Nas Academy, a Singapore-based education platform that empowers creators to build their own academy, has raised US$11 million in a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Other investors include TechAviv Founder Partners, 500 Startups, Graph Ventures, FreshFund, Metapurse, Balaji Srinivasan, Emilie Choi (President and COO of Coinbase), Ritesh Agrawal (founder and CEO of OYO), Markian (a creator with over 10 million followers), and the founders of Jellysmack.

With the fresh funds, the company plans to expand its network of creator partners and strategic partners to make the platform’s content accessible to every person in the world.

Nuseir Yassin, a Harvard-educated software engineer-turned-creator with over 40 million followers across all social media platforms, founded Nas Academy in 2020 because he himself was part of the explosion of the creator economy and witnessed firsthand its full potential to reach everyday fans.

Yet he recognised a core problem for creators; despite reaching millions of followers and billions of views, creators still struggled to make a sustainable living from social media platforms.

There was also an untapped market to help creators spread the wealth of their skills to other budding creators.

Yassin wanted to create a different type of education platform — one with creators in mind that removes the barriers for creators to become educators

Also Read: Edutech will be a hot commodity going forward: GREDU co-founder Rizky Anies

Unlike other edutech platforms, Nas Academy supports creators with curriculum development, marketing, and community management.

In just over a year, Nas Academy claims to have helped creators generate millions of revenue and teach students from 110 countries.

“Nas Academy was born out of a problem I faced. If a creator wants to teach, they need to use multiple services, figure out marketing, and spend a lot of time and effort to build a learning experience. With our support and platform, we make it super easy and straightforward to turn a YouTuber into a professor,” said Yassin.

“COVID-19 has also changed education as we know it. Nas Academy will decentralise online education. Just like social media platforms enabled a kid from a village to get more views than CNN, Nas Academy wants to enable one creator to become bigger than Harvard,” he added.

Akshay Bhushan, Partner at Lightspeed, said: “New media is increasingly dominated by creators and Nuseir & team, having been successful creators themselves, are uniquely positioned to enable creators to become educators to teach and monetise their respective crafts.”

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Digital SMEs have been categorized as underbanked or unbanked segments for quite some time, even though they have crucial contributions to the economy; in Indonesia alone, SMEs are contributing 60 per cent of the country’s GDP while absorbing 97 per cent of the local workforce.

“As one of the first fintech companies that focus on helping them, we have experienced their spirit and creativity in building a sustainable business that resulted in remarkable impact for the country,” said Benedicto Haryono, CEO and Co-Founder of KoinWorks, an online peer-to-peer financing platform for small and medium-sized businesses in Indonesia.

But not everything is rosy, as based on the Digital SME Confidence Index research that was done by KoinWorks last year, the majority of Indonesian SMEs are facing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with an average confidence index of 2.37 out 5.

However, the same research also shows that SMEs that have more than one sales channel — after expanding to online marketplace, social media, or creating a website – tend to have less of an income drop.

The trading industry, for example, can even reach a high confidence index of 4.7 from 5.00, likely because of the online transaction boost that happened after the government applied the large-scale social restriction. This shows that digital support for SMEs has a positive impact amid the pandemic.

Supporting SME growth even through the pandemic

Through innovation, KoinWorks has enabled thousands of SMEs to access credit and financing that would normally be inaccessible to them through traditional financial institutions. Since 2016, KoinWorks has become the pioneer in the Digital SME sector by collaborating with prominent tech companies in Indonesia, such as Tokopedia, Shopee, Lazada, Moka, Pawoon, Mekari, and BukuKas. Because of those partnerships, the loan approval process for SME owners can be more efficient.

“In the age of technology, it’s easier for us to diversify our investment according to our risk profile and financial purpose. For example people can choose peer to peer loans and government bonds for their short term investment and gold for long investment. In KoinWorks, you can do it without having to switch apps,” said Dani Rachmat Kurniawan, an Investor of KoinWorks and Certified Financial Planner.

Also read: India’s first accelerator and VC fund gears up for its maiden demo day series

On average, KoinWorks’s lender can get 18.37 per cent in annual yield. With a low Non-Performing Loan rate of 1.2 per cent, KoinWorks has strengthened its business and has achieved profitability earlier this year. KoinWorks as a Super Financial App has a multiverse of products generating Take Rate up to 6% of their balance, through platform fees and partner fees.

With the COVID-19 outbreak that has disturbed economic stability in Indonesia, KoinWorks worked on supporting SMEs that could not quickly adapt to the situation by providing a loan restructure program for several borrowers, prolonging their payment to 24 months and reducing the monthly repayment.

In 2020, around 12 per cent of KoinWorks’ borrowers have restructured their loans. However, it has decreased to only 4 per cent this year. In comparison, it is lower than several banks that restructured more than 20 per cent of their loan portfolio.

Paving the way for a strong P2P finance ecosystem

The restructuring process not only helps the borrowers in managing their cash flow, but also lenders in getting their full repayment.

Kurniawan said that he understood the risk before deciding to invest in KoinWorks, which is why he kept investing in the platform despite some restructure that happened to several of his loan portfolios.

“I believe KoinWorks will do their best to get the payment sooner or later because it’s a fintech company that has a license from OJK (Indonesia’s Financial Service Authority). It also offered convenience for me to diversify my portfolio by allowing lenders to invest as low as IDR 100.000. It’s a good feature that many P2P lending companies don’t have,” he said.

On the other hand, loan restructuring has been proven to help all SMEs to survive in these hard times, indirectly giving a positive contribution for the recovery of the national economy. Currently, 82% of SMEs that have loan restructuring facilities have been able to stabilize their income and do full repayment.

Also read: STPI’s Vision Programme: empowering Taiwan-based startups to tap into Southeast Asia and beyond

Dedy, the owner of a Jogja-based bed sheet brand called Jaxine, is one of the SMEs that had his loan restructured in KoinWorks. He started availing of KoinWorks credit facilities in 2016, and topped up again in 2018. When the pandemic happened, he called it a horrific time in running a business.

The loan restructuring on KoinWorks helped reduce his monthly repayment from IDR 50 million (around US$3,400) to only IDR 30 million (around US$2,000) per month.

“Honestly, I can’t be here if I did not get help at that time,” he said. Today, Dedy’s business continues to grow and helps maintain employment for his 40 employees.

Arias Sudiarta, owner of a used car dealer called ARS Auto Car, also got breathing room through the loan restructuring facility from KoinWorks that helped him manage his business cash flow and prevent staff layoff.

He said that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a steep decline in his monthly sales from IDR 3.5 billion to around IDR 1 billion. “However, it currently has increased 250 per cent to IDR 2.5 billion per month,” he said.

KoinWorks will release the Digital SME Confidence Index Report for H1 2021 in August.

You can read the Digital SME Confidence Index Report Q4 2020 on this link.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Koinworks.

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Syfe, a Singapore-headquartered digital wealth management company, today announced that it has closed its Series B funding round of SGD40 million (US$30 million) led by Valar Ventures, the US-based VC firm co-founded by Peter Thiel.

Existing investors Presight Capital (US) and Unbound also participated.

This capital injection comes just nine months after Syfe’s US$18.6 million Series A round led by Valar Ventures in September 2020.

With the latest round, the wealthtech startup’s total capital raised since its launch in 2019 has reached US$52.6 million.

Also Read: Syfe closes US$18.6M Series A to take its digital wealth management biz into new markets

The fresh capital will be used by Syfe to expand into new markets in Asia, invest in top talent, and develop new products and services.

Syfe has also announced it is making all of its employees become shareholders of the company.

Launched in July 2019, Syfe is a Monetary Authority of Singapore- (MAS) licensed digital wealth manager that aims to help people make smarter financial decisions. It enables users to create personalised and professionally managed portfolios with simple steps. Clients get access to Syfe’s wealth advisors and an intuitive investing experience that it claims is low cost and hassle-free.

The platform has no minimum investment amounts and maintains a low annual fee, starting at 0.35 per cent of the total amount invested.

As per a press release, Syfe’s assets under management have quadrupled since the start of the year.

Headcount in Singapore has doubled since the start of the year to 50, taking Syfe’s total global headcount to over 100.

Dhruv Arora, Founder and CEO, Syfe, said: “Managing wealth has become a necessity in this low-interest-rate environment, and we are seeing a significant increase in demand from customers looking for quality solutions.”

Andrew McCormack, Founding Partner, Valar Ventures, said: “Syfe was our first investment in Asia. The opportunity for the company to meet the saving and investment needs of a burgeoning mass-affluent consumer population in Asia remains significant, and we are confident that Syfe will continue to expand at pace. We are looking forward to partnering with this talented, dynamic team in its next phase of growth.”

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

The wealthtech sector 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. StashAway, co-founded by former Zalora CEO Michele Ferrario, raisedUS$25 million in Series D funding round led by Sequoia Capital India in April this year.

Earlier this month, Endowus.com, another fast-growing startup, announced a US$22.3M Series A from strategic investors, including UBS, Samsung Ventures, and Singtel Innov8.

On Tuesday, Bambu, a Singapore-based startup providing digital wealth technology for B2B businesses across the globe, announced the acquisition of Tradesocio, a developer of wealth management software for advisors, based in the island nation.

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Image Credit: Syfe

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edamama, a new e-commerce platform designed for mothers in the Philippines, has announced that it has raised US$5 million in its latest pre-Series A round from investors.

Investors include Gentree Fund, Robinsons Retail Holdings, and Kickstart Ventures, who are the affiliates of SM Investments Corporation, JG Summit, and Ayala Corporation, respectively.

The round also saw participation from Foxmont Capital Partners, an early-stage VC firm based in the Philippines, besides unnamed Filipino and global angel investors.

The startup plans to use a part of the funds to expand its warehouse capabilities and improve its delivery services for customers to receive their goods more quickly.

Also Read: E-commerce enabler Great Deals closes US$30M Series B to build automated fulfilment centre in Philippines

Apart from this, it is also working on omnichannel expansion and providing new mediums of direct-to-consumer communication, such as selling through a live stream. “Our goal is to continue being vertically focused, so we could gain and build the trust of more mothers in the country,” said edamama co-founder Bela Gupta D’Souza.

edamama was established amidst the pandemic by the husband-wife duo of Nishant and Bela Gupta D’Souza, who saw the pain points of mothers as consumers when purchasing online. They noticed mothers spend many hours in search of the best products for their children only to end up with mediocre items with inferior quality from untrusted sources.

The Philippine startup aims to address the issue of quality, as well as the other challenges common among today’s e-commerce platforms — such as channel fragmentation, non-established brand trust, the lack of a discovery-led buying experience, and poor customer service.

The site is designed for mothers to “get easy online access to quality products and services while ensuring the lowest prices through a system that simplifies purchasing experience”.

Since its launch in May 2020, edamama claims to have served tens of thousands of expectant and new mothers through doorstep delivery of over 22,000 SKUs, plus a wide range of online classes and activities.

It operates several products designed to make shopping more convenient for moms and their families.

Through edamama’s Gift Registry, users can create gift wish lists for special occasions, from baby showers to birthday celebrations, and share these with loved ones. They will then receive their desired items gift wrapped and in time for their special occasion.

Another feature is Subscribe & Save, an online diaper subscription service launched in partnership with Pampers.

It also offers Explore, a one-stop destination for parents to book the best online classes, events, and activities for their children.

Moreover, its platform also delivers authentic parenting content, personalised promos, and a community for parents to make the right decisions. It has also developed “bean” rewards that can be converted to peso credits.

“edamama is leading the future of personalised e-commerce in the Philippines, offering mothers a safe forum to share experiences while integrating discovery-led experiences into their platform. edamama is underpinned by a strong content strategy that allows it to support mothers at every stage of parenting, a strategy that has won them a loyal following of mothers,” said Mark Sng, Vice-President of Gentree Fund.

Minette Navarrete, President of Kickstart Ventures, said: “edamama captures the essence of this ‘village’: an easy, trustworthy, and personalised shopping experience for busy moms; useful, curated, verified content; and safe community interactions that affirm and support parenting.”

“The developing e-commerce landscape that sells everything to everyone is a bit of a wild wild west, but through mindful curation and intense engagement, edamama is earning trust and repeat purchases, capturing a meaningful and growing share of the mommy market,” added Navarrete.

Also Read: Emotional leadership in a post-COVID-19 business world

The Philippine e-commerce market is the fastest growing in Southeast Asia. According to Google’s e-Conomy SEA 2020 report, it grew by 55 per cent at the height of the pandemic as the purchasing behaviour of consumers shifted from face-to-face to digital.

One of the major growth areas of the market is the maternity products segment, which is in turn being driven by the country’s high fertility rate. An HKTDC commissioned study predicts that the segment’s value will surpass the US$1 billion mark in 2022.

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Image Credit: edamama

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Southeast Asia will become the fastest-growing region for mobile wallets globally, with mobile wallets in use expected to triple in the next five years, a research report by London-based fintech firm Boku.

Within the region, Indonesia is one of the fastest-growing mobile payment markets, with mobile wallet users set to more than triple (from 63.6 million to 202 million) by 2025. Ovo dominates the market share in the region with 38 per cent of users.

Malaysia, on the other hand, is lagging behind other Southeast Asian countries, as mobile wallets are slower to enter and gain traction in the market. Malaysia is currently dominated by a triopoly, with GrabPay and Touch ‘N Go (together with about 40 per cent market share), and Boost with roughly 22 per cent market share, the report stated.

Also Read: Is Southeast Asia now more accepting of mobile wallets?

However, Malaysia is set for hyper-growth over the next five years, as mobile wallet users and penetration are set to triple.

In spite of all the developments within the region, Singapore takes the cake with mobile wallet penetration set to reach nearly 95 per cent by 2025 from 30.4 per cent in 2020.

Despite its small population, the mobile payments ecosystem is thriving, with a number of offerings that include the regional super app, Grab, a telco wallet (Singtel Dash), a bank-based wallet (DBS payLah!) as well as the digitisation of the national transit card, EZ-Link.

Another major trend in the mobile wallet market in Asia is the rising expansion of major Chinese wallets outside of their home market. This includes WeChat Pay and bKash.

The report further suggests that while Chinese e-wallets continue expansion it seems unlikely that they will conquer emerging Asian markets as many once thought.

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