Society Pass founder and CEO Dennis Nguyen

Rahul Narain, former chief technology officer of Nasdaq-listed Society Pass Inc. (SPI), is seeking damages of over US$1.3 million from the Vietnam-focused data-driven loyalty company for allegedly breaching his employment contract.

In a complaint (a copy of which is with e27) filed before the New York State Supreme Court in December 2019, Narain alleged that Society Pass, registered in Nevada, failed to pay him his earned compensation in salary, bonus payments, healthcare reimbursements, equity awards, and severance pay.

Narain pleaded that the court direct Society Pass to pay him damages amounting to not less than US$566,000 in earned and due compensation, equity awards and severance compensation, besides US$750,000 for breaching the common stock purchase warrant.

Society Pass has denied Narain’s claims in a counter-complaint in the court. An email sent to Society Pass founder and CEO Dennis Nguyen seeking his comments elicited no response when publishing this article.

Also Read: Society Pass launches US$26M IPO on Nasdaq, shares surge 230 per cent

The case revolves around the employment agreement signed between SPI and Narain three years ago. The complaint said that Narain joined Society Pass as an advisor and consultant for a term of approximately three months in November 2018. As per the terms of the agreement, Narain — a highly experienced computer programmer and technology advisor and formerly the chief architect for IBM Mobile Appliance — would join SPI as its CTO at the end of the said term.  

Both parties extensively negotiated an employment contract in January 2019, following which Society Pass agreed to pay Narain a monthly salary of US$20,000, effective January 1, 2019. Half of the salary (US$10,000) would be paid initially, with the balance amount to be paid upon the closing of SPI’s Series C financing round. 

In addition, Society Pass also agreed to pay Narain US$36,000 annually (US$3,000 a month) towards his healthcare expenses. This payment was also due upon the closing of the Series C round. Besides, SPI would pay Narain a Series C Bonus totalling US$350,000.

As per the terms in the contract, Narain was also entitled to 4 per cent of Society Pass’s common stock upon Series C closing. The parties agreed that these shares would be issued to him in multiple tranches quarterly, with effect from February 1 2019.

According to Narain, SPI, however, failed to honour the contract. “SPI breached the terms of the agreement almost immediately by failing to place Narain on the company payroll, despite several requests from him and SPI’s then COO Thomas O’Connor. As of the end of October 2019, the amount of taxes due based on the outstanding salary, bonus and healthcare payments were approximately US$17,500,” the complaint said.

While Society Pass wire-transferred him a monthly salary of US$10,000, it discontinued the payments from August 2019 without giving him any notice.

As per Narain’s belief and information from sources, Society Pass closed the Series C round in September 2019. So, according to the agreement, SPI owes Narain US$120,000 in unpaid salary as of end-October 2019. The additional payments of healthcare reimbursements and bonuses, which were also due at the close of the Series C round, were not paid either.

“[The] plaintiff be granted a declaratory judgment determining the validity of the issuance of SPI common stock shares and their value,” he pleaded.

Even as the legal battle continues, the court, in an order dated December 02, 20121, directed SPI to produce documents related to the closing of the Series C round by December 10, 2021. (The order was subsequently amended to allow SPI time until January 14, 2022, to produce the said documents.)

Also Read: Vietnam’s data-driven loyalty platform Society Pass closes Series C, relaunches Leflair

“Mr. Narain’s claim is that he was not properly compensated and that the defendants [SPI] avoided paying him by either doing the Series C financing without telling him about it or by doing other financings instead of the Series C financing so as to avoid paying him his compensation. The evidence discussed at the conference indicates that Mr.Narain was previously told the value of his deferred Series C compensation – i.e., long before the defendant indicates that the recent financing named Series C actually happened. Under these circumstances, it is not proper for the defendants to refuse to provide discovery to Mr.Narain between the date of the end of his employment and the announced now named Series C financing so that Narain can vet his theory that the defendant avoided paying him. The defendant shall produce this material by Friday, December 10, 2021, in advance of the defendant’s CEO’s [Dennis Nguyen] scheduled deposition or Mr.Narain may move for appropriate relief including striking the defendant’s answer,” said the court ruling.

In an emailed response, Narain’s attorney Ethan A. Brecher of law firm Ethan A. Brecher, LLC, told e27 that he expects SPI to produce the required documents by January 14. “We will take Dennis Nguyen’s deposition after that. A court order was necessary for the production of these documents and Nguyen’s deposition because Society Pass has not been co-operating.”

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Daniel Shin, CEO of CHAI

Singapore-based payment solutions company CHAI has secured US$45 million in a Series B+ investment round, co-led by existing investor SoftBank Ventures Asia (SBVA) and US-based fintech VC firm Nyca Partners.

KT Investment, Conductive Ventures, Nordstar Capital, Samsung NEXT and B Capital also participated.

CHAI will use the new capital to expand its footprint in Southeast Asia and develop a “fully automated end-to-end payment infrastructure” for digital merchants throughout Asia.

This tranche comes exactly a year after the startup bagged US$60 million in a Series B round led by Hanhwa Investment & Securities, with participation from SoftBank Ventures Asia, SK Networks, and Aarden Partners

Founded in 2019, CHAI provides a unified payment orchestration solution for local merchants through a single application programming interface (API).

Through CHAI Port, merchants can activate and offer over 30 payment options, such as credit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers and cross-border payments to their customers in under an hour. They can also optimise the checkout experience for improved conversion rates and obtain a consolidated real-time analysis of their entire payment flow from multiple payment methods.

Must Read: Ex-CTO drags Society Pass into court over “breaching employment contract”, seeks over US$1.3M in damages

Currently, CHAI claims to process more than US$6 billion on behalf of over 2,200 merchants.

The firm recently launched CHAI Port in Vietnam and Thailand — both highly fragmented payment markets — and has begun supporting local brands such as Saigon Coop (leading grocer) and SoBanHang (e-commerce enabler for SMEs).

Additionally, CHAI also operates an e-wallet in South Korea that connects to a gamified rewards platform for over 3 million users to unlock instant cashback at famous brands.

“Emerging markets in Southeast Asia represent some of the fastest growth opportunities in digital payments. With the COVID-19 pandemic making accepting digital payments a necessity, we want to empower both global and local merchants to rapidly expand into new markets and reach billions of global consumers, respectively,” said Daniel Shin, CEO of CHAI.

The rise of the digital economy and the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated digital payment adoption among both consumers and merchants. Real-time payment transactions soared by 41 per cent worldwide in 2020, and within Southeast Asia, the gross merchandise value of online transactions is expected to hit US$1 trillion by 2030.

However, the payment landscape in the region remains highly fragmented, which poses a barrier to widespread adoption due to integration and management complexities – especially among small and medium-sized enterprises.

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This isn’t for you if your company meets customers face-to-face or on the field. But, if 80 per cent or so of your interactions with leads and clients go through some form of email, phone or video call (like many others now), you might want to have a look at natural language technologies. 

When you think about those phone calls and emails, they represent pretty much every moment your customers directly talk to you. That’s when they tell you what they need and want, what they struggle with, what they like about your product, and what they don’t.  

That is a lot of critical information for your business! 

But here’s the thing. We are talking about unstructured data—a large flow of text and voice, but nothing your system can easily make sense of. Most companies don’t even have a clear record of their interactions. Let alone efficient analytics tools.  

So, the only thing you can do is rely on your customer-facing teams. They are the only ones able to analyse what’s being said, make sense of all that data and report the findings to their managers. The heroes of unstructured data! 

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Pitik co-founders Arief Witjaksono and Rymax Joehana with Arise partner Aldi Adrian Hartanto (C)

Indonesian-based poultry-tech startup Pitik has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding co-led by Arise and Wavemaker Partners.

MDI Ventures also joined the round.

Pitik will use the funds to advance its product development and empower local poultry farmers to achieve higher production yields.

Launched in mid-2021, Pitik provides poultry farmers with a full-stack farm management system. It enables them to capture data across the value chain and then utilise this data to improve the efficiency of their operations. This ranges from IoT systems that enable real-time farm monitoring and farm algorithms that facilitate instant decision intervention and improve productivity.

On top of technology, Pitik also assists farmers in procuring high-quality farm inputs and selling the chickens at a competitive price, providing end-to-end value-added support throughout the production cycle.

Also Read: MDI Ventures, Finch Capital join hands to launch new US$40M fund Arise to plug ASEAN’s pre-Series A gap

As of now, Pitik has partnered with farmers in over 20 districts in Java and secured more than 4 million annual chicken production capacity and will look to continue to grow this number in the coming months.

Pitik co-founder and CEO Arief Witjaksono, stated: “Like the rest of agriculture landscape in Indonesia, poultry farming has seen very little innovation in the past decades. This results in high operational inefficiencies and multiple layers of intermediaries in the value chain. Being able to reduce inefficiencies in the farm with technology is the first crucial step to ensure that Indonesian poultry farmers can produce high-quality chicken and be profitable at the same time.”

The current market for poultry in Indonesia is sized at US$7.4 billion with a 7 per cent CAGR from 2015 to 2020. The opportunity for growth in this market is immense since Indonesia’s chicken consumption per capita reaches 5.9x lower than other Southeast Asian countries, signalling substantial room for growth.

Must Read: Ex-CTO drags Society Pass into court for “breaching employment contract”, seeks over US$1.3M in damages

Arise is an early-stage VC fund launched in partnership with Telkom Indonesia-backed MDI Ventures and Bank BCA-backed Finch Capital. It enables next-gen startups to scale up and build their businesses with proprietary technology in Southeast Asia. The fund provides long-term capital, strategic go-to-market networks, and hands-on company building capabilities.

In August, Arise announced the first close of its US$40-million debut fund from multiple third-party corporate investors, family offices, and high-net-worth backers.

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Venture Capital (VC) firms are one of the key players in the global tech startup ecosystem.

These institutions raise capital from limited partners –ranging from family offices to pension funds– to invest in tech startups in various stages and of various verticals. Made in exchange for equity or ownership in the startups, through these investments, VC firms work together with founders to grow these startups. They eventually intend to exit through channels such as acquisitions or IPOs.

Some of our readers might be reading this article to prepare themselves for a career in VC firms; they would like to get an idea of how these guys work. But we are publishing this article with startup founders in mind, particularly those who are in the midst of a fundraising journey.

It is important for founders to know the roles of the individuals working in a VC. Understanding the difference enables founders to be more strategic in their approach, as different roles have different levels of authority in deciding an investment –or one might say, the person who is eligible to write the check.

In an article published by Inc., Christine Bechhold of Empire Angels wrote that VC partnerships are “confusing even to those on the inside.” This happens because different firms may use the same title in different ways, but in general, there is a basic hierarchy that is commonly implemented in various firms. To clear out any confusion, Bechhold recommends founders not hesitate to ask questions with the venture capitalists that they meet.

In general, a VC usually consists of an investment team and a support team. As the names suggested, the first one focussed on doing the work of scouting and investing in high-growth potential tech startups in the market that they operate in.  The latter supports the VC firms and their portfolio companies in functions such as marketing and public relations or operations.

Also Read: Pitching 101: Questions that VCs will ask you during a pitch session

The following is a list of job titles that typically exists in a VC, starting from the most junior role:

Analyst

As the most junior member of an investment team in a VC firm, an Analyst may have limited decision-making power. But their role remains crucial to the VC firm as they are the ones who are in charge of doing research and due diligence, building a network, keeping up with industry trends, and making outreach to potential investees.

In terms of qualifications, analysts are usually pre-MBA degree holders and may have a background in tech, finance, banking, consulting, or even journalism. After two to three years in their position, they might get promoted to Associate, join an MBA programme, or start their own companies.

Associate

Associates focus on analysing business plans and industry sub-sectors and executing transactions. As their job involves conducting screening exercises of potential investees, despite not being eligible to make the final decisions, Associates have the ability to filter out companies and influence the principals and partners in their decision-making process.

In their fundraising journey, founders might stumble upon individuals with Senior Associate roles. Usually a post-MBA, they typically stay in the roles for two to three years before being considered for a principal position or pursuing other opportunities.

While it is easy to underestimate the Analysts and Associates in your network, due to their limited decision-making capacity, we must remember that these roles bring their own value to the VC firm involved.

As senior members of the investment teams, Principals have plenty of influence in a VC firm. They are also the ones who will be working very closely with portfolio companies following an investment. Their key strengths include their vast network in the startup ecosystem, enabling them to identify new opportunities, negotiate terms of acquisitions, and execute successful exits.

With their ability to bring in deals and generate returns to the firm, they might get promoted to Partner.

Also Read: Finance your startup: 10 types of investors you should know

Partner

The top of the food chain. Jokes aside, Partners are a group of individuals who own the firm and have control over the capital that is being invested. They are the ones with the final word on an investment deal.

The role of a Partner includes identifying key investment parameters, making final decisions about investments and exits, being a Board member in some portfolio companies and becoming the face of the VC firm itself. They report the fund’s performance to the Investment Committee.

Partnerships within a VC firm can be structured in a hierarchy or in an equal positioning.  But in their fundraising journey, founders might stumble upon a General Partner and a Limited Partner.

A General Partner invests their own money in the fund while raising the rest of it. They are also in charge of managing the fund, making investment decisions, and might even be in charge of operational and administrative responsibilities if they also have the title Managing Partner in it.

Image Credit: fizkes

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As 2021 rolls to an end, we are taking a look at what made it a great year for e27 and our community. We wanted the year to be all about making connections, creating opportunities, and being heard in a world that is still gaining its footing. Here are the highlights of our year:

Close to 9,000 connections made through e27 Pro

Without events – large and small – that allow us to gather together, we wanted to give startups and investors an avenue to discover, meet, and connect with each other. This year we focussed on creating improvements to e27 Pro’s Connect feature that would allow for that.

We have made investor discovery easier on our platform – this includes not just highlighting over 400 verified investors who are open for connection requests, but recommending investors relevant to startups based on vertical and funding stage. Apart from that, we are in regular communications with both investors and startups, highlighting potential connections they could initiate.

Also Read: A horse of another: Here’s the complete list of Southeast Asia’s 26 unicorns

Startups and investors are able to manage their connection requests with the Connect Dashboard. Startups get an overall view of their Connect activities, while Investors can use the additional feature of the Connection Manager to respond to connection requests. Both startups and investors can also schedule and track their meeting progress with the Appointment Manager.

Since we launched Connect, we’re excited to say that close to 9,000 startup-investor connections were made.

Highlighting 56 heroes of the SEA startup ecosystem

Amidst the numerous adversities that the COVID-19 pandemic brought about, Southeast Asian (SEA) startup ecosystem has proven its resilience. At the beginning of 2021, we wanted to put the spotlight on the heroes of the SEA startup ecosystem – individuals who played instrumental roles in the resilience and success of their respective organisations.

The e27 Luminaries features non-founders who have led groundbreaking projects, implemented life-saving ideas, or made improbable achievements despite the unfavourable situation, and who are directly nominated by their respective organisations.

From HR managers, business development executive, administrative staff, and more, we put the spotlight on 56 individuals from 56 companies selected based on their remarkable achievements in any one of the five categories: Pivots, Fundings and Acquisitions, Partnerships, Expansions, and Breakthroughs.

Making the voices of over 370 rising thought leaders heard across 1000+ community articles

In e27, we not only keep you updated on the region’s latest startup ecosystem news. More than just a running commentary and announcements on launches, fundings, and whatnot, what we really aim to do is to tell your story.

But it’s not just us telling the stories. You, the e27 Community, trusted us to share your own stories, offer your insights and best practices, dole out advice, and more. In fact, some of the most read stories in 2021 are articles contributed by our growing community. 

This year, we published over a thousand articles contributed by over 370 contributors; 303 of whom shared an article with us for the first time.

We know that putting your stories and insights out there takes more than just time and we wanted to thank you. A few weeks ago, we announced e27 Voices: The top 50 emerging thought leaders of the tech startup ecosystem to show how much we appreciate the trust you placed in us sharing your stories. 

And in honour of that, on behalf of our contributors, we donated to Aidha, a charity that is supporting entrepreneurship and financial literacy education for marginalised women, because in a world such as we are in now, having the chance to help offer opportunities is both a privilege and a responsibility.

Learning and sharing together – from across the miles

Life goes on, even if we are all stuck at home. One of the things that make this a great community is the willingness of each one to share their knowledge and experiences. We wanted to create this shared learning experience this year despite not being able to in person.

In 2021, we held 37 online events to help you build and grow your companies and upskill your team. 

From the Fundraising Fundamentals series that featured the region’s top VCs as they shared what they are looking for in startups; the Startup Playbook Series that covered various topics from the basics of setting up you sales process to the fundamentals of B2B Sales; the Scaling Your Startup Across Borders series that discussed best practices in setting up and managing your remote teams; and many more webinars with topics ranging from building healthy company spending habits to adapting to changing customer behaviour, we’re glad that you shared this learning experience with us.

Building partnerships to create opportunities

This year, we are glad to have worked on over 70 projects with over 50 partners to create opportunities for the SEA startup ecosystem.

From nurturing communities with Facebook Accelerator; sharing opportunities for growth and development in various co-creation projects with ICMG; facilitating mentorship and creating opportunities for growth via the Vision Program with STPI; and opening up expansion to Japan with JETRO; we are proud to have worked together with so many companies and organisations who shared our mission of empowering entrepreneurs with the tools to build and grow their companies.

Not just limited to programs and events, we also worked with partners to give you access to tools and resources that can help you in various stages of your company’s growth.

Improvements to make your experience better

One of the key things we focussed on in 2021 is making it easier for you to move around our platform. We added some features that allowed you to manage your connections, view your articles, and find things easier on the e27 site.

The Connect feature of e27 Pro has a slew of new features this year – from a dashboard that allows startups and investors to view connection requests, to a connection manager that lets investors respond to the connection requests they received, and the appointment manager where both startups and investors can schedule and track their meetings.

We improved the investor page to make it easier to view and connect with verified investors, as well as launched improved recommendations for active investors that may be relevant to our members. 

Also read: Pocket power: 27 personal finance startups in SEA to help you manage money

The startup pages had some cool new features added, allowing companies to share not just basic information but their story and personality with videos, images, and the capability to connect their blog.

It’s now easier for you to learn more about the companies you are reading about as well. We have launched company profile widgets on the sidebar of the article pages so you can easily head to their profile, learn more about them, and connect with them. 

And because we  want to make it easier for you to find the things you are looking for, we have created a dedicated page for news where you can find articles categorised based on specific interests/topics.

We had a lot going on in 2021. We are thrilled and grateful that you have been along for the ride. Onward to 2022!

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Patrick Walujo, co-founder and managing partner of Northstar Group

Northstar Group, a Southeast Asia-focused private equity firm, has announced the final close of its fifth fund with US$590 million of capital commitments.

Northstar Equity Partners V (Northstar V) received backing from sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, institutional investors, family offices and high net worth individuals.

With the final close of the new fund, the group now manages over US$2.5 billion in committed capital.

Northstar V will invest in mature growth companies, with select investments in early-stage opportunities, in Indonesia and, to a lesser extent, other countries in the region.

Its core investment themes will focus on the key growth drivers, including consumers, financial services, the digital economy, and the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. It has already invested in Greenfields Dairy, Advance Intelligence Group, and Ula, which is also backed by Jeff Bezos.

Also Read: Go-Ventures, Northstar Group co-lead eFishery’s Series B round

As per a press note, the group is working on several new opportunities for Northstar V that should close in H1 2022.

“The past two years have seen unprecedented volatility, uncertainty and complexity, but Southeast Asia and, in particular, Indonesia continue to present compelling medium to long-term investment opportunities. As these markets recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, their favourable demographics, increasing wealth and consumption, greater levels of education and further digitisation will drive outsized growth,” said Patrick Walujo, co-founder and managing partner of the Northstar Group.

Founded in 2003 by Walujo and Glenn Sugita, Northstar Group raised its first PE fund, Northstar Equity Partners Limited (US$110 million), in 2006. The second fund with a corpus of US$285 million was closed in 2008, followed by an US$820 million third fund in 2011. The group closed its fourth fund at US$810 million in 2014.

Since its founding, the group has invested in more than 35 companies across the banking, insurance, consumer/retail, healthcare, manufacturing, technology, telecom, and agribusiness sectors, including GoTo Group (formerly Gojek), Bank BTPN, Alfamart, Thai Credit Retail Bank, APAC Realty, Indomaret, Bunda Medical Group, TiKi and Bank Jago.

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ONE Championship Founder Chatri Sityodtong (L)

Ex-CTO drags Society Pass into court for “breaching employment contract”, seeks over US$1.3M in damages
Rahul Narain says Society Pass failed to pay him his earned compensation in salary, bonus payments, healthcare reimbursements, equity awards.

Vietnam’s fintech firm MoMo joins unicorn club following US$200M Series E round
Investors include Mizuho, Ward Ferry Management and Goodwater Capital; MoMo will channel the fresh funds to increase the reach of its offerings to 31M customers, starting with a bill payment service.

Northstar Group hits final close of Fund V at US$590M in capital
Northstar V will invest in mature growth companies, with select investments in early-stage opportunities, in Indonesia and, to a lesser extent, other countries in SEA; It is working on several new opportunities for Northstar V that should close in H1 2022.

ONE Championship raises US$150M
Investors include Guggenheim Investments and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA); The firm has already raised US$50M in equity funding from Al-Rayyan Holding, a subsidiary of QIA; ONE is also proposing a merger with Gores Holdings VII, a US$480M blank cheque vehicle listed on the Nasdaq.

SEA-focused SPAC RF Acquisition files for US$100M Nasdaq IPO
The SPAC plans to raise US$115M; It will seek a business combination with a SEA company in the new economy sector, even as it may pursue a target in any industry or geographic location.

CHAI rakes in US$45M to develop a fully automated end-to-end payment infra for merchants
Investors include SoftBank Ventures Asia, Nyca Partners, KT Investment, Samsung NEXT and B Capital; Through CHAI Port, merchants can activate and offer over 30 payment options, such as credit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers and cross-border payments to their customers.

Fashion e-commerce platform Pomelo raising US$20M in Seriec C3
A tranche of about US$12.5M has been received from investors, including European family office Ambient Sound Investments, TA Activity Singapore, and Lavender Investments; In 2019, the firm announced a US$52M Series C from Central Group, and InterVest Star SEA Growth Fund, among others.

MDI Ventures launches angel investment network eMerge with an investment in GOX
eMerge allows angels to invest via a syndication model under an SPV, or co-invest with MDI and other pre-seed and seed-stage VCs; GOX is Indonesian gaming live streaming platform and community.

Solana block explorer Solscan bags US$4M to roll out subscription-based analytics platform
Investors include Multicoin Capital, Electric Capital, Jump Capital, Sequoia India, and CoinGecko; With Solscan Analytics, developers can utilise both on-chain and off-chain data for high-quality market intelligence.

Why Fidelity Funding believes startups need more than just funding to succeed
To curb the high failure rate in the startup ecosystem, Fidelity Funding builds a model that provides startups with more than just money.

Taiwan’s TNL Media Group ropes in Tim Draper as investor
It comes a year after it closed a financing round from Palm Drive, Guitar Hero, and XRM Media co-founder Kai Huang; TNL Media has also launched its seventh media brand, Ohsowow, which will mainly focus on Korean entertainment, culture, and lifestyle content.

Binance leads US$1.5M seed round of P2E gaming guild community Cosmic Guild
Co-investors are DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, and Play Ventures; Cosmic Guild holds a portfolio of NFT game assets of crypto games that are loaned to guild members who can play using the NFTs and earn yields on games.

Hub Global JSC, an ecosystem for blockchain startups, gets VinaCapital backing
It focuses on three key areas: incubator/accelerator, blockchain community and sandbox, and blockchain investment fund; The newly established blockchain fund is backed by ten LPs and several entrepreneurs.

OnMic, Vietnam’s answer to Clubhouse, scores seed funding from Touchstone Partners
OnMic is an audio content platform that provides voice-streaming chat rooms featuring no visuals and only minimal text; The app also allows live interaction between speakers and audiences to discuss topics spanning spirituality, travel, job counselling, financial advice, and dating.

Pitik nets funding from Arise, Wavemaker Partners
Pitik provides poultry farmers with a full-stack farm management system; It enables them to capture data across the value chain and then utilise this data to improve the efficiency of their operations; Pitik has partnered with farmers in over 20 districts in Java and claims to have secured more than 4M annual chicken production capacity.

Agritech startup Agriaku raises seed funding
Investors include Arise, Wright Partners, and MDI Ventures; Agriaku builds a marketplace that connects agricultural supply stores with manufacturers or first-level distributors; This model allows farmers to procure a full catalogue of SKUs of agri-inputs with ease and at a nominally competitive price point.

AirAsia Food to launch in Indonesia early next year
It has opened applications for prospective partners in the country; AirAsia’s food delivery service was first launched in Malaysia, which it subsequently expanded to Singapore and Thailand.

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Part of preparing for fundraising is getting all the traction metrics that investors, particularly venture capitalists, might want to know about. With its ability to make or break a fundraising process, this can be nerve-wracking even for the more seasoned founders amongst us.

There seem to be plenty of factors that one would like to show to help investors make their decisions, but which one of those actually matters?

Things get even more complicated when we consider the fact that different investors might consider different traction metrics, depending on the verticals that the startup is working on. For example, startups working in the deep tech sector might also need to show proof of concept in their fundraising process while startups in the B2B sectors might need to show their CAC payback period.

But there are principles that are applicable for almost every early stage startup.

In this article, we will look at the different traction metrics that investors would typically consider in an early stage startup. There are three factors that we will explore: market opportunity, proven traction, and other deciding factors.

Market opportunity

Part of the most common reasons why startups fail includes the lack of product-market fit –a situation where startups are building products that the market does not need. This is why market opportunity will be one of the top traction metrics that investors will look at because strong returns can only come from equally strong market shares.

Also Read: Pitching 101: Questions that VCs will ask you during a pitch session

Tech ecosystem enabler RocketSpace details the four factors that investors will consider when it comes to measuring market opportunity in a blog post, that can be summarised into these points:

Total Available Market (TAM)
TAM typically refers to the total revenue of the market that a startup is operating in, usually calculated per geographical location over a five year period. There are different ways that startups can calculate it, including an estimation of how much market it could gain if there were no competitors or an estimation of market size that could theoretically be served with a specific product or service.

Despite its importance, RocketSpace warns against putting too much emphasis on TAM as it does not always translate to high demand.

Market Share
Instead focusing too heavily on TAM, RocketSpace recommends founders talk about the startup’s potential market share or sales measured as a percentage of an industry’s total revenue. For example, if founders predict sales to go up to US$200 million in the fifth year of business, they need to be able to explain why this number is achievable.

Industry Growth
You may notice that each year, there is always a vertical that becomes more popular than the rest. For example, earlier in 2021, there was a great surge in food delivery and cloud kitchen startups, but come Q4 2021, everybody was all about metaverse and Web3. This is also one thing that investors are looking at.

International Expansion
For some markets, international expansion is a more crucial factor to consider as it enables startups to tap into a bigger market. But if founders do not see international expansion as part of their agenda in the future, then it is more important to be honest about it.

Proven traction

There was no question that this will be the most important part to show a potential investor. All of the founders’ claim in the previous segment will need to be backed by data that includes profitability, revenues, number of active users, number of registered users, amount of engagement, partnerships or clients achieved, and amount of traffic generated.

Also Read: Startup funding rounds: A handbook from seed to exit

But how about startups that are still in the pre-revenue stage? Is there any difference in how they should present this aspect?

In a Medium post, Quake Capital explains:

“For revenue-generating businesses, some examples of metrics are sales and revenue, units sold, revenue growth, and profit margins. For example, Quake would love to see growing MRR and ARR (monthly and annual recurring revenue). However, there is no perfect number. Rather, we look to see that revenues come from your business model, because ultimately that is proof of product-market fit.”

“For pre-revenue businesses, metrics may include the number of users or clients of your product or service, the number of engaged users (for example, an app may have 50,000 downloads but only 10 users per day, which isn’t great). Ideally, the number of engaged users should be close to the number of total users. We like seeing high retention and low churn. Retention is defined as the number of users or subscribers who continue using your product or service while churn is the number of users or subscribers who stop using your product or service after a certain time period.”

Team strength

If you have been following our Meet the VCs series, you might notice that there is one factor that investors will always look at: the strength of the team behind the startup. This is strongly related to the matter of trust as well as resilience; if the startup is being helmed by a strong team of founders, even when the worst happens, they will come up stronger than before.

What kind of “strong team” do investors look at? The key here is credentials and skills. But most importantly, it is all about the team’s passion in the business.

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Image Credit: dacosta

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One Championship, an Asian mixed martial arts (MMA) promoter and sports media property, has closed a US$150 million funding round.

Qatar Investment Authority and Guggenheim Investments, the asset management and investment advising subsidiary of Guggenheim Partners, co-led the round.

The fresh capital will help Singapore-based One Championship diversify its content offerings, such as reality television shows and live fights and e-sports tournaments, among other entertainment businesses.  

As part of the expansion strategy outside of Asia, the firm looks to foray into the US market — home to its archrival Ultimate Fighting Championship.

One Championship previously secured a round of financing worth US$346 million from Sequoia Capital, Iconiq Capital, and Temasek in June. Financial Times reported that this round brought One Championship’s valuation to US$1 billion

Earlier this month, Temasek and Sequoia reportedly converted US$179 million worth of convertible notes into equity shares in the firm, as per VentureCap Insights data.

Also read: Mobile, e-sports, live streaming shaping SEA’s gaming startup landscape in 2021

One Championship, owned and operated by Group ONE Holdings, was founded in 2011 by Havard graduate Chatri Sityodtong, a self-made entrepreneur and lifelong martial artist. To date, the firm claims to have broadcast sports shows to more than 2.7 billion spectators in over 150 countries.

One Championship has recently expanded into reality TV to cope with headwinds caused by the pandemic. It launched the first season of The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition on Netflix in the first quarter of 2022.

In addition, it has also ventured into e-sports. Its ONE E-sports Dota 2 Singapore Major, broadcast earlier this year, attracted 274 million viewers.

The firm plans to captivate new audiences through social media, athlete-related stories and digital merchandising such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The Bussiness Times revealed that One Championship hit a profit of US$340.6 million this year, reversing from a deficit of US$83.5 million the year before. Yet, the reversal of fortune is attributed to a US$400 million from the sale of intellectual property rights to Group ONE’s US subsidiary established in 2020.

Verified Market Research recently-published report estimated the value of the global sports online live video streaming market size at US$18.1 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach US$87.3 billion by 2028, representing a CAGR of 21.26 per cent during the forecast period of 2021-2028.

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Image Credit: One Championship

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