As India’s startup funding landscape strives to reach new heights every day, leading accelerator VC fund, 9Unicorns and its parent firm Venture Catalysts, have facilitated a $108 million fundraising for 32 portfolio startups in their first virtual demo day. By the end of the programme, 70% of the startups received interest and subscriptions from nearly 900 participating VCs from 18 countries in the two-day event.

A first cohort of 32 startups were mentored for the global demo day (D Day) of which about 45% of the startup founders were either serial entrepreneurs or have previously worked in a startup setting, have inferred that investor sentiment for entrepreneurs was twice as high.

The Demo Day, conducted on August 11-12, also witnessed massive participation from women founders. Women founders led about 30% of the D-Day startups. This is part of an attempt by 9Unicorns and VCats to reinforce support for female founders who often struggle to access capital even when there is massive liquidity in the startup ecosystem.

9Unicorns and its mission to champion startups

Co-founded by Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anil Jain, Anuj Golecha, and Gaurav Jain, the Mumbai-based $72 million sector-agnostic funds provide up to $100k per startup in the first round and up to $2 million in successive matches with its ecosystem of co-investors.

Also read: Gotrade: fractional investing powering access to US stock in 150 countries

“We are overwhelmed with the response from the global investor community on our first Demo Day. It speaks volumes about the positive sentiment in international VCs for Indian tech startups. A few of them individually raised over $20 million during the demo day. While a few of them have closed deals, a few others have received investment interests, and we hope to complete their respective rounds in the next few days and weeks. The idea is to conduct at least 3 demo days in a year,” said Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder and President of 9Unicorns.

Demo Day startups

The firm is on a mission to help strengthen early-stage investing and help create potential Unicorns. Let us look at the startups that participated in the D-Day.

• ByteLearn: This edtech startup is an AI assistant to create adaptive learning tools for kids learning math.
• Pariksha: A vernacular Edtech startup to provide affordable education to students in rural India.
• ImaginXP: It is a social impact higher education platform that provides embedded degrees, online work-integrated degrees, and subjects to universities in a B2B model.
• Tamasha: An ideal platform for content creators and social media influencers to interact with their fans.
• Rooter: Allows gamers to join popular streamers, upload gaming videos or images, and create content.
• Power Gummies: Power Gummies has created chewable vitamin gummies for healthy hair and nails.
• PeeSafe: is a female toilet hygiene company making hygiene products like sanitary pads, menstrual cups, and even personal wash products for both men and women.
• TruNativ: It is an environmentally conscious food brand founded by Pranav and Mamta Malhotra in 2019. Its F&B aims to tackle urban malnourishment.
• Raskik: A natural fusion fruit juice brand for millennials at just Rs 30.
• Coutloot: The largest social commerce platform to buy and sell online in under 30 seconds on a bargain.
• EvenFlow: Evenflow is India’s Thrasio. It offers to manage inventory, performance marketing, on-platform merchandising, cataloguing, and new product development to third-party brands that raise revenue through e-commerce.
• ExtraaEdge: This SaS based edtech is empowering admission teams across the globe to make intelligent, data-driven decisions.
• Eunimart: AI-powered SaaS platform for businesses to grow online by leveraging intelligence, reducing cost, and improving efficiency.
• Prescinto: AI-powered SaaS platform to collect clean energy plant data and apply data science models to identify causes for underperformance.
• GeoIQ: It assists some of India’s leading brands with live data insights for some of the most crucial business decisions involving consumers on a day-to-day basis.
• Gully Network: Gully Network is building India’s largest asset-light modern retail network of tech-enabled mid-sized grocery stores in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities.
• Hesa: one-stop solution for corporates, banks, governments, and NGOs to explore and invest in rural India.
• BluSmart: India’s first and largest zero-emission ride service that operates a fleet of 400 cabs in the South Delhi-Gurugram region.
• Zypp Electric: EV-based last-mile delivery company with battery swapping infrastructure.
• Charge+ Zone: One-stop solution to locate charging points, booking slots for charging, and payment through QR code.
• Klub: A revenue-based finance firm that uses data analytics to provide capital to brands across sectors.
• Inai: It enables merchants to set up their payment stack with a single integration.
• Numadic: It revolutionizes India’s fleet management system using analytical data.
• Castler: It uses technology and innovation to digitize escrow accounts for safer transactions.
• Homeville: Is a fintech housing credit enablement network built on Open banking principles. It creates significant operating leverage with an in-house built technology stack.
• EnsuredIT: Empowers end customers and Insurance Intermediaries with AI-based product platform for transformational customer experience.
• OTO: OTO offers customers a convenient option to finance their vehicle by introducing two-wheeler leasing in India.
• Janani: Is an AI-based sexual dysfunction and infertility treatment provider.
• Alpha AI: Helps businesses design as well as redesign the AI system based on the prevalent business needs.
• Toch: An AI-driven platform can help broadcasters, OTT platforms, media platforms, and creators.
• Hoopr: Hoopr is India’s first AI-Powered Music Licensing Marketplace, built to soundtrack the world’s burgeoning video creator economy.
• Instoried: Helps large companies make their marketing and communications content more human with a data-driven, scalable, and repeatable approach using AI.
• ai: SaaS based employee service desk platform built for Microsoft Teams, designed to help address problems in terms of low self-service adoption, slow service, and long wait times.
• Rage: An innovative coffee brand targeted towards young millennials and small towns to create a cafe-like experience at home.

The future is bright 

With this diverse and competitive pool of startups sparking the interest of some of the world’s leading VCs, the future is bright for India’s tech startup ecosystem. As 9Unicorns continues to power through its mission of championing local startups, they expect to attract more promising young startups from the country’s vibrant ecosystem.

Also read: foodpanda: Taking Asia’s food delivery ecosystem through the pandemic and beyond

For more information on 9Unicorns future cohorts, you may visit their official website at 9unicorns.in.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 9unicorns.

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True Global Ventures (TGV), a blockchain fund based out of Singapore, has just announced the closing of its fourth fund at over US$100 million. The new fund, True Global Ventures 4 Plus (TGV 4 Plus), focuses on blockchain companies, primarily in the Series B and Series C stages. Animoca Brands, a blockchain unicorn, is an investee of TGV.

In this interview, TGV founder Dusan Stojanovic talks about TGV, the blockchain industry, its future, NFTs and CBDCs.

Excerpts:

Blockchain has existed here for quite a few years, but its adoption is still moving at a snail’s pace, especially in Asia Pacific. What are the reasons for the slow adoption rate? What is hindering its growth?

We have been monitoring the four blockchain verticals (gaming, infrastructure, fintech, and AI) since our 2018 Blockchain competition. The absolute highest adoption vertical is within the NFTs space, and it’s massive.

From a fintech payments’ perspective, we see fastest in the in-game currency of the gaming metaverse. Thus, naturally, the first case adopted would be linked to these in-game payments as the most robust use case within blockchain payments.

5G is coming, and AI and ML are hot. How do you think a combination of different new-age technologies such as these can change the world we live in?

We see 5G as a booster for any gaming experience on the mobile, but also when combining gaming and VR/AR with a focus on the gaming metaverse. These new-age technologies will bring people even closer together and automate even more processes.

Why haven’t there been many unicorns in Blockchain (Asia in particular) despite being a hot sector?

We have seen one of the first NFT unicorns worldwide in Animoca Brands based out of Hong Kong. Its growth has been enormous, and it raised US$138 million in May-June 2021. It has also won exclusive rights to NFTs for the next Olympics in Beijing.

NFTs are taking the world by storm. What factors are contributing to this euphoria? Do you think Southeast Asia is ready for NFTs? What are its different applications?

We believe that NFTs are growing strongly and exponentially in Japan and South Korea, and Southeast Asia. What is driving NFTs is the more digitalised economy and the COVID-19 crisis, which has made people use even more digital collectibles.

They have driven the NFT burst in collectibles to start with and later metaverse gaming. Therefore, the essential applications of NFTs are collectibles, metaverse gaming, digital art, film, video, content, and music.

Many governments in Asia still look at cryptocurrency with an eye of suspicion? How can their perception be changed?

We are seeing more and more corporates investing in cryptocurrency. Pension funds have also started investing, and we believe that this will change the perception of cryptocurrency as an asset class.

Also Read: The art of blockchain: What is the NFT craze all about?

However, we are mainly focussing on equity investments in NFT companies.

What are your thoughts on central bank digital currency (CBDC)? Do you think it can democratise access to finance across the world? Should Singapore and other fast-growing economies in SEA introduce CBDCs?

We do believe that CBDC is important. We see breakthroughs in significantly developed countries such as Sweden, which has been piloted already for several years. We believe the enormous potential probably lies in emerging countries rather than developed countries.

We believe that Singapore will follow countries such as Sweden that have completely digitalised payments. Singapore will embrace CBDC, given that it is growing quickly into a wholly digitalised economy and cashless society.

We believe that it is a perfect instrument, especially for countries that are highly digitalised.

Digital-only banks will soon become a reality in Singapore and Malaysia. How do you think players in this sector can adopt blockchain, DeFis etc., to promote financial inclusion in these markets?

Digital-only banks, if they tap into the gaming sector, will capture consumers in the below-40s age group. Going into the gaming community will give them an unfair competitive advantage since gamers spend a lot of their time on gaming. Being present at the very outset when gamers open up their first wallet in a game is how digital-only banks should think about capturing the youngest population and keep them until they become adults.

Last but not least, many of these gamers are young and are already making a lot of money and have considerable revenues. Examples of this would be Axie Infinity (by Sky Mavis) which has made enormous breakthroughs in emerging countries such as the Philippines (play-to-earn model)

What is next for blockchain?

It needs to have consumptions that use less energy, and it is coming. It needs to have renewable energy as the only source. The green aspect of blockchain would be one of the most critical aspects in the next 12 months.

Do you see any new unicorns in the making in the blockchain sector?

Yes, we believe that the prominent unicorns in the blockchain sector will be coming from the gaming blockchain area in the short term. Later on, companies linked to renewable energy will have a significant impact.

Also Read: How blockchain-powered fintech services can improve financial inclusion

Last but not least, we think that companies related to the identity infrastructure will be important in terms of the future unicorns in the sector.

Can you talk about TGV 4 Plus’s investment thesis? What is the average ticket size? How many companies do you plan to invest in, and how many this year? Any new investments in the pipeline?

We have quite a few investments in the pipeline that we will be announcing soon. Our objective is to invest in around another 10-20 companies, mainly in Series B and C, with a ticket size of between US$3-10 million.

TGV4 plus has 40 partners, which is rare in the VC industry. Was it a deliberate decision to keep the list long? Why so?

Yes, it was. We have four investment committees with roughly ten partners in each. We want to spot the very best companies in terms of who we want to invest in and support them in the best possible way.

We do not believe that the traditional VC structure with two to six general partners can optimally help 10-20 portfolio companies.

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Image Credit: True Global Ventures

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Carsome Group, a leading user car e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, has announced the completion of its US$170 million Series D2 round of financing.

It is complemented by new credit facilities of US$30 million, bringing the total funds raised in this round to US$200 million.

The largest equity investment in Carsome’s history, the round also saw participation from one of the leading sovereign wealth funds in the region. 

A pool of new international investors such as Catcha Group and MediaTek also co-invested. Existing shareholders, including Asia Partners, Gobi Partners, 500 Southeast Asia, Ondine Capital, MUFG Innovation Partners, Daiwa PI Partners, also joined. 

The new capital injection will be used to bolster Carsome’s organic growth in the retail and auto-financing business. The funding will also boost the unicorn’s capabilities in strategic investments and M&As (mergers and acquisitions) in the next six months, aiming to build the largest automotive ecosystem in Southeast Asia. 

With this deal, the Malaysia-headquartered tech unicorn’s valuation has touched US$1.3 billion. Carsome became a unicorn when it acquired iCar Asia in July this year. 

Also read: Digitalisation is driving the new normal for Southeast Asia’s automotive sector

“We are geared up to achieve even greater heights while rolling out Southeast Asia’s integrated car e-commerce platform, now further solidified by various strengths within the ecosystem,” said Carsome co-founder and group CEO Eric Cheng.

Founded in 2015, Carsome aims to digitise the region’s used car industry by reshaping the car buying and selling experience through end-to-end solutions — from car inspection to ownership transfer to financing. Since its inception, it has made inroads into Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. 

The company claims it transacts around 100,000 cars annually and has more than 1,700 employees across all its offices.

To champion the growth of its B2C business, Carsome has opened at least seven B2C retail centres, known as Carsome Experience Centers, across Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. It will open several more shortly. 

The company has rolled out numerous auto-financing offerings for car buyers and used car dealers, especially for graduates who typically face challenges obtaining loan approvals from conventional banks.

According to the press statement, the car marketplace “is achieving operational profitability”. Reuters hinted that Carsome’s profitability on an operational level is set to be realised in 2022. The firm plans to triple its revenue to nearly US$1 billion this year from last year.

In July, Carsome acquired an all-equity stake in Universal Collection, a Jakarta-based car and motorcycle auction service.

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Image credit: Carsome

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Simply put, entrepreneurship is the act of setting up and managing a business to earn a profit ultimately. I first dipped my toes into the world of entrepreneurship at the age of 17 as a means to challenge my limits after pursuing a college education.

Despite having no business exposure and was pursuing a degree in computing, I ventured into eight different businesses in various industries, including education, e-commerce, fashion, events, and technology.

Through the process, I discovered a gap between technology and marketing where businesses tend to keep both parts far apart when the world is trying to bring them together – in which OpenMinds was founded to help brands grow using martech for their businesses.

Having discovered a taste for entrepreneurship early in life, I realised that there is a difference between an entrepreneur and a business owner, where it’s more likely for the former to own a business. At the same time, the latter may not necessarily be an entrepreneur.

This comes down to how an entrepreneur thinks, solves problems and accept failures where it is not solely about building a successful business. That said, I am a huge advocate for entrepreneurship from a young age.

Whether to pursue a passion project, start a business, or bring this mindset into a job, it is almost always disadvantageous to start early. In fact, it’s the best time in life to fail!

The benefits of starting young

They say that starting a business is akin to taking a leap of faith, but it’s much more than that. Beneath all the usual keywords like perseverance, passion, sacrifice, self-driven is a whole lot of insanity to deal with that challenges both your physical and mental health.

The best part about this is that people generally deal with these better at a younger age. Unlike being employed, you have fewer commitments such as mortgages or starting a family and have a fixed schedule that you have some flexibility over.

Also Read: With these young startups, the SaaS market will never be the same again

During this period, young entrepreneurs will have more room for error and options to start anew even if they fail than starting at a later age, though not impossible! Especially if you are still a student, you have unlimited access to resources on campus, human capital (think about your peers), and even financing opportunities.

Furthermore, starting your entrepreneurial journey at a young age also means working on an idea as soon as it forms, as you are less likely to be hindered by the responsibilities that often come with getting older. This gives you an edge over others, resulting in a higher chance of your business venture flourishing.

Above all, entrepreneurship teaches important life lessons. Whether your venture becomes a multi-million dollar business or not, it is undeniable that being an entrepreneur teaches management and independence while ensuring job readiness and unbeatable problem-solving skills that will aid in any future endeavour.

Facing your challenges as an entrepreneur

It is an understatement to say that business owners face many ups and downs on their journey towards success. In fact, most entrepreneurs have a series of failures before any form of success before having another series of failures again, both big and small.

That is why it is imperative not to be discouraged even by the lowest of lows.

If it’s of any consolation, my entrepreneurship journey wasn’t all smooth sailing either. When I first started, I experienced my fair share of doubts and, at one point, suffered ridiculed by my friends, clients, and even vendors.

Being only technically trained, it was a huge challenge for me to get my business up and running. Starting from square one without prior education and experience in this specific field didn’t make things easier either, resulting in plenty of innocent mistakes, not to mention that resources were hard to come by, and I had no one to seek help from.

Making matters worse, the startup ecosystem back then was pretty much non-existent.

Being a young entrepreneur is by no means easy, and there are no shortcuts to success. It is a gruelling learning process and self-discovery, especially when operating with minimal resources, experience, and network.

I’ve learnt from countless mistakes myself, from financial management, administrative oversights, partnership failures, employment heartbreaks, and plenty of scaling pains… including precious life lessons along the way!

The truth is that I had plenty of opportunities to give up, but instead, at every turn, I’ve used my failures as fuel to do better and to slowly accumulate favourable results no matter how small they are over the months and years.

Also read: Why youth entrepreneurship in Singapore is on the rise

This fired up my spirit to do what I’m doing today– to make a change in the industry and to impact the lives of others regardless of their experience and position, which is the main reason why I also make time to lecture part-time, sit on the academic advisory board of universities and also mentor students, founders and professionals in the region.

Tapping in for support

As we now live in a time of abundance, there is no longer a need to start a business as a young entrepreneur blindly as I did. Given the access to knowledge and network, you can observe and learn from those who have already succeeded in their industries and career. In fact, that was the main reason my co-founders and I created OpenAcademy, an educational platform that runs parallel to OpenMinds.

While OpenMinds assists business owners to grow their business reach using marketing technologies, OpenAcademy serves as a database where novice and experienced business owners alike can access thousands of resources such as insights and perspectives from industry experts whilst building meaningful networks with similar minded people.

The platform ultimately aims to provide do-it-yourself solutions that will result in business sustainability and long-term growth.

While the sad reality is that not all business ventures will be successful, I believe that it is important for aspiring business owners to act on their ideas sooner rather than later. Being young means plenty of growth opportunities, and there is no better time than now to get started.

I will leave you with a quote that I hold and practice in OpenMinds, “Your mindset determines the size of the life-game you play” – those who ‘get there’ are those that dare to dream, dare to take action, and dare to fail.

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ScaleUp Malaysia, an accelerator programme that focuses exclusively on growth-stage companies in the country, announced that it is opening up applications for its Cohort 3.

The programme is run in collaboration with Singapore-based Quest Ventures and US-based Indelible Ventures.

In this new cohort, Quest Ventures will look to co-invest in up to seven companies whereas Indelible Ventures seeks to co-invest in up to five companies. The investment partnerships will bring in a total investment of approximately US$1 million (MYR4.23 million) to develop and grow Malaysian companies.

ScaleUp Malaysia is targeting 20 companies to be shortlisted. It is aiming to invest at least US$59,000 (MYR250,000) in the companies.

According to a press statement, to qualify for the Cohort 3 programme, companies must be operating on business models that have the propensity to disrupt existing markets or have solutions that are able to navigate future challenges and take advantage of opportunities brought about by any economic climate.

Participants will be shortlisted based on five key criteria:

1. Highly scalable products or services with large growth potential looking to scale in Malaysia, ASEAN and at the global stage

2. The ability to demonstrate product-market fit

3. Companies must be looking toward fundraising in the near future

4. They must also be generating revenue

5. Led by passionate and driven founders

Also Read: Malaysia’s unicorn Carsome adds US$200M more to its kitty to grow its retail, auto-financing businesses

The 20 shortlisted companies will begin their accelerator journey in October before pitching in front of the Investment Committee at the end of the programme.

For Quest Ventures, this is the second time they are working with ScaleUp Malaysia, having successfully worked hands-on with 20 companies and co-investing into 10 in the Cohort 2 programme.

Indelible Ventures, a US-based fund with a mandate to invest in Malaysian startups, targets tech-enabled scaleups with B2B products that have the potential to scale at an international level.

“Leveraging on the partners’ extensive global experiences in helping scaleups scale beyond our shores is key for our Cohort 3. A fast-paced, rapid-response ethos has long been at the core of many scaleups, now more than ever especially against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the partnership, we look towards sustainable growth for long term success,” said Xelia Tong, Managing Partner of ScaleUp Malaysia.

For more information on ScaleUp Malaysia and to put in your applications for Cohort 3, visit this link.

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Image Credit: ScaleUp Malaysia

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In this episode of Climatic: The Asia-Pacific Climate Technology Series, we take a look at how smart technologies aims to mitigate the considerable effects of the construction industry to the climate.

Also read: Making construction cleaner, greener, and more climate-friendly

Hosted by Linh Thai and featuring Christian Sanz, Founder and CEO of Skycatch; Thomas Abell, Chief of Digital Technology for Development at Asian Development Bank; Ricky Togashi, Global Head of Innovation at Komatsu; and Akinori Onodera, President at EarthBrain, this episode talks about:

• How smart technologies can help lessen the adverse impact of the construction industry to the climate from planning to maintaining
• The two largest weaknesses of the industry that smart construction can help address
• Real-world cases on how currently available technology have helped ongoing projects lessen CO2 emissions

This episode also features Hara Wang, Head of Investments and Fund Partnerships at Third Derivative; and Daniel Hersson, Senior Fund Manager at ADB Ventures as they speak about investible opportunities in smart construction, why smart technologies are the way forward, and how Asia Pacific can be at the forefront of the smart construction revolution.

Watch the video above or click this link to watch the video in another browser.

The Climatic video series focusses on the innovators decarbonising the Asia-Pacific region’s construction industry and the industry leaders partnering with them to scale.

Want your startup to join Climatic? Apply today

Disclosure: This is video distributed by e27 sponsored by ADB Ventures.

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Singapore-based blockchain fund True Global Ventures (TGV) has announced the closing of its fourth fund at over US$100 million.

Called True Global Ventures 4 Plus (TGV 4 Plus), the fund targets blockchain companies, primarily in the Series B and Series C stages.

TGV 4 Plus look for companies that bring the latest technology in Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) across four verticals: entertainment, infrastructure, financial services, and data analytics & Artificial Intelligence.

Also Read: The art of blockchain: What is the NFT craze all about?

It was founded by 40 partners, who contributed 27 per cent of the fund. Its Limited Partners include several entrepreneurs, business angels, family offices and institutional investors, such as Singapore’s Octava Family Office. True Global Ventures’s Singapore-based partners include Beatrice Lion, Celine Lecotonnec, Dušan Stojanović, Jani Rautiainen, Kelly Choo, Olivier Legrand.

The fund supports its portfolio companies to accelerate growth in new markets, expand internationally, introduce new clients, build management teams, establish new partnerships and leverage its 3,000+ B2B relationships across the globe.

To date, TGV has invested in five companies. They are Animoca Brands (blockchain gaming and NFT), Forge Global (secondary private market), The Sandbox (gaming metaverse), Canada Computational Unlimited (bitcoin mining with 100 per cent renewable energy, and QuantumRock (AI asset management).

Grand View Research showed that the global blockchain technology market is expected to reach US$394.60 billion by 2028 and expand at a CAGR of 82.4 per cent from 2021 to 2028.

Much of this growth comes from financial institutions looking to deploy blockchain applications. These include non-fungible tokens (NFT), enterprise blockchain solutions, digital identities, central bank digital currencies, and decentralized finance (DeFi).

As such, increased commercial adoption of DLTs such as blockchain will help to accelerate the mainstream adoption of digital currencies.

Tan Ting Yong, Investment Director of Octava Family Office, said, “TGV is like a network of serial entrepreneurial partners with their portfolio companies. We’ve seen how they put a lot of effort to get introductions to help these companies grow, on top of the money they invest into them.”

Also Read: How blockchain-powered fintech services can improve financial inclusion

“TGV team has created incredible value to their portfolio companies by helping them with client and partner introductions, and also with next round financing and exits,” added Luke Lim, Managing Director at Phillip Securities.

True Global Ventures has a presence in 20 cities across the globe, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Dubai, Moscow, London, Stockholm, Paris, Warsaw, New York, San Francisco, Vancouver, among others.

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We ended the month of August with the celebration of Malaysia Day. As per a new tradition that we started on Singapore’s National Day on August 9 and Indonesia’s Hari Kemerdekaan on August 17, we are taking a look at tech startups in Malaysia that have made notable achievements in 2021.

As we have known, this is no ordinary year as the Southeast Asian region continues to battle the pandemic. However, startups in the region continue to make notable achievements. From being acquired by global companies to securing unicorn status, these startups have shown resilience in these challenging times.

We chose these startups based on the news coverage that we did of the country in 2021 and presented it to you based on chronological order, starting from the most recent updates.

For your reading convenience, here is the list of the 25 most notable startups in Malaysia this year:

1. Ethis Global

Ethis Global, the company that operates sharia-based crowdfunding platforms in Indonesia and Malaysia and social finance platform GlobalSadaqah, closed MYR6.8 million (US$1.7 million) Pre-Series A funding round from angel investors in the Islamic finance and fund management communities. This list included Malaysia-based Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee (Chairman of Malaysia Airline, former president and CEO of Petronas) and Daud Vicary Abdullah (Trustee at RFI Foundation) as well as Dubai-based Khurram Hilal (Islamic banking lead at Standard Chartered).

In a press statement, Ethis Global said that the funds will be used to scale up operations in existing markets, acquire licenses and set up operations in new jurisdictions, and develop new technology.

2. Supahands

Omnilytics has agreed to acquire Malaysian data labelling platform Supahands for US$20 million. This deal is part of the Singaporean firm’s ongoing strategic acquisition drive to expand its product offerings and enhance its retail tech stack capabilities.

Under this agreement, Supahands CEO will join Omnilytics’s board as chief strategy officer to accelerate the startups’ growth plan for 2022.

3. Delivereat

Budget airline company AirAsia has made significant moves in expanding its digital business arms this year. Its digital logistics venture Teleport acquired on-demand food delivery platform Delivereat for US$9.8 million in mid-August.

This move was made more than a month after it acquired the Thailand operations of Indonesian unicorn Gojek.

4. SUBPLACE

SubPlace, a subscription online shopping startup, in early August raised US$2.36 million in just four days of launching its equity crowdfunding (ECF) campaign on MyStartr.

The startup raised the money for its smart lock product LockIn, and it came from 275 investors.

Also Read: In brief: Taiwan’s XREX rakes in US$17M, Malaysia’s Poptron raises funding from Choco-Up

5. Epost

E-commerce logistics company Epost raised US$1.4 million from Warisan Quantum Management, a Malaysia-based private equity management firm, in late July. The company plans to utilise the newly raised capital to enhance its product and expand the platform across Southeast Asia.

Launched in 2019, Epost provides cross-border delivery and e-commerce fulfilment services to brands and retailers. It also provides cloud-based integrated order, inventory, and warehouse management systems to ease logistics for companies.

6. iStore iSend

Logistics and supply chain company iStore iSend raised a “seven-figure US dollars” financing from Kuroneko Innovation Fund, a Japanese corporate VC firm owned by Yamato Holdings and managed by Global Brain Corporation, in July.

This round is an extension of a US$5.5-million Series B funding co-led by Gobi Partners and logistics company EasyParcel that the startup has announced earlier this year.

7. Easy Eat

Singapore- and Malaysia-based foodtech startup Easy Eat AI announced a US$5 million round of financing. Investors include Aroa Ventures (the family office of Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal, Reddy Futures Family Office, Prophetic Ventures, Maninder Gulati (Global chief strategy officer of Oyo), Cem Garih (Managing Partner at Alarko Ventures), Fethi Sabancı Kamışlı (founder and Managing Partner of Esas Ventures), and a few Silicon Valley-based VCs and angels.

The company will utilise the capital for team expansion, founder and CEO Mohd Wassem told e27. Over the past three months, the team has grown from 10 to 40 people.

8. Speedhome

Formerly known as Speedrent, property rental platform Speedhome announced an MYR7 million (US$1.7 million) Series A funding from Gobi Partners and Allianz Malaysia, an investment holding company and a subsidiary of global insurance major Allianz.

It aims to expand regionally to 10 other metropolitan cities in the next five years, namely Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta, Taipei, Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

9. MoneyMatch

MoneyMatch, a cross-border payment company headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, announced the closing of its Series A fundraising round totalling MYR18.5 million (US$4.4 million).

Raised over two tranches, the initial tranche was led by Cradle Seed Ventures in 2019 while the second one by KAF Investment Bank early this year. This also includes a venture debt facility secured from Malaysia Debt Ventures through its Technology Startups Funding Relief Facility.

MoneyMatch said in a statement that it will use the proceedings to expand its presence to Singapore and Hong Kong by the year-end. It will also allocate additional resources to Malaysia’s northern and southern regions as it looks to ramp up its presence both nationally and internationally.

10. Favful

Malaysian integrated digital media group, Media, signed an agreement to acquire a 100 per cent stake in Lovelife Technologies, owner of community online beauty store Favful. The financial details remain undisclosed.

This acquisition marks iMedia’s entry into the commerce business and is in line with its mission of becoming an integrated digital media group.

According to a press statement, iMedia will be responsible for the acceleration of Favful’s revenue for its influencer advertising unit as well as branded content. It is also tasked to generate lifestyle content and engagement around its website and social media platforms.

11. pitchIN

Equity crowdfunding platform pitchIN raised MYR5.5 million (~US$1.3 million) funding through its own campaign. The capital came from 322 investors participated, including Chan Kok San, co-founder of Aimflex; and Simpson Wong Kean Hin, Managing Director of Shellys Marketing.

pitchIN is currently in the final stages of raising an additional MYR5 million (US$1.2 million) from institutional investors.

Also Read: What are some networking benefits that are essential for startups?

12. RPG Commerce

RPG Commerce, a company that builds, launches and scales multi-brand e-commerce businesses globally, secured an undisclosed amount of Series A funding round. Lead investors are Temasek-backed Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia, and Joseph Phua, co-founder and Chairman of 17 Live.

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

13. Carsome

Carsome Group acquired 19.9 per cent of ASX (Australian Stock Exchange)-listed iCar Asia from Catcha Group. The total transaction is estimated to be worth more than US$200 million and has turned Carsome into a unicorn.

14. Naluri

Digital health service provider Naluri Hidup closed a US$5 million funding round led by Singaporean VC firm Integra Partners. Existing backers — strategic investors Duopharma Biotech and Pathology Asia, and VC firm M Venture Partners also participated.

Naluri will use the funds to expand operations in Singapore and Indonesia, as well as launch its service in Thailand and the Philippines.

15. Secai Marche

Secai Marche, an online marketplace that connects farmers with restaurants in Japan and Malaysia, bagged JPY150 million (~US$1.5 million) in a pre-Series A funding round from Japanese VC firms Rakuten Ventures and Beyond Next Ventures.

It will use the fresh capital to expand fulfilment services. A portion of the money will also go into hiring and sales and marketing.

16. iPrice Group

Online shopping aggregator iPrice Group announced a US$1.5 million financing from South Korean foodtech company Woowa Brothers. This came off the company’s Series B funding led by ACA Investments in March 2020, which was later joined by JG Digital Equity Ventures in September.

The fresh capital will go into enhancing iPrice product and accelerating the rollout of partnerships.

17. ADA

Digital marketing solutions company Axiata Digital Advertising (ADA) secured US$60 million in funding from SoftBank Group. The Japanese telecom group will own 23.07 per cent shareholding of the company at an enterprise valuation of US$260 million.

ADA aims to continue the development of its AI models, with a primary focus on precision targeting for the marketing industry.

18. Aerodyne Group

Drone services company Aerodyne Group announced a strategic investment from a consortium of Japanese investors, comprising Real Tech Fund, Kobashi Holdings and ACSL. Other details of the transaction were not disclosed.

The partnership is set to propel Aerodyne’s latest engine of growth in the agriculture space, called Agrimor, in the ASEAN region. The consortium will also help Aerodyne grow its core business in Japan.

19. Lapasar

B2B wholesale procurement startup Lapasar announced that it has raised MYR7.5 million (US$1.8 million) in a funding round led by startup accelerator-cum-investment firm NEXEA and shopper360 limited. Equity crowdfunding platform pitchIN, besides other undisclosed individuals, also participated.

According to Lapasar founder and CEO Thinesh Kumar, “The funding will be used to accelerate growth for our wholesale business. We are targeting to serve 10,000 grocery stores, restaurants and hawker stalls over the next 24 months with extensive distribution capabilities by rolling out our mobile app Lapasar-Borong.”

20. Jocom International Holdings

Mobile grocery app Jocom International Holdings announced approximately SG$5.6 million (US$4.1 million) via listing part of its share capital on Singapore’s first regulated private securities exchange, 1exchange (1X).

The company will use the financing to enhance its technology and expand its presence into markets such as West Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia.

21. MyMy, Sukaniaga

Fintech companies MyMy and Sukaniaga joined forces to form a Shariah-compliant digital banking consortium and bid for one of five digital banking licenses to be issued by the central bank BNM in March.

This comes fresh off MyMy’s raising of US$2.4 million from Koperasi Tentera (KT) in September 2020, in what it claims to be the country’s largest seed round.

Also Read: How should SMEs and startups prepare to handle a ransomware attack?

22. LottieFiles

Open-source animation file format platform LottieFiles raised US$9 million in Series A financing. The funding round was led by M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund, with participation from existing investor 500 Startups.

The new capital will be used to further its product roadmap, increase its user base and expand its infrastructure.

23. CapBay

Multi-bank supply chain finance and peer-to-peer financing platform CapBay announced a US$20 million in Series A round. The funding round comes from KK Fund and several angel investors.

The company aims to use the funds to further strengthen its technological and funding capabilities. It will enable more efficient financing and market expansion in order to reach a wider range of investors and underserved small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), it claimed.

24. microLEAP

Islamic and conventional P2P microfinancing platform microLEAP announced a total of US$3.26 million (MYR13.25 million) in equity and other modes of financing from Malaysian investment holding company MAA Group.

microLEAP will use the funds for advertising, promotions, hiring staff and tech enhancements.

25. Poptron

Lifestyle social commerce platform Poptron secured US$1 million in strategic investment from an unnamed NASDAQ-listed company.

These investments will be used to develop the platform’s version 2.0 (expected to be rolled out in January 2021) as well as expand the team and begin operations in Singapore by Q1 2021.

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As Indonesia’s largest commerce businesses approach IPO scale and considering the dominance of Shopee, Tokopedia, Bukalapak, and Lazada, there can be few opportunities left in the e-commerce space.

However, even as the pandemic shifts online purchase behaviour to overdrive, our estimates put total e-commerce as a percentage of retail sales in Indonesia at just over 10 per cent.

Compared to more developed markets like China, with ~25 per cent e-commerce penetration, there is still room for multiples times of growth.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated new users into the digital economy in e-commerce and major sectors such as logistics, education, and fintech, all of which experienced significant increases in adoption rates.

However, even though e-commerce is the most mature sector overall, there are still blue ocean verticals to be found.

Underlining this growth is not only greater adoption by existing users but, most significantly, new users.

Based on data from Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company studies, one in three of all digital service consumers in 2020 were new users resulting from the impact of COVID-19, and survey data suggest that these new users will continue to retain new online habits past the pandemic.

Additionally, the majority of these new users were from non-metro areas. But where do the following e-commerce opportunities lie? This requires a deeper look at the different penetration rates of online purchase behaviour per sector, revealing the following key observations.

Also Read: Rakuten empowering SMEs to online shopping in Indonesia

Uncovering frontier customers and product categories

The most straightforward way to think about e-commerce opportunities is to think of frontier customers and frontier product categories. A basic illustration shows where opportunities are emerging:

Frontier customers in the e-commerce space include consumers in tier 2-4 cities and enterprises with more complex purchase requirements ranging from MSMEs to larger corporations with different vendor arrangement policies.

Based on the latest estimates, only 57 per cent of Indonesia’s population live in urbanised areas suggesting easily over 100M consumers living in rural and village communities.

This represents an enormous opportunity as online commerce penetration within rural Indonesia is far less than in urbanised areas.

Separately, MSMEs, which we have written about previously, are also frontier eCommerce customers as they are usually slow in the adoption of digital technology.

In this customer segment, over 63 million MSMEs represent over 60 per cent of Indonesia’s GDP and 97 per cent of the total workforce; there are enormous opportunities to be unlocked by adopting e-commerce for B2B e-commerce supplies for this sector.

Frontier products represent another highly attractive opportunity. Historically around the world, penetration rates of different product categories going online have differed considerably.

It’s well known that Amazon started with books before moving onto electronics, various household items, and only more recently, groceries.

Similarly, we can see that while Indonesia’s horizontal marketplaces have a considerable selection of electronics and household items, there’s far less selection in groceries, and even then, the product experience is not ideal. Beyond the physical product itself, we must also consider the product experience.

For example, when consumers shop for groceries, they expect to receive items on the same day.

Hence, we also need to consider the product and the product experience – which requires fundamentally differentiated logistics last mile and supply chains compared to selling electronics.

Drivers for emerging opportunities

There are several drivers for these emerging opportunities. Firstly – the consumers. Accelerated by lockdowns imposed by governments and hesitancy to visit crowded markets, more and more consumers have tried purchasing new product categories online, such as groceries.

Several purchases later, what initially felt foreign becomes a habit, so we’ve seen incredible growth rates in this sector. Having backed early entrants to this space, such as Segari, we are witnessing this growth first hand.

Also Read: How millennials and the pandemic are driving the growth of cloud kitchens in Indonesia

Another driver is the vastly improved infrastructure supporting e-commerce.

From logistics to payments to internet penetration rates, improvements to these key supporting areas have increased the reach and penetration of e-commerce such that increasingly hard-to-reach areas have become viable markets for e-commerce.

Emerging models addressing frontier customers and products

The maturing consumer and infrastructure open up these opportunities and differentiated models that help create better access to new customers and the delivery of new product verticals.

These new models also provide a competitive advantage to new startups compared to incumbent platforms addressing these sectors.

For example, the PinDuoDuo (PDD) model pioneered online social commerce via group buying. Group buying initially found its strongest appeal with emerging consumers attracted by low prices (enabled by bulk buying) and buying with friends, which helped bridge a trust gap of buying online.

The model has evolved since then, but the entry point was highly differentiated compared to the marketplace incumbents of Taobao and JD at the time.

Similarly, we see several social commerce models in Indonesia employing various forms to address new customers through group purchases and lower prices.

Companies such as Kitabeli and Rumahan use the mechanics of group purchases in 2nd and 3rd tier cities to enable emerging consumers to buy online.

The former focuses on more daily use items while the latter use installed payments via community financing to purchase higher average order value goods like household appliances.

Other types of differentiated models can help with enabling improved product experiences. For example, another model that emerged from China helped accelerate online purchases for fresh produce.

Known as Community Group Buy (“CGB”), this model leverages neighbourhood “agents” in the community who help solve for customer acquisition and last-mile delivery logistics.

This particular model bridges user trust gaps and addresses logistic bottlenecks as shipping small baskets of daily groceries can become prohibitively expensive at the last mile.

Also Read: The road to success for e-commerce players in Indonesia is paved with data and talent acquisition

In this model, the agent aggregates the entire community’s purchase orders and takes on the responsibility for delivering within the catchment area. Our portfolio company Segari which we backed in 2020 at the pandemic, has also executed this model to great success.

Another “new customer segment” worth noting is the increasing adoption of e-commerce platforms by MSMEs in Indonesia.

Historically warung owners would have to close their stores to shop – sometimes several times a day – and pick up inventory to sell. Clearly, this is a massive inefficiency for the store as wholesalers could sometimes take several hours round trip.

By bringing the convenience of ordering supplies online and saving from shortening the supply chain, companies such as Ula are empowering MSMEs with efficiency and savings that can be put back into growing their businesses. Still, other businesses can support small enterprises to sell online a “Shopify for offline businesses” such as Majoo.

There are also plenty more emerging models, including “dark” convenience stores, cloud kitchens, and the vast category of direct-to-consumer brands, all of which are chipping away at the multi-hundred billion dollars offline retail market share more and more consumers spend time and money online.

Indonesia’s total retail market is on track to cross US$300 billion in the next three years, and with e-commerce just reaching US$30 billion in 2020, there are still excellent growth prospects.

For example, the largest single share of groceries alone makes up over US$70 billion, with estimates of online penetration barely crossing 0.5 per cent in 2021.

At AC Ventures (ACV), our view is that e-commerce penetration will cross 30 per cent in the next five years, creating over US$60 billion in market value opportunities and multiple startup investment opportunities.

Hence there has never been a better time backing Indonesia’s next generation of entrepreneurs, even in a seemingly mature space such as e-commerce.

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Japan’s early-stage fund Coral Capital closes third fund at US$128M

The crux: Coral Capital, an early-stage VC fund focussed on the Japanese market, has announced the first and final close of its third fund worth JPY 14 billion (~US$128 million).

Investors (LPs): Mizuho Bank, Mitsubishi Estate, Shinsei Bank, Pavilion Capital, Founders Fund, Dai-ichi Life Insurance, GREE, and undisclosed domestic and international institutional investors.

The philosophy: This new fund will continue to invest in the top seed and early-stage companies in Japan.

Ticket size: US$500,000 to U$5 million

The uniqueness: Coral will be deploying first cheques of anywhere from US$500K all the way to US$5M ーmaking it one of the largest seed to early-stage players in Japan. It has also allocated a significant portion of the fund for follow-on investment.

Also Read: 25 notable startups in Malaysia that have taken off in 2021

“With more ambition, more talent, and more capital coming into the Japan ecosystem, we firmly believe that Japan has the potential to produce not only more unicorns, but decacorns. The entire economy is undergoing widespread digital transformation, and startups are the best positioned to ride this wave. Japan is also home to brilliant technologists and scientists that, given the right conditions, have the potential to build global enterprises. We’ll continue to drive the ecosystem forward, and hopefully play a small part in helping these courageous entrepreneurs build us a better future,” said James Riney, founding partner and CEO of Coral Capital.

Same-day delivery service Dostavista rebrands to Borzo, raises US$35M Series C

The crux: Dostavista, a crowdsourced same-day delivery service operating globally, has changed its name to Borzo to unite its businesses in 10 different countries under a single brand. As part of its growth strategy, the company also raised US$35 million in a Series C.

Investors: Mubadala, VNV Global, RDIF and others.

Plans: To strengthen its position on the international market under the Borzo brand and develop new products.

More about Borzo: Founded in 2012, Borzo provides same-day delivery to a rapidly expanding customer base of 2 million users. The company has operations in 10 countries, including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey and Vietnam.

Borzo has over 2.5 million couriers and 2 million active customers, 75 per cent of which are small and medium-sized businesses. It fulfils up to 3 million orders per month.

The services are available in 10 countries including Brazil, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey and Vietnam.

Pakistan’s influencer marketing platform Walee raises US$2.7M seed

The crux: Walee, an influencer ecosystem solution based in Karachi, has raised US$2.7 million in seed funding from Z2C Limited, an advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company in Pakistan.

The investment comes within a month of Z2C Limited-owned Starcom affiliate media agency Brainchild Communications Pakistan (BCP) signing a strategic partnership agreement with Walee to distribute Walee Enterprise, an AI-enabled social media listening, and digital service centre platform.

Also Read: Why these four Vietnamese startups made it to the Forbes Asia watchlist

Plans: The funds will support the company’s aggressive regional growth ambitions in Pakistan and the Middle East, accelerating product development and service growing clients across ten core verticals.

More about Walee: Focused on a performance-driven approach, Walee’s influencer marketing solution links to a social commerce solution and marketplace that connects multichannel networks and influencers with advertisers and media agencies. Walee offers content creators a digital infrastructure to efficiently and seamlessly find advertisers, show interest to partake in a campaign, execute on deliverables, and get paid all from one system.

Launched in 2019, Walee is Pakistan’s fastest-growing and largest influencer marketing services and social commerce play, with more than 100,000 registered users.

The team is dedicated to developing future-thinking solutions for all situations, whether for a small business owner, a Fortune 100 company, or for public service, and has served all major industry verticals including FMCGs, telecoms, financial services, fashion, lifestyle, entertainment, and more.

The full suite of MarTech products and services under Walee includes Walee Influencer Marketing, Walee Shops, Walee Marketplace, Walee Pocket, and Walee Enterprise. Supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google Accelerator, Ignite under the Ministry of IT, Amazon and others, Walee is already a leading MarTech player nationally.

Northern Arc concludes a US$50M ECB transaction with Japan’s JICA

The crux: Northern Arc Capital, a debt platform in India, has concluded a US$50 million external commercial borrowing (ECB) transaction with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a governmental agency that works towards promoting economic and social growth in developing countries.

The plans: Northern Arc will use the proceeds to cater to the credit demands of women borrowers or towards products that disproportionately benefit women.

About Northern Arc: Formerly IFMR Capital Finance Limited, Northern Arc is a platform in the financial services sector set up primarily with the mission of catering to the diverse credit requirements of under-served households and businesses. Its business model is diversified across offerings, sectors, products, geographies and borrower segments.

 

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