The Southeast Asia investment scene has been rapidly evolving in the last 24 months, and the way how pitching is conducted, sourcing of deal flow and completing investments today has to be updated as well.

The e27 platform has achieved more than 9,000 Connects from the startups seeking to connect to investors on the platform. We are also aware that many of our audiences are companies on the Pre-Series A and below stages —there are even companies in the seed stage. They will not be at the right stage for most VCs today to invest in.

Amongst our midst is a thriving pool of individual investors. They could be serial entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, or successful business individuals that are looking to invest in the next interesting technology at the seed stage.

This is why e27 is gathering our network of angel investors, new and old, and onboarding them onto our platform, accelerating the size of funds that seed stage startups can tap on.

Also Read: How to use the e27 editor to write great articles

If you are:

1. An individual investor with an existing profile on e27, do update your information to keep it up to date
2. A new individual investor who is looking to join the list, do create a user account and make sure you update your investment information in your profile.

It will only take five to 10 minutes to update or create your investor profile. Just click Edit beside your profile name or click + Add Investor Profile from the drop-down menu when you hover to your profile picture (login required).

For a comprehensive guide, please refer to our help resource.

Having a complete Individual Investor Profile will enable you to Connect to our network of startups in various countries in the region. We are looking forward to seeing your profiles.

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Image Credit: taa22

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Aruna, an online fishery and marine platform for Indonesian fisherfolks, has announced a US$30 million Series A follow-on funding led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India.

Existing investors Prosus Ventures, AC Ventures, East Ventures (Growth Fund), Indogen Capital, SMDV and SIG Venture Capital also joined the round.

This brings Aruna’s total Series A financing to US$65 million. The round follows a US$35 million Series A round led by Prosus Ventures and East Ventures (Growth Fund) in July 2021.

Aruna will use the fresh funds to expand into new geographies in the archipelago and grow the team.

Founded in 2016, Aruna serves as a one-stop shop for Indonesia’s fishermen to connect with restaurants and exporters. Its goal is to help create fair fish trading, improve the livelihood of local fishermen, and bring affordable and high-quality seafood to communities.

Through Aruna, local fishermen can export their products to countries in Southeast Asia, East Asia, North America, and the Middle East.

Also Read: Growing up in coastal villages, Aruna believes in empowering fishermen as the key to prosperity

In 2021, Aruna developed 100 communities with over 26,000 registered fisherfolks. It also generated 5,000 job opportunities in the rural areas to support their operations.

Last year, Aruna sold 44 million kilograms of seafood to more than eight countries. Currently, the company operates in 27 provinces in Indonesia.

“We have a vision of making Indonesia the centre of the world’s maritime economy. We hope to achieve this by revolutionising the marine and fisheries industry chain, encouraging financial inclusion, and promoting sustainable fishing industry practices,” said Farid Naufal Aslam, CEO of Aruna.

“Our mission is to make the sea a better livelihood for all by promoting the Sea For All campaign. We will invest in building the infrastructure to support sustainable fishing practices as we believe that profitability should be achieved through balancing the needs of both people and planet,” said Utari Octavianty as Chief Sustainability Officer of Aruna.

In August 2020, Aruna received US$5.5 million from East Ventures, AC Ventures, and SMDV.

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Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

Image Credit: Aruna

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Last year, more than 1.8 billion people used Facebook Groups every month. There are over 70 million admins and moderators running active Facebook groups. As I am writing this, a new Facebook group or a community is born somewhere on the internet. Since the stone age, humans have had an innate need to gather together. 

In this digital age, we’re not just local tribes. We’re living in a global village. With the expanded boundaries, we have the opportunity to connect, interact, and establish a relationship with people who share a common objective.

For instance, SaaSBoomi, a volunteer-driven community that I co-founded enables SaaS founders and product leaders to connect, share, and learn from each other.

Being a SaaS product founder, it is important to build a community around your product and keep it alive and engaging with the help of a community platform. A community platform helps you with multiple facets of your business.

You can conduct surveys and find ways to evolve your product to meet the dynamic needs of your customers. Your users start advocating your product (and brand) as you engage and interact with them. They give pieces of advice to each other to accomplish certain tasks that they have difficulty in executing. 

In many ways, the community has become the new moat for B2B SaaS businesses. It’s not the product features, the sales techniques, or even the support that keep customers loyal to your product. It’s the community around it. How do you keep your community alive and engaging?

Create an identity

You know your product and your customers. Choose the customers that believe in your idea, share the common goal, and envision an identity of the community. Identify 10 users who are on the same page with you and kickstart your community. They will take care of the personality of your community.

Make it feel personal

With just 10 members, you don’t have a self-sustaining community, and everything is dependent on you. The advantage of a small group is that you can be extremely personal. Try inviting them for an individual discussion over a coffee, connect with them, know whether they would be interested in attending an event with other people interested in this topic, and ask questions. When they’re all hooked up, they will care about the community’s success.

Encourage participation

Now that you have 10 members who trust you, it’s time for you to build trust between the members. It’s faster for people to build trust in person than online. Host a brunch or dinner and see how things shape up. But if you can’t do it in person, do it online.

Also Read: How to continue community building online amid the pandemic

The more lively and interactive the session is, the better. Eventually, their trust in you will translate to trust in each other.

Reward and value members

Rewarding your users doesn’t have to be materialistic. It can be as simple as taking time out to talk to your users and get their opinions/feedback. This gesture lets your users understand you value their opinions. It increases the chances of your users coming back again and keeps the community alive and thriving.

Repeat steps 1-4

It’s time to lay a strong foundation with 10 loyal community members. Invite new members and allow others to invite someone new to the community. At this stage of your community-building journey, you’re not asking for a favour from your members.

Also Read: The Unicroach approach: 10 tips on community building

You’re encouraging them to take the opportunity and give someone else value by inviting them to your community. In a way, it gives them a responsibility to invite like-minded people that will further enhance the quality of the community.

Create your moat by building a thriving community

It’s not as easy as it looks. At times, it may feel like the community isn’t going anywhere, and nothing is working. It takes a lot of hard work and patience to fight the awkward silences. Awkward silences include scenarios where no one shows up or your posts go unnoticed. You have to collect yourself up and be consistent in what you do.

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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

Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page

Image credit: rawpixel

The post How can you build a living, thriving community around your SaaS product? appeared first on e27.

The Sandbox, a decentralised gaming metaverse owned by Animoca Brands, has committed US$50 million to Hong Kong-based Brinc, which runs The Sandbox Metaverse Accelerator programme.

With applications now open and the first cohort scheduled to start in Q2 2022, the programme is a dedicated track within Launchpad Luna — the accelerator launched in mid-2021 as a partnership between Brinc and Animoca Brands.

The new programme aims to accelerate 30 to 40 startups a year over the next three years. The programme will invest in, mentor, educate, and support the development of promising startups and projects while also providing access to potential partnerships and business development opportunities across the growing networks of The Sandbox, Animoca Brands, and Brinc.

The new programme is looking for startups that can enhance the open metaverse, which will be evaluated on their traction, technical expertise, and ability to deliver unique experiences.

Also Read: “We want to facilitate organisations’ Web3 transition from bits to atoms”: Brinc CEO Manav Gupta

Startups accepted into the programme will receive an initial investment of up to US$250,000 each. The Sandbox will also provide further grants of up to US$150,000 in SAND tokens to the best performers, as well as LAND grants. Startups that demonstrate meaningful traction post-program can also apply for follow-on investment from The Sandbox, Animoca Brands, and Brinc.

The core directive of The Sandbox Metaverse Accelerator Program is to support the launch of new startups that can contribute to the growth and expansion of The Sandbox ecosystem by building unique experiences and populating the platform with fresh creativity and new content. Pioneering blockchain startups in art, collectibles, culture, entertainment, gaming, media, content, and streaming, are encouraged to apply.

Accelerated startups will be empowered to contribute to The Sandbox’s rapidly growing ecosystem and actively engage with its existing and growing user base. Online applications are now open at: brinc.io/metaverse.

High-profile mentors supporting the programme are:

• Yat Siu (Animoca Brands)
• Sebastien Borget (The Sandbox)
• Manav Gupta (Brinc)
• Cathy Hackl (CEO of Futures Intelligence Group)
• Holly Atkinson (lead blockchain developer at The Sandbox)
• Holly Liu (co-founder of Kabam)
• Janine Yorio (CEO of Republic Realm)
• Leah Callon-Butler (director of Emfarsis and columnist at CoinDesk)
• Pavel Bains (co-founder of Bluzelle)
• Serena Tabacchi (director and co-founder of Museum of Contemporary Digital Art)
• Susan Cummings (CEO of Petaverse Network)
• Yam Karkai (co-founder of World of Women), and
• Yingzi Yuan (founder and builder of Metaverse Summit). 

Web 3.0 leaders from Altitude Games, Binance, Dragonfly Capital, Republic Crypto, and True Global Ventures will also provide mentorship.

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Ready to meet new startups to invest in? We have more than hundreds of startups ready to connect with potential investors on our platform. Create or claim your Investor profile today and turn on e27 Connect to receive requests and fundraising information from them.

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Building a startup is an extremely challenging undertaking. Ask any startup founder and each one will tell you stories of the challenges they are facing from fundraising to product development and even finding talent. And that’s discounting the additional layer of difficulties and uncertainties that our current pandemic situation has on the overall business landscape. 

Apart from that, each country presents their own set of challenges for startups — be it in the form of regulations, cultural differences, and even maturity of the market or availability of potential partners for new technologies. 

That’s why it’s heartening to see various programmes supporting startups happening all over the region. In Japan, specifically, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is spearheading initiatives that aim to guide and bolster Japanese startups towards greater growth.

They have partnered with Techstars to launch two cohorts of the Founders Catalyst Program as part of JETRO’s Startup City Acceleration Program. The startups in the two cohorts — 15 in the general cohort and 11 in the cleantech cohort — are undergoing a series of sessions to help address the issues they are facing specific to their companies to help them build and grow their companies.

A wide range of challenges across various stages of a startup

LThe aim of the program is to provide startups with the support they need to address challenges specific to them. With 26 startups, that could mean anything from figuring out their go-to-market strategy, addressing company growth stalls due to the pandemic, and even finding partners outside of the country.

Such was the case of Water Design Japan, a startup that aims to address the problem of clogged and damaged pipes without the use of chemicals with its Ultra Fine Bubble (UFB) technology.

“[Our product] produces nano-sized bubbles for a unique and natural cleaning effect”, said Natsumi Ito, co-founder of Water Design Japan. “This technology has lots of potential and applications. However, it was hard to find the first customer who was willing to test and use it.” 

And while at present they claim that over 7,000 customers in Japan trust their technology and use their product, they are aiming to expand their business outside of the country. “We have about 70% of business requirements coming from overseas but it is hard to find the right partner,” explained Ito.

Also read: Modern solutions to modern problems: How Plusman LLC innovates healthcare

AC Biode, a company that is developing the world’s first standalone AC batteries with special electric circuits for e-mobility and energy storage, faces a different challenge — something that startups developing new technology may be very familiar with. 

“Our battery and plastic recycling projects require a lot of funding and R&D,” said Robert Kunzmann, COO of AC Biode. “The main challenge is to find partners to scale our technology from small prototype to large scale operation.”

This is the same challenge that IDDK Co. Ltd. is facing, albeit at a much later stage. The company developed a patented one-chip microscopic observation technology called Micro Imaging Device (MID) that they foresee to be a game-changer not just in the microscope industry but in the various fields and technologies that require it such as space, medical, biotech, and sanitation.

“The main challenge we are facing as we grow our company is to improve MID,” said Kohei Yoshioka, Director and CFO at IDDK. As it is a new technology, they are aiming to meet investors to help them fundraise to further improve their product.

But beyond finding partners to help them scale and develop their products, some companies find that the bigger challenge is bringing their product to the market and finding out if such a market even exists.

“Our challenge is modifying and fitting services that have a long history in Japan to suit the market so that customers can use them in the global market,” shared Daisuke Sasaki, CEO of Kyoto Meditation Center Co., Ltd., a startup based in a 700-year-old Zen temple in Kyoto, Japan, that is developing a package of B2B web apps to offer Japanese tea and meditation to the global market.

Even with such varied challenges, the Founders Catalyst program is able to help these startups address their issues and more.

Leveraging on network, expertise, and community

Running from November 2021 until March 2022, The Founders Catalyst program aims to help the startups in their 2 cohorts to address the challenges that hinder their growth. The main strength of the programme is Techstars’ deep experience of operating nearly 50 accelerators around the world and their vast network of mentors and partners.

Through the programme, the cohorts are not only able to learn from the experiences of the mentors but have the opportunity to connect with potential partners and customers as well.

Regardless of the stage that they are in, the startups of the current cohorts are already seeing the positive effects of being in the program even as it is still running.

Also read: Online threats? Protect yourself with these tools

For Kyoto Meditation Center, it provided an opportunity to learn the basics. “The programme is exciting, insightful, and an eye-opener,” said Daisuke. “I can clarify the problem areas surrounding startups. Many founder CEOs and mentors are involved, so I actively contact them to maximise this learning opportunity.”

AC Biode also finds the mentorship and the network they are building via their mentors valuable. “The mentor sessions helped me greatly in preparing my pitch. Secondly, we are now talking to a major e-scooter manufacturer, thanks to the introduction made by our mentor,” said Kunzmann.

Similarly, Citadel AI, a startup that helps teams monitor and test their AI applications, says that the programme has helped them connect with people that they can learn from to grow their company. 

“​​Our market is quite new so there are no similar companies [in Japan], but there are some benchmark companies in the US that we can learn from,” said Hironori “Rick” Kobayashi, CEO and Co-Founder of Citadel AI. “Techstars and its mentors are very helpful in connecting us to key people in these companies.”

For byFood.com, the program is an opportunity to prepare for when Japan’s borders start opening. They are a one-stop food entertainment platform, offering services for before, during, and after a trip to Japan, targeting their customers before they even step foot in the country. byFood.com’s growth halted when borders closed in March 2020 and they focussed on their domestic business, but they are keeping an eye out for their future growth plans.

“We meet many global mentors to prepare ourselves for our future global extension,” said Serkan Toso, Co-founder and COO of byFood.com. “The Founder Catalyst program is an excellent bridge for connecting the startup ecosystem outside Japan. We can easily find the right people in our next target countries and learn the situation and strategies for starting a business there. Without this programme, it would be challenging for us to find those people.”

Also read: Putting the Tech in Textile: D-Plus Trading reinvents the textile scene

IDDK also sees the importance of tapping into the network that the programme has. “Founder Catalyst programme gives us the opportunity to get into Techstars’ worldwide ecosystem.” At the beginning of the programme, we were advised to meet a new person every day to expand the network exponentially,” said Kohei. “Even if it doesn’t seem to work in the short term, I can reach out for help when a time comes in the long term.”

The diversity of experience and expertise of the mentors are also helpful for Kohei. “Our mentors are from different industries and different regions with specialised skills and a wide range of experiences, so even if they are not related to our industry or business, we can get some feedback which is useful to consider from a different perspective,” Kohei added.

What’s next for these startups?

The programme concludes with a Demo Day in March 2022 where the startups in the two cohorts get to pitch their products to a regional audience of investors, potential partners, and customers.

For most of them, the demo day serves as a jump-off point to bring their products to the global market. For some, they hope to come out of the programme with a clearer understanding of their business and a solid plan to expand and/or go to market.

What’s definite is that these 26 startups will have gained the mentorship and network opportunities from a programme that has previously resulted in hundreds of business and investor connections, and ultimately seeding countless relationships between participants and mentors.

Interested parties can view the demo day by registering for the two cohorts: Cleantech and Global Scale.

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Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

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

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