Day: July 1, 2021

 

Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up programme in India and Southeast Asia, has announced the 23 early-stage startups participating in its fifth cohort.

According to a press release, Surge, along with other co-investors, has already invested a total of US$55 million in the current batch.

The programme, which kicks off on June 30, has 10 woman founders, the largest in a cohort since it first started two years ago in March 2019.

The Surge community now has 203 founders from 91 startups building companies across more than 15 sectors.

“We are incredibly proud of all 23 companies who have joined Surge 05 and the founders who have forged their businesses in sectors that have seen tremendous tailwinds. These leaders have displayed grit, exceptional talent, and relentless purpose in shaping the world. At this inflection point of global regrowth, we are excited to be part of the journey of our founders and their companies, many of which we believe will grow into large, enduring businesses,” said Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Surge and Sequoia India.

Below is a snapshot of the 23 startups:

Absolute

A plant bioscience- and AI-driven adaptive platform for precision agriculture, which helps horticulture growers radically transform yields, grade, and nutritional value of the produce.

ADPList

Aims to democratise mentorship and make it accessible for everyone through a community platform where people can find, book, and meet mentors around the world.

ApnaKlub

An agent-led B2B wholesale platform for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG).

Belora

It aims to produce clean, high-performance, vegan makeup — free from toxins and harmful ingredients. The company’s mission is to create makeup that doubles up as skincare so that women can wear products, which are not only dermatologically tested, but also good for their skin.

Durianpay

A fully integrated and comprehensive payments stack that enables businesses to grow and scale. The company’s goal is to modernise payments across SEA which helps improve both customer and merchant experiences.

Dyte

A developer-friendly real-time audio and video calling software development kit (SDK) that allows developers to integrate live video into their apps in interesting and innovative ways.

Also Read: Rajan Anandan to entrepreneurs: ‘Trim the fat and build a leaner organisation’

Gumlet

A new-age media delivery infrastructure that provides low code or no-code integration plugins, which automates the entire media publishing pipeline.

Locad

It makes multi-channel e-commerce fulfilment easier. It does this by offering a distributed warehousing network, which reduces shipping time and costs by storing products closer to customers.

Mailmodo

An email marketing platform that helps marketers create app-like experiences within emails and increase conversions.

Mesh

A new-age people management platform that makes it easy for employees to manage goals, get timely feedback, and grow faster.

Multiplier

The platform makes it easy for companies to hire teams internationally by managing the complexities of local compliance, labor contracts, payroll, benefits, and taxes.

OneCode

An app that connects companies with sales agents, giving these agents access to sell the products and services to less tech-savvy buyers.

PowerPlay

A mobile-first, vernacular construction site management app that enables project managers and workers to communicate and collaborate more effectively.

Pankhuri

A social community platform where women can network, learn, and shop online through live streaming, chat, and micro-courses.

Rara Delivery

A platform revolutionising instant delivery for e-commerce in Indonesia through data-driven logistics.

Revery

It uses game thinking to revolutionise wellness, and the team is on a mission to make wellness affordable and accessible to anyone with a mobile phone.

TWID

A rewards-based payment network that enables customer reward or loyalty points to be used as a payment instrument.

Vah Vah

A live, online vocational training platform that offers professional beauty courses.

Vara

An easy-to-use and lightweight staff management platform that enables small companies in Southeast Asia to effortlessly manage their attendance and payroll.

Veera Health

A digital therapeutics platform that helps women identify and navigate Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), with a comprehensive offering of therapy, coaching, and specialist support.

Also Read: Meet the 4 SEA startups who have made it to Sequoia Surge’s new batch

Virtual Internships

Virtual Internships are redesigning internships for the 21st-century workforce, mirroring the future of work. The company believes in the democratisation of the global workforce by widening participation and creating global talent pipelines and access to jobs worldwide for students of all backgrounds and nationalities.

WATI

It helps companies have personalised conversations with customers at scale with an easy-to-use customer engagement software that’s built on WhatApp’s Business API.

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Image Credit: Sequoia Capital

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Vietnam-based payments app Momo has acquired local startup Pique that uses AI to turn visitors into customers.

The financial details remain disclosed.

This news was first reported by TechInAsia.

With this deal, MoMo plans to capitalise on Pique’s 25 million user database to further improve its product offerings.

Also Read: Momo secures Series D to become Vietnam’s next super-app; plans to launch new startup fund

According to a statement, MoMo has bought all of Pique’s intellectual property and hired its data science and engineering team, including its founder Trinh Xuan Tuan.

Founded in 2007, Momo offers mobile, electronic wallet, and payment services for iOS and Android devices. Its range of products include cash transfers, mobile phone recharges personal loans and services, such as software license and online game cards.

As of now, Momo has over 10,000 partners across verticals such as consumer finance, insurance, money transfers, utility payments, entertainment, e-commerce, shopping, transportation, and F&B.

In January, Momo raised an undisclosed amount in Series D, co-led by Warburg Princus and Silicon Valley-based VC firm Goodwater Capital

In total, MoMo has raised about US$232.7 million to date.

Pique on the other hand was founded in 2016 and helps businesses boost sales by personalising product recommendations and digital experiences for their clients.

The company has previously raised an undisclosed amount of investment from several notable investors including 500 Startups Vietnam, South Korea’s GS Shop, and more.

Also Read:  Startup of the Month, January: Vietnamese e-wallet service MoMo

Vietnam’s digital payments vertical, especially contactless payments, has witnessed a stupendous growth following the onset of COVID-19.

Although cash-on-delivery has been the most popular mode of purchase in Vietnam, the trend is seeing a big shift thanks to the behavioral change forced by the pandemic.

Other major companies operating in the contactless payments space in Vietnam are Gojek, Finhay, Payoo, Moca, and SenPay.

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Image Credit: MoMo

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Singapore-based venture capital firm Velocity Ventures has announced the initial closing of its US$20-million fund dedicated to hospitality & travel startups in Southeast Asia.

The Velocity Hospitality and Travel Fund I has a COVID-19-themed investment mandate, focusing on supporting distressed and disrupting seed and early growth-stage startups in these industries.

The initial closing brings the fund close to 40 per cent of the targeted corpus size.

Its backers include strategic individuals investors, family offices, and other institutional capital.

The fund expects to make the final close at the end of 2021.

Also Read: Here are the 5 predictions for Southeast Asia’s travel industry trends post-COVID-19

Along with this, the fund has also announced its maiden investments in two startups: Aigens and Zuzu Hospitality.

Based out of Hong Kong, Aigens provides fully integrated mobile, middleware, and hardware solutions to help restaurants and hotels grow revenue, improve productivity and deliver superior customer experience. Aigens AI-powered solutions allow mobile, BYOD, online, and kiosk omnichannel ordering solutions, and integrate with over 300 POS, payment, and delivery platforms.

Headquartered in Singapore, ZUZU helps independent hotels grow their revenues by solving their revenue and distribution management challenges with a proprietary all-in-one hotel operating system. ZUZU offers resource- and time-strapped hotels the technology and expertise of larger hotel chains with none of their associated costs and restrictions.

“In such unprecedented times, we believe the pandemic will deliver a period of unparalleled innovation and opportunity in the hospitality and travel space as the industry transforms and adapts post-Covid-19. This, coupled with the adjustment to valuations driven by the extreme distress in the sector, provides an unprecedented opportunity to invest, support the industry and earn outsized returns. The success of this fundraising is a strong validation of our strategy,” said founder and Managing Partner Nicholas Cocks.

Velocity invests in early to growth-stage tech startups across the verticals of food & beverage, retail & experiences, accommodation, travel services, and transportation. The firm also runs a Corporate Partners program, which aims to create value for the hospitality & travel industry by partnering with strategic key players in the sector to pilot innovation and support the recovery through COVID-19.

Its current corporate partners include Etihad Airways (transportation – airline), Lufthansa Innovation Hub (transportation, airline), Goldbell Group (transportation, mobility), The Lo & Behold Group (F&B), RB Capital (retail and experiences), and Global Hotel Alliance (accommodation).

It also works closely with government bodies and accelerator programmes in the hospitality & travel sector in Southeast Asia to build, develop and protect the startup ecosystem. They include Singapore Tourism Board, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, and Plug and Play APAC.

Also Read: Lumitics raises seed funding to track the food wasted by Singapore’s F&B outlets and restaurants

Velocity Ventures has earlier backed two startups — Lumitics (food waste management) and IDEM Hospitality (cloud-based solutions to automate and reduce the complexity of group reservations).

As the COVID-19 broke out and spread rapidly in 2020, the international travel industry like aviation and hospitality suffered unprecedented damages. In some countries in Southeast Asia, which is famous for its world-class tourist destinations, tourism is the main revenue stream, and the suspension of travel activities meant lower foreign inflows, decreased employment rates, and thus, sharp economic slowdown.

Many startups operating in the travel and hospitality sector either shuttered (for example, Airy) or pivoted their product/business model (For example, Indonesia-based accommodation startup Bobobox pivoted to a capsule network). The launching of the new fund will give some relief to many startups in the industry that are looking for financial resources to put their business back on track.

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Dedoco, a Singapore-based decentralised digital document and signing platform, announced today it has completed a seed investment of SGD 3.3 million (US$2.45 million), led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia.

With this capital, Dedoco will expand into new markets, and scale its platform and technology to support a robust product roadmap focusing on delivering the solution to organisations and users globally.

New features will also be progressively rolled out over the next 12 to 24 months with an emphasis on increasing connectivity with various cloud and system partners.

Co-founded in 2020 by tech entrepreneur Daphne Ng and Dr. Ernie Teo, Dedoco enables document authentication by securing real-time verification options while an audit trail is recorded on the blockchain to maintain transaction integrity. This, claims the startup, allows users to maintain greater governance and convenience over their daily processes.

Also Read: Electronic signing made easy for modern businesses

One of Dedoco’s key differentiators is its ability to provide privacy and security options to organisations and users.

The ability to deliver and complete documents digitally also removes the need for physical documents to be couriered.

Businesses across all industries are rapidly normalising the use of electronically signed contracts, agreements, and other legal documentation. It also provides its new feature “Sign with Singpass” by the Government Technology Agency of Singapore to more than 2.5 million registered Singpass app users so that they can digitally sign documents.

Dedoco has clients spanning government organisations, banks, professional services (HR, accounting, and corporate services), and real estate.

Moving forward, Dedoco looks to further penetrate the global software-as-a-service (SaaS) market with its ‘data privacy, compliance and embedded trust’ proposition to provide more industries and organizations with the ability to access and transact trusted documents globally.

“Document security and privacy are vital for both MNCs and SMEs alike because they protect important document data and business interests. We understand the infrastructure that needs to be developed and are working alongside enlightened organisations to build and strengthen their digital document workflows,” said Daphne Ng, co-founder and CEO of Dedoco.

Also Read: LongHash Ventures launches US$15M fund to support early-stage blockchain startups

“Current competing solutions rely on centralised trust and take custody of digital documents. This is a huge security concern especially for companies dealing with highly sensitive and confidential documents. At Dedoco, we take a different approach with a decentralized architecture and a no-store solution to provide our clients with the highest form of data and document privacy,” added co-founder and CTO Ernie Teo.

Dedoco has earlier received funding from prominent angel investors like Willy Arifin (whose investments include Homage in Singapore, and BukuKas, KoinWorks in Indonesia) and Ong Chee Beng (tech veteran and most recently, Country Manager of AWS Singapore).

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Image Credit: Dedoco

 

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Endowus.com, a Singapore-based MAS-licensed digital wealth platform, announced today that it has received investments from strategic investors, including UBS, Samsung Ventures, and Singtel Innov8.

Lightspeed Venture Partners and SoftBank Ventures Asia also joined the round.

Although the funding details were not disclosed, a DealStreetAsia report pegged the size at US$4.5 million.

According to a statement, the strategic investors will play a critical role in Endowus’s growth and ambition to become a leading robo-advisor and digital wealth manager in Singapore and Asia.

UBS, Samsung, and Singtel Innov8 bring their respective and complementary expertise across digital financial services, consumer technology, and venture scaling to support Endowus in elevating the retail investing experience.

UBS is making its investment through UBS Next, a US$200-million strategic initiative to identify new venture opportunities and target investments in the fintech and broader tech ecosystem. UBS Next complements the bank’s innovation labs, digital factories, and future financial challenges to drive client experience and operational excellence.

Also Read: StashAway raises US$25M Series D to ‘fill the gap in digital wealth management space’

Samuel Rhee, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer at Endowus, said: “With the combined synergies, Endowus will continue to pioneer the path towards the best digital experience for individual investors to meet their growing needs in saving and investing for the future. The commitment from our new suite of investors, who are global leaders in their respective fields, will further fuel our mission of changing the face of wealth management, from solving for retirement to preserving a legacy.”

Endowus is a digital investment advisor for the Central Provident Fund (CPF), Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS), and cash. It offers access to “superior” investment products, personalised advice, and lower costs on a digital investment platform for all investors.

The wealthtech industry in Singapore, the second wealthiest economy in Asia, has seen accelerated growth over the past two to three years. StashAway is probably the leader in this segment. The startup, which was co-founded by former Zalora CEO Michele Ferrario, raised US$25 million in Series D funding round led by Sequoia Capital India in April this year.

Bambu is another local startup. It is, however, a B2B startup that provides digital wealth technology for B2B businesses across the globe. In 2019, this firm closed a US$10 million in a Series B round of funding, co-led by third-time investor Franklin Templ​eton, along with new investor Chicago-based PEAK6 Strategic Capital.

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Image Credit: Endowus

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