ProSpark, a Singaporean-based edutech company that helps upskill employees in organisations, has secured an undisclosed sum in seed investment round led by AC Ventures.

Other backers include 500 Startups, Azure Ventures, Assembly Ventures, Prasetia Dwidharma, and several undisclosed angels. 

The company intends to use the funds to continue expanding its commercial footprint across Southeast Asia, boost its technology infrastructure and solidify its position in the market. 

In a digitally fast-paced world, companies of different sizes can sometimes find it difficult to keep up pace with the changing environment. In this case, upskilling employees can create a more well-rounded and cross-trained workforce.

ProSpark is one such company that helps companies achieve this through its B2B learning management system. 

Launched in 2018, the edutech startup helps employers onboard, train and certify its employees. With the use of gamified systems like leadership boards, badges, and a points system, the company also motivates its users to learn better.

Also Read: Edutech in SEA is ripe for acceleration. This is why they can help build a more inclusive society

Some of ProSpark’s prominent clients include Gojek, Bank Sampoerna, Kopi Kenangan, Northern Star Energy, PasarPolis, and RD Pawnshop. 

The company has its strongest footprint in Indonesia but has recently expanded into the Philippines, one of the most digital-savvy countries in the region.

Alfa Bumhira, CEO and co-founder of ProSpark, said: “Companies have been trying to find the best learning approach due to the pandemic. Now that e-learning is growing, offline learning has become relatively more costly, inefficient, and less scalable.”

“Their existing solutions are not flexible and expensive to maintain. ProSpark comes with a solution that is personalised and measurable: learning that is adaptive with perceptible outcomes. The funding should help us expand the end-to-end user experience by providing expanded content solutions, better competencies’ gaps mapping capabilities, and strengthen our focus on user learning outcomes,” he added. 

“The offline workforce is at risk of being left behind in the new digital economy and this problem has been accelerated by the global pandemic. Training this workforce on the skills they need to survive and thrive is of great necessity. We believe ProSpark’s e-learning solution can scale across the SEA region and address this upskilling problem in various sectors,” added Binh Tran, General Partner at 500 Startups.

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Lapasar, an online B2B wholesale procurement startup in Malaysia, has announced that it has raised RM7.5 million (US$1.8 million) in a funding round led by startup accelerator-cum-investment firm NEXEA and shopper360 limited.

Malaysian 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.”

“We aim to be the go-to mobile app for retailers to source and buy their FMCG goods at consistently low prices, delivered within 48 hours for free,” he added.

The startup was founded in 2017 by Kumar (CEO), Lakshman Das (COO) and Dannis Raj (Chief Process Officer), who wanted to provide vendors with an equal opportunity to sell their products.

Also Read: Lapasar offers a B2C-like e-commerce experience to corporate procurement in Malaysia

Building on that idea, the trio then created Lapasar, an online platform that connects corporates to FMGC (fast-moving consumer goods) suppliers across Malaysia.

Besides being a marketplace, Lapasar also has features like request-for-quotation management, vendor management, reports, document management system, e-bidding and benchmarking.

Lapasar started entering the FMCG wholesale market only in June 2020. This has helped it grow 172 per cent y-o-y and above 100x since its first funding round, it said.

“Lapasar is also beginning to explore lines of credits with partners for the shops as a source of income which has shown early promise and will continue to expand on that as well,” Kumar shared.

In early 2018, Lapasar raised a pre-seed round of funding from NEXEA. The startup also managed to receive a grant from Cradle that year.

Lapasar has also participated in Project Alpha, SeedPlus’s pre-seed startup program, which was conducted in partnership with Amazon Web Services.

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Bonza, an Indonesian Big Data analytics startup, has secured US$2 million in a funding round led by early-stage VC firm East Ventures.

Elev8.vc, a B2B-focused VC fund based in Singapore, also participated.

The round comes almost a year after it raised an undisclosed seed funding.

Bonza intends to inject the newly raised capital to accelerate its vision to become a leading data platform company in Southeast Asia and to further develop its platform offerings.

Founded in 2020, the idea of Bonza hit co-founders Elsa Chandra and Philip Thomas when they witnessed how Big Data models accelerated the speed and quality of insights to make data-driven decisions in Traveloka, a company where both worked before.

During their time in Traveloka, they saw an opportunity to help other companies in Southeast Asia to tackle their data challenges and use data more effectively for decision making.

Also Read: Mosaic Solutions raises US$1.5M to provide data analytics, inventory management solutions to SEA’s industry

Bonza’s no-code approach for data analytics and AI deployment helps technical and non-technical teams to build and deploy data-driven solutions at scale.

With its platform, organisations can integrate disparate data sources in the organisation into a single source, build and deploy Machine Learning models — all within its user interface.

One of its use cases includes when its fintech consumer client created a real-time fraud detection engine and monitoring tool to reduce fraud rates within the platform.

The company claims to have achieved profitability within just a year of operations.

“Getting value from their data is a global problem that organisations face, and Bonza is on the mission to enable organizations to go beyond static dashboards and operationalize analytics and AI solutions at scale. When speaking to customers, we found many data teams spent more than 50 per cent of their time preparing data for reporting. With our platform, they are able to automate these data workflows and focus on building and deploying data solutions easily to drive impact,” Thomas said.

“Every business today, regardless of size, has access to enormous amounts of business-related data. The companies that will thrive are the ones that can nimbly harness these data – from disparate structured and unstructured sources — to provide real-time, evolving, and mission-critical insights,” added Aditya Mathur, Managing Director, Elev8.vc.

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Indonesian beauty-tech company Social Bella snags US$56mn; Investors are L Catterton, Indies Capital, East Ventures and Jungle; The company will use the capital for product innovation and continued expansion across SEA; Social Bella runs 21 omnichannel stores in nine cities in Indonesia and one in Vietnam.

Ex-CEO of Rocket Internet Asia launches new e-commerce venture Una Brands with a US$40mn seed round; Una Brands provides a “fast and fair way” for e-commerce biz owners to sell their firms that have annual revenue between US$300K and US$20mn; It is platform-agnostic and acquires businesses across leading e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Lazada, Shopee and Shopify.

SCI Ecommerce raises US$38mn led by Asia Partners; The e-commerce enabler plans to set up local teams in Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines, and hire at least 100 people across SEA and China; SCI is planning to pursue an IPO in the US at the end of the year with a target market valuation of US$1bn.

E-commerce brand aggregator Rainforest launches with US$36mn funding; Investors include Nordstar (lead) and Insignia Ventures; Formed by former execs from Carousell and Fave, Rainforest is a serial acquirer of profitable Amazon businesses for a typical purchase price of US$1mn+; The company looks to acquire at least a few more Amazon-native brands from brand owners globally.

Vietnam’s digital entertainment company POPS Worldwide aims to close US$50mn Series D by Q3 2021; The funds to be raised will be used for expansion to Philippines and deepening footprint in Indonesia; It has earlier raised US$30mn in 2019; POPS helps global brands localise their content for Southeast Asian viewers; To date, it claims to have bagged 400mn+ fans and 50bn+ views.

Indonesian P2P lending firm focused on women micro-entrepreneurs Amartha secures US$28mn; Investors are Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II, MDI Ventures, Mandiri Capital and UOB Venture; It is a P2P lending platform; This comes fresh off Amartha’s US$50mn debt financing round from US-based Lendable in February this year.

Hangry swallows US$13mn Series A to scale its cloud kitchen and multi-brand concept in Indonesia; It plans to open 120+ outlets in total, with the aim to launch 20+ dine-in restaurants across Indonesia in 2021; Hangry follows an asset-light business model wherein it produces “quality food at affordable prices” to cater to the urban, mobile-first consumers in the archipelago.

FPT acquires majority stake in SaaS platform Base.vn; Base.vn has developed a job application tracking system, a task and project management platform, and internal request management platform; Base.vn has previously raised US$1.3mn in a pre-Series A funding round, co-led by Alpha JWC Ventures and Beenext.

Indonesian Big Data company Bonza secures US$2mn funding; Investors are East Ventures (lead) and Elev8.vc; Bonza is developing its platform offerings to better support the enterprises in deploying data and AI solutions through a no-code platform.

P2P lending platform Modal Rakyat secures OJK licence, funding from Fazz Financial; Modal Rakyat is a working capital enabler for startups and SMEs; Through its B2B2C platform, it unlocks ‘productive pay-later’ feature for various use cases of tech-startups ecosystem, ranging from logistic marketplace, POS, to payment point online banks; It claims to have 12K active lenders.

Joseph Phua’s Turn Capital acquires Dapp Pocket to create SEA-focused retail crypto exchange; The crypto exchange OMO is aimed at being the gateway for SEA new and mainstream adopters to the world of crypto; Dapp Pocket, a blockchain company in Taiwan.

Singapore’s fintech startup Few¢ents lands US$1.6mn seed; Investors include M Venture Partners, Hustle Fund and angels; Few¢ents helps digital publishers monetise premium content such as articles, video, and podcasts, through a pay-per-content service that sits on the publishers’ sites; It accepts 50 currencies from around the world.

EDB New Ventures launches new Corporate Venture Launchpad programme; It aims to support large and established Singaporean companies in building new ventures in new areas of growth beyond their existing core businesses; Set to run as a one-year pilot, the programme is investing US$7.4mn to undertake 20 concept validation sprints.

Temasek-backed Big Idea Ventures closes US$50mn debut alternative fund; LPs include Le Groupe, AAK, Meiji Co., Buhler, Enterprise Singapore; Fund 1 has backed companies like Shiok Meats; The fund also backs an accelerator programme in NY and Singapore, which identifies and nurtures top talent in the foodtech space in the US and Asia.

Meet the 4 Luminaries startups that made a pivot to tide over COVID-19 crisis; How RewardNation, Greenhouse, Travelhorse and Sqreem Technologies used the pandemic to its advantage and to explore different options.

UN’s WeEmpowerAsia launches accelerator for female entrepreneurs in the care sector; UN Women Care Accelerator will run for 6 months and will provide training, mentorship and funding support to five selected startups; Seedstars and Bopinc will co-lead the training, exchange and mentorship.

500 Startups, Enterprise Singapore launch programme for emerging entrepreneurs to build startups from scratch; 500 Ignition Singapore will help emerging entrepreneurs with product research, MVP development and business plan ideation; Key mentors joining the programme include Leesa Soulodre (General Partner, R31Ventures), Jin Tanaka (co-founder and Managing Partner, Shogun Capital), Jaspreet S Dua (EIR, 500 Startups).

Indonesia’s Cermati Fintech Group raises funding; Investors include MDI Ventures (lead) and Djarum Group; It operates Cermati.com (a financial marketplace in Indonesia), Cermati Protect (a digital insurance brokerage), and Indodana (a digital fintech lending company).

How Singapore’s tech community is helping India in its battle against COVID-19; Several Singaporean investors are running crowdfunding campaigns in partnership with Temasek and Giving.SG to raise money towards this cause.

Facebook launches 2nd edition of Community Accelerator in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand; It also announces expansion into 3 new markets Singapore, Malaysia, India; An 8-month programme, it will connect community leaders to experts, coaches, and a customised curriculum to create a plan to strengthen their community and meet their goals; Up to US$7.5mn will be distributed to participants through a series of grants up to US$50K per participant.

How to create SaaS content for increased acquisition and retention; In this article, you’ll learn how to identify and better understand your potential audience’s needs; You’ll find tips for creating marketing content throughout the SaaS sales cycle and engaging the public and potential investors.

How to retain local talent as global demand for remote tech workers surges; Embracing a strong workplace culture is the key strategic plan for local companies; Companies should follow lean structure, be low in the hierarchy, be open to experimentation, be highly geared to learning, low regulations and roadblocks, and provide healthy and positive collegial environment.

10 surprising things that rely on AI; AI has transformed many aspects of our lives for the better; It even played a role in developing vaccines against COVID-19; But you may be surprised just how many things we take for granted that rely on AI.

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Image Credit: Rainforest

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Rainforest, an e-commerce brand aggregator, has officially announced its launch with a seed financing round of US$36 million.

The funding round consisted of US$6.5 million in equity financing, led by Nordstar, with participation from Insignia Venture Partners, and a US$30 million debt facility from an undisclosed US-based debt fund.

Rainforest will use the funds to acquire promising Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) brands, invest in technology, and hire top talent to join their Singapore-headquartered and globally distributed team.

Also Read: Ex-CEO of Rocket Internet Asia launches new e-commerce venture Una Brands with a US$40M seed round

Rainforest was founded in 2020 by experienced startup operators in commerce, marketplaces, and SaaS. JJ Chai (Rainforest CEO) formerly led growth and strategy for Carousell and was Airbnb’s former Southeast Asia Managing Director. Jason Tan (CFO) was former CFO at OVO and Fave. Per-Ola Röst (CTO) is an Amazon SaaS software entrepreneur and also a 7-figure Amazon FBA seller.

As an e-commerce brand aggregator, Rainforest acquires consumer e-commerce brands, providing entrepreneurs a healthy exit. It also invests into the acquired brands to grow them globally.

The company will be initially acquiring Amazon-native brands from brand owners globally, focusing on Asia-based Amazon FBA sellers. Its mission is to fulfil the potential of microbrands, growing brands with great products to delight customers worldwide.

Amazon’s third-party GMV was US$300 billion in 2020, growing at 50 per cent year on year. With over 30 per cent of the top third-party sellers based out of Asia, Rainforest is well-positioned to acquire these brands and scale them faster while providing sellers with an attractive exit opportunity.

Operational since January 2021, Rainforest has acquired three brands to date in the home and personal care categories. “It’s a great pleasure to provide these entrepreneurs a cash exit. We’ll be working hard to take their brands to the next level and hope to do the same for many more e-commerce entrepreneurs,” said CEO Chai.

Also Read: Why brands fail on e-commerce and what they can do about it

Coincidentally, Singapore also witnessed the rollout of another e-commerce brand aggregator today. Una Brands, started by former CEO of Rocket Internet Asia and founder of foodpanda and ZEN Rooms Kiren Tanna, has also raised US$40 million in seed funding.

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Image Credit: Rainforest

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Facebook has launched the second edition of its Community Accelerator program in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Besides, it has announced the expansion into three new markets — Singapore, Malaysia and India.

The accelerator is part of Facebook’s community leadership programme, a global initiative that is focused on investing in leaders that drive change in the world through community building, empowerment, and encouragement.

Slated to run for eight months, the programme promises to provide each participant with US$50,000 in funding, along with US$1 million in additional funding for a subset of communities.

Non-financial support in the form of training, mentorship and connections with experts and coaches will also be provided.

Also Read: Meet the 14 startups presenting at Facebook accelerator’s pitch day

Last date to apply for the programme is May 31, 2021.

Only the communities that have had a presence in Facebook Groups for over a year with a minimum size of 1,000 members can participate.

Grace Clapham, Director at APAC Community Partnerships and Programmes at Facebook, said: “Online communities have been around since the beginning of the internet, but we’ve seen them grow tremendously in the last year, as a result of COVID-19. There are now more than 70 million admins and moderators running active Facebook Groups.”

“Often, it is everyday people who start and run these groups as a labor of love – with no training or support. Through the Community Accelerator programme, we have helped community leaders from around the world and in APAC to build, grow and scale their communities. With the launch of this year’s Community Accelerator programme, we look forward to discovering the next cohort of community leaders in Asia, and help them to unlock their full potential and create meaningful impact,” she added.

Since announcing the first edition in March 2020, 77 communities from 13 countries have participated in the Facebook Community Accelerator programme.

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Have you ever wondered where did your lunch come from?

No, the answer is not as simple as “the hawker centre near the office”. There is an entire system involved to bring that bowl of chicken rice to our table. This complex system begins in the production process of the food itself: growing the livestock, planting the rice in the field. After that, there is the matter of bringing in the agricultural products in the city, making it accessible for the uncle who sells the chicken rice.

Even after you are done eating, there is still another process of managing the waste from your meal.

This complex process –in addition to affecting our survival for the day– can also affect how our future look like. History has proven many times that progress in human civilisation is strongly related to how humans produce their food.

As detailed by National Geographic,  12,000 years ago, changes in the agriculture sector “triggered” a massive change in society that its development has been dubbed the Neolithic Revolution.

“Traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles … were swept aside in favour of permanent settlements and a reliable food supply. Out of agriculture, cities and civilizations grew, and because crops and animals could now be farmed to meet demand, the global population rocketed — from some five million people 10,000 years ago, to more than seven billion today.”

This is why, especially after the changes brought by the pandemic, we believe that we are now standing at the crossroad that will take us into our future –starting from what we put on our plate. The tech innovation that we are using in producing, distributing, and managing our food supply will determine the quality of our life today, and beyond.

This matter has become more urgent if we are putting the local context into it. For example, in Singapore, the government has been making effort to push for stronger local food production in order to curb dependency on imported food. This effort has also included the works of startups such as ACE for fishery and Sustenir Agriculture for fresh produces.

In Indonesia, startups such as TaniHub Group and JalaTech are working to improve the livelihood of farmers while making food more accessible for the customers.

Certainly, the investors do not want to be left behind as we begin to see more and more funding being announced in the foodtech vertical.

This is certainly an opportunity that innovators do not want to miss.

Also Read: Foodtech startup Next Gen Foods shares the secret behind their successful expansion, fundraising

What is on the menu for e27

As part of our mission to empower entrepreneurs with tools and resources to build and grow their company, e27 aims to provide content that helps startup founders, investors, and other professionals in the ecosystem make an informed decision for their businesses.

To achieve that, we have prepared a series of articles that will focus on the different branches of foodtech ecosystem.

There are different definition to what constitute the branches of the foodtech industry. But Forward Fooding, a US-based foodtech innovation hub, conveniently divided the industry into eight macro-categories:

• Agritech
• Consumer apps and services
• Food delivery
• Food processing
• Food safety and traceability
• Kitchen and restaurant tech
• Next-gen food and drinks
• Surplus and waste management

We are preparing eight articles that will look into the challenges and opportunities available in each category, and the startups that are working in the sector.

In addition to content produced by our team of in-house writers, we have also published written pieces by our contributors –and are looking forward to publishing more. If you are working in the foodtech vertical and would like to share insights and knowledge to the SEA startup ecosystem, feel free to check out our Contributor Programme feature.

Apart from all of the above, we are also opening up opportunities to collaborate with organisation and individuals who have the mission to build the foodtech ecosystem in the region. If you have great ideas that you would like to discuss with our team, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

We are looking forward to seeing the innovation that you are bringing to the (dinner) table.

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Releasing a product or service into the market is considered the penultimate milestone for startups. However, it is merely the first of multiple checkpoints along the startup growth journey. Once products reach the hands of users or customers, startups will find that customers require technical support and feedback resolution. Failure to do so will lead to customers abandoning the product. At this stage, providing customer service becomes an imperative and determinant for a startup’s perseveration.

On the matter of customer experience, the Zendesk Startups CX Benchmark Report 2020 points out that startups surpassing performance benchmarks are those that have invested promptly and heavily in customer service. The research, based on the analysis of the timing, tools, and results of customer metrics among 4,414 startups, found that fast growers have doubled customer support agent numbers within 18 months or less between publicly disclosed funding rounds.

Also read: Future-proof your startup and Fast Forward with Hewlett Packard Enterprise

However, less than a third of startups have plotted a customer strategy, which is a disservice to future growth. Meanwhile, startups who have nimby deployed resources, tools, and communication channels to build a seamless customer experience since the early days are already reaping the rewards of fast growth.

The correlation between solid customer experience and fast growth is undeniable. Constant engagement with customers enables startups to collect feedback critical for product improvement. Moreover, establishing a solid relationship with customers is a sure way to win their trust and loyalty.

Time is of the essence

With time being a determining factor, startups looking to achieve fast-growth status preferably set up customer support within 10 months of funding, then cascading that into adding messaging within 14 months and live channels within 17 months. Once established, help centres should have the capacity to process 30 articles within six months as startups expand the number of apps within that time period. The longer, two-year goal is to decrease first response time (FRTs) between 3 to 8 hours.

Other benchmarks involve efficacy, a lesson gleaned from fast-growing startups. In two years, the response teams of fast-growing startups have cut the initial wait time of 14 hours by half when resolving tickets and responding to customer questions. To further optimise customer service, these fast-growing startups escalate the efficiency of their response teams, whereby the volume of tickets per agent is on average 42% higher for fast-growing startups compared to others.

Achieving the above calls for startups to build the necessary groundwork. Fast-growing startups adopt customisations and setting protocols, in the form of APIs, apps, and automation tools, to collect higher volumes of customer data via ticket forms, prioritisation of incoming requests, and goal-setting. Additionally, this group of startups utilise additional public apps that give agents fast and easy access to data.

Also read: Future-proofing Singaporean SMEs for a stronger digital future

This customer-focused approach pays big dividends, as evident among leading startups. Michael Wystrach, CEO and Co-Founder of Freshly, a meal-delivery service startup, shares that “CX has been a top priority for Freshly from day one. As soon as we shipped our first meal, we knew the questions, comments, and concerns from our customers would immediately follow. How we dealt with those touchpoints would define our reputation as a customer-first brand.”

Similarly, Rich Waldron, CEO and co-founder of Tray.io, a general automation platform pioneer, notes that “We’ve seen startups, as well as successful firms such as Outreach and Tucows, grow quickly by using automated workflows to close internal process gaps across their tech stack. The key to startup growth isn’t just automating time-consuming manual work, but also scaling out processes across the entire organisation to convert more leads, win more deals, respond more quickly to customer requests, and do more, faster.”

Fast-growing startups such as Freshly and Tray.io do not only focus on deploying customer service rapidly, they also carefully consider what customer service channels they should employ. Omnichannel and live channels are the primary options among fast-growing startups. The Zendesk report shows that within the first two years, one out of four fast-growing startups implemented omnichannel and 20% appended live chat.

Superior omnichannel and live channel options

Omnichannel involves arranging a wide option of touchpoints – phone, email, chat, SMS, social messaging – to connect with customers. Combined with a robust backend integration, the omnichannel affords startups with a consistent support experience because agents are uniformly informed about accounts and issues, enabling these agents to respond to customers speedily and accurately.

Live communication features such as chat and phone support, all part of the self-service approach, yield good results as well. Chat support, alongside omnichannel, have been proven to decrease wait times and enhance agent efficiency, enabling fast-moving startups to double resolution times by their second year. Taking further cues from market leaders, unicorns have been 61% faster in picking up self-service features compared to non-unicorns.

Also read: Residency and acceleration programme to bring global startups to South Korea

Plus, fast-growing startups layer their omnichannel and live channel features with other tools that boost effectiveness. Fast-growing startups amp up email support by choosing solutions that allow customisation, are highly extensible, and integrate smoothly with other platforms and data sources. They are also equipping agents with the tools, from apps and integrations that streamline workflow to macros that send consistent responses, to ease work. Also, fast-growing startups deploy solutions to divert low-complexity customer requests towards self-service and live channels, therefore easing the load of agents while quickly tackling customer needs.

Dig deep to learn more

Overall, startups need to build up a customer service experience that corresponds with long-term business objectives, rolling out new features in a timely manner while consistently emphasising on service speed and efficiency.

If you’re interested in learning more key insights on the startup ecosystem, you can access the comprehensive CX Startups Benchmark Report 2020 here.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
Zendesk

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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FPT, a leading technology corporation in Vietnam, has acquired majority stake in local SaaS company Base.vn.

The details of the transaction remain undisclosed.

As per a press note, this cooperation will enable the two sides to promote the comprehensive digital transformation ecosystem for 800,000 enterprises.

Pham Kim Hung, founder and CEO of Base.vn, said: “Base.vn has been solving three big issues of businesses, including productivity enhancement management, information transparency, human resources management and development.”

“We plan to develop other major solutions such as financial management, customer management and business development on one unified platform. The cooperation with FPT, a leading technology company with a wealth of experience and human resource, will help Base to save at least 10 years to become a comprehensive digital transformation ecosystem for the world’s leading business,” he added.

Base was founded in 2016 by Stanford University alumnus Hung. The company has developed over 20 apps that cover two verticals — human resources and productivity.

Its apps include job application tracking system Base E-Hiring, task and project management platform Base Wework, and internal request management platform Base Request.

Also Read: [Updated] SaaS platform Base.vn secures funding from Nextrans

As per the press release, the Base.vn platform easily integrates with FPT digital transformation solutions so that it will bring more than 100 digital conversion solutions on Base.vn itself.

Base.vn products also inherit the latest core technologies from FPT such as FPT.AI, blockchain, cloud, and digital signature to provide more effective solutions.

Thanks to a network of branches in 30 countries, FPT will also help Base compete fairly in the global market.

Established in 1988, FPT is an IT group operating in three core business areas: technology, telecommunications, and education. With a presence 26 countries over the world, the company claims to have a client base of 5,000 customers across a wide range of sizes and sectors.

“Over the past years, FPT has always been alongside large Vietnamese and global enterprises on the journey of digital transformation. FPT’s strategy is to build a comprehensive digital transformation platform for small and medium enterprises to be the number one in that market. Accompanying Base.vn is one of the shortest ways for FPT to achieve that goal,” said Nguyen Van Khoa, CEO of FPT.

Base.vn has previously raised US$1.3 million in a pre-Series A funding round, co-led by Alpha JWC Ventures and Beenext.

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India is in the middle of a catastrophe.

The staggering number of COVID-19 cases and the fatalities from the second wave of its spread have set alarm bell ringing around the world, with experts predicting the worse is yet to come.

India’s healthcare system has been heavily overloaded and there has been a massive shortage of hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and concentrators and other basic medical equipments. Footages of patients gasping and dying at medical facilities have shaken the conscience of the nation.

As of writing this piece, India has reported 382,315 new cases, taking the overall case count to more than 20.5 million.

Also Read: How data can help the global fight against COVID-19

Although an inoculation drive is on, covering the entire 1.3 billion population in the near future is an impossibility. If the contagious virus is not bridled now, India could slip into an abyss sooner or later.

What is so heartening amidst all this suffering and anguish is that many foreign governments and private agencies are coming forward to lift India from the cataclysm. The tech/startup communities in and out of India are also doing their bit.

In Singapore, several agencies are already working towards this cause. The husband-wife duo of Prantik and Dipti Mazumdar was one of the first in the city-state to launch a crowdfunding campaign. Titled Let’s Help India Breathe!, the duo intends to raise a total of US$25,000 from donors.

“Over the last month, we have been deeply concerned about our family, friends, colleagues and loved ones back in India, given the emergence of the new variant that has hit India like a tsunami. The country has been reporting 300,000-400,000 COVID+ cases per day,” said Mazumdar, a venture investor and mentor at NUS Angel Ventures.

“This made us feel very helpless and hence we decided that being outside, the least we could do is to galvanise and mobilise the diaspora and our friends, colleagues and network in Singapore through a dollar-for-dollar matching crowdfunding campaign on Milaap,” added Mazumdar, who is part of the executive leadership team at dentsu International.

For the campaign, the Mazumdars have partnered with Swasth Alliance and ACT Grants (the brainchild of around 40 marquee investors like Accel Partners, Lightspeed Ventures and Kalaari Capital).

Currently, Swasth and AGT are focusing on procuring and delivering oxygen concentrators from overseas markets like China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US and the UK.

“An oxygen concentrator could cost anywhere between S$1000-S$2000 depending on the capacity and we started out with a humble target of raising U$25,000 that would allow us to purchase anywhere between 20-30 odd concentrators,” he shared.

The response has been encouraging, he said, as the campaign has managed to raise over S$185,000 from over 839 donors from 10 nations (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Australia, New Zealand, the US, HK, the UK, and Dubai).

Temasek and Giving.SG are also part of this campaign. These organisations are helping with procurement, logistics and delivery of the oxygen concentrators to India.

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TiE Singapore, a global entrepreneur and investor foundation, is also running a fundraising campaign, titled Mission India, which aims to raise US$1 million in total.

“TiE is requesting and calling upon companies, executives and individuals to contribute generously to this fundraiser. Help us spread the word through your friends, families, colleagues and alumni so that we can collect the funds. All proceeds are funnelled through our credible partners to procure and deliver oxygen concentrators and other medical equipment to hospitals across multiple cities in India,” reads a statement on TiE’s campaign portal.

All proceeds will be disbursed via the Singapore Red Cross.

Alternatively, TiE also facilitates donors to donate via Milaap. All proceeds from this crowdfunding platform will be disbursed via TiE’s preferred partners like Swasth, ACT Grands and Mission Oxygen.

In addition to these campaigns, several India and US-based startups and investors have also launched various initiatives to lend a helping hand to India in the time of distress. They include Amazon India, Zomato, Paytm Foundation, Razorpay.

LogiNext, a global technology and automation company, is another company that is working on giving oxygen supply a boost in India.

“While there is a fair supply of oxygen that exists, there is a disconnect when it comes to distribution chains. LogiNext is in the process of launching a service in collaboration with over 50 delivery platforms in the country to help deliver oxygen cylinders. The service will integrate an oxygen delivery option in addition to the regular delivery requirements that the platforms address,” said Dhruvil Sanghvi, CEO, LogiNext.

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Photo by Firos nv on Unsplash

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