Malaysian on-demand adtech company Rodeo raises US$270K in funding

How: The money was raised from 85 investors, including Fidelity Funding, VJ Anand (ex-SVP Gojek), Nitesh Malani (chairman Yayasan Usahawan Malaysia), Simpson Wong (MD – XES), Akash Gupta (CEO – Zypp India), Shoant Tan (CEO – TanTanNews and Dipankar Mitra (CEO of Simbiotik Tech).

The money was raised via the equity crowdfunding platform pitchIN.

Also Read: Ex-Lazada execs’ Indonesia-focused D2C insurance startup in Lifepal receives US$9M Series A

Plans: “With the funds, we are able to put efforts towards building and extending more revenue streams rather than sticking to just profit from the usual few media that we use. One of our key strategies that have been put in place will be reaching out to more customers via our Rodeo Home Elevators,” said CEO Valens Subramaniam.

More on Rodeo: An adtech company specialised in transit media and digitalization. It provides an advertising platform using various vehicles such as car, trucks, motorcycles and even bicycles. It connects advertisers to target clients with relevant, interactive, engaging and contextual advertisements. It also provides data and analytics for every campaign that allows advertisers to monitor their campaign’s performance.

Australia’s SEEK invests in JobKorea

The story: SEEK Limited, the Australian listed tech company that owns two leading online employment marketplaces JobStreet and JobsDB in Southeast Asia, today announced a US$48M investment in JobKorea, Korea’s largest online employment platform.

SEEK will own a 10 per cent stake, and Peter Bithos, CEO of SEEK Asia, will join JobKorea’s Board.

Plans: This investment will provide an opportunity for SEEK to add value to JobKorea’s market-leading position, while SEEK focuses on its operations, fast-tracking its ongoing transformation and growth of its existing Asia businesses. SEEK’s digital teams continue to make major inroads in building products and solutions driven by AI and market data, which combined with SEEK’s deep local insights and resources in each location, differentiate it from other international players.

For JobKorea, this partnership will provide an opportunity to leverage SEEK’s experienced management team and their significant expertise in operating global online employment and human capital management platforms.

ZILHive Accelerator unveils new cohort of 8 startups

The story: Zilliqa, a Singapore-based blockchain platform, has announced its 2021-2022 cohort of ZILHive Accelerator projects. Six of the eight startups accepted into the Accelerator this year were advanced from an earlier Incubator programme which began in March. The inaugural 14-week ZILHive Incubator matched technical and non-technical participants into teams that could design and build innovative solutions on the Zilliqa blockchain protocol.

Also Read: VCs, IEOs, and crowdfunding: How the likes of Sky Mavis manage good relationship with each investor

What is ZILHive Accelerator: A six-month programme focused on launching blockchain-enabled projects from concept to commercialisation. The programme is part of ZILHive’s end-to-end ecosystem designed to foster innovative blockchain applications throughout various stages of maturity. Startups in the accelerator will be able to apply for additional funding under ZILHive Grants, aimed at supporting specific pre-launch needs such as regulatory compliance or technical integration with third-party apps.

The eight startups are

Access: Looks to combat ticketing fraud and prevent ticket scalping by issuing tickets as non-fungible tokens

Cerchia: Building blockchain-based tools to help catastrophe bond issuers, re-insurers, and investors better predict and price the risks of natural hazards through crowdsourcing

Green Beanz: A project that aims to incentivise consumer-facing companies and NGOs to improve the transparency and accuracy of their corporate social responsibility and sustainable development goals reporting

HeyAlfie: A smart dashboard for users to manage, invest and borrow digital assets through a single interface, by connecting multiple types of wallets (custodial, non-custodial, and even exchange accounts)

Invopay: An invoice financing platform designed to help small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) better manage their cash flow with low-interest loans secured on the blockchain

MustPool: A gamified no-loss prize protocol, where the deposited principle remains safe and the prizes come from the interest earnings, leveraging different staking and lending dApps on Zilliqa

Tyron SSI Protocol: A self-sovereign identity protocol that enables users to manage access to their data securely, while allowing them to provide verified credentials selectively without relying on middlemen or centralized databases

Ultimate Franchise Fantasy Sports: A fantasy sports platform offering digital asset ownership to sports fans through the use of NFTs to represent athletes in the various sports leagues.

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Image Credit: Rodeo

 

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With a global health crisis that has forced major economies to carry out state-sanctioned lockdowns, businesses have had to come up with creative means to sell their products and services remotely. But what the pandemic has merely caused is accelerating the already increasing prominence of marketplaces.

Many of us might have learned about marketplaces for the first time through social media services such as Facebook, Instagram, Line, and even e-commerce sites like Shopee and Lazada. A marketplace is a space for people to buy and sell products and services. With an easy-to-use, convenient, and fast system, consumers and entrepreneurs can buy and sell products and services by themselves on a convenient platform. The more these products or services are searched for by consumers, the more likely they will be sold.

Also read: Angel Investors: leading the charge for startup growth in Thailand

For Thai startups, there are certainly a variety of factors to consider in making this shift: logistics, consumer demand, product relevance, marketability, the list goes on. In establishing a successful roadmap for innovative ideas to sell on a marketplace instead of general consumer products, is there any place where they can be conveniently sold to consumers, individuals, and corporates alike?

Bridging Thai startups to new markets

Realising the problems about access and limitations caused by COVID-19 that prohibits trade fairs organised for startups, the National Innovation Agency (NIA) of Thailand under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, in its capacity as the main agency responsible for the promotion and development of the Thai startup ecosystem, has launched a project called “Startup Thailand Marketplace” to educate Thai startups on how to create new markets and reach customers more easily. 

Startup Thailand Marketplace is the space fostered by the NIA to help promote Thai startups, enabling the public to know about them and increasing access to their products or services for B2B and B2C customers. They help raise awareness of these innovative products and services via the Startup Thailand social media channels and other channels in Thailand as well as other countries. Startup

Thailand Marketplace was launched in 2020 to promote Thai startups through three fundamental means:

1. Startup Marketplace is Live Now: A live interview broadcast on the channels of three tech and innovation influencers — Ceemeagain, iT24Hrs, and LDA (Ladies in Digital Age).
   
2. Video clips introducing each startup to help promote them on the social media pages of Startup Thailand (Facebook and Youtube).
3. Articles published via online media to raise awareness and promote each startup to a wider audience.

The concrete success of Startup Thailand Marketplace is the number of Thai startups participating in the platform. Currently, as many as 100 Thai startups are joining Startup Thailand Marketplace.

Access to investors and corporates

A number of investors and corporates interested in the products of Thai startups after they watched Startup Marketplace is Live Now have contacted the platform to ask for important networking details such as the name and contact of the startup that captured their interest. As a result, the startups’ sales have increased by as high as 10-20%.

2021 is the second year that NIA has successfully carried out the Startup Thailand Marketplace in a bid to keep over 100 startups afloat during these trying times caused by COVID-19 and the economic slowdown that came with it.

Also read: How Thailand’s Ricult uses deep tech to improve the lives of smallholder farmers

The project’s strategy this year focuses on the promotion of Thai startups among B2C and B2B customers via two social media channels including:

1. Startup Marketplace is Live Now – Live interviews with 50 startups on the platforms of three influencers including Ceemeagain, iT24Hrs, and Noom Mueang Chan.
2. Interview video clips and articles that highlight the visions and perspectives of over 50 Thai startup founders. The video clips and articles will be posted on the social media pages of Startup Thailand, the NIA, and other pages developed by various sectors.

This is the determination and commitment of the NIA to help promote Thai startups to a wider audience and make their voice louder so that they can overcome the COVID-19 crisis with strength and rigour.

The NIA builds a bridge to bring Thai startups closer to international consumers, investors, companies, and other business entities looking for solutions to their problems. It solidifying their commitment, Thai startups are well on their way to exploring new markets in the region and beyond.

For more information, visit their official page at https://startupthailand.org.

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

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PropertyGuru raises US$150M from REA Asia
REA is currently the third biggest shareholder in the firm with 18% stake behind Epsilon Asia and TPG; The latest investment follows PropertyGuru’s plan to go public through a merger with a SPAC backed by Richart Li and Peter Thiel.

Shopee’s surge pushes Sea Group’s revenue to US$2.3B in Q2
Shopee posted a 160.7% y-o-y growth in its GAAP revenue to stand at US$1.2B; Its Malaysian unit also turned profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis before allocation of the headquarter’s common expenses; This is the second Shopee market after Taiwan to hit this milestone.

500 Southeast Asia makes US$17.9M initial close of third venture fund
The capital came from 18 investors; As per DealStreetAsia, 500 is looking to raise US$75M for the third vehicle; To date, 500 SEA has invested in ~250 firms; Its first generation of investments include Grab, Bukapalak, Carsome, FinAccel, and Carousell.

Philippine cryptocurrency exchange startup PDAX gets US$12.5M funding
Investors include an undisclosed UK-based VC firm (lead), HK-based BC Group, and UnionBank’s VC arm UBX, and Beenext Ventures; The Philippines has seen the third-highest rate of cryptocurrency usage in the world behind Nigeria and Vietnam, according to the World Economic Forum.

Vietnamese real estate brokerage service firm Rever bags US$10.2M from Mekong Capital
Rever follows an O2O model, allowing customers to access property listings via its platform, visit the company’s local transaction centre, or meet property agents in person; VinaCapital, Golden Equator Ventures, and Korea Investment Partners are also investors in the firm.

SGX said to consider lowering minimum SPAC value in final listing framework
It is eyeing a minimum value of around US$110M, down from US$220M; SGX is also understood to be looking into creating flexibility for SPAC sponsors to disclose their target companies upon listing the SPAC.

AirAsia’s Teleport acquires Malaysia’s Gobi Partners-backed Delivereat for US$9.8M
The synergy will support Teleport in expanding to Malaysia while spurring the growth of both Delivereat (food delivery firm) and AirAsia’s logistics venture in ASEAN; The deal values Teleport at US$300M; Apart from Malaysia, Teleport has made inroads into Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Singapore and China.

Thai startup Wisesight nets US$7M Series B to expand its social media analytics solutions in ASEAN
Investors include Krungsri Finnovate and TechMatrix; With its ability to process the data via social media for 20M+ messages a day in Thai, English, Burmese and Malay, Wisesight claims to have served 300+ brands and agencies.

Y Combinator’s latest cohort has 3x the startups from SEA
About 18 companies from the latest batch are SEA firms, up from 6 in the previous batch; The selected Asian startups are headquartered in Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India; As part of the programme, YC will invest US$125K for a 7% stake in each.

GuavaPass co-founders’ new alternative lending startup Jenfi lands US$6.3M
Investors include Monk’s Hill (lead), Korea Investment Partners, and Golden Equator Capital; The startup will use the money for product development, customer acquisition, and SEA expansion; A YC graduate, Jenfi earlier bagged US$25M in a debt round led by US-based Arc Labs.

RaRa Delivery rakes in US$3.25M to provide instant delivery for e-commerce in Indonesia
Lead investors are Sequoia Surge and East Ventures; While other companies with express logistics infrastructure focus on one-to-one deliveries, RaRa Delivery has developed real-time batching technology to do ‘many-to-many’ deliveries within a few hours.

The 27 Indonesian startups that have taken the ecosystem to next level this year
These Indonesian startups have made the nation proud in this Independence Day. It has proven to be a challenging –yet historical– year.

Philippine e-commerce enabler Etaily US$1.6M seed funding
Investors include Ayala Ventures, Foxmont Capital, Magsaysay Shipping & Logistics, and Boston Consulting Group; Etaily claims it has generated more than one million transactions and made more than 50K unique products available in countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.

Dairy-substitutes brand Mohjo bags seed funding
Invetsors include East Ventures, iSeed SEA, K3 Ventures, and angels; The D2C brand recently launched its first line of products — almond milk and almond milk-based beverages in Singapore.

MindFi raises US$750K, makes it into Y Combinator
Investors include iGlobe Partners, M Venture Partners, Koh Boon Hwee, Patsnap CEO Jeffrey Tiong, Zopim co-founder Lim Qing Ru; MindFi will use the funds to accelerate product development and localisation for key markets in Asia and further build a team of mental health experts, innovators and researchers.

Plant-based foodtech startup Shandi raises US$700K seed funding
Investors are Tolaram (lead), SparkLabs Cultiv8, and Simmarpal Singh, ex-CEO (India) at Louis Dreyfus; The funding will be used to set up a manufacturing facility in Singapore to commercialise and scale Shandi’s proprietary plant-based chicken products.

4 lessons for first-time founders embarking on their entrepreneurial journey
After partnering with several founders through our work at Picus Capital, we want to share lessons about starting and building ventures (e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast or infographic).

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Image Credit: PropertyGuru

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The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) announced today it has raised US$12.5 million (₱ 630 million) in funding led by an unknown VC firm based in the UK, with participation from Hong Kong-listed fintech company BC Group.

Most of PDAX’s existing investors, including Beenext and CMT Digital, besides Ripple and several prominent family offices in the country, also joined the round.

UBX, the VC arm of leading Filipino digital bank UnionBank, is also an investor in the firm.

Also Read: Inside the changing landscape of Asian cryptocurrency exchanges

Nichel Gaba, founder and CEO of PDAX, said that the latest investment would fuel its short- and long-term growth plans as it continues to expand, improve, and roll out more products and features to help digitise the financial services landscape in the country.

Launched in 2018, PDAX is a cryptocurrency exchange. It provides Filipinos with a platform to trade the world’s leading digital assets, including Bitcoin, directly with PHP and at globally competitive rates.

The company claims it has seen 25x growth in user count and an 80x rise in monthly volumes since the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020. In the latter part of that year, PDAX also launched a mobile app.

It has also expanded into tokenised securities by collaborating with the Bureau of the Treasury and Unionbank in launching Bonds.PH. Bonds.PH is the world’s first blockchain-enabled app that allows retail investors to invest in retail treasury bonds right from their mobile devices.

PDAX plans to continue developing its cryptocurrency exchange into a world-class platform. PDAX also intends to add more features and support more digital assets towards the end of the year.

The company also looks to grow the Bonds.PH app by introducing more investment options and features, particularly for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who want to invest in the country.

According to Gaba, today, the world needs inclusive financial services more than ever. However, the age-old problems such as the lack of accessible, secure, and affordable ways to transact and invest remain.

Also Read: Why only regulation can solve cryptocurrency’s perception problem

“We are in a golden age of cryptocurrency adoption and technology-driven transformation in the Philippines,” Gaba added. “We are already making remittances into the country much cheaper by helping remittance companies utilise cryptocurrencies. We also provide them with a deep and liquid market to convert crypto into Philippine pesos.”

According to the World Economic Forum, the Philippines has seen the third-highest rate of cryptocurrency usage in the world behind Nigeria and Vietnam.

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Image Credit: PDAX

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Rever, a Vietnamese tech-enabled real estate brokerage platform, has announced that it has secured a US$10.2 million funding round from Mekong Enterprise Fund IV (MEF IV), bringing its total funding to US$16.5 million.

As per a statement, Rever will use the fresh investment to grow its management team, strengthen corporate culture, and accelerate the development of technology features. Besides, the new capital also gives Rever a chance to get essential resources in achieving its vision to become the leading proptech company in Vietnam. 

Founded in 2016 by Manh Phan (CEO) and Loi Vo (CTO), former executives of Zalo, a messaging platform of Vietnam’s original unicorn VNG, Rever offers real-estate brokerage service that follows an online-to-offline model. The company claims to provide a transparent estate transaction process by applying technology to authenticate real estate listings. At the same time, it ensures the verified online information for customers.

The company has grown its headcount from 80 to 300 staff. It aims to optimise its business to 20 provinces and cities, along with 200 transaction centres, and 20,000 brokers in Vietnam by 2025.

Rever boasts of clocking 50,000 verified listings and reaching 2,000 transactions in 2020, which has increased 10 times since 2017. 

In June 2019, the startup bagged a US$4 million funding from VinaCaptial, a US$100-million Vietnam-focused fund. Three months later, GEC-KIP Technology and Innovation Fund and Korea Investment Partners together put in US$2.3 million in Rever.

Launched in 2021, MEF IV expects to make a total of approximately 12 investments during its 10-year life. Until now, it has secured five published deals, including Rever. 

Proptech is gaining traction in Vietnam’s startup investment landscape in recent years.

In 2020, prominent Vietnamese proptech startup Propzy raised US$25 million in a Series A round led by Gaw Capital and SoftBank Ventures Asia, the early-stage venture arm of SoftBank Group. In the same year, Y Combinator-backed Homebase also announced “seven-figure” funding in pre-Series A from VinaCapital Ventures, Class 5 Global, Pegasus Tech Ventures, 1982 Ventures, and  Antler, among others.

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Image credit: Rever

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Blogging startup Hashnode raises US$6.7M in Series A

Investors: Salesforce Ventures (lead), Sierra Ventures, Sequoia Capital’s Surge, Accel Partners, Naval Ravikant (co-founder, Angellist), Des Traynor (co-founder, Intercom), Guillermo Rauch (co-founder, Vercel), Salil Deshpande (general partner, Uncorrelated) and Ed Roman (managing director, HackVC).

The plans: The funding will be used to continue to grow the platform’s user base, accelerating its mission of becoming the number one platform for software development, engineering, and technology content – in turn, powering the creator economy for the rapidly expanding developer community.

There are now nearly 25 million developers working worldwide, so there’s a huge market opportunity for Hashnode to help plug knowledge gaps – particularly important as remote working remains popular among developers.

O2O marketplace for building materials, home finishing products HOMA2U secures US$570K

Investor: Warisan Quantum Management.

Plans: Serving both KL and JB market, HOMA’s next expansion plan is 10 more new locations by 2022 using the manless material box concept namely Yellow Box to reach the target RM100m milestone by 2024. It also looks towards prioritising the sustainability factors in their day-to-day business operations to reduce the environmental impact.

Also Read: Ex-Zalo executives’ protech startup Rever snags US$10.2M from Mekong Capital

More on HOMA2U: HOMA2U is a new retail platform that offers building material and home finishing products at bargains that focus on sustainability. Founded in 2017, HOMA has repurposed more than RM20 million worth of overstock inventories to more than 8,000 homes. The platform currently houses more than 500 professional profiles including Architect, Interior Designer, Contractor.

Korea’s AI job matching platform Wanted Lab launches IPO in KOSDAQ

The story: Wanted began trading publicly on the KOSDAQ and drew a competitive IPO subscription of 1,731 to 1, accumulating a deposit of over 5.5 trillion korean won. After pricing shares at 35,000 krw in its IPO, Wanted saw its shares double in price to open for trading, then further hitting the upper pricing limit of 30% by the first day of trading last Wednesday.

More on Wanted: Founded in 2015, Wanted is a referral-based recruitment model that incentivises people to leverage their social and professional networks to refer talent to jobs for a monetary reward. It has over 10,000 companies recruiting on the platform. It has a community of 2 million professionals in five Asian markets, including Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

It offers Wanted Gigs (freelancer matching platform), Wanted+ (online videos for learning/career development), and RoundUp (video interview collaboration tool).

The company is also leveraging its recent acquisitions of KreditJob and CommonSpace (B2B employee management solution) to expand its reach across the entire lifespan of a person’s working career.

Plant-based food-tech company raises US$700K seed funding

Investors: Singapore-headquartered Tolaram (lead), Australia-based foodtech accelerator SparkLabs Cultiv8, and former CEO-India for Louis Dreyfus and prominent angel investor Simmarpal Singh.

The plans: The fresh funding will be used to set up a manufacturing facility in Singapore to commercialise and scale Shandi’s proprietary plant-based chicken products, including expanding partnerships in the food sector. While Shandi has produced chicken analogues in various formats such as pieces, shreds, strips and drumsticks, part of the proceeds would be allocated to further product innovation and development on new textures, formats, and other meat analogues.

Also Read: PDAX raises US$12.5M to take advantage of the popularity of cryptocurrencies in Philippines

More on Shandi: Shandi was founded in 2019 by food industry expert, research veteran and lifelong vegetarian Dr Reena Sharma. The foodtech company uses a unique process to develop and manufacture their plant-based chicken, which is made only with natural, non-GMO ingredients such as pea protein, chickpeas, quinoa, flax seeds, brown rice, and coconut oil, and is free from artificial flavourings and other additives.

Shandi’s patent-pending production process involves isolating specific amino acids from plants to emulate the amino acid profile found in chicken. This results in an end-product that is like chicken not only in its nutritional composition, but also in the way the animal-meat releases certain molecules (called pre-cursors) during the cooking process. This is a paramount and often overlooked element in designing a meat alternative as many manufacturers add artificial flavours that die or do not react during the cooking process. By re-creating the taste using natural amino acids instead of chemical additives, flavourings, and seasonings, Shandi is able to offer a product that is tasty, nutritious, and versatile at a highly competitive price.

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Buying an insurance policy can be overwhelming for some. There are pages of policy details with a lot of small print and hard-to-understand terms to consider, while deciding which type of policy, such as life, health and home insurance, you need can also be a difficult decision to make.

It’s been that way for a long time, with big, slow-moving legacy insurance firms dominating the market for more than a century, investing little in innovation and technology and failing to connect with large swathes of the population.

Finally, though, the industry is on the cusp of a major transformation. It’s poised for a “PayPal moment” that will make coverage options simpler, more accessible and affordable for millions of previously excluded people.

Similar to my experience in tech-driven and customer-centric disruption in other financial services such as payments and lending, I expect that insurtech will scale up from a product-market fit and innovation theatre stage in the next two to three years, demanding that traditional firms adapt or die while ushering in innovative new partnerships and digital-first players.

The shift is already well underway, led by the US and Europe. In the first five months of this year, European insurtech firms raised US$1.9 billion across 52 deals, surpassing all of 2020’s total by US$1 billion.

Globally, the insurance industry grew sluggish three per cent from 2010 to 2019. But the best-performing quartile of players registered growth of around 19 per cent in the same period, showing that there are opportunities for players who identify promising sub-markets and are able to deliver customised products.

While Asia is still in the early stages of insurtech adoption, there’s good reason to believe it will be its most exciting frontier. The region has leapfrogged the West in many digital services thanks to its rapid adoption of mobile apps and high levels of connectivity.

Also Read: Fuse closes Series B in a GGV Capital-led round to grow its insurtech platform beyond Indonesia

This comes amid low credit-card penetration and a high unbanked population in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

Both countries have a huge population of young, digitally savvy consumers and micro business entrepreneurs who have largely been disconnected from the insurance industry and who stand to benefit enormously from better, more flexible and accessible coverage.

Less than four per cent of Indonesia’s 270 million people have insurance coverage, for example. In the Philippines, the rate is at around two per cent. With no ties to legacy insurers, these consumers represent a massive opportunity for innovative newcomers.

Since insurance penetration is low, I anticipate that more insurtech will focus on innovating the distribution of products to the unbanked and underbanked customer segments of the population.

Reforming the traditional insurance industry

The big problem for traditional insurance players in tapping this market has always been their distance from consumers. Customers tend to come to insurance companies when events dictate they need a policy, but firms have otherwise lacked a way of continuously engaging with people to better understand their needs. This is where technology and smart partnerships have the potential to supercharge the industry.

By going direct to consumers through their smartphones, insurers can finally bridge that gap and build a much richer understanding of customers through individualised data.

In doing so, they can change the current event-based model into a transaction or engagement model and lower the negativity attached to insurance from customers’ point of view.

This will enable them to create individualised, simple, low-cost policies that meet the needs of these countries’ rapidly expanding middle class.

After partnering with insurance companies, Oriente’s customer’s experience 72-hour, no-questions-asked claim processing and flexible policies based on predictive risk that fit with an individual’s work/life balance. The customer-centric features will enable these players to expand their reach and opportunities for further engagement.

Southeast Asia is already seeing a flurry of insurtech activity. In Indonesia, MicroEnsure, Qoala, PasarPolis, Fuse and bolttech are among the innovative startups that are partnering with insurers and distribution platforms in the lending and payments space and are already making an impact.

In 2020 alone, six new insurtech companies were approved in Indonesia and more have applied for a license, which reflects the willingness of the country’s Financial Services Authority to back the digital insurance industry.

Also Read: Why Asia’s insurance industry is poised for collaborative disruption

I expect that companies like Cover Genius, iptiQ, bolttech and MicroEnsure will continue to expand their presence in multiple Asian countries, including the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, where insurtech players are starting to disrupt traditional players and annual growth in the sector is expected to reach nine per cent by 2025.

A great strength of the technology platforms will be their ability to gather data much more dynamically and in more detail than firms still relying on paper forms, enabling them to erode established companies’ century-old advantage in just a few years.

To avoid becoming dinosaurs, traditional firms will need to partner with digital platforms focused on channel distribution, customer experience, conversion ratios and performance marketing.

Oriente, for example, is already receiving testimonials from young customers in Indonesia and the Philippines, all of whom express their approval of the quick, simple onboarding process and rapid claims processing on auto and travel policies.

However, the inflexion point at which insurtech platforms will become the new normal isn’t quite here yet. Countries still have to put in place regulatory frameworks that fully clear the way, a process that’s likely to take some years and will be delayed by the traditional industry’s lobbying efforts.

But I see the inflexion point is inevitable, just as it was for the payments and lending fintech industry. Led by Indonesia, insurtech is expected to drive growth of US$8 billion in new premiums in Southeast Asia by 2024/25, becoming increasingly fundamental to the industry’s success.

Once regulations for digital insurance are in place, we will likely see a decisive shift as it moves from the area of innovation to being adopted across the industry as core to operations.

To avoid being left behind, traditional players should be developing strategies now to build the IT architecture and partnerships they’ll need to tap new customers and show them that insurance can be a much more positive experience that is aligned with the region’s untapped, underbanked population.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast or infographic

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In July this year, logistics and supply chain company iStore iSend announced a “seven-figure US dollars” funding round from Kuroneko Innovation Fund, a Japanese corporate VC firm owned by Yamato Holdings and managed by Global Brain Corporation.

This funding round was an extension of its US$5.5 million Series B funding announced earlier this year, which was co-led by Gobi Partners and logistics company EasyParcel.

Funding announcements are always a great reason to celebrate. But in times of pandemic, where travels in many Southeast Asian countries remain restricted, it has become an even bigger achievement. For the curious minds, this might lead to the million-dollar question: How does one manage to meet and build relationships with potential investors when events are cancelled and face-to-face meetings are limited?

In an exclusive interview with e27, Joe Khoo, Co-Founder and CEO of iStore iSend, reveals how the company builds the relationships that eventually lead to the investment. There are certainly challenges that the pandemic has brought, but the founders are able to utilise tools to help them overcome it.

It is a lesson in perseverance and faith that all startup founders can benefit from.

The decision to reach out

Before we can get to the “secret sauce” behind the company’s successful relationship building with investors, we need to understand the history behind iStore iSend. Interestingly, before making headlines with their funding announcements, the Malaysia-based company operated for a decade as a self-funded company.

According to Khoo, while the market today has an understanding of the importance of logistics in supporting the e-commerce industry, the situation was different when iStore iSend began their journey.

“We’ve been kind of under-the-radar … we’re not like the typical startup that a lot of people talked about,” he says.

Also Read: Singapore’s Janio raises US$8M to expand its logistics solutions to emerging markets

Their fundraising journey was even harder as it happened right at the beginning of the pandemic when opportunities to network became harder to find, if not impossible. This was a major challenge as they were supposed to expand their network as a foundation for their fundraising effort.

“You are building a relationship with a potential partner that you will be doing business with for a long time,” Khoo says. “So, think of [fundraising] as a relationship-building exercise first, before you can move on to pitching. I liken it to making a friend: your first meeting may not be the best, but after that, you keep on talking, sharing, and finding commonalities.”

To tackle the challenge of making a new connection from the safety of home, Khoo used tools such as the Connect feature, available exclusively for e27 Pro members. The feature enabled startups to make connections with investors in the platform, as an entry point to further collaboration.

“As a company that was fundraising for the first time, we didn’t really know anyone, and we couldn’t attend any events because of COVID-19. So we relied on the leads that we got from e27 Pro Connect. From there, we started talking to people, expanded our network, and got introduced to other people,” Khoo says.

“Global Brain was one of the leads that we got through Connect. From there, it blossomed into a relationship that we now have,” he continues.

He further explains how the tool enabled him to get introduced to people he would not otherwise know. The process itself was not always instantaneous; Khoo says that it took months until iStore iSend finally received a callback. The earlier months were all about getting themselves known and connecting to as many investors as possible.

In fact, after they had their initial contact with Global Brain Corporation in early 2020, Khoo honestly thought the deal was never going to happen. It was not until June that iStore iSend could finally move the conversation forward.

“If it was not for Connect, I would not be able to … know where to start getting contacts for the investment. It was really crucial in helping me start the process,” Khoo stresses.

“What Connect has done is create a platform for companies to connect with potential investors, and I think it has worked really well for us. After that, the constant communication via Zoom or WhatsApp continued, and that was how we maintain the relationship.”

The secret sauce to successful fundraising

Khoo says that the fundraising process is something that is often romanticised in the tech startup community, especially with Hollywood displaying popular images of founders and investors meeting in a fancy restaurant –then having the deals written on a piece of napkin.

But the truth is that fundraising is “real, serious” work.

Also Read: Locad lands US$4.9M seed funding to provide logistics infra for e-commerce businesses

“I spent the whole of 2020 learning the ropes of fundraising from scratch and that was really hard work. You need to have a lot of preparation,” Khoo stresses.

This preparation mostly involves the kind of questions that potential investors might ask founders which can include plenty of numbers.

“For a good three to six months, I was just [focussing on] learning. How to approach investors, how to give them the best version of our company’s story. Along the way, you learn which information is not that important,” Khoo continues.

“And trying to convey that message in a concise and clear way is not easy. It’s difficult; it’s definitely a skill … you can definitely learn that, but it takes time.”

This is why, during this period, it is good to have partners that founders can practice with. That way, the partner can help founders by playing devil’s advocate and asking difficult questions.

What is next for iStore iSend?

Now that the funding is secured and the company has built a network that can help it move forward with confidence, iStore iSend has plenty of plans to execute. Their main focus is to expand their business regionally, particularly to Vietnam and the Philippines.

“We are also in the middle of hiring talents,” Khoo closes.

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Ready to start fundraising? Start building your investor network! Use our Connect feature to directly connect, engage, and speak with the most active investors in the region. Connect is exclusive for e27 Pro members, but you can try it out for free. Head over here to start connecting.

Image Credit: iStore iSend

The post How iStore iSend builds a relationship with potential investors in this pandemic appeared first on e27.

Teleport, airasia digital’s logistics venture in Southeast Asia, has acquired Malaysia-based on-demand food delivery platform Delivereat for US$9.8 million.

The deal, which values Teleport at US$300 million, is expected to close by Q3 2021 after final approvals.

Under the agreement, Delivereat’s husband-wife co-founder duo Leong Shir Mein and Tan Suan Sear will join the management team of Teleport and airasia digital.

This development comes more than a month after airasia digital acquired the Thailand operations of Gojek.

The partnership will help Teleport expand to all major cities in Malaysia while spurring the growth of Delivereat and AirAsia’s logistics venture in ASEAN. 

Also read: Gobi Partners, MAVCAP, Sunway Group launch early-stage fund for Malaysian startups

“This acquisition comes at an opportune time, as we launched airasia food in Penang in April this year,” said Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia Group. “It strengthens airasia digital’s plan to cover the end-to-end logistics chain, from first-mile to last-mile deliveries, providing a complete digital ecosystem.”

Apart from Malaysia, Teleport has made inroads into Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Singapore and China.

According to the AirAsia Group’s financial statement for Q1 2021, Teleport’s revenue has tripled compared to the last quarter of 2020. Quarterly revenues from its super app also grew 45 per cent y-o-y to RM10 million (~US$2.3 million).

Built in 2012, Delivereat claims to have completed more than one million orders to date and offers food and express delivery services on an on-demand basis from more than 4,000 merchants (consisting of restaurants, wet markets, pharmacies and groceries).

The startup owns a fleet of up to 4,000 registered delivery partners.

In 2017, Delivereat received US$450,000 from a collaboration fund between Gobi Partners and Malaysia Venture Capital Management in a pre-Series A financing round.

In 2019, Teleport and Gobi Partners co-invested US$10 million in local e-commerce and parcel delivery company EasyParcel.

Also read: airasia acquires Gojek’s Thai operations as SEA’s supper app battle intensifies

“The need for firms to complete last-mile deliveries will continue to increase across the globe,” said Dave Anderson, managing partner at the US-based Supply Chain Ventures. “The successful ones in the long term are those capable of growing rapidly to capture market share.”

Malaysia is home to as many as 156 logistics tech startups, according to Tracxn, which produces fierce competition in this space. 

Foreign giants such as Singapore’s e-commerce unicorn Shopee also look to open food delivery services in Malaysia as it opened recruitment for delivery couriers in the country this June.

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Image credit: Dealivereat

The post AirAsia’s Teleport acquires Malaysia’s Delivereat for US$9.8M to further its super-app ambition appeared first on e27.

In the context of a technological revolution that is advancing at a very high speed, the potential for development, collaboration and enrichment of the digital offer is exponential –especially for African startups in the young continent.

Admittedly, the internet penetration rate (25 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa) is not yet up to the ambitions, but connectivity is advancing quickly, investments are sustained, and skills are not lacking.

If we exclude this pandemic period, the increase in the internet penetration rate has been dazzling with a growth rate of 10,199 per cent over the period 2000-2018 (570 per cent in Europe and 219 per cent in North America), according to the Internet World Stats Institute.

The first cables connecting Europe, Africa and Asia were only put into operation in 2002 and this development is mainly the result of the boom in wireless technologies and African fintech in particular.

The World Bank mentions an average of 25 per cent of internet users in sub-Saharan Africa, against 60 per cent in North Africa and the Middle East, for a global average of 50.8 per cent (against 82.4 per cent in Europe and 87.6 per cent in North America).

South Africa passed the 57 per cent mark of the population with internet access in 2019 from 70 per cent. According to figures released by the Digital Report 2020, 59 per cent (4.5 billion people) of the world’s population had access to the internet at the end of 2019.

The banking rate remains among the lowest in the world, but that does not prevent the rapid and limitless development of Mobile Money. In 2020, the African continent had 562 million Mobile Money accounts which represent 45 per cent of the number of Mobile Money accounts opened in the world with more than 500 million dollars of transactions per day. Safaricom’s launch in 2007 of M-PESA is considered a success and a global benchmark.

Also Read: iPhone co-inventor joins SG insurtech startup bolttech’s US$180M Series A round

Bolstered by this growth and access to new technologies, innovative young African startups have nothing to envy of Western or Asian nuggets. They need investment and funds to develop and are increasingly looking to Asia.

Africa is not only natural resources (biodiversity, forests, hydrocarbons, mines, phosphates, fishery resources), it is also a market that will reach two billion in 2050 and has endless opportunities for innovation and new technologies.

We see more and more African countries forging new relationships with Asian countries in a win-win relationship or South-South collaboration. African startups have a lot to gain from the Asian experience and from following the same path, believing, or even sharing the ambitions of tomorrow.

Several startups such as SunCulture and Socowatch (Kenya), MeQasa (Ghana), LIfeQ and Jumo (South Africa), VConnect and Kobo360 (Nigeria), Koolskools and Chari (Morocco), Glamera and Brimore (Egypt), Zafree Papers (Ethiopia), Enova Robotics (Tunisia), Yobante Express (Senegal), Easy Matatu (Uganda), Cowtribe Technology (Ghana), Bag Innovation (Rwanda), and Kilimo Fresh (Tanzania), in several sectors are making headlines with their prowess and inventiveness.

They are revolutionising Africa now and can go further if the opportunity presents itself tomorrow to create a better world for all.

Trade relations between the countries of Southeast Asia (SEA) and Africa have been developed in recent years and should be pushed forward in the target of South-South cooperation. The fintech sector in emerging markets and especially in Africa has exploded over the past five years according to the “State of Fintech in Emerging Markets” report.

African startups expect a lot from private and public actors in SEA to support the African digital economy by making financial and technological resources available to take a new step forward. The creation of cross-funds between SEA and African companies and states dedicated to supporting young digital entrepreneurs are certainly expected and appreciated initiatives.

The co-development of infrastructures accompanying the digital revolution that is taking place on the continent is also a means of accelerating this cooperation across the entire value chain of the technological ecosystem.

In 2025, technologies and mobile services will constitute an important part of Africa’s GDP and will have to create an added value of several billion dollars, especially with the ongoing development of platforms and open banking.

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