Day: July 30, 2021

NextPay, a digital financial solutions platform in the Philippines, has raised US$1.6 million in seed funding co-led by Golden Gate Ventures, and Gentree Fund, a private investment vehicle of the Sy Family, which owns Filipino conglomerate SM Group.

Other investors, who participated in the round, are Tribe Capital, Broadhaven Ventures, 1982 Ventures, Saison Capital, and Razorpay, besides Rohit Mulani of GoTrade and Abhinay Peddisetty and Chinmay Chauhan of BukuWarung.

Goodwater Capital, which has invested in Facebook, Spotify, and Twitter, also co-invested, along with local VCs such as Kickstart Ventures (Ayala Group), Foxmont Capital, and First Asia Ventures, as well as angel investor Lisa Gokongwei of JG Summit also joined.

The funding will be used to grow NextPay’s suite of services, expand its customer base, and introduce new digital banking solutions to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Also Read: Fintech companies targeting the next billion users are living a pipe dream. Here’s why

“We believe that business banking will continue to digitally evolve, as the Philippines accelerates its digital transformation initiatives. This investment supports our goal of putting the power of big banks in the hands of small businesses,” said NextPay CEO and co-founder Don Pansacola.

“The success of our seed funding exercise will help us accelerate our plans of introducing more meaningful digital banking solutions, including, but not limited to, corporate cards, loans, and integrations with other platforms focused on MSMEs. We will also be hiring more talent to make the NextPay platform more comprehensive, simple, and easier to use and avail of,” NextPay Chief Experience Officer and co-founder Aldrich Tan said.

Launched amid the pandemic in 2020, NextPay is an online platform that provides underserved customers democratised access to easy and affordable financial services” such as digital invoicing, cash management, and batch payments to any bank or e-wallet in the Philippines.

The startup positions itself as an alternative to bank accounts for small businesses and entrepreneurs in the Philippines. Through the platform, companies can collect customer payments via digital invoices, manage their cash, and pay their employees, suppliers, or bills in batches to any bank or e-wallet.

The startup operates on a pay-per-use model and does not require any set-up fees, maintaining balances, or steep requirements.

Since its launch, NextPay has processed over US$9.1 million in digital transactions for more than 100 businesses with over 3,500 employees.

Earlier, NextPay received $125,000 in pre-seed investment as part of Y Combinator programme in April.

Also Read: How fintech startups can fast forward their growth

“Managing your businesses’ finances efficiently and confidently is mission-critical to success, and NextPay is building industry-leading digital banking solutions for SMEs to better manage their finances: from payroll to collections, to invoicing,” Golden Gate Ventures Partner Justin Hall said.

“NextPay uniquely addresses the local needs of its customers by matching SMEs looking to go digital with mobile and convenient digital financial tools, which scales dynamically with their businesses. As a key infrastructure layer for our budding Philippines startup ecosystem, Gentree believes that NextPay will play a key role in supporting our entrepreneurs and enabling the Philippines digital economy,” Gentree Vice President Mark Sng remarked.

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Image Credit: NextPay

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Neo telcos are the new disruptors in Australia. Just like neo banks, neo telcos operate exclusively online and do not have any physical branches.

Australia has one of the most competitive and mature telecommunications markets in the world, and recent research reveals MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), an operator that does not have its own network – have seen significant growth over the last 12 months.

In many ways, this progress is similar to the one banks have gone through.

Telcos in Australia can learn from the digital transformation success stories from other industries, such as digital banking and financial services. In Europe, digital-only banks such as N26, Monzo and Revolut are growing rapidly and taking market share from traditional banks.

Completely digital offerings with no branches, these neo banks provide a range of banking services through their smartphone apps. Customers are made to feel like a part of building the future of banking, with public roadmaps and extensive beta-testing and feedback loops.

While neo banks are still in their infancy in Australia, the success of ME Bank, 86 400, and Up show that these challengers are starting to make their mark.

Like neo banks, neo telcos are built to deliver a mobile-first experience. The term ‘neo’ refers to businesses that leverage technology to offer a customer-centric experience, predominantly targeted at a younger, digitally savvy audience. Neo telcos, by definition, move fast and innovate at a rapid pace.

Without the weight of costly brick-and-mortar operations, these digital players keep an ear to the ground and offer services tailored to what consumers actually want.

Speed, agility and lower operating costs are at the centre of their business models. Targeting young Australians – the digital natives – as they are pushing for innovation in the industry.

Also Read: Threat or opportunity? boosting digital banking in Asia

Now more than ever, the pace of technological change is putting pressure on traditional players to transform the way they structure their business to more effectively deliver what their customers really want.

The progression of digital transformation has raised customers’ expectations for services, where personalisation and transparency, such as visibility of their data usage, are critical factors.

Being the world’s first fully digital telco allows Circles.Life to focus on the customer’s wants and needs. Through our app, we are delivering a frictionless, more digitised experience. For example, as we saw the need for data increase during the pandemic, we improved the app to allow customers to upgrade their plans themselves without having to wait on hold or even log on to a website.

Just by clicking a few buttons on their mobile they could get more data. We believe that great pricing is what our customers want so with Circles.Life more data doesn’t mean a hefty price tag.

To roll out upgrades like this is a slow and cumbersome process for most of our competitors, but we did it in a few days. At the end of the day, our business model is built on customer satisfaction and our tech is designed to support that goal.

For telcos to appeal to digital natives in Australia, embracing and investing in modern, digital architecture is fundamental. The Circles.Life customer experience means an account can be activated in just a few minutes, and mobile plans are flexible and affordable with generous amounts of data.

We are following in the footsteps of successful disruptors. The ones who are defined by the agility of their operations and progression of their business model to truly offer innovative services to their customers.

The global telecommunications industry is changing rapidly, and by always putting our customers first, building features based on their feedback and not locking them into long and expensive contracts, we believe we are different in a good way.

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The pandemic has been unprecedented, bringing economies across the world to an unforeseen and staggering halt.

In the same vein, entertainment has been one of the worst affected industries globally. Across Asia, from Southeast Asia to India, China and Japan, live performances came to a near standstill as venues shuttered in the wake of nationwide lockdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Despite the challenges, the entertainment industry has remained resilient, rising to the occasion quickly and transforming consumer habits. While the live entertainment and film industry saw a decrease in revenue and a delay in some productions, online streaming boomed.

The total weekly minutes spent online video streaming on mobile devices increased 60 per cent across Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, according to an industry report.

News consumption also increased, as people tuned in to news outlets to follow the latest updates on the pandemic.

To cater to changing consumer habits, content creators are increasingly utilising new age multimedia, preferring bite-sized formats for news reporting and relying on video streaming on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and TikTok.

Even traditionally offline entertainment, such as museums and theatres, have turned to organising virtual museum tours, virtual cultural neighbourhood tours, and online plays on Zoom.

As new technologies and trends drive innovation and unravel new opportunities in the media and entertainment industry, the coming times look propitious.

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

Technology has been one of the pioneering elements shaping the development of media and entertainment industry trends globally. Its adoption therefore would help pave the way forward for new age media companies in the region to create new revenue models to thrive in this sector.

While over-the-top (OTT) media services such as Netflix and Amazon were already popular before the pandemic, COVID-19 has brought these players to the forefront, with films distributed on these streaming platforms already dominating the Oscars.

High profile A list actors are no longer shying away from filming in TV series and movies designed for Netflix and Disney+.

Netflix is currently the dominant player in the global OTT entertainment industry, with a total of 207.3 million paid subscribers and an Asia Pacific customer base of 23.5 million at the end of 2020.

Although Disney+ has just recently entered the OTT streaming market, within 17 months, it has already surpassed 103 million subscribers at the end of 2020.

Going forward, content creators need to quickly adapt their offerings with respect to the evolving trends in this sector.

On one hand, demand for interesting and insightful video streaming content has increased as we are already witnessing the highest ever level of content consumption since everybody was confined to their homes.

Yet, on the other hand, the supply of content has been hit with the stalling of film and TV productions, web-series, and cancellation of live events over the past year.

In many ways, 2020 was a year of dichotomy. The entertainment industry is still reeling from the effects of the pandemic and will need a recovery plan. While outbreaks have been brought under control in some countries signalling the return of theatre goers and film aficionados, an uncertain future remains as we are not fully out of the woods yet.

Production houses are putting together a drawing board for a way forward. Production has re-started, but as the second and third waves of outbreaks hit, it was stopped again, sometimes indefinitely.

Also Read: Here’s how blockchain tech will contribute to the music and entertainment industries

While production houses want to continue producing relevant and engaging content for end users, they need to remain flexible and prioritise the health of their artists and staff, which often leads to higher budgets and longer lead times for projects.

In addition, due to a decrease in demand for various goods and services, many large corporations which used to spend millions of dollars a year advertising in mainstream media have cut advertising budgets.

This has led to lower ad revenues for media companies, as much as 18 per cent, according to the CRISIL report.

While uncertainty remains, it is not all gloom and doom for Asia’s entertainment industry. Consumers may have more time on their hands to consume content but are also becoming more selective in picking and choosing the content they want to invest their time and money in, especially so amid rising competition in the online streaming entertainment industry.

An unintended effect of COVID-19 on the entertainment industry is that it has also widened consumers’ watching habits and put a spotlight on Asian content and artists.

While many Hollywood blockbusters were delayed due to the worsening outbreak in the US last year, a steady stream of Asian films made in China, Taiwan, Korea, India, and even Singapore, continued to be produced and gained prominence amongst consumers. Asia’s diverse and talented producers, artists and content creators deserve to be recognised and celebrated.

Given a rise in demand for digital content consumption and increasing viewership, as well as halts in production of new content, existing content is likely to become more valuable. In time, this not only increases competition amongst existing film and television content creators and platforms, but also drives the creation of new forms of content.

OTT platforms will need to ramp up their content libraries and replacing the multiplex with home theatres. Movies are unlikely to go out of style completely but will need to provide extraordinary experiences to audiences rather than just being a tentpole film on a bigger canvas.

Digital is already fuelling Asia’s entertainment industry and will only continue to grow in future. Media companies as well as large corporations in other sectors have realised the value of digital content across multiple platforms and creating curated creative content to capture the attention of the audience needs to be the way forward.

With the world embracing Asian content, the time is now for Asian creators to look at the global stage through producing high quality content that showcases the unique and diverse cultural landscape of the region and tells compelling stories of their lived experiences.

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Emtek invests US$375M in Grab, forms alliance to accelerate Indonesian MSMEs’ digitalisation
Both Emtek and Grab will explore potential collaborations across logistics and e-commerce, in financial services, telemedicine, advertising & digital media; Grab has also completed its investment in Emtek; In April, there were reports that Grab acquired a 4% stake in Emtek.

Nium adds US$200M more to its war chest to become SEA’s latest unicorn
Investors include Riverwood Capital (lead), Temasek, Visa, Vertex, Beacon VC, and Rocket Capital; Nium will use the money to improve its payments network infra, drive innovative product development, and accelerate growth in the Americas.

E-grocer HappyFresh bags US$65M co-led by Naver, Gafina
Other investors are STIC, LB, and Mirae Asset Indonesia and Singapore; The Jakarta-HQs HappyFresh delivers fresh, high-quality groceries to thousands of customers in SEA’s major cities; In 2020, traffic claims to have grown by 10-20x across the three countries it operates in.

How Philippine cloud kitchen industry is piggybacking on the country’s unique food culture, shifting customer behaviour
The industry is still in the early stages in the Philippines and is behind neighbouring Singapore and Indonesia, but it is growing fast; Local startups operating in this space are Kraver’s Canteen, MadEats, and CloudEats, and GrabKitchen.

Big Tech vs data protection laws in Asia: Who is compromising?
Big Tech companies such as Apple, Facebook, Alibaba have been in a battle with Asian governments as data localisation heats up in the region over the past few years; Data ownership is becoming a part of the geopolitical competition that will shape the 21st century.

EDBI, SEEDS Capital inject US$147M into 25 startups through its Special Situation Fund for Firms (SSFS)
The investments are intended to help these businesses expand their market and develop new products over the following three years; The SSFS support will end when the funds are fully committed or by 31 October 2021.

AI-powered digital comics startup INKR bags US$3.1M led by Monk’s Hill
Other investors are Stu Levy, founder and CEO of TokyoPop, and David Do, MD of VI Management; INKR’s personalised content recommendation engine enables readers to access more than 800 localised manga, manhua, webtoon, and graphics novels across different genres on any device.

Hoow Foods raises US$2.2M in pre-Series A
Investors are Farquhar VC (lead), TRIVE Ventures, and private investors; Hoow Foods uses AI and ML to build an in-house platform called RE-GENESYS; The platform features a database of critical information on food ingredients and their physicochemical properties.

Pitch deck for dummies: A compilation of top tips and advice from the community
While there are many factors that contribute to the success of a fundraising process, you want to make sure that you are doing each stage right. And that includes creating a high-quality pitch deck.

Philippine digital financial solutions platform NextPay raised US$1.6M
Investors include Golden Gate Ventures, Gentree Fund, 1982 Ventures, Saison Capital, and Facebook and Twitter backer Goodwater Capital; It will use the money to introduce digital banking solutions to MSMEs; The startup positions itself as an alternative to bank accounts for small businesses and entrepreneurs in the Philippines.

Malaysia
Logistics and supply chain firm iStore iSend bags ‘7-figure USD’ from Japanese investor Kuroneko Innovation Fund
It is an extension of its US$5.5M Series B, co-led by Gobi Partners and EasyParcel; It will use the money to expand into Thailand, Vietnam; Currently, iStore iSend deals with over 30 foreign FMCG brands and 300 local brands across markets like Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

Malaysia
E-commerce logistics company Epost attracts US$1.4M from Warisan Quantum Management
The company plans to utilise the newly raised capital to enhance its product and expand the platform across SEA; Currently, its services are available across Malaysia, China, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Brunei, with 13 e-commerce fulfilment warehouses located at key locations throughout SEA.

Singapore
No-code AI robotics programming platform Augmentus raises funding from Cocoon Capital
Augmentus’s proprietary technology incorporates an easy-to-use graphical interface that eliminates the need for coding enabling up to 17 times faster programming and integration across various industrial applications.

Wavemaker joins Bangladeshi edutech startup Shikho’s US$1.3M round
Other investors are Anchorless Bangladesh, LearnStart, and Teachable CEO Ankur Nagpal; Shikho offers students academic courses that come with resources and tools to help them with “school-leaving” exams.

Fast-growing Aussie insurtechs choose Singapore as gateway to SEA
Citing the city-state’s strategic location, high digital adoption, vibrant ecosystem of industry stakeholders eager to embrace cutting-edge tech, combined with the support of Accelerator programmes, startups such as ActivePipe, Gruntify, ProofTec and Truuth, view Singapore as the gateway to the region.

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Image Credit: Grab

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Yield Guild Games (YGG), a blockchain gaming startup in the Philippines, said in a blog post that it sold 25 million of its native YGG cryptocurrency tokens in just 31 seconds and raised about US$12.5 million in USD Coin.

With the token sale concluded, YGG will start to establish its decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO).

DAO, also known as decentralized autonomous corporation, is an organization represented by rules encoded as a computer programme that is transparent, controlled by the organisation members, and not influenced by a central government.

One of the first tasks of the DAO will be distributing tokens to the YGG community as a way of rewarding their early participation in the guild. It will also serve to properly onboard them as DAO members.

The gaming startup has reserved 45 per cent of one billion tokens in total for the YGG community. The tokens will be dispersed over four years. Another 40 per cent of the tokens will go to investors and founders, while the remaining 15 per cent will go to the company’s treasury and its advisers.

“We want to send a huge thanks to everyone who has supported our journey so far as well as everyone who participated in the YGG token sale,” said YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon. “Now, we are looking forward to kicking off our community airdrop where YGG tokens will be given to the most active and engaged members of our guild, especially those who have been with us from the beginning.”

The firm will also continue growing its scholarship programme, which aims to encourage more newbies to play NFT games.

Founded last year, YGG is a community of individuals who can play to earn non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that can be used in virtual worlds and blockchain-based games.

Also Read: Blockchain-powered mobile games distribution platform ALAX raises US$3.8M via token sale

The gaming firm has also partnered with and invested in a few such games, including Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, F1 DeltaTime, Guild of Guardians, and Zed Run.

“We are looking forward to kicking off our community airdrop where YGG tokens will be given to the most active and engaged members of our guild, especially those who have been with us from the beginning,” said Dizon added.

Its tokens are now also open to trading for the public on decentralized exchanges like SushiSwap.

In June this year, YGG raised US$4 million in a Series A funding round featuring participation from Mechanism Capital, ParaFi Capital, and lead investor Bitkraft Ventures.

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