Day: January 24, 2022

Used cars platform Moladin closes US$42M Series A round
Lead investors are Northstar Group and Sequoia India; Started in 2017 as a motorcycle platform, Moladin pivoted to a used cars marketplace in mid-2021; It operates as a social commerce firm leveraging agents to sell used cars to end consumers.

WIZ.AI bags US$20M in Hillhouse-led round
K3 Ventures, Insignia Ventures, Wavemaker Partners and GGV Capital also co-invested; WIZ.AI creates chatbots for companies in the healthcare, banking and finance, e-commerce, insurance and telecom industries.

‘Absolute decentralisation is unlikely to be the panacea for everything’: Chris Sirise of Saison Capital
‘The growing traction and real use cases have made it undeniable that Web3 as an industry will grow quickly and become enormous’.

ErudiFi raises US$15M debt funding from Helicap to provide affordable tuition instalment plans to students
ErudiFi helps students secure funding for higher education through partnerships with leading universities and vocational schools; It has facilitated more than US$100M in investments that improve access to financing for underbanked populations in SEA.

Temasek unit Heliconia leads digital container haulage platform Haulio’s US$7M Series A round
Co-investors are Ondine Capital, Cornerstone Ventures, FuturePlay, Newtown Partners, and XA Network; Haulio boasts of having onboarded 90% of Singapore’s hauliers and established presences in Indonesia and Thailand, where it has aggregated 3K+ hauliers.

Fintech startup Fraction bags US$3M to turn real estate into fractional NFTs
Investors are East Ventures, Emtek, Thakral, and V Ventures; Fraction allows individuals and companies to invest, sell and manage fractional ownership of anything, from a small stake in a city condominium to managing a private fund, assets and investors.

Xendit ventures in banking space, partners with rural lender BPR Xen
The unicorn has initiated hiring for roles from bank tellers to middle-management level employees for the rural lender; Xendit achieved unicorn status in September 2020 following a US$150M Series C funding led by Tiger Global.

M&A roundup: boAt buys SG startup KaHa, DeClout acquires Ascent Solutions
Ascent Solutions is an IoT smart connectivity firm that provides digital solutions for smart city infrastructure; DeClout invests in, incubates and scales companies to become global or regional market leaders.

Japan’s soccer star Keisuke Honda launches AngelList-like platform for Asia’s startup community
PROTOCOL leverages technology to ease burdens on founders and investors while also boosting the ecosystem as a whole; The platform will be available for people seeking jobs in startups, planning to start a business or investing.

MAS stops crypto platforms from advertising in public
Cryptocurrency firms cannot market their services on public transport, public transport venues, public websites, social media platforms, broadcast and print media, or on physical ATMs; They are also barred from promoting their products via social media influencers and other third-party marketing services.

TW
Fashion resale startup bags US$2.2M in AppWorks-led round
Co-investors are CTBC Venture Capital, B Current Impact Investment, and Taiwan Culture and Creative Angels Investment; PopChill aims to create a sustainable community marketplace enabling users to buy and sell second-hand fashion and apparel.

Taiwan
500 Global joins US$1.7m round of customer service startup Viewabo
Viewabo uses its tech to allow companies to provide customer support services through video and live streaming; Agents can add notes, pause, rotate the stream as per convenience, or save the stream for later review and training.

Why Vietnam is a ripe market for new-age banking
More than 40 per cent of the population in Vietnam is banked and bank cards are seeing accelerating penetration. But there is no dominant winner yet; Vietnam ranks second in the world with 69% of people not having access to financial services and no bank accounts.

Carousell takes on Google, FB with launch of ad platform
Known as Connect, the platform is a recommerce programmatic buying tool that uses demand side-platforms powered by data from transactions and searches on Carousell’s platforms; The new tool provides a full-funnel solution.

Antler India names the 19 students in its new fellowship
The Antler India Fellowship aims to promote entrepreneurship at the university level as a possible career option for students; It offers an equity-free grant of US$20K, mentorship services, and a peer network to turn the startup ideas of students into businesses.

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Con Cung, a retail network for mom and baby products in Vietnam, has secured US$90 million in a financing round from healthcare-focused private equity firm Quadria Capital.

Con Cung will use the funds to open 2,000 local outlets by 2025 and expand its product line. It will also develop an “all-in-one super app” to provide personalised products and services to over five million mothers.

The retailer will leverage Quadria’s network of portfolio companies such as FV Hospital, a hospital platform in Vietnam.

As part of the deal, global retail expert Robert Willett will join Con Cung’s Board of Directors. 

Also read: The era of live commerce has finally arrived. Will retailers embrace it?

Founded in 2011 by chairman Minh Nguyen and CEO Tien Luu, Con Cung aims to be the one-stop destination for mothers to fulfil their maternity and baby-care needs. Its offerings include over 2,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) of products such as milk powder, diapers, bottled nutrition and vitamins, equipment, and baby fashion.

The company claims that it has been growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 70 per cent over the last four years. Con Cung operates 600 stores in 45 provinces and towns and plans to expand to 1,000 stores by the end of 2022.

Besides a network of physical stores, Con Cung also owns a mobile app to serve the mounting mobile-based purchases. “We recognise the need to expand our retail channels, both online and offline, and create a holistic ecosystem to support mothers and families,” said Nguyen.

In January, Con Cung will open its first 2,000-square-meter Super Center in Phu Dong 6, Ho Chi Minh city. This will feature all Con Cung products and other services such as a coffee shop, an integrated playground area, and one dedicated floor for infant care, nutrition, and OBGYN consulting services provided by doctors and healthcare professionals.  

Con Cung plans to open one supercentre per month to reach 200-300 such stores across Vietnam.

Also read: How Shopee uses AI, data to build a marketing strategy that suits changes in user behaviour

The fresh infusion comes 18 months after the closure of Quadria’s oversubscribed US$595 million Fund II, which focuses on investing in the healthcare and consumer health companies in Asia Pacific. The firm is looking to raise Fund III following the rapid deployment of Fund II. 

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Image Credit: Con Cung

The post Quadria Capital injects US$90M into Con Cung to build super app for Vietnamese mothers appeared first on e27.

Vietnamese social commerce platform Mio has received a US$8 million Series A round of investment, led by Jungle Ventures.

New investor Patamar Capital, angel investor Oliver Jung, existing backers GGV Capital, Venturra, Hustle Fund, iSEED SEA and Gokul Rajaram also co-invested.

This brings Mio’s total capital raised to date to US$9.1 million.

Mio will use the fresh funds to expand its fulfilment centre footprint, improve its logistics and supply chain capabilities, and expand into new geographies in Vietnam.

Founded in June 2020 by serial entrepreneurs Trung Huynh, An Pham, Long Pham and Tu Le, Mio is a group buying platform for grocery and fresh produce. Every day, Mio fulfils 10,000 daily orders to tens of thousands of households in Ho Chi Minh city and its surrounding lower-tier cities via its agent network. It delivers fresh produce orders directly from the farm to the table in less than 16 hours.

The company currently focuses on grocery staples, including fresh produce and poultry. It plans to add FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) and household appliances. In the future, the company will be investing in new fulfilment centres and supply chain initiatives to reduce delivery time further, lower costs and expand its services to more towns.

Also Read: Quadria Capital injects US$90M into Con Cung to build super app for Vietnamese mothers

The startup said in a press note that it aims to drive financial independence for millions of Vietnamese women by democratising entrepreneurship opportunities through its Mio Partner model. Many of these partners are women, who act as resellers who acquire orders from their immediate social circle of friends and family, aggregate, place and manage orders through the Mio app. In return, the partners can make up to US$400, earning a 10 per cent commission on each order and additional commissions based on the monthly performance of resellers they referred to the platform.

The company claims it has witnessed tremendous success in the last 12 months, with its GMV growing by over 50x, fulfilling over 10,000 fresh produce products every day.

Today, Mio is present across Ho Chi Minh, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An and will be expanding to the northern region of Vietnam in the coming months.

Co-Founder Trung Huynh said: “Mio aims to create a virtuous ecosystem of growth for our Mio Partners and consumers. We have created thousands of jobs for women in suburban districts and lower-tier cities of Vietnam. As we scale, we will continue to drive financial independence among more women in Vietnam, expand our services to more markets, and serve our consumers with better products and service.”

My Tran, VP (Investments) at Jungle Ventures, said: “With the rising internet penetration, we are very bullish on social commerce as it will be the next driver of growth for tier 2 and 3 towns in the region, racing ahead of traditional commerce models, as consumers demand at par choice, experience and service. Mio is an innovative business with terrific growth potential addressing the US$50 billion grocery opportunity in Vietnam.”

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Image Credit: Mio

The post Mio banks US$8M Series A to empower Vietnamese women via its social commerce platform for fresh produce appeared first on e27.