

Latest funding: US$25.4M

Investors of latest round: Sequoia India, Alpha JWC Ventures

Team size: 250+

Inavoice (Indonesia)

A one-stop solution for people in the creative industry who want to create their own audiovisual products. In addition to building a platform for voice-over talents which the startup began with, it has also expanded to include background music.

For e27 Luminaries, Inavoice named its admin staff Punto Adhil Dewanto for his crucial role in the process of establishing and running the company.

Latest funding: Unfunded

Investors of latest round: N/A

Team size: 10+

Jala Tech (Indonesia)

Jala Tech is transforming the shrimp industry by offering a vastly improved management system. The goal of the company is to get farmers to make decisions based on actual data.  To do that, its system provides water quality monitoring, planning, and reporting tools, complete with a decision support system so that farmers can initiate the right treatment at the right time, based on data that has been collected and analysed.

Jala Tech nominated BD Executive Christine Kombong for her dedication to helping the company’s community of shrimp farmers.

Also Read: Your very first look at e27 Luminaries, the unsung heroes of the SEA startup ecosystem

Latest funding: Undisclosed seed round

Investors of latest round: 500 Startups, Conservation International Ventures, Hatch Accelerator Holding.

Team size: 30+

Koinworks (Indonesia)

Koinworks brings together SMEs and lenders online under a single platform so that the former who have historically been underbanked by traditional financial institutions can borrow easily from the latter. Leveraging machine learning, KoinWorks enables borrowers to access low-interest loans while funders receive better returns.

For e27 Luminaries, KoinWorks nominated its CMO Jonathan Bryan for his success in maintain brand position amidst a challenging time.

Latest funding: US$20M

Investors of latest round: Quona Capital, EV Growth, and Saison Capital.

Team size: 250+

Lozi (Vietnam)

A Vietnamese one-hour-delivery e-commerce startup that delivers food, FMCG, electronics, fashion, cosmetics, laundry, medicine, courier, flower, ride-hailing, and B2B ingredients. The app also has a feature where wherein customers can listen to multiple podcasts while waiting for their delivery.

The company nominated CTO Thinh Ngoc Nguyen for his achievement in leading the team throughout challenging times.

Latest funding: Undisclosed Series C round

Investors of latest round: MetaPlanet Holdings

Team size: 90+

Mosaic Solutions (the Philippines)

The company offers cloud-based management software for F&B and hospitality companies. Its product suite includes data analytics, inventory management, point of sale, and purchasing.

The company nominated Aziel Salve, Director of Client Onboarding, for ensuring continuous growth and clients’ trust during the pandemic.

Latest funding: US$1M

Investors of latest round: Gentree

Team size: 25

MYCL (Indonesia)

A fashion tech startup that cultivates mycelia (a type of fungus) along with sawdust to make a substitute for animal-based leather. Its designed process consumes far less water than the traditional animal-based leather-making processes. The fashion industry is one of the beneficiaries of this sustainable material.

The HR team plays a crucial role in keeping the company’s morale through the challenges of the pandemic. This is why MYCL nominated Jean Rosy Tency, Head of HR, for e27 Luminaries.

Latest funding: US$20,000

Investors of latest round: Kickstarter.

Team size: 25

OVO (Indonesia)

A mobile app payment system that ensures that financial transactions are simple, instant, and secure. The platform provides its users with access to payments, transfers, cash-in/out, rewards, asset management, and investments.

OVO named CEO Jason Thompson as its nominee for e27 Luminaries.

Latest funding: Undisclosed

Investors of latest round: Undisclosed

Team size: 1,400+

Sociolla (Indonesia)

An e-commerce platform for beauty products and a subsidiary of Social Bella, an integrated beauty-tech company that focuses on developing “a scalable and sustainable” online and offline ecosystem for beauty and personal care. One of its major goals is to empower customers to use local brands. 

The company has recently expanded to Vietnam, and has nominated Ngoc Phungbich, Chief Business Officer, for e27 Luminaries.

Latest funding: US$58M

Investors of latest round: Temasek, Pavilion Capital, and Jungle Ventures

Team size: 600+

TaniHub (Indonesia)

An agritech startup that focuses on bridging farmers to a wider market. Its business lines include TaniHub (an e-commerce platform for food and agricultural products), TaniFund (a P2P lending platform for farmers), and TaniSupply (a unit that works on improving agricultural supply chain).

TaniHub named Astri Purnamasari, VP Corporate Services, as its nominee for e27 Luminaries. As one of its earliest hires, she has helped establishing company culture.

Latest funding: US$17M

Investors of latest round: Openspace Ventures, Intudo Ventures, UOB Venture Management, Vertex Ventures, BRI Ventures, Tenaya Capital, Golden Gate Ventures.

Team size: 600+

Also Read:  The strength within: A closer look at the operations and administration leads of e27 Luminaries

Tokopedia (Indonesia)

An e-commerce giant that aims to build a super ecosystem where anyone can start and discover anything. The company works with various marketplaces, logistics, payments, and financial technology businesses, while also providing more than 500,000 payment points across Indonesia.

Tokopedia nominated Herman Widjaja, SVP & CTO, for e27 Luminaries for his work in building a culture of innovation and teamwork as #OneTokopedia.

Latest funding: US$350M

Investors of latest round: Google, Temasek Holdings

Team size: 5000+

Xendit (Indonesia)

A digital payment infrastructure company that enables businesses to accept digital payments without the need to implement integrations with individual providers. It has since expanded its services to include services such as fraud detection, lending, and tax management.

For leading the team in securing sales during the pandemic, Sujinun Jutakorn, VP of Sales, is named as the company’s e27 Luminaries nominee.

Latest funding: US$64.6M

Investors of latest round: Accel, Y-Combinator

Team size: 300+

Zenius (Indonesia)

Zenius is an edutech startup that targets all education levels, from elementary school to senior high with public university test prep. The cost to subscribe to its online course starts from US$12 to US$46 per month. Zenius is said to already have a library of 80,000 educational videos.

Zenius named its CEO Rohan Monga for e27 Luminaries. Despite being a newcomer in the edutech industry, he has managed to lead the introduction of new products to the market.

Latest funding: Undisclosed Series A

Investors of latest round: N/A

Team size: 400+

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The post Meet the e27 Luminaries startups that are making life easier through tech in these emerging markets appeared first on e27.