Day: November 7, 2021

TurtleTree raises US$30M in first tranche of Series A funding led by VERSO Capital
Having just launched its Sacramento R&D facility in September, the cell-based milk startup will now use the funds to continue expanding its portfolio of sustainable, better-for-you food items; TurtleTree will now use the funds to continue expanding its portfolio of sustainable, better-for-you food items.

Indonesian travel startup Tiket to go public next year
CEO George Hendrata said the OTA startup is considering going public through a US$2B merger with a SPAC; The startup is also exploring other options, such as a traditional IPO as well as a potential merger with a Southeast Asian super app.

Alibaba-backed BAce Capital joins US$5M round of Philippine cloud kitchen firm CloudEats
Other investors are Vulpes Investment, Gobi Partners, Intera Investments, and GMA Ventures; CloudEats will use the fresh funds to scale its proprietary smart kitchen tech, open new markets across Southeast Asia, and develop new brands like Burger Beast.

Emtek’s Vidio raises US$150M from Affinity Equity Partners
The deal boosts Vidio’s post-money valuation to US$900M, getting it closer to achieving unicorn status; Vidio offers more than 1M on-demand videos, including exclusive sports and entertainment content; As of last month, it had an average of 62 million monthly active users on average and 2 million paid subscribers.

Thai cabinet to regulate digital platform service businesses
Such businesses, both in and outside of Thailand, will need to notify the government before operating; The law will apply to various digital platform services, including online marketplaces, social commerce, food delivery, space sharing, ride/car sharing and online search engines.

IDX’s profile to change as Indonesia’s biggest tech startups plan IPOs
Along with the likes of Bukalapak, which was listed earlier this year, and GoTo, which is eyeing an IPO next year, the startups are expected to change the composition of the Indonesian stock exchange; The IDX is now dominated by traditional companies like banks and manufacturers.

Multiplier bags US$13.2M in a Sequoia-led Series A round to simplify international employment
Multiplier will use the new capital for global expansion and scaling its payroll and benefits solutions for businesses; It is a global employment platform that helps companies employ, onboard and pay their global talent compliantly.

Indonesian model Luna Maya’s D2C cosmetics brand NAMA Beauty attracts US$5M seed funding
Investors are AC Ventures, SiCepat Ekspres and DMMX; NAMA Beauty will use the capital for R&D development and launching a new second-line brand.

Meet the first batch of startups that received investment from Accelerating Asia’s US$20M Fund II
80% of Cohort 5 startups address at least one of the United Nations’s SDGs, such as gender equality, responsible consumption and production, and industry, innovation and infrastructure.

Indonesian edtech-focused VR platform Shinta bags pre-series A funding
The investor is TigaLapan Investama Group and Investa Syailendra Nuswantara; Shinta offers three models: a VR-based learning platform for K-12 called Millealab; an enterprise training platform known as SpaceCollab; and a virtual character platform that can be used to build a virtual YouTuber.

SG food-waste upcycling firm Crust Group bags funding to enter Japan
Investors include Glocalink Singapore, Ales Global, and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital; Crust Group is fighting food waste by upcycling surplus ingredients into unique beverages for food service and retail partners.

Vietnamese edutech eJOY snags seed funding
Investors are ThinkZone Ventures and BK Fund; eJOY has created a tech product that lets users actively learn English while watching videos on YouTube, Netflix, Coursera, and other platforms; The tool serves as a plug-in to web browsers and allows learners to look up, collect and understand the context of new words while consuming video (with subtitles) or article content on the go.

A quick look at the 6 new startups graduating from Entrepreneur First Singapore
Startups include ESGnie, OSbiome, Powerhouse AI, Suggestr, Quantum Boost, and Jackett; These startups tackle challenges across ESG investing, microbiome sequencing, edutech and R&D manufacturing, among others.

Understanding pre-money, post-money valuations; option pools and dilution
This article discusses the concepts around pre-money and post-money valuations, option pools and dilution, as they are all interrelated concepts that affect the dilution that you can expect when you raise money.

The realistic scenario of the startup market in Southeast Asia
The Southeast Asian market is giving importance to several startups varied across different services; Some of the significant ventures that have stood out from the competition are Grab, Tokopedia, Gojek, Momo, and PropertyGuru.

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Image Credit: TurtleTree Labs

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Vidio, one of the leading Indonesian OTT platforms, today announced a US$150 million funding from Affinity Equity Partners, the leading private equity firm in Asia. Previously, Vidio was wholly owned by Emtek Group through its subsidiary Surya Citra Media (SCM). This funding round marks the company‘s first external funding round. It has a pre-money valuation of US$750 million as the funding round inched it closer to a unicorn status –or “soonicorn”.

According to Emtek’s latest financial report (Q3 2021), Vidio owns a total asset of IDR362 billion (US$25 million).

With this investment, Affinity is set to join Vidio’s board of directors and will team up with the company to accelerate its growth and expand market leadership in Indonesia. The company also aims to increase its original content offerings, enrich its content with more sports licensing, and invest in user experience.

“This marks a new milestone for Vidio as a leading OTT platform in Indonesia. We intend to keep on focussing on our users by offering the best streaming experience and premium exclusive content for them. We are proud to partner with Affinity; supported by our team of best talents, with this partnership we will take the great leap forward in providing quality and value to Vidio customers,” said Vidio CEO Sutanto Hartono.

Up until September, Vidio has secured 62 million subscribers. Several research firms have also placed them as the number one OTT platform in Indonesia. In August, Comscore placed Vidio as the number one app with the biggest number of unique visitors. In addition to that, MPA also placed them as an OTT with the highest number of daily active users in Q2 2021.

Also Read: Opportunities for the livestreaming industry in Asia

Vidio offers both live and on-demand streaming of original series, local and international feature films, and live shows. One of its leading propositions is its sports content, from UEFA Champions, La Liga, NBA, and F1.

“We are excited to partner with Emtek Group and Vidio to keep building the best OTT platforms for the future of the media industry in Indonesia. Emtek’s digital and media ecosystem, with Vidio and its strong leadership team in the forefront, are key factors to the success of Vidio in the highly dynamic OTT industry in Indonesia. Affinity will tap on its wide network in Asia to support Vidio’s growth initiative, especially in the matter of content provision and the use of gamification to enrich its live streaming offering,” said Benny Lim, Managing Director and Head of Affinity Southeast Asia.

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The article was written by Randi Eka Yonida in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

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Image Credit: Vidio

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Mynt, a leading digital financial solutions company in the Philippines and the owner of the mobile payments GCash, has scored over US$300 million in a funding round.

Global growth investor Warburg Pincus led the new round. Insight Partners, Itai Tsiddon, Amplo Ventures, Globe Telecom, and Ayala Corporation, besides existing investor Bow Wave Capital, joined.

The new round brings Mynt’s valuation to over US$2 billion to turn it into the first fintech unicorn of the Philippines (here’s Southeast Asia’s complete list of unicorns). This deal follows the announcement of over US$175 million funding from ASP Philippines early this year.

Also Read: GCash and Qwikwire partner to innovate real estate industry in Philippines

Mynt was founded in 2015 as a partnership between the archipelago’s telco giant Globe, locally listed conglomerate Ayala, and Ant Financial. It offers a full array of financial services, spanning credit, savings, insurance, loans, and investments.

GCash is Mynt’s flagship product. Through this app, customers can purchase prepaid airtime, pay bills at over 600 partner billers nationwide, send and receive money anywhere in the Philippines, purchase from over 3 million partner merchants and social sellers. Customers can also get access to savings, credit, insurance and invest money.

In addition to GCash, Mynt also operates Fuse, a lending platform for Filipinos to get micro and business loans. Its other products are GInsure (microinsurance), GCredit, and GLoans.

The fintech currently serves 48 million users, nearly half of the country’s population, and is on track to reach PHP3 trillion of the gross transaction value.

Also Read: Top 5 fintech predictions that will take over the world in 2021

“…we have been able to continuously expand by introducing game-changing innovations while improving our profitability profile,” said Martha Sazon, president and CEO of Mynt.

While GCredit disburses over P1 billion worth of loans each month, GLoan allows qualified users to borrow as much as P25,000, with repayment spread over 12 months.

It is also looking to launch “buy now, pay later” products within the year.

 

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Image Credit: Mynt

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Singapore’s leading cashback company Shopback has acquired local ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) player hoolah for an undisclosed amount.

With this deal, shop and hoolah aim to build “the world’s most rewarding commerce enablement platform”.

Upon the closing of the transaction, hoolah will expedite its growth by extending its BNPL offering to ShopBack’s over 8,000 merchants and 30 million shoppers across nine markets in Asia Pacific. Meanwhile, ShopBack will further strengthen its shopping tools and rewards suite by providing shoppers with a convenient and flexible payment option at checkout.

“We see significant synergies between ShopBack’s and hoolah’s product lines. Together, we unlock value by providing a broader platform of new capabilities and services for shoppers and merchants alike,” said Henry Chan, co-founder and CEO of ShopBack.

The acquisition comes close on the heel of ShopBack’s US$40 million Series E led by Temasek. According to a DealStreetAsia report, Indies Capital, East Ventures, Chunghwa PChome Fund, Dynasty Kingdom and January Capital also co-invested in the round.

Last month, hoolah CEO and co-founder Stuart Thornton announced the resignation from the startup in a LinkedIn post, citing “personal reasons”.

Also read: Why the Buy Now Pay Later concept makes sense for the Southeast Asian market

Launched in 2014, ShopBack provides cashback to users across fashion, beauty, F&B, electronics, travel and food delivery. Currently, it operates in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Australia, besides Singapore. The company boasts of supporting over US$3.5 billion in annual sales for more than 8,000 online and in-store merchant partners, including Taobao, Expedia and Shopee.

Last year, ShopBack acquired South Korea’s largest online cashback platform Ebates Jorea from Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, a backer of ShopBack’s US$45M funding round in 2019.

Started in Singapore in 2018 by Thornton and Arvin Singh, hoolah offers shoppers an option to pay for purchases in three interest-free instalments. Last year, the startup received US$6.67 million in its Series A round led by venture capital firm Allectus .To date, hoolah has worked with over 2,000 online and in-store merchants in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, including Charles & Keith, Secretlab, Zalora, and Zenyum.

BNPL is gaining momentum among other payment options such as credit cards, instalment loans and mobile wallets’ lending products as it is “faster, easier and free for consumers.” This solution has long been going places globally but has only picked up pace in Southeast Asia in recent years with some success cases from PayLater in Indonesia and Atome and hoolah across Hongkong, Singapore and Malaysia. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, the BNPL industry witnessed a boom thanks to a surge in e-commerce activities. The value of ASEAN’s e‑commerce has surged almost six times, from US$9.5 billion in 2016 to US$54.2 billion in 2020. It is slated to grow at an annualised rate of 22 per cent by 2025.

In August, hoolah and Jumper.ai, Singapore’s omnichannel conversational commerce startup, teamed up to offer BNPL through conversational commerce in Asia. Thornton was also known as an advisor for Jumper.ai back then.

Later in October, New Jersey-headquartered global cloud communications company Vonage announced its acquisition of Jumper.ai.

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Image Credit: ShopBack

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Thai e-commerce fulfilment company MyCloudFulfillment has completed its US$7.4M Series B round of financing from JWD Group (a logistics and supply chain services across ASEAN) and SCB 10X (a holding company of Siam Commercial Bank).

The Bangkok-headquartered startup will use the new capital to improve its warehouse and service capability, expand the management and software development team, and expand its service to neighbouring countries.

“MyCloudFulfillment is already in a partnership with ITL (major logistics company in Vietnam), so Vietnam (Ho Chi Minch) is the first country we will be focusing on. JWD and ITL have a strong presence in Cambodia and the Philippines too, so that may be the next area that we will be looking to expand to,” a company spokesperson told e27.

The new round comes a year after it closed its US$2 million Series A round from ECG-Research, Gobi Partners, Bangkok-based NVest Venture, and SCB 10X.

MyCloudFulfillment provides storage, packing and shipping services with sales channel integration and data analytics for e-commerce firms. Its order management analytics helps customers manage orders from multiple channels and make the best decision on promotion campaigns and sales channel optimisation.

In addition, its inventory management analytics can help suggest to customers what stock-keeping units (SKUs) to stock more or less and at what level. This allows customers to save a lot of opportunity costs from over-stocking or under-stocking their products.

Its fulfilment management analytics helps customers keep up with fulfilment movement, which means they can see statistics throughout the process — from receiving the order to shipping out the products.

JWD is a major logistics company in the Thailand stock market, and SCB is very proactive in transforming its service for e-commerce.

Also Read: These 7 homegrown e-commerces are on track to put Thailand on global map

“MyCloudFulfillment will take responsibility in warehouse management systems, order management systems and operation, while JWD will take charge of CAPEX investment and infrastructure. JWD strength and expertise in traditional logistics will help us speed up our new warehouse setup and expansion,” he added.

“In contrast, we help JWD services with full-scale order fulfilment to its clients and turn around its warehouses right away. Moreover, we can combine SCB 10X financial tools with our order management system to help our clients manage their shops and payments easier than it has ever been,” he elaborated.

SCB 10X chief venture and investment officer Mukaya (Tai) Panich said: ” Due to COVID-19, we are seeing accelerated adoption of digital lifestyle by consumers and digital transformation by corporates. We have seen the rapid rise of social commerce and e-commerce in Southeast Asia in the past two years as more people go online. Startups that enable social commerce and e-commerce like fulfilment and logistics firms will continue to benefit significantly. MyCloudFulfillment is the key critical enabler of today’s social commerce and e-commerce trends.”

During the first half of 2021, MyCloudFulfillment recorded an avarge of 300,000 orders per month. The company also added a new warehouse in Min Buri with more than 6,500 square meters of space. It is set to fulfil up to 30,000 orders at a maximum per day.

The firm already has two warehouses in Ladkrabang and Rangsit, with 10,000 square meters of space in total.

“We see room for growth in the e-commerce market. It keeps growing as we move. Asia’s current e-commerce market is valued at US$45 trillion, which is bigger than the e-commerce values of other regions combined. More importantly, Southeast Asia shows the highest growth rate in the region at 44.2 per cent,” shared Satchatippavarn.

For Thailand, the market value in 2020 was recorded at 228,000 million Baht (42 per cent increase from 2019) and is expected to soar to 280,000 million Baht in 2021, or 22 per cent higher.

Also Read: Why e-commerce startups will revolutionise the supply chain in Southeast Asia

“The COVID-19 pandemic may improve, and people are returning to their daily life, but online shopping will still keep growing. It is predicted to grow even bigger. What is interesting is that a Thai spends 7,290 Baht per year on online shopping. This places us on the second-highest only after Indonesia, for average consumption per user in Southeast Asia. With all these factors, I am certainly confident that there are many opportunities for Thai e-commerce. Our economic recovery may be slower than other countries, but our e-commerce is thriving, and the future of commerce here is looking bright,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: MyCloudFulfillment

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