Month: July 2021

When COVID-19 struck in early 2020, the startup world went to a standstill. Most startups were scrabbling around to stay afloat. Many had to wind up their businesses but some emerged stronger by pivoting products/business models, forging partnerships, and securing investments.

Here, we bring you a list of the three e27 Luminaries startups that managed to secure partnerships right in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis.

Ayannah’s partnership with ECAP

In June 2020, Ayannah, a Filipino company providing affordable and accessible digital financial services, signed a merger agreement with Indian payments firm Electronic Cash and Payment Solutions (ECAP) to form a pan-Asian company.

Also Read: These e27 Luminaries secure notable fundings, acquire companies at the height of the pandemic

Christened Ayannah Global, the merged entity aims to provide accessible digital financial services to the region’s middle class. Headquartered in Singapore, it also aims to draw from the city-state’s talent pool and forge new partnerships with companies there.

Established in 2010, Ayannah is an AI-enabled technology platform that provides financial services to the emerging middle class, with a significant presence across geographies with customers in India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The company claimed that its AI tech is designed to launch a comprehensive range of financial and lifestyle products and services ranging from payments, remittance, insurance, and telemedicine.

Ayannah’s products include PanaloCare, a hospital income insurance plan in partnership with AXA, which supports the insured with a daily supplementary income whenever hospitalised.

Also Read: Digital payments startup Ayannah diving deep into Big Data

Since 2013, Bengaluru-based ECAPS has catered to the needs of domestic migrants and the unbanked populations in India. The company provides services such as domestic money transfers, utility bill payments, recharges and travel ticketing for emerging middle-class consumers in India.

Biofourmis’s partnership with Brigham

In March 2020, Singapore-based digital therapeutics company Biofourmis launched a Biovitals Hospital Home in partnership with Boston-based Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Biovitals Hospital Home is an AI-based, turnkey technology platform that enables hospitals and health systems to quickly deploy a ‘hospital at home’ programme.

Also Read: Biofourmis closes US$100M led by SoftBank to push remote monitoring, digital therapeutics to the forefront of medicine

Over the past few years, the two organisations have worked together to refine and scale the platform for use by healthcare organisations to fuel programmes in which patients are ‘admitted’ to their homes for hospital-level care.

The programme provides 1:1 parity with inpatient payment rates to treat patients in their homes for conditions that include more than 60 diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) such as infections, asthma, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Started in 2015, Biofourmis discovers, develops and delivers clinically-validated software-based therapeutics to provide better outcomes for patients, advanced tools for clinicians to deliver personalised care, technology to demonstrate the value of and complement pharmacotherapy, and cost-effective solutions for payers.

It has built Biovitals, a highly sophisticated personalised AI-powered health analytics platform that predicts clinical exacerbation in advance of a critical event, which is the backbone of their digital therapeutics product pipeline across multiple therapeutic areas—including heart failure, oncology, infectious disease, chronic pain, acute coronary syndrome and COPD.

DiMuto’s partnership with OPAL

In May 2021, global agri-fintech trade solutions company DiMuto announced a partnership with OPAL, a major payment institution (MPI) licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The partneship aims to provide payment services on the blockchain-powered DiMuto Platform.

The duo will develop a new payment module that will allow DiMuto’s agrifood customers to make payments directly tagged to the movement of goods on the DiMuto Platform. This will create visibility of both the movement of goods and money for physical agrifood products tracked with DiMuto’s existing trade digitalisation technology.

Also Read: SG Innovate invests in agri-food tech startup DiMuto, raising awareness to food sustainability issue

The two companies intend to combine their strengths and transform payments and financing in the agri-food trade space. They will leverage OPAL’s expertise in international payment, multi-currency wallets, FX management, and financing solutions alongside DiMuto’s strong network of agrifood clientele, trade digitalisation technology, and capability to collect asset-based data.

DiMuto provides end-to-end supply chain visibility for global businesses. DiMuto uses blockchain, IoT, and AI in its trade solutions digitises the agri-food supply chain for data visibility and trade transparency to solve the industry’s challenges such as food safety breaches, that reportedly experienced a US$110 billion loss, as discovered by a 2018 World Bank study.

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Carro launches “green car financing” to help Singaporeans switch to hybrid, EV cars

The story: Genie Financial Services, a subsidiary of Carro, Southeast Asia’s automotive marketplace unicorn, today announced the launch of GoGreen.

The purpose: GoGreen helps private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers switch to hybrid or electric vehicles (EVs).

More about the story: PHV drivers who intending to purchase a new or used hybrid car or EV can apply for financing from Genie under the GoGreen initiative to receive an interest rate of 1.98 per cent per annum for up to 100 months.

“PHV drivers spend much more time on the road compared to usual car users, but ‘going green’ is a challenge for them as they often find it difficult to obtain environmentally friendly car financing from traditional institutions. Thus, GoGreen was designed to support their transition to greener vehicles and include them as part of the larger sustainability equation,” says Helen Neo, co-founder of Genie Financial Services.

Drivers can apply for this via the Genie website.

NEXEA partners AWS, MaGIC to accelerate Malaysian startups

The story: NEXEA has announced a partnership with leading players of the startup ecosystem to guide early-stage Malay tech companies with exponential growth.

Who the partners are: Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC), MBAN, AWS, Cyberview, and MDEC. 

What startups will receive: Up to US$12043 in investment, potential grants, support, and other incentives. 

More about the story: With regards to partnering with the startup ecosystem on the programme, NEXEA Managing Partner Ben Lim said: “NEXEA has decided to partner with top ecosystem players because each ecosystem player brings unique benefits and programmes to support startups – and together, we can help grow the next unicorns for Malaysia.”

Also Read: Roundup: NEXEA, MDEC launch programme to help Malaysian firms explore biz opportunities

The corporate accelerator 2021 applications are open until 31 July 2021.

About NEXEA: A Malaysia-based venture capital firm-cum-accelerator that invests in tech startups. Since its inception, NEXEA has invested in over 35 startups including  Lapasar, WeStyleAsia, and more

Grab partners WeWork to provide business clients with incentives

The story: Grab has partnered with co-working space WeWork to provide one-month free access and discounted membership of up to 25 per cent to selected Grab for Business clients.

More about the story: With the pass, Grab for Business clients will be able to access WeWork’s locations across Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, where they can enjoy fully-equipped workspaces,  conference rooms, and meeting rooms.

Members will also gain access to a network of business services to help them grow, reduced capital expenses, and business-class amenities to enhance their work experience.

Neo banking market in SEA to grow by 50 per cent

The story: Analysts of UnaFinancial have revealed that the neo banking market in 2021 will grow by 24 per cent in APAC, and by 50 per cent in Southeast Asia.

The reason: The lockdown restrictions and remote work was a major factor that led to the increase.

Other key findings: Funding of neo banks in APAC countries in 2020 increased by 22.8 per cent, development of neo banks will be led by Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, while in South Asia the leading country will be India.

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Image Credit: Carro

The post In brief: Carro’s green car financing for hybrid, EVs; Grab-WeWork partnership appeared first on e27.

Grab’s US$40B SPAC deal set to light up IPO path for SEA startups; Recently, the performance of SPACs has faltered in the market, putting extra pressure on blank-cheque firms trying to woo startups that are becoming wary of the IPO process; US regulators have been warning investors for months about the potential risks around SPACs.

Carousell mulling US listing via SPAC merger at US$1.5B valuation: Bloomberg; The listing could take place as soon as the end of this year, and Carousell is already working with an adviser on the potential deal; Carousell began in Singapore and now has a presence in eight markets across Asia; As of last Sept., the firm is said to have over 250M listings across Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

PayMaya nets US$167M to provide smart digital banking services to unbanked Filipinos; Besides PLDT, KKR, and  Tencent, IFC Financial Institutions Growth Fund also participated; PayMaya will use the fresh capital to expand its services, including mobile wallet, payments processing, and digital remittance businesses; It has applied for a digital bank license with the Philippines’s central bank BSP.

Velocity Ventures to back distressed hospitality & travel startups with the new US$20M fund; It has announced the first close; Velocity Hospitality and Travel Fund I has also announced its maiden investments in two startups: Aigens and Zuzu Hospitality; The fund expects to make the final close at the end of 2021.

Singapore’s wealthtech platform Endowus secures US$4.5M; Investors are UBS, Samsung Ventures, Singtel Innov8, Lightspeed, and SoftBank Ventures; Endowus provides retail, accredited, and institutional investors with a digital experience to invest all their cash, SRS, and CPF savings; It offers expert personalised advice at a lower cost with no sales charges.

Fairbanc raises funding to help Indonesian SMEs get credit access sans loan application, smartphones; Investors include ADB Ventures, Accion Venture Lab, East Ventures, and Sampoerna Strategic Group; This new financial backing comes on the heels of its recent investments from 500 Startups and Indonesian billionaire Sampoerna; Fairbanc’s AI-powered platform can read digital footprints, such as transaction history with large suppliers, and data to grant instant digital credit

Singapore’s decentralised document infra platform Dedoco bags US$2.45M seed led by Vertex Ventures; The startup enables document authentication by securing real-time verification options while an audit trail is recorded on the blockchain to maintain transaction integrity; It also provides a new feature “Sign with Singpass” by the Government Technology Agency of Singapore to 2.5M+ registered Singpass app users.

6-month-old Infina wants to become the “RobinHood” of Vietnam with a US$2M funding; Investors include Saison Capital, Venturra Discovery, 1982 Ventures, 500 Startups, and Nextrans; Infina aims to make investment accessible, easy, and engaging for Vietnam’s middle and lower classes.

Singapore is leading in banking-as-a-service adoption globally: survey finds; The Finastra survey further finds that Open Banking has become important to 97% of Singapore businesses, with over 50% calling it a “must have”; Open Banking has provided a number of benefits to their organisations, including improving the customer experience (79%), delivering new services (93%), and improving internal systems (57%).

Payments firm MoMo buys Vietnamese AI startup Pique that turns visitors into customers; MoMo has bought all of Pique’s intellectual property and has hired its data science and engineering team, including its founder; With this deal, MoMo plans to capitalise on Pique’s 25M user database to further improve its product offerings.

Gojek CEO invests in Singapore’s YC-backed Gotrade; Other investors are Amand Ventures, Prasetia Dwidharma, and Brama One Ventures; Gotrade offers ease and convenience in buying and trading stocks for US-listed companies in Indonesia; According to statistics, Gotrade has secured more than 100,000 users only 13 weeks since its launch.

KLAR bags seed funding to develop high-tech ‘ultra-clear’ teeth aligners in Indonesia; Investors are AC Ventures (lead) and Kenangan Fund; Currently, KLAR has partnered with 600+ dentists and orthodontists throughout the archipelago; The firm is now present in 100+ dental clinics across 32 cities; Jakarta, Bali, and Surabaya are its key cities.

Carro’s fintech arm launches financing plan ‘Genie’ for electric vehicles, hybrid cars; It aims to help private-hire vehicle (PHV) drivers switch to hybrid or EVs; Under Genie’s GoGreen initiative, PHV operators can purchase new or used hybrid or electric cars by applying for financing from Genie, where they can get a special interest rate of 1.98% per annum for up to 100 months.

Sequoia Surge’s new cohort comprises a vegan makeup startup, an innovative email marketing platform, and more; 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; Surge, along with other co-investors, has invested a total of US$55M in the latest batch comprising 23 startups.

Bukalapak founder Achmad Zaky Foundation launches edutech incubator in Indonesia; Startup Campus 2021 was kicked off online on June 29 through a partnership between the foundation and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology; The incubator is said to be a guidance programme for students who are interested in creating businesses startups in Indonesia.

7 non-dairy milk startups that can make your vegan transition easier; It is not just the meat industry that is undergoing a sea change but the dairy sector, too, and nowadays, alternative dairy products are the talk of the town; Sesamilk, Sophie’s Bionutrients, and TurtleTree Labs, etc. are already making their presence felt in the region.

How a global pandemic changed (and continues to change) the way we pay; Out of social distancing necessity, the pandemic led to increased use of contactless, digital payment methods like mobile e-wallets, bank transfers, and QR codes; Many retailers who have long resisted installing contactless technology due to processing fees have now been compelled to offer it.

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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SCI Ecommerce, a  Singapore-headquartered cross-border e-commerce enabler, has announced the final close of its ongoing fundraising, bringing the total capital raised from this round to approximately S$88 million (US$65.4 million).

The first tranche of this round worth US$38 million, announced on May 3, 2021, was led by Asia Partners.

As per a statement, the additional capital came from EDBI, private asset management firm Financial Investments Corporation, Philippine conglomerate Soriano Corporation, and several unnamed investors from Asia, North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

“The expansion of our fundraising round is a strong endorsement of our integrated e-commerce business model, which already serves many of the world’s most iconic consumer brands,” said group CEO Joseph Liu Jiannan. “With these resources in hand, we look forward to investing in new technologies and capabilities to serve our clients, while completing our preparations to become our region’s first publicly traded e-commerce enabler.”

Also Read: SCI Ecommerce raises US$38M led by Asia Partners, plans US IPO in end-2021

Founded in 2014 by Liu Jiannan, SCI provides e-commerce solutions for Southeast and East Asia’s leading e-commerce platforms, including Alibaba’s Tmall platform, Lazada, and Shopee.

SCI provides a comprehensive suite of services to its brand partners, which include Unilever, Abbot, Stanley Black & Decker, Crayola, Nestle, Vinda, and Danone.

Its integrated business model helps its brand partners expand into the Southeast Asia e-commerce market and China Cross Border E-commerce (CBEC) market by setting up and managing over 6,000 online stores across both regions’ major e-commerce platforms and social media channels

Additionally, SCI applies data analytics and e-commerce software tools to optimise online traffic to gross merchandise value (GMV) conversion, brand awareness, consumer loyalty, and the customer service experience, and

It also closely measures e-commerce results for brand partners, which creates a feedback loop that enable partners to refine their products and be more responsive to consumer needs.

With offices in Singapore, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, the company claims to have grown its revenues more than 75x over the past three years.

The company further claimed that it more than doubled its 2019 revenues to over US$100 million in 2020. It has been cash flow positive and profitable since 2019.

Also Read: Asia Partners’s maiden fund hits final close at US$384M

In addition to Asia Partners, two of Alibaba’s co-founders, Singapore-based venture capital firm Jubilee Capital Management, the family office of Sam Goi, and several ultra-high net worth technology entrepreneurs from across Asia are among SCI’s existing investors.

TikTok collaboration

SCI has also inked a partnership with TikTok, starting with a launch in Indonesia. With the help of SCI, brand partners in the archipelago can carry out sales directly through the TikTok app, activating a new channel for social commerce on one of the world’s most popular mobile apps.

The company claims it is the only e-commerce enabler in Southeast Asia with this dual capability across both marketplace e-commerce and social e-commerce platforms.

“SCI’s exponential growth is testament to its ability to offer global and local consumer brands end-to-end e-commerce services integrated with a vast network of Asian marketplaces through its platform,” said Chu Swee Yeok, CEO and President of EDBI.

“With plans to deepen R&D capabilities in data analytics and automation tools at its HQ here, SCI is well placed to strengthen Singapore’s position as a global e-commerce hub, enabling accelerated market scaling for its partners and promoting trade flows across Southeast Asia and East Asia,” Swee Yeok stated.

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Image Credit: SCI Commerce

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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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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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