Vietnamese smart mobility startup Selex Motors JSC has raised US$2.1 million in a seed funding round led by Touchstone Partners.

ADB Ventures, the venture investment arm of the Asian Development Bank, and Korean VC firm Nextrans also participated.

A press note said Selex will use the proceeds to expand its R&D operations, strengthen the in-house manufacturing capacity of vehicles and battery packs at its new factory in the Hanoi area, and start deployment with early customers.

With its new production facility established, the company also plans to expand into other Southeast Asian countries.

Selex was founded in 2018 by CEO Nguyen Nguyen, Chief Mechanical Engineer Hai Nguyen, and Chief Software Engineer Quang Nguyen. It owns patented technologies to develop and manufacture smart electric motorcycles (EMs), battery packs, and swapping systems.

The startup taps into the underserved B2B market (particularly the last-mile delivery for the logistics sector) with its environmentally friendly and cost-effective solutions.

Also read: The growth of electric vehicles is saving the planet, one trip at a time

The EMs, purpose-built to serve the logistics sector, can transport heavier and bulkier loads than passenger bikes converted for the function. They are equipped with proprietary IoT technology and modern fleet management capabilities to improve productivity further.

Selex claims it offers the products at competitive prices and helps in significant cost savings, including 50 per cent maintenance costs and 25 per cent on fuel costs.

The company has electrified delivery fleets and set up battery swap points for delivery giants such as Viettel Post (a leading parcel courier in Vietnam) and Lazada Logistics (a logistics arm of e-commerce giant Lazada).

According to the National Traffic Safety Committee, Vietnam is home to roughly 50 million motorbikes. It is regarded as the fourth-largest motorbike market globally (behind China, India, and Indonesia).

Each year, these motorbikes burn approximately US$5 billion worth of gasoline and contribute half of the vehicular carbon emissions.

“There are few larger or more urgent challenges facing the world today than climate change, and Selex has identified an unserved and growing market where it can make an impact,” said Tu Ngo, general partner at Touchstone Partners.

Bloomberg reported that the global EV market will total more than 90 million vehicles by 2030, while vehicle ownership of all types across Southeast Asia is predicted to grow more than 40 per cent by 2040.

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In 2020, India became the world’s largest processor of real-time payments, handling close to 41 million transactions in a day, ahead of China and South Korea. This grew by 30 per cent in 2021—India’s digital transformation results from public infrastructure created by the UPI.

However, to capture the full potential, this digital journey needs to run alongside an open data framework that encourages innovation and connects new customers with the financial system. India has made progress but has yet to unlock the full power of open financial data: that needs to change.

Research conducted by Flourish Ventures and McKinsey & Company shows that broad adoption of open-data ecosystems in India could result in a four to five per cent increase in GDP by 2030.

That potential gain– far higher than in developed economies such as the US, European Union or the UK – underlines the importance of financial inclusion as an engine of economic growth.

An open-data regime, which allows the consent-based sharing of users’ financial data, benefits the financial system.

Individuals and small businesses benefit from improved access to financial services, greater convenience and more choice. In contrast, financial institutions gain from a more efficient system, more business opportunities, and better management of risk.

Multiplied benefit

In India, the potential economic benefit is multiplied because so much of the population is underserved by the traditional banking system. Although 80 per cent of Indians have bank accounts, millions of those are inactive, and many small businesses cannot access formal credit.

Also Read: Southeast Asia should capitalise on open data dividend to boost GDP. Here’s why

The International Finance Corporation in 2017 calculated that the finance gap for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in India was US$230 billion, equivalent to 11 per cent of GDP.

The other big benefit comes from the removal of red tape. McKinsey and Flourish found that automating know-your-client (KYC) processes could save MSMEs in India 175 million hours a year.

More data points would also speed up access to finance. Even after the onboarding process is complete, credit decisions still take several weeks: the average turnaround time for MSME loans from public sector banks is 31 days, according to the Reserve Bank of India.

Open data could also eliminate fraud costs amounting to 4 per cent of annual banking revenues, giving more lenders the comfort to support the sector.

Positive momentum

Happily, India has taken some important steps in the right direction. The introduction of the Aadhaar ID card and the development of the IndiaStack framework – a public infrastructure ecosystem facilitating standardisation of information storing and sharing – has slashed the need for paper checks.

That has reduced banks’ retail KYC verification costs to as low as 30-40 rupees per transaction from up to INR1,000 previously.

Further improvements are on the way. The RBI has also created an account aggregator framework that allows for a consent-based, faster and more efficient sharing of information between financial institutions.

The system is expected to become fully operational later this year: the first licences were handed out in 2020, and beta testing is already underway with public and private sector banks.

A Central Identities Data Repository– designed to remove the need to access multiple sources to verify government data– is also under construction.

Also Read: What is the next frontier for lending in India

When it comes to financial inclusion, the growing adoption of the Bharat Bill Payment System for digital utility payments holds great promise. Volumes in July reached a record INR94.88bn, more than double the INT37.07 billion processed in the same month last year, according to NPCI data.

As more customers pay their bills electronically, they create payment records that can help them gain access to formal credit – even if they have no other credit history.

In the US, a study by Experian found that including utility data could transform 20 per cent of “thin file” credit customers– or those less likely to gain credit– into “thick file” customers who are more likely to do so.

In India, where a far higher percentage of the population has no formal financial records, access to utility data would be even more important to potential lenders.

McKinsey and Flourish calculated that increased access to credit using alternative data could raise India’s credit-to-GDP ratio by 1.3 per cent— or the equivalent of US$80–US$90 billion of GDP– by 2030.

New platforms

India’s open data framework has already given rise to a new breed of apps and fintech platforms. By aggregating data from multiple sources, companies like Credflow can help small businesses manage their payment cycles. ZestMoney can offer buy-now-pay-later services by connecting retail consumers with lenders. API providers like YAP are helping to streamline the system.

There is more to be done. The Flourish and McKinsey research found that some 60 per cent of the potential value from open financial data is already accessible, highlighting the value of government investments in digital infrastructure. However, to capture the full value, India needs to allow innovation in financial services to blossom.

It is still too hard to set up a business, and India’s financial system is ill-equipped to use these new data sets fully. Banks focus too much on secured lending, and the cost of borrowing for small businesses and end consumers remains prohibitively high.

To capture the opportunity outlined in the research by Flourish and McKinsey, India’s banks and new lenders will need to rethink their approach to unsecured lending.

The RBI has acknowledged that years of mandated lending to the MSME sector have not produced enough progress. Greater innovation in how small business loans are evaluated, underwritten and managed can open up the Indian financial system to a new generation of customers.

An open data environment can enable that process – and accelerate India’s economy.

The article is co-authored by Tilman Ehrbeck, Managing Partner, Flourish Ventures.

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Hong Kong-based startup accelerator Brinc recently raised US$130 million in a round led by digital entertainment, blockchain and gamification unicorn Animoca Brands to expand into new locations and launch new programmes and funds. 

The accelerator’s ultimate goal is to support the development of over a thousand new purpose-driven startups over the next decade. In addition, the capital will enable Brinc’s expansion into Web3, including the launch of new blockchain-focused accelerator programmes across culture, music, art, collectibles, gaming, decentralised finance and data.

On the sidelines of the deal, e27 sat with Founder and CEO Manav Gupa, who shared the details of Brinc’s plans.

Edited excerpts: 

You have just raised US$130M from Animoca and others. How and where do you plan to deploy this capital?

We plan to scale into several new locations, launch new accelerator programmes, launch new funds, grow the team.  

This capital is being split into two parts:

1. To support the growth of Brinc: This includes the development of new capabilities that support expansion into new geographical locations, the launching of additional accelerator programmes across new verticals, and establishing new teams to drive efficiencies operationally at scale.
2. To invest in accelerator deals across all programmes and invest in and grow over 1,000 purpose-driven startups over the next five years.

How is your accelerator programme different from traditional ones?

Our programme is fully remote. However, unlike other distributed accelerators, we have a wealth of live sessions with industry experts and mentors. We can cover several time zones by running a combination of fireside chats, break-out sessions and 1-to-1 sessions with experts, partners, and mentors.

Our programme has unique tools and frameworks designed to support founders regardless of their stage permitting tailored value delivery. 

We focus on technical and core technology support and pay close attention to the human element of being a founder and growing a startup. We provide expert advice on conflict resolution, founder development, hiring and scaling, leadership, and building culture. 

Also Read: Infinity Force scores US$5.5M seed funding led by Animoca to provide infra for global P2E communities

On top of these, Brinc supports founders across key business functions, such as marketing, product development (including Tokenomics and Token design), legal and especially fundraising. Graduating companies have a remarkable success rate in how fast they close their subsequent rounds.

You run two funds apart from a separate fund with partners. Can you share the details of these three funds?

We currently have three venture funds:

BrincArtesian Flagship Fund: In partnership with Artesian, we are raising a US$100 million Flagship Fund, which will invest in early-stage deeptech companies in Asia, solving fundamental problems such as food & water security, healthcare quality & access, climate change, financial inclusion and more. It will build a diversified portfolio by investing in startups through our accelerators which support commercialisation, growth and fundraising. The vehicle will provide follow-on funding to the top companies that graduate the seed and Series A programmes and give the LPs direct investment opportunities at later stages. The fund is currently backed by the National University of Singapore. 

BrincArtesian Counter Culture Fund: In partnership with Artesian, we are raising a US$50 million Counter Culture Fund that strives to counteract the inefficiencies, climate challenges and ethical concerns with mainstream animal agriculture. The fund will drive systemic change and capture a share of the growing US$1.4 trillion food sector by investing in early-stage alternative protein companies in Asia focusing on cellular agriculture, precision fermentation, plant-based analogues, and alternative dairy. 

This fund will invest in companies at the seed, Series A and Series B stages, focusing on companies located in Asia or targeting the Asia market. Brinc’s accelerators provide a range of opportunities such as TurtleTree Labs, Avant Meats, Cell X, and Shandi.

Launchpad Luna Mentor Fund: In partnership with Animoca Brands, we are raising a US$100 million Mentor Fund to invest in founders leveraging Web3 principles to build decentralised and inclusive businesses. The fund is meant to incentivise, reward and empower our network of value-add mentors by providing early, exclusive access to startups during the Launchpad Luna Program before our public demo day. 

This fund will invest in the equity and future token/NFT supply of companies that meet specific performance milestones during the programme. The fund will be governed by a DAO to incentivise participation, reward contribution and promote transparency. 

We are actively looking for strategic LPs across all three venture funds.

Animoca is an active Web3 and metaverse investor. What do you expect from this partnership?

They (Animoca Brands and its subsidiary The Sandbox, an open NFT metaverse platform) bring a wealth of experience with strong networks to the table. They are also fully committed to developing the creator economy and thus are active mentors supporting investee companies with their experience. 

Through the Launchpad Luna Accelerator, Animoca Brands and The Sandbox are helping startups with technical guidance, token architecture, and follow-on fundraising. Brinc and Animoca will also work closely to scout startups, complete due diligence, and actively create value through the programme. 

We are also exploring additional sub-verticals where we believe technology and Web3 can provide further value alignment and work to develop programmes and supportive services.

Beyond this, we are growing and connecting our networks. We have already onboarded 75-plus mentors for the LaunchPad Luna programme. Mentors currently include Sebastian Borget (Co-Founder, The Sandbox), WhaleShark, Aleksander Larsen (Co-Founder, Axie Infinity), Holly Liu (Co-Founder, Kabam), Jerome Wong (Co-Founder, EVG), Ray Liu (CEO, Bit.Country), Luna Javier (Co-Founder, Altitude Games), Dapper Labs, Binance, Solana and many others.

In a press note, you said you would expand into Web3. Could you tell me what you mean by expansion? Is it that you plan to accept Web3 companies into your programme?

We see our expansion into Web3 by developing accelerator programmes and funds across core areas:

We will invest in Web3-native companies across culture (arts, media, gaming, e-sports, entertainment, collectibles), metaverse, DeFi, DAOs, guilds and infrastructure through Launchpad Luna. We will continue to expand the scope of our investment as we bring on more exciting partners across sub-verticals like Metaverses, De-Fi, Fitness, etc.

Also Read: Animoca Brands attracts US$360M to grow open metaverse, make strategic acquisitions and investments

We will facilitate the Web3 transition from bits to atoms by helping companies in traditional sectors adopt Web3 principles, which can help coordinate and incentivise disparate groups of people to solve tangible problems. We will educate these companies on the value of community building, novel governance mechanisms and tokenomics so that more people can have skin in the game and a seat at the table.  

How does your Web3 accelerator work? Is it going to be a hybrid programme? When do you plan to launch? How many companies do you expect to join the programme?

The programme is fully online, and startups join us from all over the world. Brinc accelerators have always had an online component — before migrating to fully online in early 2019, all cohorts were half online and half in person. 

The transition to fully remote was natural and not difficult due to our existing infrastructure, in-house tools and processes. We expect to continue to improve our online programmes to make them as valuable as possible from founders from every time zone.

The first programme is underway. We invested in 30-plus Web3 startups. We expect to increase that number in the future as we add more verticals under the Launchpad Luna Accelerator. We will invest in arts, music, marketplaces, collectibles, games, DeFi, metaverse, guilds, and more for the next programme.

Web3 is still in the early days, and many critics like Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk don’t seem to have a favourable opinion on this; they say Web3 is too idealistic, and some say it is a vapid marketing campaign. What is your view?

To be an entrepreneur, you have to be idealistic. Entrepreneurs have a particular vision for the future and spend considerable amounts of time, energy, resources and funding to make that vision a reality. Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey are quintessential visionary founders, and we understand their criticisms. 

Where there is rapid experimentation and an opportunity to make comical sums of money with minimal oversight, there will naturally be people who try to take advantage of the situation. Web3 has many challenges, including marketing, mania and fraud, which require investors to be more discerning. 

But under all the hype, we fundamentally believe that Web3 will be a secular shift in how people come together to create enterprises and solve problems. Historically, venture funding came from highly concentrated pools of capital which meant startup portfolios reflected their particular geographical and sectoral preferences. 

Also read: Metaverse is around the corner and you should play a role in it

Traditionally with funding, liquidity was the end goal, but with Web3, it’s available right at the start, bringing all stakeholders in as owners. Web3 provides new mechanisms of organisation, governance, community building, and incentivisation, allowing more people to have skin in the game and a seat at the table. 

We believe these new operating principles will empower the next generation of entrepreneurs, especially in emerging markets, to solve problems that reflect a global citizenry’s priorities rather than those occupying corner offices on Sand Hill Road. Innovating and driving change will be distributed and democratised.

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Image Credit: Brinc

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Vietnam-based blockchain gaming guild Ancient8 said today it raised US$4 million in a seed funding round co-led by VC funds Dragonfly Capital, Pantera Capital, and Hashed.

The round also saw participation from a string of investors, including Mechanism Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, 3Twelve Capital, Coin98 Ventures, Kyros Ventures, Raydium, Jump Capital, GuildFi, Impossible Finance, Animoca Brands, Mirana Ventures (Venture Partner of Bybit and BitDAO), Chromia, Sipher, Smrti Lab, Folius Ventures, PANONY, Shima Capital, C^2 Ventures, and SkyVision Capital.

Other angels joining the round are Trung Nguyen (co-founder Sky Mavis), Santiago R Santos, Nick Chong, and Loi Luu (Kyber Network).

Also read: Metaverse is around the corner and you should play a role in it

With this, Ancient8 intends to grow its scholar base and invest in blockchain and metaverse education to support community members to keep track of the latest advances in GameFi (a combination of games and finance).

Besides, it aims to build more GameFi tools to help newly launched games with go-to-market support and user acquisition and build more blockchain and software products to serve as the infrastructure layer for the metaverse.

The firm will continue to expand its game coverage, especially in the Solana blockchain ecosystem, and expand its user base rapidly throughout Southeast Asia.

“Partnering with our community of gaming enthusiasts and game developers, we are democratising social and financial access for the first native generation of Metaverse citizens,” said Howard, Co-founder of Ancient8.

Founded in July 2021, Ancient8 is building a Decentralised Autonomous Organization (DAO) that develops a community and software platform to enable everyone to play and build the metaverse while earning rewards simultaneously.

Employing blockchain technology, the startup provides users with a comprehensive set of products and services, including scholarships and education, community, software, and investment in GameFi. 

It allows users to borrow non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to play popular games, earn rewards, and receive instruction from experienced gamers. Users may also invest in new games and have early access to NFT and game testing for superior user rewards.

Also read: Demystifying NFTs and DeFi

“Innovative play-to-earn games such as Axie Infinity have changed the status quo, empowering gamers to own a piece of the games that they play and share social and financial rewards by contributing to the community, all while having fun,” said Howard. “We are excited to build the infrastructure layer for the future of blockchain gaming and the Metaverse.”

So far, Ancient8 claims to have aided tens of thousands of blockchain gamers and enthusiasts.

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Image Credit: Ancient8

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Workforce management startup StaffAny raises US$3.4M Series A

Singapore-based workforce management solution startup StaffAny has raised US$3.4 million in its Series A funding round, led by GGV Capital.

The co-investors are East Ventures, FreakOut Shinsei Fund, Far East Ventures, Farquhar Venture Capital and Slack’s former CFO Allen Shim.

StaffAny will use the investment to grow the company, expand regionally and develop new features for its workforce management solution.

Also Read: HR management platform StaffAny gets US$722K seed funding, focussing on growth

StaffAny helps businesses in the blue-collar workforce optimise operational scheduling, time tracking and HR end-of-month timesheet consolidation. It provides functions such as employee scheduling, a cloud timeclock, online leave management, real-time reports, and a connected workforce solution.

MyRobin.ID closes of pre-series A led by Accion Venture Lab, SOSV

MyRobin.ID, a workforce-as-a-service marketplace in Indonesia, has raised an undisclosed pre-Series A round led by Accion Venture Lab and SOSV.

Investible, Khoo Investment, Seedstars, Vulpes Investment Management, Brightness Capital, Astor Management, Bansea, and existing investor Antler joined the round.

MyRobin provides businesses with on-demand, pre-screened, blue-collar workers on a long and short-term basis in Indonesia. The platform tracks workers’ daily attendance and performance, and all payments are processed via the MyRobin platform. The firm charges a management fee as a percentage of the total labour cost.

Also Read: Meet the 7 graduates of SOSV-backed MOX’s 9th cohort

MyRobin also provides worker benefits like early wage access, micro-insurance, discounts on daily needs, and access to vocational training to boost retention and productivity.

Launched in August 2020, MyRobin has more than 2.8 million workers in its network.

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