Singapore-based enterprise tech ecosystem VE Technology Group has announced a S$30 (US$22) million funding round led by alternative investments firm Mox Capital.

The company will utilise the capital to expand into Southeast Asia in preparation for an upcoming IPO listing for the group and its subsidiaries in 2024.

Also Read: Executing a winning ecosystem strategy: What we can learn from Arm and its upcoming IPO

Founded in 2019, VE Technology Group operates a unified ecosystem of B2B enabling enterprises and digital solutions. The network brings together over 15 acquired subsidiaries specialising in delivering end-to-end business solutions across artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cybersecurity, robotics, software development, and business consultancy.

Its portfolio currently includes the likes of Corsiva Lab, Web Imp, and Sellstream.

The group is also actively navigating the intersection of traditional enterprise solutions and emerging Web 2.5 trends. This shift resonates with Mox Capital’s work in nurturing technological innovators in the region.

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“The B2B SaaS is currently the fastest-growing market globally, especially in Southeast Asia. This is a clear indicator of the transformative opportunities of B2B-enabling tech — and the reason why this fundraising round represents more than just capital. It embodies our investors’ trust in our vision to empower the next generation of small-and-midsize businesses (SMBs), connected in what will become the region’s largest Web 2.5 technology ecosystem of high-potential digital solutions,” said Loh June Yong, CEO of VE Technology Group.

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The group claims to have recorded 100 per cent year-over-year growth since its inception in 2019.

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There are several challenges faced by the Indonesian fishing industry, with one of them being the continuously decreasing number of fishermen working in the country. According to data, the number of Indonesian fishermen has declined to only 1.27 million by 2022, representing a five per cent decrease from the previous year.

However, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has set an ambitious target for the sector’s contribution to national economic growth. They aim for a six per cent growth in 2023, which translates to a target production of approximately 20.54 million tons of fish and seafood products.

Local startup FishLog wants to help the country achieve that through its integrated fishery solutions.

It aims to improve operations for fishermen indirectly by enhancing the efficiency and transparency of the seafood supply chain. According to the startup, even if fishermen are not the end users of the platform, they benefit in some areas: Reduced waste, fair pricing, streamlined operations, market access, trust and reputation, as well as data for decision-making.

“Compared to existing alternatives which only do trading and supply-demand matching and basic inventory management system, FishLog provides a comprehensive, end-to-end solution that addresses the entire supply chain, making it more efficient, transparent, and equitable,” says Galih Husni Fauzan, Head of Marketing, Communications & Partnership at FishLog in an email to e27.

“It helps build a sustainable seafood industry by reducing waste, supporting fair pricing, and ensuring that fishermen are not left out of the benefits of improved supply chain operations.”

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According to Fauzan, the founders of FishLog–Abdul Halim (CBDO & Co-Founder), Bayu Anggara (CEO & Co-Founder), and Reza Fahlepi (CCO & Co-Founder)–had a background in the seafood industry and are supported by a team with expertise in supply chain management and technology.

They identified pressing problems in the fishery supply chain, such as inefficiencies, lack of transparency, and sustainability, then performed extensive market research to uncover the solutions.

“The development of FishLog’s solutions would involve building or partnering with tech experts or partners to create the blockchain-based traceability system, the B2B marketplace for seafood, and the warehouse management systems. This likely involved software development, hardware integration, and database design,” Fauzan says.

“The plan is to use the existing WMS platform that we have to enable the inventory visibility and then use B2B
marketplace as the solution for the raw material trading and arms it with the smart contract and financing to allow the buyer purchase in more quantity or having better cash cycle management on their side.”

By using blockchain in its Fishlog Trace product, the company wants to make the distribution of fishery products as traceable and trusted as possible.

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Building a more sustainable business

Through a partnership with Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Fishlog is able to secure its partners and visit fishery supply locations, enabling them to discuss pain points and start off collaboration.

Currently run by 154 people, Fishlog–who is an alumnus of the Startup Studio Indonesia programme–has three revenue streams: inventory selling, inventory management and inventory
financing.

“For inventory selling, we simply take margin from our supplier to our customer. Inventory management, on the other hand, we charge a very small percentage from our partner’s inventory, but for now, we partially waive that charge because we want to grow our partner base exponentially. For inventory financing, we simply take the rate between our lender and our borrower,” Fauzan elaborates.

The company is currently raising its Series A funding round and has engaged with global investors, particularly those from the Southeast Asian (SEA) region.

In 2024, Fishlog wants to focus on helping export contribution from 15 per cent to 50 per cent, entering the US market with new categories of tuna and shrimp, and expanding to SEA as a supply country.

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Image Credit: Fishlog

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The Global Startup Program, organised by the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has returned to Singapore with a new group of eight Italian startups, pitching on the demo day of the 4th edition to be held in Singapore on November 7, 2023.

Hosted by the Accelerator Tenity Singapore, the programme presents an opportunity for the eight startups — from diverse sectors in fintech, healthtech, blockchain, health & fitness, sustainability, and HRtech —  to bolster their technical, organisational, and financial prowess, gearing up for global challenges and new markets ahead.

Also Read: Meet the startups joining Tenity’s latest incubation programme in Singapore

The program aims to empower Italian startups to conquer global markets, focusing on innovative products and services that showcase the excellence of ‘Made in Italy’.

Below are the brief descriptions of the startups pitching on the Global Startup Program demo day:

SPARKD BOX

A cognitive-motor training solution to enhance brain-body performance. SPARKD BOX can be deployed into existing facilities, including senior homes, assisted living and senior community centres, to enhance and complement existing wellness programmes.

Carchain

Carchain empowers car owners and businesses to establish immutable vehicle records using dynamic NFTs on the blockchain. The platform covers everything from tracking CO2 emissions and offsetting them, allowing both current and future owners to construct a secure and transparent history of a vehicle’s data, integrity, and lifespan. This information is captured within a digital ID that can be easily shared, sold, or transferred, ushering in a new era of trust and accountability in the automotive industry.

Coffeefrom

Coffeefrom transforms spent coffee grounds from the food industry into innovative and sustainable new thermoplastic materials. It offers three different materials, each with different characteristics and applications.

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Fairtile

Fairtile is a credit intelligence and automation platform. It develops a modern hybrid multi-cloud platform for credit intelligence and automation solutions. The startup leverages Big Data, human science and AI to unleash real-time intelligence and automation at scale.

Hacking Talents

Hacking Talents is the digital solution that develops behavioural and communication skills in organisations through standard processes that allow each individual to work on their talents. It makes the entire organisation more sustainable and competitive within its market.

 iWise

iWise develops and markets software for business assessment and investment monitoring.

Sensosan Sell

Sensosan is an augmented air platform for indoor environments to impact neurophysical health & well-being naturally: breathing.

Wibiocard

Wibiocard specialises in cutting-edge smart card technology integrated with biometric fingerprint recognition. It delivers state-of-the-art solutions that provide secure access control, streamlined identification, and exceptional user experiences.

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Engine Biosciences, a Singaporean company leveraging machine learning and high-throughput biology to discover and develop precision oncology medicines, has secured US$27 million in a Series A extension funding round led by Polaris Partners.

Existing backers ClavystBio, Invus, and EDBI, along with new investors Coronet Ventures and SEEDS Capital, also co-invested.

This round brings its total funds raised since its inception to US$86 million.

The biotech firm will use the funds to support the translation of R&D programmes derived from its proprietary NetMAPPR machine learning network biology platform and CombiGEM combinatorial genetics system into clinical settings.

Also Read: Singaporean biotech startup Automera secures US$16M Series A financing

Established in 2014, Engine Biosciences discovers and develops impactful precision medicines by deciphering complex biology with integrated computation and experimentation, with particular depth in oncology. The firm is advancing its pipeline of oncology therapeutics towards the clinic internally and with collaborators, and in other disease areas through partnerships.

Engine Biosciences has identified over 30 new precision medicine opportunities with validation data.

It has also reported the identification of new patient selection biomarkers for different targeted therapies, which have been validated to enhance tumour sensitivity to specific investigational drugs by 100 times. These biomarkers offer the potential for near-term improvements in clinical outcomes, commercial viability, and drug development economics.

“We have witnessed first-hand Engine Biosciences’s considerable progress since our initial investment, advancing its technologies towards compelling precision medicines positioned for translation,” said Amy Schulman, Managing Partner of Polaris Partners.

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In the latest edition of the e-Conomy SEA report, Google, Temasek and Bain & Company revealed that despite global macroeconomic headwinds, the region’s gross merchandise value (GMV) continues an upward trajectory and is set to reach US$218 billion, growing 11 per cent year-on-year (YoY).

The report also reveals that the Southeast Asia (SEA) region’s revenue from the digital economy is poised to hit US$100 billion this year, growing 1.7x as fast as the region’s GMV.

Seeing this potential, the report highlights the need for startups (“digital companies”) to have clear pathways to profitability and prove to investors that they have dependable exit pathways.

This is especially true because SEA private funding has declined to its lowest level in six years after record highs, in line with global shifts towards the high cost of capital and issues across the funding lifecycle.

“These issues include a broader correction in valuations compared to the highs of 2021, uncertainty surrounding the profitability pathways of some companies and a challenging capital market environment which makes potential exits more difficult to achieve,” the report stated.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Grab rolls out Web3 wallet; PhonePe challenges Google with zero-fee app store

“Funding declines cut across all investment stages, with late-stage deal flow slowing down the most. DFS continues to be the top investment sector due to its high monetisation potential. A growing portion of deal activity is funnelled into nascent sectors, signalling that investors are diversifying portfolios.”

The report also spotlighted the growth trajectory for various tech verticals in the region:

1. E-commerce
A continuing growth trajectory with a 22 per cent increase in revenue YoY, reaching US$28 billion. The sector’s GMV grew to US$139 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach US$186 billion in 2025, growing 16 per cent.

2. Online travel
Following the pandemic, the section is on track to recover by 2024 as flight passenger volume nears pre-pandemic levels. The sector’s revenue, as accelerated by inflation, will reach US$14 billion, increasing 57 per cent YoY. Its GMV grew 63 per cent YoY, reaching US$30 billion in 2023, and is tracking towards US$43 billion in 2025.

3. Transport
The sector is seeing a strong recovery boosted by successful monetisation efforts as its revenue reaches US$1.1 billion, growing 47 per cent YoY.

4. Food delivery
As its revenue hits US$0.8 billion in 2023, the sector grows 60 per cent YoY despite the return to in-person dining and a pullback in promotions. In the short term, the sector’s revenue growth is driven by increased take rate while user and order growth will drive it in the long run.

5. Online Media
As the sector’s GMV grows to US$26 billion, increasing 10 per cent YoY, advertising and video streaming are expected to remain its long-term revenue drivers as the sector heads toward US$34 billion GMV in 2025.

Also Read: AI, transparency, and the rising threat of ad fraud in Google’s Performance Max

For businesses to maximise these opportunities, there is a need to expand the depth of digital participation.

“While digital inclusion has made inroads in SEA over the past years, consumers outside of metro areas are at risk of facing a widening digital economic divide when it comes to digital participation – active involvement in the digital economy through consumption of products or services across sectors,” the report said.

“Areas beyond metros are particularly vulnerable due to the challenging unit economics. Addressing these gaps is the collective responsibility of all digital economy stakeholders. Removing barriers, such as supply and security issues, can improve the participation of non-HVUs and enable SEA’s digital economy to reach its growth ambitions.”

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