gojek, Tokopedia said to be finalising terms of mega merger ahead of dual listing; The target valuation in the public markets is between US$35B and US$40B; The latest terms under discussion call for gojek shareholders to own about 60% of the combined entity while Tokopedia’s investors hold 40%, source told DealStreetAsia. More here

‘Singapore isn’t ready for mass adoption of EVs yet; hybrid may be better for the present’, say industry experts; Island-wide, there are only 1,800 charging points but the govt has plans to take this number to 28K by 2030; As of now there are only around 1,000 electric cars on the roads today but there is a strong push to increase this number to around 200K by 2030. More here

SEA’s VC firms report lacklustre fundraising performance in 2020; They raised US$1.96B in the year, a 39% drop from the US$3.23B in 2019, says a DealStreetAsia research; VC firms closed 11 funds last year, down from 28 in 2019; A total of US$4.08B was raised by 9 global funds in 2020, a massive jump from US$867M by 5 funds in 2019. More here

Unicorns globally now worth US$1.7T with 10 largest companies accounting for 24%; The valuation is for the 528 total global unicorns, says data researched by Trading Platforms UK; Bytedance is the most valued unicorn at US$140B, followed by Didi Chuxing (US$62B), SpaceX (US$46B, Stripe (US$36B), and Roblox (US$29.5B). More here

Singapore to phase out petrol cars by 2040 – How close are we to nearing that ambition?; Singapore’s attempts to ramp up EV ownership have been impressive, but more effort is needed to continue this growth; Even though the government has also implemented policies to reduce the number of cars, there are nearly one million vehicles on Singapore’s roads, making the percentage of EVs astoundingly small. More here

Chinese apps had Clubhouse tech as early as 2011, but they didn’t take off; For many Chinese, the tech behind Clubhouse is not new; The US social media app is currently invite-only and allows users to jump into different audio chatrooms to discuss different topics, features that appeared on YY.com, Dizhua, Lizhi, etc. More here

LongHash Ventures launches US$15M fund to support early-stage blockchain startups; The new fund will focus on investing in startups leveraging Web 3.0 infrastructure components and DeFi; LongHash Ventures seeks to build the native Web 3.0 blockchain economy through a global network across the Republic, Shanghai and Hong Kong. More here

East Ventures (EV) appoints Pavilion Capital founding member Koh Wai Kit as Venture Partner; He has in the past served in the investment, strategy and portfolio management functions at Temasek; To date, EV has supported more than 170 companies across Southeast Asia; It’s an early investor in Tokopedia and Traveloka. More here

Ex-Grab Chief Economist, Impiro back Bangladeshi digital food court Kludio; Unlike other food delivery apps, Kludio provides more flexibility to customers by enabling mix and match of cuisines from multiple brands; The company claims to have clocked over 20K app downloads within just two months of its launch. More here

Temasek-backed Reefknot invests into US-based supply chain startup Roambee; The fresh funds will go towards global expansion into new markets, including Asia; It seeks to open its Southeast Asian headquarters in Singapore by Q1 2021. More here

Bambooloo on creating everyday low carbon footprint products that save the planet; The firm makes a range of sustainable consumer products made from virgin bamboo pulp sourced from bamboo groves in China; Its products are also available in Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand. More here

LottieFiles acquires India-based design asset marketplace Iconscout; The Indian firm claims it has 2.2M+ assets, ranging from SVGs and vector icons to illustrations and 3D graphics; LottieFiles recently raised US$9M Series A, led by Microsoft’s Venture Fund, M12, with participation from 500 Startups. More here

Philippine edutech startup Avion School secures funding from Y Combinator; Avion is an online school that teaches Filipinos to become remote software engineers globally; Since its launch in May 2020, it has kicked off seven batches of students and partnered with over 80 companies globally; Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen invested in the firm last year. More here

Kairous Capital, SPH Ventures join TechNode Global’s US$1M seed round to help it accelerate Asia expansion; The Singapore-based media firm will set up an office in Malaysia soon; TechNode Global is building a community platform that offers news, provides fundraising and deal flow support and facilitates corporate-startup partnerships. More here

Is Southeast Asia ready to BNPL?; The first indicator of the market potential of BNPL in SEA is its age group demographics; A second indicator is the underbanked population; Finally, the growth of e-commerce in Southeast Asia highlights the viability of BNPL in the region. More here

This startup lets you create over 100 premium ice cream out of a mini capsule; Advantir Innovation’s flagship product is Swirl Go, an ice cream-making capsule that makes sure that consumers get their favourite flavour dispensed at its finest quality. More here

Philippine fintech startup Ayannah seeks Series B funding  for Vietnam, India expansion; Ayannah provides digital financial services to the middle-class population in emerging markets by partnering with financial companies to launch services on behalf of them; To date, it has raised US$9M+ from two funding rounds. More here

Razer co-founder Lim Kaling to sell his stake in Myanmarese military-linked Virginia Tobacco; He is selling his one-third stake in a joint venture that owns RMH Singapore, a tobacco company which in turn owns 49% of Virginia Tobacco; The development comes against the backdrop of the recent events in Myanmar. More here

Philippine startup Mosaic Solutions bags US$1M in pre-Series A from Gentree; Mosaic offers cloud-based management software for F&B and hospitality companies; It recently raised US$1.5M pre-Series A round in September 2020 from Investible, IdeaSpace, KMC Founders Fund, and JC Capital. More here

Digital tech growth to create 65M jobs annually in Asia Pacific; ADB said the expansion of the digital sector would contribute to an average annual gain of 26.8% in APAC’s GDP, 15.6% in trade, and 26.1% in employment over the next five years. More here

Unlimited ‘fuel for a flat fee? This S’pore firm offers a subscription plan for EV drivers; Homegrown solar energy firm Sunseap’s green mobility business arm called Charge+ plans to set up 10K EV charging points across Singapore by 2030; It aims to install charging points in public housing estates and private developments, particularly condominiums. More here

Can Asia copy Estonia’s digital nation model?; Since 2014, it has allowed citizens of other countries to become an ‘e-resident’ of Estonia; They can run an Estonian business or open a bank account without stepping into the country. More here

SME digital financing platform Funding Societies expands to Thailand; Thailand marks the fourth market in its six years of operations; Since 2015, the company claims to have supported over 65,000 SMEs in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia with over USD1.5B in funding. More here

Siam Commercial Bank’s venture arm SCB 10X sets up US$50M VC fund; The blockchain, DeFi, and digital assets-dedicated fund will invest across the capital stack in innovative and promising startups in blockchain infrastructure, blockchain innovative applications, and decentralised finance globally, to better prepare the bank for future disruption. More here

How the young, unbanked online users are spearheading the rise of AI-banking in SEA; There are around 290M unbanked people in the region and that only around 120M people have access to credit; The untapped potential behind the population without access to credit is one of the determining factors that make SEA so attractive to investors. More here

The WFH era: How SMEs should select the right digital collaboration tools; According to a Lark study, the top three tasks among Singapore PMEs are chat/messaging, video meetings, and emails; With the rise of remote collaboration, the study also found that Singapore’s professionals, managers, and executives use video meetings (94%), file search (90%), and messaging (80%) for up to half of their day. More here

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Image Credit: gojek

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Eurazeo CEO Virginie Morgon

Eurazeo, global investment company headquartered in Paris, has announced the initial closing of its Smart City II Venture fund at €80 million (US$97 million).

The fund will invest in the most promising startups in the energy, mobility proptech and logistics industries worldwide, including Asia.

The investors of the fund II include longstanding partners and new ones based in Europe and Asia, such as carmaker Stellantis, electric utilities EDF and Mainova, public transportation operator RATP, energy major Total, logistics firm Duisport, and Thai real estate developer Sansiri.

The Smart City Venture team invests into innovative digital companies which are supporting rapid transformation of cities for the benefit of their residents: work from home, shared mobility, electric mobility, food delivery and the renewable energy transition.

Also Read: How this Singaporean AI startup makes waste collection and recycling easy for cities, organisations

Up to 40 per cent of the fund will be invested in Asia.

Eurazeo’s first fund, Smart City I Venture Fund, has already made nearly 25 investments across Europe, Asia and North America. Its portfolio companies include Spanish last-mile logistics specialist Glovo, American provider of charging networks for electric vehicles Volta Charging, and Chinese autonomous mobility firm Weride.

Matthieu Bonamy, Partner at Idinvest Partners, a subsidiary of Eurazeo, said: “The Smart City Venture strategy aims to select and support the future global leaders in each of their sectors thanks to an expertise in our investments themes and a selectivity rate at the level of the best generalist funds.”

“The fund benefit is also extra-financial as we support entrepreneurs who take decisive action to reduce carbon emissions and enable the development of more inclusive and resilient cities. This is crucial today as cities consume 78 per cent of the world’s energy and produce more than 60 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases,” Bonamy added.

Eurazeo is a leading global investment company with a diversified portfolio of €18.8 (US$23) billion in assets under management, including €13.3 (US$16) billion from third parties, and has invested in over 430 companies.

Also Read: How South Korea’s smart city startups curbed the spread of COVID-19

With its considerable private equity, real estate and private debt expertise, Eurazeo accompanies companies of all sizes, supporting their development through the commitment of its nearly 300 professionals and by offering in-depth sector expertise, a gateway to global markets, and a responsible and stable foothold for transformational growth.

Eurazeo has offices in Paris, New York, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, London, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Berlin and Madrid.

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Image Credit: Eurazeo

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Kludio, a digital food court in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A round of financing from Steve Vickers, former Chief Economist at Grab Indonesia, and Singapore-based seed-stage VC firm Impiro.

Vickers will also join Kludio’s board, the company said in a statement.

The new funding will be used to scale the business and “introduce over 10 times more food options” for customers on its platform via existing and new partner brands.

Kludio is also currently in the hiring mode.

Established in 2019, Kludio is a multi-brand cloud kitchen that is optimised for sustainable and quick food preparation. What makes it different from other cloud kitchen platforms is that it takes control of the entire production — from cooking and lead generation, to delivery — ultimately taking ownership of the whole customer relationship. It is like an online food court owned entirely by Kludio.

Unlike other food delivery apps, such as Foodpanda, Deliveroo and Grab eats, Kludio provides more flexibility to customers by enabling mix and match of cuisines from multiple brands.

Also Read: Dhaka’s first full-stack digital food court Kludio shines despite COVID-19

What this means is that customers can now combine multiple cuisines or flavours together on a single app, as opposed to being able to order a certain type of cuisine from only one restaurant.

Among the food options available on Kludio is Dough On The Go (a pizza outlet), Fry Box, Chow Box, and Fish & Chips.

The Kludio app

The company claims to have clocked over 20,000 app downloads within just two months of its launch.

“While having a growing team, staying lean is in our DNA. Today, we have a team of over 40 colleagues across several roles. We have grown into the only full-stack operations where we control production, logistics and customer relationship through the app across multiple locations profitably,” Kishwar Hasheeme, co-founder of Kludio, told e27.

Last November, the startup raised US$500,000 in seed round from investors, including Vickers, gojek’s VP of Food Marketplace, Uber’s International Head of Innovation, BOD Tech Ventures, Seedstars, Rashmi Kwatra of Sixteenth Street Capital, and Unilever’s VP Zaved Akhtar.

The on-demand food delivery market in Southeast Asia has been on a growth trajectory for the past few years. According to a joint report by Google Bain & Co. and Temasek, it has jumped 13x in just four years and is forecast to touch US$20 billion in 2025, on par with on-demand transport services.

Also Read: COVID-19 accelerates food delivery startups in SEA with Grab responsible for near half of growth: Report

While the F&B industry is still underdeveloped in Bangladesh, Hasheeme believes that Kludio can close the gap by helping Bangladesh’s F&B businesses to rapidly scale up through Kludio’s value chain, infrastructure, and technology – uniquely designed for the local market.

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Image Credit: Kludio

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Bambooloo Products

Climate change is a serious problem. Governments and world leaders around the globe have acknowledged it and are taking active steps in addressing the menace.

The media is also actively reporting on the issue and has managed to successfully create awareness globally. The results have already started showing.

According to Pinterest, searches for “eco-friendly living” and “zero-waste products” have grown by 93 and 108 per cent in 2020. Additionally, conversations around sustainability on Twitter have also spiked by 285 per cent as of April 21, 2020, and this is unsurprising.

Consumers, especially Gen Z and millennials, are becoming environmentally conscious, which has put immense pressure on brands to respond positively.

But the key question is ‘how does one go from a traditional way of building a product to a more sustainable way of innovation’?

To find the answer to this question, e27 had a chat with David Ward, co-founder of Singapore-based The Nurturing Co. (TNC), which owns and operates sustainable plastic-free home goods brand Bambooloo.

David Ward

Behind the brand

TNC — originally started in the US in 2018 as a luxury toilet paper made from 100 per cent sustainable bamboo — aims to provide cost-effective, safer, healthier daily essentials that help reduce water usage, carbon impact, and slow deforestation.

When he originally started to create TNC, Ward knew little about sustainability. According to him, he landed in the industry by accident.

“I have always been an environmentally-driven person. Maybe, this is partly due to my father, who had grown most of our vegetables in our home and always had a “turn that light off, don’t run that tap” commentary based on an understanding that these resources were not infinite,” he narrates the story.

“After having spent more than 25 years in the fashion world, I wanted to spend my days on something I loved as a passion. So, on a Saturday morning in September 2013, I woke up with a mindset on doing something about this opportunity, having had the epiphany of creating a brand that would allow me to use all I had learned from the people I had worked with over the past 25 years in building international and fast-moving businesses but in the sustainable sector,” he recalls.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, December: Bambooloo by The Nurturing Co.

With a passion to inspire more innovators to create global sustainable brands, Ward wanted to build products that are good for the planet.

TNC’s flagship product is called Bambooloo, a range of sustainable consumer products made from virgin bamboo pulp sourced from bamboo groves in China. The products are made in Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)/ISO- certified manufacturing partner factories in the country.

Why the company chose bamboo as its main material, rather than trees that die immediately, is because they tend to grow back by more than a meter within a week.

Bambooloo expanded into Malaysia last year through its partner, Johor Bahru-based Starkers. Aside from Singapore and Malaysia, its products are also available in New Zealand.

Finding the product purpose

The first thing is to think about what you’re creating. Does it serve a purpose? Will people use it on a regular basis?

It would be great to replace single-use products, ideally with something that are reusable. If they’re not reusable, then they should ideally be made from materials that are less impacted when sourced and less harmful after use.

Create a benchmark for your product

We started our journey with a single heading on a piece of paper ‘NO PLASTICS’, and that was our benchmark.

Now the mindset is always one of excluding or reducing plastics at every point in the design process and on the consideration of the post-use material management — both for the consumer and for the repurposing and recycling of the material back into the supply chains.

Choose the right materials

Find substitutes for different materials like paper, bubble paper, or anything that is relevant to the product that you are creating. For example, grass paper can be a good substitute for paper, and pulp-tec is a good substitute for bubble paper that is normally used for packaging.

Also Read: Bambooloo raises US$250K+ via equity crowdfunding to expand its plastic-free home goods into UK

There are plenty of books and materials available online.

(Resources are provided at the end of this article.)

Leverage on building a community 

Invest in finding ways to generate awareness about how your product combats climate change. Use social media to share facts about environmental concerns rather than just talk about the product.

Transparency is also important for a sustainable brand to build trust with consumers; there are many brands which claim to be sustainable but, in reality, are not.

Do not rely on others’ data or pull numbers from someone else’s website. Check it out for yourself and make sure that everything you say stands up.

How to price a sustainable product

While balancing between doing good and making money is difficult, there are some strategies that can help in pricing your sustainable business profitable.

TNC employs the use of subscription services for our customers because it not only builds trust with recurring consumers but also offers the company a predictable source of income.

Every product manager knows that packaging costs can add up, therefore TNC makes use of smart packaging to reduce its costs. Our products come in an eco-friendly box, which has a design inside that tells our consumers how they have positively impacted the environment.

Additional Resources – 

Ward leaves several resources for readers to explore sustainability and innovation.

1. The Inconvenient Truth: A very uncomfortable documentary about the devastating effects of climate change

2. What Design Can Do: An inspiring talk on YouTube on what sustainable design can do

3. Crossing the Chasm: Book that focuses on the specifics of marketing high tech products during the early start-up period

4. Green Packaging Solutions: A book on recyclable packaging designs

5. Crushing It: Podcast on a variety of leaders from across the financial services industry on finding success in multiple areas of life, career, mental well-being, and physical health

6. Disrupt: Book for identifying and executing disruptive business opportunities

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Image Credit: Nurturing Co.

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The Co-founders of LottieFiles

LottieFiles, an open-source animation file format that is tiny, interactive and can be manipulated at runtime, announced today it has acquired India-based design asset marketplace, Iconscout, for an undisclosed amount.

As per a press note, Iconscout will continue operating as an independent platform.

LottieFiles had recently announced its US$9 million Series A funding round led by Microsoft’s Venture Fund, M12, with participation from existing investor 500 Startups.

Also Read: Microsoft’s VC arm leads US$9M Series A in LottieFiles, a platform for the ‘smallest animation format’ for designers

Launched in 2018, LottieFiles is a community platform for designers and developers, who create motion graphics using the Lottie file format. A JSON-based animation file format, Lottie enables designers to ship animations on any platform as easily as shipping static assets. They are small files that work on any device and can scale up or down without pixelation.

The company claims it has over a million designers and developers from over 65,000 companies using its platform to ship motion graphics across the web, apps, and platforms. 

Launched in 2016, Iconscout offers ready-to-use assets for designers, developers and marketers to use. The startup noted it has over 2.2 million assets, ranging from SVGs and vector icons to illustrations and 3D graphics.

“Our goal is to empower designers and developers and save them weeks of work by freeing them from creating, collaborating, testing, and editing design assets. We are grateful to the Iconscout team for coming along on this journey with us,” said Kshitij Minglani, Co-founder and CEO LottieFiles.

“We are thrilled that Iconscout will now have a global audience to cater to and a much bigger playfield,” closed Dalpat Prajapati, Co-founder Iconscout.

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Image Credit: LottieFiles

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SCB 10X Chief Venture and Investment Officer Mukaya (Tai) Panich

SCB 10X, the venture arm of Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, has announced the launch of a new fund worth US$50 million.

The fund will invest in both early- and growth-stage startups globally, particularly promising startups in blockchain infrastructure for decentralised finance (DeFi) and digital assets, to ready the bank for the digital financial systems of the future.

As per an official statement, the move is the latest in its attempt to spur its ‘Moonshot Mission’ even further. Moonshot Mission represents ideas and creations that have never been done before and the recognition of market needs in the future which can take the bank to reach the goals before other counterparts.

Also Read: Thai bank SCB doubles the size of its fintech-focussed corporate VC fund to US$100M

The bank, through SCB 10X, has set its eyes on strong potential companies and startups worldwide to create new capabilities embracing novel technology through investment to generate exponential growth.

SCB 10X Chief Venture and Investment Officer Mukaya (Tai) Panich, said: “With our new US$50-million blockchain-, DeFi-, and digital assets- dedicated VC fund, we will invest across the capital stack in innovative and promising startups in blockchain infrastructure, blockchain innovative applications, and decentralised finance globally, to better prepare the bank for future disruption.”

In her view, blockchain can reduce transaction costs, facilitate distributed trust, enhance security, and potentially become the new foundation for centralised and decentralised business models and platforms. In the financial industry, blockchain-enabled financial services have the potential to broaden financial inclusion, facilitate open access, and encourage innovation.

“We see strong parallels between traditional finance and blockchain-enabled financial services businesses. Blockchain technology can make financial services more innovative, interoperable, traceable, borderless, and transparent,” Panich added.

Also Read: A lowdown on why DeFi is good for the growth of cryptocurrency

In October last year, SCB 10X entered into a partnership with Alpha Finance Lab (AFL), an ecosystem of cross-chain Decentralised Finance (DeFi) products, with an aim to bridge the gap between traditional banking and emerging financial technology with a new suite of DeFi products under the umbrella of Alpha.

As per this partnership, the two firms will closely work with each other to build and launch innovative and impactful Alpha products that become key building blocks to grow the DeFi market by leveraging years of knowledge and experience in traditional finance.

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Image Credit: SCB 10X

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According to a McKinsey study, amidst the pandemic, there was a global increase in the use of various services like in-home online entertainment, food delivery and drive-through, pickup services, online meetings, remote education, online fitness, and telemedicine.

The study found that more than half of these services grew through increased use by existing users or adoption by new ones. These increases were 10% or more in almost all countries except Japan, where it was less than 10%. In fact, Japan’s rate of increase in digital was lower than the US, China, European countries, South Korea, and India. Interestingly, the research indicates that this result was not due to low consumer-side demand. Instead, it was due to the insufficient scaling and development of digital services by most Japanese companies.

Also read: Here are 10 more verified investors on e27 for you to connect with

However, businesses and authorities alike are starting to realise the need for stronger digital transformation in the country. “Digitalisation is key to spur Japan’s growth in the new normal”, the Japanese government said in a report released in November 2020. The report further states that the economy can return to a “self-sustained growth track” with investments in information technology, software, and human resources. This applies to all sectors and the restaurant industry is no exception.

As such, Tokyo-based GINKAN Inc. is helping future-proof the restaurant industry by leveraging the latest technologies, including big data, AI, and cryptocurrency.

Challenges faced by restaurants and diners in Japan

GINKAN founder and CEO Tomochika Kamiya feels passionately for Japan’s rich food culture. He embarked on the journey to launch this startup in December 2015 when he realised that digital marketing and ads were blocking good restaurants and devoting them to the exposure they deserve. He noticed that the key challenges faced by traditional restaurants include:

● No customer data: who are the customers, where are they coming from, who are the returning customers, how to get referrals — these questions go unanswered as traditional restaurants are unable to keep track or store data.
● Limited advertising resources: most traditional restaurants still depend on monthly fee-based advertising media which might not necessarily work in an increasingly online world.
● Lack of resources to invest in digitalisation.

These issues lead to limited exposure, a downfall in regular customers and thus, losses in business.

Also read: RESC: Promoting sustainability with an IoT battery platform for e-mobility and smart grid

When it comes to finding traditional restaurants that serve good food, customers also face a lot of challenges. Food lovers struggle because restaurant hunting can be time-consuming. Google searches offer lots of options but these are often filled with targeted ads and restaurants that have beefed up their websites with good SEO show up on the top. These might be top-ranking eateries but not necessarily good restaurants that serve great food. Plus, there is no personalisation and it is hard to find trustworthy recommendations.

To address these issues, in 2015, Kamiya along with the co-founder and CTO Hiroshi Mita created SynchroLife.

GINKAN’s SynchroLife is the matchmaker that every restaurant and food lover needs

GINKAN’s flagship service SynchroLife lets users uncover restaurants normally hidden by web search results and advertising. They do this by using artificial intelligence to make personalised suggestions tailored to each user’s likes and dislikes.

SynchroLife provides restaurants with visibility on a food-centric social media platform where they have to pay a flat marketing fee of just 5% to fill empty seats and they get access to a fully-automated CRM that automatically nurtures regular customers through rewards, vouchers, and promotions.

The platform also awards restaurant reviewers with cashback deals as well as its own cryptocurrency. In Japan, users who receive loyalty points — known as SynchroPoints — will be able to exchange them for SynchroCoin at a one-to-one rate. It is a win-win on both sides.

Also read: GAOGAO: Creating an ecosystem of CTO level talent, support and growth with industry experts and new businesses

In this journey, one of the main challenges faced by GINKAN was “educating” their partners and the users on cryptocurrency. While the common notion is that the awareness about cryptocurrency and its adoption is relatively higher in Japan, still many people don’t know much about it. GINKAN managed to impart their ethos to businesses by walking them through the legal framework of cryptocurrency in Japan and exhibiting the process through small scale tests first.

On the consumer side, they’ve tried to keep it simple focusing on the reward side of it- explaining how food lovers can leverage these points for gift cards. They don’t necessarily have to understand cryptocurrency to use the app, which makes it easier for users from different demographics to leverage the platform for their love of good food.

Braving through COVID-19 and future plans: Looking at Southeast Asian markets

Amidst the pandemic, GINKAN faced both positive and negative effects. During lockdowns, the revenues dropped at first. However, restaurants soon started looking at royalty points for business continuity and survival. This led to an uptake of sign-ups on SynchroLife as the platform also works for takeouts and deliveries.

Since the launch of their CRM service in July 2019, SynchroLife has onboarded over 850 restaurants. GINKAN’s services are currently focused in Japan with a user base concentration in major cities, including Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Sapporo. Available in four languages, including English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese and over 155 countries, SynchroLife features around 100,000 restaurants and 210,000 reviews today.

They hope to expand to Southeast Asian markets starting next year. With a rising middle class, high interest in food and dining out, increased digitisation in the restaurant industry, and young customers interested in personalisation and rewards, the Southeast Asian markets are very similar to Japan’s in many ways. 

“We believe we can solve problems for both diners and restaurants in Southeast Asian markets like we have done in Japan. We believe our strengths are proven business model in Japan, easy to use and earn rewards points, automated CRM for a set price, and the fact that we are a cross restaurant platform,” says founder and CEO Tomochika Kamiya.

Also read: User acquisition strategies to grow your app from Adjust and ironSource

In June 2020, GINKAN raised US$2.6 million in a series A funding round led by local VC firm MTG Ventures. They plan on a Series B fundraise by next year that they can dedicate to their regional expansion plans. Currently, they are also looking for business partners: restaurant owners, chains, and f&b outlets.

As the world’s first platform to tokenize restaurant reviews and provide rewards to quality reviewers, with SynchroLife, GINKAN aims to create a global social media platform where food reviewers can earn for their contributions instead of just working as volunteers. Learn more about them here: https://e27.co/startups/ginkan/

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

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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Lim Kaling, who was the founding investor in Razer back in 2005, announced today he has decided to exit his investment in Virginia Tobacco Company in Myanmar.

He is selling his one-third stake in a joint venture that owns RMH Singapore, a tobacco company which in turn owns 49 per cent of Virginia Tobacco.

Virginia Tobacco is the market leader, which employs nearly 1,000 people and counts army-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings among its backers.

The development comes against the backdrop of the recent events in the Southeast Asian country.

In a press note, Kaling, who is a member of the Razer board, said: “I have been closely monitoring the situation in Myanmar and the recent events there cause me grave concern. I am therefore exploring options for the responsible disposal of this stake.”

Also Read: How the coup d’état would play out for Myanmar’s startup ecosystem

Lim shared the aim of the joint venture he started in 1993 with a friend was to address an economic opportunity in Myanmar as the country was opening up. He had hoped that through his venture, they would be able to help the country spur economic growth and create jobs to raise the standard of living.

“I wish the people of Myanmar a smooth, non-violent journey as they resolve differences in their society for a better future for all, and I hope for a time when I can be an investor in the country and its people once more,” he added.

Meanwhile, The Straits Times has reported that an online petition has been launched by Change.org calling for “Remove Lim Kaling from the Razer board unless he ends business w/ the Myanmar military now”, which had 851 signatures as of 9.24 am SGT on Tuesday.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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Koh Wai Kit

East Ventures, an active early-stage VC firm based in Indonesia, has appointed Koh Wai Kit as its new Venture Partner.

Wai Kit brings with him a wealth of experience working in the senior leadership roles at several prominent VC firms.

Wai Kit was an early founding member of Pavilion Capital, where he spearheaded its investments in China, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

Also Read : Founders should be able to back up their ideas with sales: Golden Gate’s newly-appointed Principal Jeffrey Chua

He has also served in the investment, strategy and portfolio management functions at Temasek Holdings.

A graduate of the University Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wai Kit was also a member of the Singapore Administrative Service where he was involved in public policy formulation and implementation.

“Wai Kit is a quick-witted thinker with a great deal of empathy, sharing the same core value we hold at East Ventures. We welcome him to our team and are looking forward to work together to grow the platform for all our stakeholders,” said Willson Cuaca, co-founder and Managing Partner at East Ventures.

Founded in 2009, East Ventures has supported more than 170 companies across Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. It is also an early investor in Indonesian unicorns Tokopedia and Traveloka.

Other notable companies in East Ventures’s portfolio include Mercari, Ruangguru, Warung Pintar, Fore Coffee, Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by gojek), TechInAsia, Xendit, IDN Media, MokaPOS, ShopBack, CoHive, Koinworks, Waresix, and Sociolla.

In 2018, East Ventures set up a growth-stage fund, called EV Growth, to further support and capitalise on the development of their ecosystem. The US$250-million fund has since invested in more than 12 companies.

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Image Credit: East Ventures

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Ayannah Founder and CEO Mikko Perez (2nd from left)

Philippine fintech startup Ayannah, which is backed by the likes of Wavemaker Partners, 500 Startups and Golden Gate Ventures, is seeking to raise Series B round of funding to fuel its future expansion into Vietnam and India, its founder and CEO Mikko Perez told e27.

Headquartered in Metro Manila, Ayannah aims to provide digital financial services to the middle-class in emerging markets — by partnering with financial companies to launch services on their behalf.

To date, the company has raised over US$9 million from two funding rounds — seed in 2013 and Series A in 2015.

“Apart from cash, there are three key attributes we are looking for in prospective investors: 1) domain knowledge/expertise in fintech, 2) business synergies through both global and local connections and 3) alignment in terms of business strategy, current and future valuation expectations, and exit strategy,” Perez said.

According to Fitch Ratings, there are 290 million unbanked population in Southeast Asia. This has created a financial divide as only 18 per cent of the region’s population has access to credit. Due to the lack of bank accounts and the relevant financial data that comes with it, the majority of middle-class and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within the region do not have access to products and services offered by traditional financial institutions such as banks.

This has created an opportunity for alternative platforms such as Ayannah to step in and provide digital financial services for the unbanked population. The startup is driving the effort within the Philippines and has its sights set on expanding in the region.

Founded in 2010 by Perez, Ayannah has developed two products — Sendah Direct and Sendah Remit.

While Sendah Direct is a B2B2C SaaS platform that allows partners to provide remittance, payment, loans and insurance services to unbanked customers, the latter is a “bank-grade” SaaS platform that allows consumers and businesses to send and receive cash transfers in an interoperable network.

According to Perez, the company recently partnered with Philippine microfinancing institution CARD to launch digital lending services for its seven million members.

Open Banking

Besides providing digital financial services to companies, Ayannah also runs a data analytics credit-scoring platform (Kaya) that leverages the concept of Open Banking.

For the uninitiated, the idea of Open Banking revolves around banks securely sharing financial data with other financial companies to enable the latter to understand their customers better and offer more personalised products.

Previously, when consumer financial data was stored in silos, financial companies like P2P lending platforms had difficulty verifying a customer’s credit history, thus restricting access to any potential loans.

However, with Open Banking, this problem is solved as companies can leverage shared financial data to accurately verify their users’ credit history and extend loans to them.

Also Read: How startups can aid Southeast Asia’s Open Banking landscape

The Kaya Credit platform also helps partner financial institutions such as insurers and asset managers better understand their customers through the process of eKYC (electronic know your customer), enabling firms to offer more personalised products. Besides, it helps companies unlock access to a larger group of eligible customers, helping them increase sales more efficiently.

An overview of Ayannah’s suite of products (Photo Credit: Ayannah)

“We have revenue-sharing agreements based on transaction fees (either a percentage of the principal amount processed or a flat transaction fee),” shared Perez, a former investment banker at JP Morgan.

The bulk of Ayannah’s revenue stems from its remittance and payments services, although the company has noticed an increasing amount coming from from its lending and e-commerce platforms. “We are expecting more revenues to come from Insurance as a Service and Investing as a Service in the near future too,” he added.

Potential for growth

In documents shared with e27, Ayannah reported 8x growth in gross transaction volume (GTV) y-o-y for its domestic remittance and digital payments service. The company also noted it processed over 11 million transactions from 2.3 million users in 2020, bringing in over US$43 million in GTV.

While there is no generalised forecast for the Open Banking industry within Southeast Asia, the e-Conomy SEA report reveals that digital payments (including remittances) will grow from US$600 billion in 2019 to US$1.2 trillion in 2025, with digital lending increasing from US$23 billion in 2019 to US$92 billion in 2025.

“This growth in digital financial services is a combination of volume converting from legacy/offline financial services as well as the new volume that will be generated as the middle class and SME segment in SEA grows,” Perez opined as he shares Ayannah is looking to expand regionally to capture the lucrative opportunity.

Also Read: 2021: Predicting another bumper (un)predictable year for payments

The company has secured licensing by the Indonesian Monetary Authority (OJK) and has started providing lending as a service for local financial companies from November 2020.

Moving forward, Ayannah plans to venture into providing insurance and investment solutions targeting the local unbanked population of over 139 million.

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Image Credit: Ayannah

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