Day: June 17, 2021

Kuala Lumpur-headquartered RPG Commerce, a company that builds, launches and scales multi-brand e-commerce businesses globally, has secured an undisclosed amount in Series A round of investment.

Lead investors are Temasek-backed Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia, and Joseph Phua, co-founder and Chairman of 17 Live.

The funds will be utilised to accelerate the growth of more brands and further its expansion globally, RPG said in a statement. A part of the money also will go into regional expansion, talent acquisition, brand building, and R&D.

Also Read: Former Carousell, OVO execs launch e-commerce brand aggregator Rainforest with US$36M seed funding

Incorporated in Singapore, RPG Commerce is a multi-brand direct-to-consumer (DTC) company that launches and operates a suite of e-commerce brands via a ‘shared backend infrastructure’ approach.

Unlike the recent wave of startups that seek to roll up small e-commerce brands purely via brand acquisitions and selling on other e-commerce platforms, RPG primarily launches and incubates its own native brands in tandem with acquiring brands.

The firm says it is able to develop, test and launch a brand with a lot less capital and, at the same time, being able to scale each brand quickly.

While its products are present in over 40 countries, its current main markets are in the USA, Europe, Australia and Asia.

To date, it has launched over 10 brands globally in different categories such as men’s fashion, home and living, and fashion accessories.

Currently, it has over 100 employees in several locations globally.

Appoints Warren Tseng as new COO

In line with the funds raised, RPG Commerce also announced the appointment of Warren Tseng as its new COO. He will be tasked with leading the operation of the business and championing the strategic direction in alignment with the company’s development.

Tseng was previously General Manager of ride-hailing giant Uber (Singapore and Malaysia), and helmed the APAC market as Regional General Manager at CloudKitchens, a startup venture by Travis Kalanick, co-founder and former CEO of Uber.

RPG Commerce co-founder and CEO Melvin Chee said: “This new-normal created by societal reaction to the pandemic has accelerated the entire e-commerce industry and never been a more favourable period for DTC brands to rise. Having direct access to our customers gives us a strategic advantage over better understanding of their needs, armed with our agile operations that continuously enhance our products based on our customers’ feedback.”

Also Read: Ex-CEO of Rocket Internet Asia launches new e-commerce venture Una Brands with a US$40M seed round

We firmly believe that brands will build long lasting relationships with their customers through satisfying their needs and achieving their goals,” he added.

Chua Joo Hock, Managing Partner of Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia said: “We have seen the scaling problems of first generation D2C e-commerce models that generally focus on a single product or vertical. We are happy to partner with Melvin and his team, as the first outside investor in RPG Commerce, to build the next generation leader of a D2C company based on multi-brands.”

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Image Credit: RPG Commerce

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One of the struggles fundraising startups have is getting connected to potential investors. It’s a struggle to get warm introductions, a challenge to get your pitch deck viewed. With e27 Connect, we bridge the gap between investors and startup founders, and after a successful approval to get connected, startups are set for their meeting with the investors.

Behind these successful connections are the investors who actively respond to Connect requests and review the startup’s information. We feature these active investors weekly to provide a good chance for startup founders to get their first meeting.

Here’s this week’s list of investors you should start connecting with:

1. Kairous Capital

Investment: USD 1M – USD5M; Seed, Series A and Series B

Verticals: Fintech, Insurtech, Digital Healthcare, E-commerce and others

Kairous Capital is an emerging venture capital firm that invests in seed to series-B rounds in Southeast Asia and Greater China. We invest with a cross-border strategy in mind and act as a financial investor as well as the cross-border partner for our investees. Our main investment thesis is to invest in Chinese tech companies and export their technology and expertise from China to Southeast Asia. Then, we also invest in Southeast Asian tech companies by referencing proven business models and strategies of tech unicorns in China.

Latest Investments / Portfolio News:

Mercular (Thailand), Series A, April 2021

TechNode Global (Singapore), Seed, US$1M, Feb 2021

Pulsifi (Singapore), Seed, US$1.8M, Nov 2020

Intrepid (Singapore), Series A, Nov 2019

Also read: Pulsifi bags US$1.8M angel round to expand its smart HR platform to Europe

Managing Partner at Kairous Capital is Joseph Lee, an experienced Managing Partner with a demonstrated history of working in the venture capital and private equity industry. Skilled in Financial Structuring, Corporate Finance, Project Finance, Venture Capital, and Investment Banking. Strong business development professional graduated from CFA Institute. 

2. Prasetia Dwidharma

Investment: Not Specified, Angel / Pre Seed, Seed, Pre-Series A / Bridge, Series A

Verticals: All / Any

Prasetia Dwidharma is a telecommunication infrastructure company & an active early-stage investor since 2015 with 50 portfolio companies in Indonesia.

Latest Investments / Portfolio News:

PROSPARK

In the first quarter of 2021 alone, ProSpark grew 4x in their MRR. Its notable customers are among others GoJek, Bank Sampoerna, Kopi Kenangan, Northern Star Energy, PasarPolis and RD Pawnshop. Discovering a lot of similar dynamics between Indonesia and Philippines markets, ProSpark is expanding as it sees demand across various sectors.  

MYROBIN

With over 2.5 million workers in their community, MyRobin is supporting eCommerce, Warehousing, Logistics companies in Indonesia to promote their growth, including the Top 5. MyRobin has helped thousands of workers find jobs during the pandemic, like courier, warehouse workers, drivers, telesales, customer service, field sales.

Also read: Kairous Capital, SPH Ventures join TechNode Global’s US$1M seed round to help it accelerate Asia expansion

CEO of Prasetia Dwidharma is Arya Setiadharma, with good experience in operating, expertise and extensive network, he assists founders whenever needed, in planning and executing company strategies, so that they are ready for the growth stage. In addition, as a recognition of Prasetia’s investment track record, Arya Setiadharma, has been selected to be the first MDI Telkom Venture partner in 2019. 

3. Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia

Investment: Not Specified, Seed, Series A, Series B

Verticals: Big Data, E-commerce, Enterprise Solution, Finance, Hardware, Human Resources, Information & Communications Technology, Retail

Latest Investment / Portfolio News:

Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia is the corporate venture capital arm of Sumitomo Corporation. As part of a global diversified conglomerate, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia focuses on identifying early-stage strategic investments in China and Southeast Asia. Since 2002, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia has invested in more than 50 companies and has brought in global resources and expertise from Sumitomo Corporation to assist the rapid growth of its portfolio companies.

Also read: Finantier raises 7-figure USD to take its open finance solution to Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand

The Executive Director and Board of Director is Francis Wong, he leads Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia’s investment team from sourcing, investing, portfolio management to daily operations. With his professional background as a chartered engineer and years of experience in venture investing, Francis provides deep insights into Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia’s investments and charts Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia’s investment strategies.

The Connect feature is exclusively available for Pro members. If you want to start connecting with these investors, get a Pro trial account now!

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Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

The post Here are this week’s Active Investors that are worth connecting with appeared first on e27.

Finantier, a Singapore-based open finance startup, has raised 7-figure seed capital in a new funding round led by Global Founders Capital (GFC) and East Ventures (EV).

Existing investors AC Ventures, Y Combinator, Genesia Ventures, Two Culture Capital, besides new investors such as Future Shape, Partech Partners, Taurus Ventures, Saison Capital, and GMO VenturePartners, also participated.

The round was raised at more than 20x the valuation the company received for its pre-seed funding in November 2020, as per a company statement.

Finantier intends to use the money to scale and enhance its product offerings within Indonesia, expand to the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, and double its team size.

Founded in 2020, co-founders of Finantier initially wanted to build an Open Banking platform but later decided to switch the idea to build an Open Finance platform as Open Banking would exclude a large amount of the unbanked population in emerging markets.

Open banking’s use cases are limited to products offered by banks (loans, credit cards, etc.). Open finance, on the other hand, allows the exchange of data between a wide range of financial companies.

Also Read: Finantier secures funding from Y Combinator for its Open Finance platform

Lack of access to consumer financial data is a big problem in Indonesia as many financial institutions don’t have access to consumer financial data. This handicaps them in providing financial services such as payments, lending, and insurance.

Finantier solves this problem by aggregating data from alternative data sources such as gig economy platforms and telcos. After the consent of the user is obtained, these datasets are analysed to provide detailed insights on consumers for financial institutions, allowing them to provide financial services for the unbanked.

This, claims the firm, significantly reduces the number of people who lack access to basic financial services, accelerating financial inclusion within Indonesia, which the government has identified as a key priority.

“Our business model is a traditional SaaS, with a recurring charge per month according to the usage of our Aggregation API. We are also launching new products later this year that has a slightly different commercial model,” Diego Rojas, co-founder of Finantier told e27.

As of now, the company works with over 150 companies, giving clients access to a comprehensive range of datasets.

Additionally, Finantier has appointed Francesco Simoneschi, co-founder of Truelayer (a Temasek-backed open banking platform based in the UK) to its table of Advisors.

“In order to accelerate financial inclusion and to increase innovation in financial services across Indonesia, collaboration is key among regulators, associations, and the private sector. The Finantier team is doing a great job by proactively engaging all the parties while building a fintech platform and a sustainable ecosystem aligned with the vision of a more inclusive country,” Pandu Patria Sjahrir, Founding Partner at AC Ventures and Chairman of Indonesia FinTech Association said.

“Accelerating financial inclusion within Indonesia is crucial given the high unbanked rate. With access to better financial services, these underserved segments of the population can lead better lives and drive growth for the Indonesian economy,” added Willson Cuaca, co-founder at East Ventures.

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Image Credit: Finantier

The post Finantier raises 7-figure USD to take its open finance solution to Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand appeared first on e27.

pitchIN, a leading equity crowdfunding (ECF) platform in Malaysia, announced today it has raised RM5.5 million (~US$1.3 million) through its own campaign.

The capital came from 322 investors participated, including Chan Kok San, co-founder of Aimflex; and Simpson Wong Kean Hin, Managing Director of Shellys Marketing.

pitchIN is currently in the final stages of raising an additional RM5 million (US$1.2 million) from institutional investors.

“We set out to raise RM10 million in total, of which RM5 million was allocated for institutional investors. The investors have been identified and we expect to close that amount fairly soon,” CEO Sam Shafie said in a statement.

With the new funding, pitchIN aims to expand its operations to serve more businesses and investors, as well as offer new services in the next few years.

The company has also shared that it plans to open a secondary market for its extended credit facility platform later this year. pitchIN has also applied for a license to operate an Initial Exchange Offering platform.

Also Read: Malaysia’s clinical communication app MedPlanner raises US$240K in equity crowdfunding

Founded in 2012, pitchIN is a platform for Malaysia-based companies to raise funds from the general public and investment community. It launched pitchIN equity in March 2016. To date, it claims to have funded 112 deals.

“In 2015, we launched pitchIN with our own funds because we believed in the importance of democratising the fundraising industry. We are grateful that we have been able to create a platform that has helped 112 SMEs and startups raise capital from over 5,500 investors. These new funds will enable us to offer our services to more SMEs and startups,” said pitchIN Chief Security Officer Kashminder Singh.

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Image Credit: pitchIn

The post pitchIN secures US$1.3M in funding via own ECF platform, in talks to raise US$1.2M more appeared first on e27.

We hope our handy tips on thought leadership from last week has been helpful.

For the past two weeks, we have been discussing the importance of building thought leadership and how to go about it when you have little or no resources to do so.

While speaking engagements are great way to establish yourself as a thought leader, such opportunities are hard to come by. Writing your thoughts out is one way to attract speaking opportunities. Many early-stage startups and thought leaders use platform such as Medium, LinkedIn and e27 Contributor Programme to publish their views and share them with a larger audience these days.

We know ‘writing an article’ can sound scary if you have no professional qualification or writing experience.

This is why we put together this short writing exercise for you to get your creative juices flowing.

The first half of this video added below gives you more details about our Contributor Programme, followed by tips from our editor Anisa Menur Maulani. The final 20 minutes is a live writing exercise.

You will need:

• 45 mins off your schedule
• A pen/paper or any electronic writing device

Get, set, start writing!

Feel free to reach out to me at mili@e27.co if you want feedback on your writing exercise, article pitches or any help with your thought leadership journey.

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

The post This guide could help you write like a thought leader appeared first on e27.