US-based electric scooter startup Scooterson, which has its manufacturing plant in Singapore, is set to kick off its new US$10 million fundraising process next month.

The new capital raise will fuel Scooterson’s multifaceted expansion strategy, encompassing product development, geographical reach, and operational enhancements, its Co-Founder and CTO Deepansh Jain told e27.

“We are looking to raise capital from a group of investors in the US, our primary market. We also anticipate participation from existing investors,” he said.

Established in 2016, Scooterson offers a semi-autonomous e-scooter model, Rolley, which requires zero learning curve and can accelerate. Its Smart Mode Acceleration feature works in tandem with the scooter’s sensors, phone sensors, and prior ride data to optimise speed.

Also Read: Scooterson’s smart electric scooter Rolley to kickstart in Singapore with a US$1.75M funding

Rolley doesn’t have a gear shifter or acceleration lever, unlike conventional scooters. It adjusts the speed and performance according to the rider’s body movements.

The Scooterson mobile app allows users to lock/unlock their scooters remotely, share their travel information and the scooters with family and friends, and send charging notifications when the battery is running low. Moreover, its anti-tapering alarm system and Find My Scooter function allow users to locate their scooters if they are stolen or lost.

While Rolley’s base model is priced at US$3,200, the higher version Rolley+ costs US$4,000.

According to Jain, Scooterson has so far shipped about 300 units, primarily to the US market. It now plans to sell 1,000 units — 80 per cent of which will go to the US market and 20 per cent to the rest of the world — which are pre-sold on its Indiegogo campaign.

The mobility startup has an ambitious plan to ramp up production capacity to 1,000 vehicles per month due to an ‘increasing demand’.

“Over the next six months, Scooterson will undergo a phased transition that will pave the way for this capacity increase. As part of this transition, the current phase-out period will be crucial in preparing our facilities, supply chain, and workforce for the impending surge in production,” Jain revealed.

To date, the startup has raised US$6.5 million from angels and corporates, including Singapore-based Arsat Group, SOSV, and ElevateVC.

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Image Credit: Scooterson

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Launched in late 2020 by former Carousell, Airbnb, and Amazon executives, Rainforest has swiftly emerged as a disruptive force in the realm of e-commerce brand aggregation. Specialising in categories like parent/juvenile products, home goods, personal care, and pet items, the company leverages its proprietary technology to identify, acquire, and propel small e-commerce businesses to new heights.

The company’s approach places a premium on nurturing entrepreneurs and maintaining brand identities while achieving remarkable growth. With funding rounds and a focus on global expansion, Rainforest wants to build a sustainable and innovative company that resonates with parents worldwide.

In this interview, Rainforest’s Co-Founder and CTO Per-Ola Röst takes us through its journey to become a known name in the e-commerce aggregation space.

Edited excerpts:

Can you provide an overview of Rainforest’s journey so far? What led to the founding of the company and its current position in the e-commerce brand aggregation space?

Rainforest was founded in late 2020 to tap into the Asian ecosystem of e-commerce entrepreneurs.

In years prior, there had been an increase in entrepreneurs developing and marketing products online, further boosted by the onset of COVID-19. Our model was to find and acquire small e-commerce businesses and scale them up with a veteran team of operators.

Over time, we decided to focus on the parent/juvenile space, as we saw solid performance for our brands in this category. We believe in the underlying fundamentals, like the importance of trust/relationship with parents and better synergies across a portfolio of brands in the same category.

Also Read: Rainforest acquires baby care brand NatureBond to grow its portfolio of cross-border brands

Today, we have 15 brands, mostly in our core category. Rainforest is also acquiring globally, although many of our acquisitions are still in Asia.

E-commerce brand aggregation is a unique niche. Could you elaborate on Rainforest’s approach to acquiring and growing consumer e-commerce brands? How does your proprietary technology play a role in this process?

We work with brokers worldwide, but many brand owners also reach out to us directly. In the long term, we want to build the Rainforest brand as a trusted partner for e-commerce brand owners, and one reason behind our success is our fair treatment of entrepreneurs through the acquisition process.

We use technology to support acquisitions in many ways – to find interesting brands (via our outreach programme). We have a proprietary solution to evaluate the performance of Amazon-native brands and a proprietary risk mitigation tool, allowing us to spot black-hat activities.

Rainforest focuses on specific categories like home goods, mother & kids, personal care, and pet products. What drove the decision to specialise in these categories? How do you evaluate potential brands within these sectors?

We have brands in all those categories, but the central one is the parent/juvenile category and, to a lesser extent, ‘home’.

Other than solid financial metrics, we look for brands with unique IP – like a patented product or design/brands with a strong social following, and other aspects like products with high repeat purchase rates, low refund rates, good reviews, etc.

The funding rounds for Rainforest have been quite successful. How have you attracted significant investment, and how do you plan to utilise these funds to achieve your growth objectives?

We were able to build a strong team early that performed incredibly well. This helped us back up our big ambitions with big numbers – the rest was down to good timing and finding investors who shared our vision.

Besides acquisitions, we are investing a lot more in product development, where we want to become category-leading. We are also building an umbrella brand to house all of our products and allow us to nurture the relationship with parents over a longer period.

Can you elaborate on Rainforest’s strategies to ensure that the brands you acquire continue to thrive and grow globally? How do you balance maintaining the brand’s identity and integrating them into your ecosystem?

On the brand identity side, the brands have been mostly independent. The growth story for each brand is unique, but we have been quite successful in our product launches, geo and channel expansion.

Also Read: Rainforest banks US$20M pre-Series A in a Monk’s Hill-led round to acquire new e-commerce brands in Asia

Another thing that worked well for us was lowering costs (especially manufacturing and shipping) to offer customers more affordable products, allowing us to grow our market share sustainably.

The concept of providing entrepreneurs with a healthy exit through acquisition is intriguing. How do you approach negotiations with brand owners, and what benefits does Rainforest offer entrepreneurs looking to exit their businesses?

We don’t have any special approach to negotiating. We offer entrepreneurs an exit and future incentives in profit-sharing and other milestone payments. The ideal scenario for us is to find great entrepreneurs who would like to stay on with Rainforest and where we can continue growing the brand together while offering the entrepreneur the opportunity to take some money off the table through the acquisition.

Your technology-driven approach, including inventory management and cost optimisations, sets Rainforest apart. Could you share some insights into how this technology works and its impact on brand performance and growth?

Our custom-made data platform lets us stay on top of all our brands in real time. It drives all key insights and ensures that our decisions are truly data-driven.

Coupled with a range of bought tools in AI and process automation, we believe we have a solid foundation that gives us a competitive advantage on Amazon and beyond.

Our ERP is the focal point for all our finance and inventory-related data. We then buy solutions that integrate with the ERP, like our forecasting and planning tool. This is an area where we will continue to invest – to automate processes further – supporting Rainforest through future growth.

Expansion into new marketplaces and channels is a crucial part of your strategy. How do you assess which marketplaces and channels are the best fit for the brands you acquire? What challenges do you face during this expansion?

We were initially focused on Amazon US as a channel/marketplace. It allowed us to run relatively simple operations while we scaled to where we are today.

We are now positioned to grow into new marketplaces and channels and primarily invest in D2C, wholesale, and Walmart. Walmart is an exciting marketplace because of their strong growth (although currently a lot smaller than Amazon), and we are deliberate about being early on this channel.

Challenges are plenty: Logistics/supply chain, product regulations, and much more.

Achieving unicorn status is a significant milestone for any startup. What key milestones and achievements do you see paving the way for Rainforest to become a unicorn shortly?

Unicorn status is not a goal in itself. We must continue taking sustainable steps forward, build a high-performing company culture, invest in innovation, and build trust with parents everywhere.

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When it comes to solving problems faced by recruiters, Singapore-based Independents focuses on a unique one faced by the marketing industry.

In 2022, Salesforce revealed that one out of every three marketers struggles to find the right talents with the right skills. Companies already rely heavily on external partners, freelancers, and independent contractors for an array of services, including branding consultancy, content strategy, AI content generation, digital marketing, and media buying.

This raises a few problems: the extensive effort involved in sourcing talents from a broader regional pool and the question of how to achieve objective talent assessment.

This is why Independents aims to tackle the problem by streamlining the burden of interviewing, recruiting, invoicing, and handling legal contracts—all achieved through a single platform enabled by AI and data.

The solutions can match its vast database of talents to suitable marketing projects within 48 hours, resulting in a cost reduction of 30-50 per cent compared to traditional agencies.

By considering skills, portfolio references, industry and geography experience, budgets, team dynamics, and client ratings from past projects, Independents swiftly identifies the most suitable short-term hire talents for brands and agencies. It also offers project management tools for its users.

Also Read: To what extent will AI affect the media industry?

“Our matching solution differs from other competitors’ platforms by adding a deeper and more nuanced search. Most freelance platforms match through the required industry skill of the talent, the output or asset required and the rating of previous projects,” explains Independents CEO Jatinder Sandhu to e27.

“While our AI system matches this, it improves on it further by incorporating a talent’s years of experience in the creative industry to identify their seniority, as well as a creative review by an industry panel of creative directors to help ascertain the level of creative ability. This provides our clients with a much more nuanced search that has resulted in over 70 per cent of repeated projects by our clients who are happy to keep working with the talent we identify for each specific project, proving our belief that ‘better matching means better marketing’.”

The company’s client base ranges from agencies serving clients seeking creative output or products as well as small- to mid-sized companies with a lean marketing team that needs support for very focused projects.

Making milestones

Independents recently took part in a project with the DBS Innovation team for the DBS Xcellerator programme, where it was supposed to secure 250 B2B sign-ups within 14 days for the niche sector of sustainability. The startup was able to tackle the challenge within 48 hours; it also executed a social media campaign within just eight days, exceeding the sign-up target by at least 50 per cent.

“Our project with the DBS innovation team was about putting our ability to find the ‘right’ creative team in a super fast turnaround with a limited budget while still making sure quality and, most importantly, ROI’s were met. Normally, a digital agency is bound by the staff it has available within its department … while other freelance platforms can expect to take at least a week to identify potential candidates, interview them, work out costs and contracts before starting the project,” says Sandhu.

Also Read: Navigating the e-commerce jungle: Rainforest’s tech-driven journey in brand aggregation

Independents says that it currently has a pool of over 405 talented individuals from Asia that includes AI specialists, writers, designers, digital marketers, art directors, strategists, and account managers. Three founders and its tech team currently run the startup itself; it is expanding its support and operations staff.

Since its inception in 2020, the company has completed over 100 projects across Southeast Asia and China and is looking to further expand within Southeast Asia and the UK by 2024.

“Our big plan for 2024 is to continue to grow our client base through the access of our new platform project automation while continuing to enhance and perfect our AI’s creative matching ability and add in more features supported by generative AI to make the experience even better for our clients,” Sandhu closes.

“Where constantly on the search for new creative markets, and the UK has a very experienced and world-renowned creative talent base. We’re hoping to tap into that expertise and creative ability and offer our clients higher quality and more cost-effective creative marketing solutions.”

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Image Credit: Independents

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KUPU, an AI-powered recruitment platform in Indonesia, has raised US$6 million in the latest funding round by Ascend Global Investment Fund (AGIF).

With this new funding round, KUPU plans to broaden its market presence while strengthening its Al-driven solutions.

“We believe that as Indonesia’s business landscape continues to evolve and modernise, new sectors will emerge and thrive. These sectors will inevitably require the right talent to navigate the challenges of the digital age. In light of this, KUPU’s role as a connector and recruitment partner will grow increasingly significant. This is especially crucial for employers seeking the right, highly-qualified candidates amidst the wealth of talent available in Indonesia,” said KUPU CEO Haibo Zhou.

An average of 250 individuals submit applications for a single job opening, but only four to six make it to the interview stage. Ultimately, just one receives an offer. This process takes a typical company around 68 days to complete for each new hire.

Also Read: The power of diversity: Leveraging and building an inclusive workplace for all

KUPU tackles these challenges with its innovative tools, including talent and job competency models, omnichannel sourcing, AI-facilitated video interviews, and Al matching models. This makes it easier for companies to find the best talent and for job seekers to find career opportunities that match their potential.

For example, its Al Video Interviewer allows the platform to interview multiple candidates simultaneously using a set list of questions. The recorded results are then sent to the hiring team for evaluation, substantially streamlining the candidate selection process.

According to KUPU, companies using its platform have reduced their recruitment processing time by up to 20 per cent and increased the calibre of their candidate pool.

As of August 2023, KUPU has aided over 600,000 job seekers locate suitable employment opportunities.

In addition to its high-tech solutions, the two-year-old startup also provides an easy-to-use mobile app and personalised recruitment advisory services.

Sinar Mas Group is also an investor in KUPU.

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The image used in this article is AI-generated.

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In today’s increasingly digital business landscape, global expansion isn’t just an option; it is imperative for startups looking to thrive and make a lasting impact on the global entrepreneurial stage.

In more emerging ecosystems such as Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, global expansion has become a necessary step for startup growth. These countries often have smaller domestic markets, making international expansion essential for accessing larger consumer bases and diversifying risk. It also attracts global investors, enhances competitiveness, and provides a gateway to diverse talent pools. At its core, operating in multiple markets helps startups foster adaptability, validates a startup’s offerings, and facilitates networking and partnerships, ultimately ensuring long-term sustainability.

Furthermore, global expansion contributes to economic diversification in export-dependent countries like Taiwan and South Korea. By venturing into international markets, startups tap into innovation ecosystems, elevate their brand recognition, and gain access to vital resources, fostering growth and resilience. The challenge for many startups, however, is finding the right tools and insights to be able to strategise ways to navigate this endeavour.

Also read: e27 and Techstars partner to drive Startup City Accelerator success

Recognising the critical role that knowledge and networking play in this journey, Globalization Partners recently partnered with e27 to launch a series of online sessions across five countries. Dubbed the Market Access Series, this initiative aimed to equip local startups in Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan with the essential insights and resources necessary to embark on their overseas expansion endeavours. The successful collaboration between e27 and Globalization Partners resulted in not only achieving their ambitious target attendee registration goals but also fostering an environment conducive to cross-border growth.

Globalization Partners is a platform that helps companies build teams anywhere in the world. Their years of expertise in global expansion and local labour laws make them the perfect partner for startups seeking to explore global expansion opportunities. As the number 1 SaaS-based Global Growth Platform, they pair the industry’s most responsive technology with their world-class legal, HR, and tax experts to support growing companies every step of the way.

Empowering startups for global expansion

The goal of the partnership between e27 and Globalization Partners was to facilitate the global expansion journey of participating startups. By offering a series of online sessions, they sought to provide startups with valuable insights, strategies, and connections that would enable them to navigate the complexities of international markets. These sessions were designed to serve as a foundational stepping stone for startups aspiring to take their businesses beyond their local borders.

e27’s commitment to fostering innovation and entrepreneurship aligned perfectly with the goals of Globalization Partners to help enable growth and success among startups from different markets. Being an expert on different global markets, Globalization Partners sought to impart its expertise to the different participants powered by e27’s network and grasp of the Asia-Pacific tech startup ecosystem.

Also read: Wateroam emerges victorious at the 2023 SAFE STEPS D-Tech Awards

To ensure that startups from diverse regions get a full range of support, e27 and Globalization Partners strategically selected five countries as the focal points for the online sessions: Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Each of these markets represented unique opportunities and challenges for startups looking to expand globally. By addressing the specific needs of startups in these markets, the project aimed to offer tailored guidance and insights through its holistic panel of experts.

One of the key strengths of this initiative was the composition of the panels for the online sessions. e27 meticulously curated panels that brought together a blend of expertise critical for startups embarking on global expansion. Each session featured:

• A representative from a government ministry or institution specialising in trade and industry. These experts offered valuable insights into government policies, regulations, and resources available to support startups in their globalisation efforts.
• A panellist from a locally operating venture capital firm. This provided startups with access to investors familiar with the local ecosystem, who could offer funding, mentorship, and connections.
• A representative from Globalization Partners. As a company that specialises in helping businesses expand globally by providing and managing talent in various countries, their insights were invaluable for understanding the practical aspects of international expansion.

This strategic composition ensured that startups received a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead in their global expansion journeys.

The fruits of the collaboration between e27 and Globalization Partners

The success of any project can often be measured by its outcomes. In the case of the e27 and Globalization Partners’ collaboration, the results were nothing short of impressive. The project aimed to achieve a target attendee registration goal, and not only did it meet that target, but it exceeded it by a remarkable 110% across all the sessions.

This achievement underscores the hunger and enthusiasm of startups in these five countries for knowledge and resources that would enable them to compete on a global stage. It also demonstrates the effectiveness of the collaboration between e27 and Globalization Partners in delivering valuable content and networking opportunities.

Also read: Flux Series: Where industry leaders discuss actionable insights and disruptive technologies

The partnership ultimately serves as a shining example of how industry leaders can come together to empower startups to achieve their growth-oriented objectives. By focusing on knowledge sharing, networking, and access to critical resources, e27 and Globalization Partners have created a roadmap for startups in Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to take their businesses to the next level.

In a world where borders are becoming less relevant for businesses, the importance of initiatives like these cannot be overstated. They not only enable startups to tap into new markets but also foster innovation on a global scale. As the success of this project demonstrates, knowledge truly is power, and when harnessed effectively, it has the potential to transform local startups into global success stories. The partnership between e27 and Globalization Partners stands as a testament to the boundless possibilities that await those who dare to dream big and embark on the exciting journey of global expansion.

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