It is common knowledge that investment is part of the startup building process. There are many avenues for startups to raise funds, such as old-school methods (angels, VC, and corporate VC rounds), crowdfunding, and initial exchange offerings (IEOs). But convincing investors and raising money is a tedious process. Worse, maintaining and balancing relations with different investors is even more challenging.

Like many of its peers, Sky Mavis, a Vietnam- and Singapore-headquartered startup, also went through different financing rounds to raise US$9 million. These developments hit the headlines for Sky Mavis’s association with some globally renowned VCs, individuals and corporates. They included Libertus Capital, 500 Startups, CoinGecko Ventures, Animoca Brands, and billionaire Mark Cuban.

Sky Mavis, which develops a blockchain-based game Axie Infinity, drew more attention when its crypto token AXS reached a market cap of US$2.4 billion in late July. And the company has since been making headlines.

Also read: Vietnam’s Sky Mavis receives US$7.5M Series A to grow its blockchain game Axie Infinity

Correlation between the company and its token

At US$69.91 per token at the time of writing this article, AXS is ranked 34th among the 6,073 coins listed on CoinMarketCap and has a market cap of US$4.2 billion. Remember, the price was just around US$3-4 a month ago.

AXS price mooned in the past month. Image credit: CoinMarketCap

Launched on the Ethereum blockchain, the AXS (short for Axie Infinity Shards) is the native play-to-earn governance crypto of the Axie Infinity ecosystem. It means that AXS holders will have a say in forming Axie’s decentralised organisation and can help define its development trajectory.

For the uninitiated, Axie Infinity is like a combination of Pokemon, Cryptokitties, and Decentraland (where you can buy virtual land). Players battle, collect and breed Axies (the name of the cute little in-game pets). Each Axie is a non-fungible token (NFT) that is traded throughout the ever-expanding Axie ecosystem.

Sky Mavis announced on August 17 that it reached 800,000 daily active users in July, and it soon hit the one million mark. The rise of AXS can be attributed to its unique economical design and game design, besides the crypto market’s FOMO (fear of missing out) nature.

AXS token holders can participate in key governance votes and decide how the Axie Community Treasury funds are allocated. They could also soon stake their tokens to receive rewards from the treasury, but only by voting and playing.

“This is a good way to align ecosystem’s long-term development goals and ecosystem players’ motivations,” Trung Nguyen, CEO and co-founder of Sky Mavis, told e27. “The more people utilise the token, the more utility the token has.”

These exciting models and good-looking numbers captivate the best VCs in the world to take a look at Sky Mavis.

Now that people are talking about AXS’s fully diluted valuation of around US$11 billion, but can it be considered the company’s valuation?

“It probably affects our valuation when dealing with other equity investors as AXS tokens are a part of the company’s asset,” said Nguyen. “However, it should not be comparable with Sky Mavis’s valuation because a large part of the token supply is still locked.”

Based on the current release schedule, AXS tokens will only be circulating fully by early 2026.

The upside is, Nguyen pointed out, there is a long and bright future ahead of Sky Mavis, which may catapult it even more within the VCs community. 

However, as the crypto market is driven by price fluctuations, much more volatile than the traditional capital market, a sudden plunge in price would worsen the company’s fundraising plan.

“But the risk is a nature of the investment, isn’t it?” he asked.

Nguyen added that while Sky Mavis is a company that might develop several projects, AXS is the governance token of only one project Axie Infinity. Thus, it indicates the discrepancy between the two groups of investors — one that invests in the company and the other in token sales.

When the mixed investor relations come into play

Let’s dive into the origin of the AXS token. After its launching in 2018, Axie Infinity conducted the sale of AXS tokens on Binance in 2020 and raised a total of US$2.97 million. This fundraising method is called IEO.

In IEO, cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance Launchpad will raise funds for project owners or token issuers. They oversee the token sales of blockchain projects, which go through a comprehensive due diligence process that may take as long as six months. ‍In return, the exchanges receive a listing fee and sometimes a percentage of the token sale.

In IEOs, information such as the company’s white paper, founders’ background, token design, and crowdfunding motivations are thoroughly examined before commencing a public sale.

“At Binance Launchpad, one of our core differentiators as a platform is the rigour and depth of our diligence process,” said Lynn Hoang, country director of Binance in Vietnam. “We may do multiple projects in a month, or we may wait a month if we determine we have not found the right project fit.”

The goal of the exchange is to support the ecosystem by offering access to users and assist promising blockchain-based project teams in driving adoption and awareness. Until now, 48 projects have been launched on Binance Launchpad with a total of funds raised of more than US$90 million from over 8 million unique participants.

Also Read: Initial Exchange Offerings are a thing. Here is your catch-up

“Crypto exchanges will have to do their best to safeguard their reputation. A successful listing means that the project is well developed and the exchange gains credibility in the community,” Nguyen explained.” In addition, this fundraising route has gained ground among retail investors as it reduces the risk of scams compared to ICOs [Initial Coin Offerings].”

Given Sky Mavis already had several investors in 2019 and later in 2021, how is it dealing with the stream of retail investors of AXS token?

“When you have new investors, there are new obligations, communications and relationships that you have to manage,” said Youngro Lee, COO at Republic. “That’s part of the journey. They learned very quickly that there’s never free money.” 

Republic is a US-based platform that offers both crowdfunding and token pre-sale instruments for early-stage startups. 

The complexity in the case of Sky Mavis and AXS can be stated as below. Suppose many people invest in the token, but the company’s focus is serving its VC backers’ intention rather than committing to the NFT project. In that case, this will immensely hurt the token investor community. The reverse could also happen.

“How to ensure the benefits for both groups of investors?” Nguyen said. “Our straightforward solution is not to reward our team members upfront.”

Sky Mavis still rewards a small part to members, but most of the amount set aside for the team (21 per cent of the total token supply) belongs to the company. “We have to earn board’s approval before making any fund allocations,” Nguyen said. “And it is subject to a certain lockup period even when the approval has been made.”

The company’s members see the lockup as a motivation to develop the project’s ecosystem, affecting the locked-up token value. Meanwhile, equity investors will be assured that founders will need to grow since the company still holds the token asset. 

This way, investors of both the company and the project will immediately align their incentives.

A similar story in crowdfunding 

This way of dealing with a large number of individual investors resonates with the story of US-based Gumroad. The firm took the crowdfunding route after raising a total of US$8.1 million+ through a group of VCs and angels. However, Gumroad, founded in 2011 in San Francisco with a service for creators to sell their work, failed to secure its Series B in 2015 as there was no interest from VC.

“We failed to raise and had to lay off almost everyone,” Sahil Lavingia, Gumroad’s founder and CEO told Crunchbase.

But after becoming profitable through the revitalisation period, till April 7, 2021, Gumroad used platforms such as WeFunder, StartEngine, SeedInvest, and Republic, to successfully close the remaining US$5 million equity crowdfunding from 7,331 ordinary people, who wanted to invest between US$100 and US$1,000 at the same US$100-million valuation. In addition, part-time Gumroad creators, Lavingia’s Twitter followers, YouTubers, Figma founder Dylan Field, and VC firm partners also co-invested.

This follows a new US regulation, announced on March 15, which enables companies to raise more money via equity crowdfunding, up to US$5 million via Reg CF and US$75 million via Reg A+ in 12 months. “I think it’s more accurate to say that this is our limited version of an ‘IPO,’” Lavingia noted in a blog post.

In the context of crowdfunding or equity crowdfunding, companies are often dealing with a large number of investors, which is very similar to a publicly-traded company. Lavingia even moved it further when he claimed to have already published the company’s financials.

“From that perspective, companies need an online presence and digital communication, whether it’s emails or social media,” Youngro Lee told e27. “Successful companies that are good at investor relations are those that are also very comfortable doing and utilising these kinds of online-based digital distribution channels.”

Gumroad is also open about its decision-making through a “2021 Open Board Meeting” published on the CEO’s Youtube channel. But the CEO realised that having thousands of investors can put external pressure on decision-makers in issues like moderation, de-platforming, and price.

“These are all very different considerations that companies should consider because this is a public process. You can’t have it both ways,” said Lee. “If you’re interested in leveraging the internet, raising capital from a large group of people theoretically could make it a little easier for you to raise capital.”

But if a startup is driven by “super-secretive ideas, trade secrets or intellectual properties,” crowdfunding might not be the right solution.

How do Gumroad and Sky Mavis manage their public presence and relations with both retail investors and VCs? It lies in the fact that their innate business models leverage the “community” concept, in which transparency is vital.

“It depends on the circumstances of the actual company, and what they’re trying to achieve and what kind of investors are looking for,” Lee added. “This will dictate the strategy that they use in terms of what, what specific crowdfunding or other fundraising mechanisms.”

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Image Credit: Gumroad, Sky Mavis, e27

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Indonesia’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) insurance marketplace Lifepal announced today that it has secured an oversubscribed US$9 million Series A funding round.

ProBatus Capital led the round, which also saw participation from Cathay Innovation, Insignia Ventures Partners, ATM Capital and Hustle Fund.

This round takes Lifepal’s total fundraising since inception in 2019 to US$12 million.

Lifepal, which claims to have over four million visitors per month, said in a press note that it will use the fresh funding to improve its product and customer experience.

The company was started by former Lazada executives Giacomo Ficari, Nicolo Robba, and tech professionals Benny Fajarai and Reza Muhammad, with the vision of making financial protection accessible to everyone.

Serving the growing demands of Indonesia’s 270 million population in transparency, convenience, and access to a large selection of products, Lifepal acts as a one-stop platform offering over 300 policies across health, life, automotive, property, and travel.

The firm incorporates both educational content and an online marketplace that enables customers to select the right solutions from the comfort of their homes. Plus, its contact centre model provides live agents to address consumers’ potential questions and aid in payments and claims processing.

“We believe this three-pronged approach, tailored specifically to the needs of the Indonesian market, is driving the impressive growth that Lifepal has demonstrated since its launch last year,” said Ramneek Gupta, founder and managing partner of ProBatus Capital.

Also read: Insurance industry is poised for its “PayPal” in Asia

On top of these building blocks, Lifepal employs data from its financial content and community platform to offer accurate recommendations to consumers by matching them with the right product and customer support representative. This supports Lifepal’s relationship with its customers across the long customer-lifetime-value typical of the insurance industry with claim support, renewals, and cross-selling.

The insurtech firm has formed partnerships with more than 50 insurance agents which include some of the region’s largest players. It also claims to achieve 12x y-o-y expansion and growing 20 per cent m-o-m.

“During the pandemic, we experienced a strong increase in demand due to heightened awareness of health risks combined with the availability of our online platform during a time when in-person visits were avoided by most people,” said CEO Ficari. “We have entered the market at an exciting time: consumer behaviours are shifting online and we have the rare opportunity to continue to scale our traffic & branding to become the dominant online destination for consumers for the years to come.”

The growing middle-class and the rapid adoption of digital services has further Indonesia as one of the fastest-growing insurance markets globally. The market value is expected to reach US$58 billion by 2025, according to Munich Re Economic Research.

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Image credit: Lifepal

 

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Pandemic-driven lockdowns have increased global reliance on and demand for digital financial services such as digital payments and remittance– especially within Southeast Asia.

Boosted by accelerated digital adoption and rising consumer dissatisfaction with traditional bank offerings, not only is the growing digital banking industry expected to generate up to US$60 billion by 2025, but the influence of traditional banks is waning as a result and 18 per cent are projected to shut by 2030.

Many digital banks in the region were created to cater for the sizeable unbanked and underbanked population in Southeast Asia, which is one of the world’s largest.

Their success, as well as the latent opportunity of a previously untapped market, has led to wider acceptance among regional financial regulators and could herald a major democratisation of financial services – as well as driving financial inclusion in SEA.

Staying in the game

Digital banks must survive to be disruptors and drive change. As the incumbent, traditional banks have the advantage of brand trust and recognition, making it hard for digital banks to compete as a newer player.

Some digital banks in other regions have been unsuccessful due to poor funding strategies, focusing on the wrong demographic or failing to inspire customer trust and loyalty, so Southeast Asian digital banks, specifically in the emerging markets like Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines, must avoid repeating these mistakes.

As digital natives, digital banks can leverage technology to lower the cost of funding and provide a better customer experience. For instance, using AI for customer service reduces labour dependency, turnaround times and customer waiting times, resulting in better efficiency and higher customer satisfaction.

Digital banks who have successfully leveraged technology have reported saving 20 to 30 per cent more on their per-account operation costs compared to traditional banks.

Digital banks also need to capture and grow overlooked market segments– such as the underbanked. By adopting a customer-centric vision, they can understand the specialised needs of this demographic and provide a unique value proposition that meets those needs.

This will go a long way towards increasing customer trust and stickiness, thereby helping digital banks build their customer base, scale across the region and further drive financial inclusion in SEA.

Diversifying and personalising lending and financial products

Despite significant inefficiencies in traditional lending systems, resulting in millions of creditworthy individuals being underserved or overpaying for loans, digital banks in other regions have not adequately filled the gap with innovative lending products.

Considering the digital lending industry is projected to be worth US$110 billion by 2025, this is a missed opportunity that Southeast Asian digital banks would do well to capitalise on.

The ‘old wine in new casks’ approach will not be sufficient here: digital banks must innovate to offer novel lending products and experiences to really differentiate themselves from traditional banks.

Also read: 3 ways fintech innovations are enhancing financial inclusion

With data and technology, they can help the unbanked open accounts with no minimum deposits, offer alternative credit scoring assessments for the underserved to qualify for loans, grant loans in five seconds or waive processing or early settlement fees for a higher borrowing limit – all uncommon features among less agile traditional banks.

Digital banks also need not limit themselves to traditional financial products. Southeast Asia’s heterogenous makeup and sizeable population also mean that there are markets for a diverse range of lending products, many of which remain underserved.

Some digital banks in the region have achieved success by innovating new lending products to capitalise on these gaps, such as creating specialised Islamic products and women-focused banking solutions. If digital banks continue to differentiate themselves with more financial innovation, this ensures that more financial needs are being met over a wider demographic distribution by default.

Expanding reach via consortia-driven ecosystems

Digital banks in other geographical regions often operate in vertical structures, which limit their ability to scale and has sometimes led to their downfall.

In contrast, many digital banks in Asia are consortium-driven, which is where partnerships are formed with established companies and associations to provide a myriad of services to customers across super apps or similar platforms. This allows digital banks to reach a far wider pool of customers and makes it easier to onboard them.

Being part of a consortium gives digital banks greater access to more business and consumer data ecosystems. With data-driven technology and analytics, they can be more responsive to changing consumer needs and wants by creating better customer-centric experiences and products that leverage on the strengths of all ecosystem members.

Some consortiums embed digital banking as part of a wider portfolio of everyday services on a single platform, which simplifies and improves financial accessibility – a boon for the underbanked and underserved.

Leading the way for financial inclusion in SEA

The first step to addressing the economic divide within the population is to ensure that everyone has the same access to and understanding of important financial services.

Digital banks play an important role in narrowing the gap by lowering the barriers for the underbanked and the underserved to participate in the financial ecosystem – as long as they can stay abreast of the unique needs of this market and innovate accordingly.

Ultimately, digital banks pave the way for a much-needed shakeup of the financial system and the time is right for them to capitalise on the supportive regulatory climate to improve financial service access.

In this modern age, no one should be deprived of financial services and healthy competition through innovation can only be a net positive for Southeast Asia’s overall socioeconomic growth – not to mention improving lives all around.

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Image credit: antonioguillem

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Malaysian on-demand adtech company Rodeo raises US$270K in funding

How: The money was raised from 85 investors, including Fidelity Funding, VJ Anand (ex-SVP Gojek), Nitesh Malani (chairman Yayasan Usahawan Malaysia), Simpson Wong (MD – XES), Akash Gupta (CEO – Zypp India), Shoant Tan (CEO – TanTanNews and Dipankar Mitra (CEO of Simbiotik Tech).

The money was raised via the equity crowdfunding platform pitchIN.

Also Read: Ex-Lazada execs’ Indonesia-focused D2C insurance startup in Lifepal receives US$9M Series A

Plans: “With the funds, we are able to put efforts towards building and extending more revenue streams rather than sticking to just profit from the usual few media that we use. One of our key strategies that have been put in place will be reaching out to more customers via our Rodeo Home Elevators,” said CEO Valens Subramaniam.

More on Rodeo: An adtech company specialised in transit media and digitalization. It provides an advertising platform using various vehicles such as car, trucks, motorcycles and even bicycles. It connects advertisers to target clients with relevant, interactive, engaging and contextual advertisements. It also provides data and analytics for every campaign that allows advertisers to monitor their campaign’s performance.

Australia’s SEEK invests in JobKorea

The story: SEEK Limited, the Australian listed tech company that owns two leading online employment marketplaces JobStreet and JobsDB in Southeast Asia, today announced a US$48M investment in JobKorea, Korea’s largest online employment platform.

SEEK will own a 10 per cent stake, and Peter Bithos, CEO of SEEK Asia, will join JobKorea’s Board.

Plans: This investment will provide an opportunity for SEEK to add value to JobKorea’s market-leading position, while SEEK focuses on its operations, fast-tracking its ongoing transformation and growth of its existing Asia businesses. SEEK’s digital teams continue to make major inroads in building products and solutions driven by AI and market data, which combined with SEEK’s deep local insights and resources in each location, differentiate it from other international players.

For JobKorea, this partnership will provide an opportunity to leverage SEEK’s experienced management team and their significant expertise in operating global online employment and human capital management platforms.

ZILHive Accelerator unveils new cohort of 8 startups

The story: Zilliqa, a Singapore-based blockchain platform, has announced its 2021-2022 cohort of ZILHive Accelerator projects. Six of the eight startups accepted into the Accelerator this year were advanced from an earlier Incubator programme which began in March. The inaugural 14-week ZILHive Incubator matched technical and non-technical participants into teams that could design and build innovative solutions on the Zilliqa blockchain protocol.

Also Read: VCs, IEOs, and crowdfunding: How the likes of Sky Mavis manage good relationship with each investor

What is ZILHive Accelerator: A six-month programme focused on launching blockchain-enabled projects from concept to commercialisation. The programme is part of ZILHive’s end-to-end ecosystem designed to foster innovative blockchain applications throughout various stages of maturity. Startups in the accelerator will be able to apply for additional funding under ZILHive Grants, aimed at supporting specific pre-launch needs such as regulatory compliance or technical integration with third-party apps.

The eight startups are

Access: Looks to combat ticketing fraud and prevent ticket scalping by issuing tickets as non-fungible tokens

Cerchia: Building blockchain-based tools to help catastrophe bond issuers, re-insurers, and investors better predict and price the risks of natural hazards through crowdsourcing

Green Beanz: A project that aims to incentivise consumer-facing companies and NGOs to improve the transparency and accuracy of their corporate social responsibility and sustainable development goals reporting

HeyAlfie: A smart dashboard for users to manage, invest and borrow digital assets through a single interface, by connecting multiple types of wallets (custodial, non-custodial, and even exchange accounts)

Invopay: An invoice financing platform designed to help small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) better manage their cash flow with low-interest loans secured on the blockchain

MustPool: A gamified no-loss prize protocol, where the deposited principle remains safe and the prizes come from the interest earnings, leveraging different staking and lending dApps on Zilliqa

Tyron SSI Protocol: A self-sovereign identity protocol that enables users to manage access to their data securely, while allowing them to provide verified credentials selectively without relying on middlemen or centralized databases

Ultimate Franchise Fantasy Sports: A fantasy sports platform offering digital asset ownership to sports fans through the use of NFTs to represent athletes in the various sports leagues.

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Image Credit: Rodeo

 

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With a global health crisis that has forced major economies to carry out state-sanctioned lockdowns, businesses have had to come up with creative means to sell their products and services remotely. But what the pandemic has merely caused is accelerating the already increasing prominence of marketplaces.

Many of us might have learned about marketplaces for the first time through social media services such as Facebook, Instagram, Line, and even e-commerce sites like Shopee and Lazada. A marketplace is a space for people to buy and sell products and services. With an easy-to-use, convenient, and fast system, consumers and entrepreneurs can buy and sell products and services by themselves on a convenient platform. The more these products or services are searched for by consumers, the more likely they will be sold.

Also read: Angel Investors: leading the charge for startup growth in Thailand

For Thai startups, there are certainly a variety of factors to consider in making this shift: logistics, consumer demand, product relevance, marketability, the list goes on. In establishing a successful roadmap for innovative ideas to sell on a marketplace instead of general consumer products, is there any place where they can be conveniently sold to consumers, individuals, and corporates alike?

Bridging Thai startups to new markets

Realising the problems about access and limitations caused by COVID-19 that prohibits trade fairs organised for startups, the National Innovation Agency (NIA) of Thailand under the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, in its capacity as the main agency responsible for the promotion and development of the Thai startup ecosystem, has launched a project called “Startup Thailand Marketplace” to educate Thai startups on how to create new markets and reach customers more easily. 

Startup Thailand Marketplace is the space fostered by the NIA to help promote Thai startups, enabling the public to know about them and increasing access to their products or services for B2B and B2C customers. They help raise awareness of these innovative products and services via the Startup Thailand social media channels and other channels in Thailand as well as other countries. Startup

Thailand Marketplace was launched in 2020 to promote Thai startups through three fundamental means:

1. Startup Marketplace is Live Now: A live interview broadcast on the channels of three tech and innovation influencers — Ceemeagain, iT24Hrs, and LDA (Ladies in Digital Age).
   
2. Video clips introducing each startup to help promote them on the social media pages of Startup Thailand (Facebook and Youtube).
3. Articles published via online media to raise awareness and promote each startup to a wider audience.

The concrete success of Startup Thailand Marketplace is the number of Thai startups participating in the platform. Currently, as many as 100 Thai startups are joining Startup Thailand Marketplace.

Access to investors and corporates

A number of investors and corporates interested in the products of Thai startups after they watched Startup Marketplace is Live Now have contacted the platform to ask for important networking details such as the name and contact of the startup that captured their interest. As a result, the startups’ sales have increased by as high as 10-20%.

2021 is the second year that NIA has successfully carried out the Startup Thailand Marketplace in a bid to keep over 100 startups afloat during these trying times caused by COVID-19 and the economic slowdown that came with it.

Also read: How Thailand’s Ricult uses deep tech to improve the lives of smallholder farmers

The project’s strategy this year focuses on the promotion of Thai startups among B2C and B2B customers via two social media channels including:

1. Startup Marketplace is Live Now – Live interviews with 50 startups on the platforms of three influencers including Ceemeagain, iT24Hrs, and Noom Mueang Chan.
2. Interview video clips and articles that highlight the visions and perspectives of over 50 Thai startup founders. The video clips and articles will be posted on the social media pages of Startup Thailand, the NIA, and other pages developed by various sectors.

This is the determination and commitment of the NIA to help promote Thai startups to a wider audience and make their voice louder so that they can overcome the COVID-19 crisis with strength and rigour.

The NIA builds a bridge to bring Thai startups closer to international consumers, investors, companies, and other business entities looking for solutions to their problems. It solidifying their commitment, Thai startups are well on their way to exploring new markets in the region and beyond.

For more information, visit their official page at https://startupthailand.org.

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

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PropertyGuru raises US$150M from REA Asia
REA is currently the third biggest shareholder in the firm with 18% stake behind Epsilon Asia and TPG; The latest investment follows PropertyGuru’s plan to go public through a merger with a SPAC backed by Richart Li and Peter Thiel.

Shopee’s surge pushes Sea Group’s revenue to US$2.3B in Q2
Shopee posted a 160.7% y-o-y growth in its GAAP revenue to stand at US$1.2B; Its Malaysian unit also turned profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis before allocation of the headquarter’s common expenses; This is the second Shopee market after Taiwan to hit this milestone.

500 Southeast Asia makes US$17.9M initial close of third venture fund
The capital came from 18 investors; As per DealStreetAsia, 500 is looking to raise US$75M for the third vehicle; To date, 500 SEA has invested in ~250 firms; Its first generation of investments include Grab, Bukapalak, Carsome, FinAccel, and Carousell.

Philippine cryptocurrency exchange startup PDAX gets US$12.5M funding
Investors include an undisclosed UK-based VC firm (lead), HK-based BC Group, and UnionBank’s VC arm UBX, and Beenext Ventures; The Philippines has seen the third-highest rate of cryptocurrency usage in the world behind Nigeria and Vietnam, according to the World Economic Forum.

Vietnamese real estate brokerage service firm Rever bags US$10.2M from Mekong Capital
Rever follows an O2O model, allowing customers to access property listings via its platform, visit the company’s local transaction centre, or meet property agents in person; VinaCapital, Golden Equator Ventures, and Korea Investment Partners are also investors in the firm.

SGX said to consider lowering minimum SPAC value in final listing framework
It is eyeing a minimum value of around US$110M, down from US$220M; SGX is also understood to be looking into creating flexibility for SPAC sponsors to disclose their target companies upon listing the SPAC.

AirAsia’s Teleport acquires Malaysia’s Gobi Partners-backed Delivereat for US$9.8M
The synergy will support Teleport in expanding to Malaysia while spurring the growth of both Delivereat (food delivery firm) and AirAsia’s logistics venture in ASEAN; The deal values Teleport at US$300M; Apart from Malaysia, Teleport has made inroads into Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Singapore and China.

Thai startup Wisesight nets US$7M Series B to expand its social media analytics solutions in ASEAN
Investors include Krungsri Finnovate and TechMatrix; With its ability to process the data via social media for 20M+ messages a day in Thai, English, Burmese and Malay, Wisesight claims to have served 300+ brands and agencies.

Y Combinator’s latest cohort has 3x the startups from SEA
About 18 companies from the latest batch are SEA firms, up from 6 in the previous batch; The selected Asian startups are headquartered in Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India; As part of the programme, YC will invest US$125K for a 7% stake in each.

GuavaPass co-founders’ new alternative lending startup Jenfi lands US$6.3M
Investors include Monk’s Hill (lead), Korea Investment Partners, and Golden Equator Capital; The startup will use the money for product development, customer acquisition, and SEA expansion; A YC graduate, Jenfi earlier bagged US$25M in a debt round led by US-based Arc Labs.

RaRa Delivery rakes in US$3.25M to provide instant delivery for e-commerce in Indonesia
Lead investors are Sequoia Surge and East Ventures; While other companies with express logistics infrastructure focus on one-to-one deliveries, RaRa Delivery has developed real-time batching technology to do ‘many-to-many’ deliveries within a few hours.

The 27 Indonesian startups that have taken the ecosystem to next level this year
These Indonesian startups have made the nation proud in this Independence Day. It has proven to be a challenging –yet historical– year.

Philippine e-commerce enabler Etaily US$1.6M seed funding
Investors include Ayala Ventures, Foxmont Capital, Magsaysay Shipping & Logistics, and Boston Consulting Group; Etaily claims it has generated more than one million transactions and made more than 50K unique products available in countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.

Dairy-substitutes brand Mohjo bags seed funding
Invetsors include East Ventures, iSeed SEA, K3 Ventures, and angels; The D2C brand recently launched its first line of products — almond milk and almond milk-based beverages in Singapore.

MindFi raises US$750K, makes it into Y Combinator
Investors include iGlobe Partners, M Venture Partners, Koh Boon Hwee, Patsnap CEO Jeffrey Tiong, Zopim co-founder Lim Qing Ru; MindFi will use the funds to accelerate product development and localisation for key markets in Asia and further build a team of mental health experts, innovators and researchers.

Plant-based foodtech startup Shandi raises US$700K seed funding
Investors are Tolaram (lead), SparkLabs Cultiv8, and Simmarpal Singh, ex-CEO (India) at Louis Dreyfus; The funding will be used to set up a manufacturing facility in Singapore to commercialise and scale Shandi’s proprietary plant-based chicken products.

4 lessons for first-time founders embarking on their entrepreneurial journey
After partnering with several founders through our work at Picus Capital, we want to share lessons about starting and building ventures (e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast or infographic).

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Image Credit: PropertyGuru

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Rever, a Vietnamese tech-enabled real estate brokerage platform, has announced that it has secured a US$10.2 million funding round from Mekong Enterprise Fund IV (MEF IV), bringing its total funding to US$16.5 million.

As per a statement, Rever will use the fresh investment to grow its management team, strengthen corporate culture, and accelerate the development of technology features. Besides, the new capital also gives Rever a chance to get essential resources in achieving its vision to become the leading proptech company in Vietnam. 

Founded in 2016 by Manh Phan (CEO) and Loi Vo (CTO), former executives of Zalo, a messaging platform of Vietnam’s original unicorn VNG, Rever offers real-estate brokerage service that follows an online-to-offline model. The company claims to provide a transparent estate transaction process by applying technology to authenticate real estate listings. At the same time, it ensures the verified online information for customers.

The company has grown its headcount from 80 to 300 staff. It aims to optimise its business to 20 provinces and cities, along with 200 transaction centres, and 20,000 brokers in Vietnam by 2025.

Rever boasts of clocking 50,000 verified listings and reaching 2,000 transactions in 2020, which has increased 10 times since 2017. 

In June 2019, the startup bagged a US$4 million funding from VinaCaptial, a US$100-million Vietnam-focused fund. Three months later, GEC-KIP Technology and Innovation Fund and Korea Investment Partners together put in US$2.3 million in Rever.

Launched in 2021, MEF IV expects to make a total of approximately 12 investments during its 10-year life. Until now, it has secured five published deals, including Rever. 

Proptech is gaining traction in Vietnam’s startup investment landscape in recent years.

In 2020, prominent Vietnamese proptech startup Propzy raised US$25 million in a Series A round led by Gaw Capital and SoftBank Ventures Asia, the early-stage venture arm of SoftBank Group. In the same year, Y Combinator-backed Homebase also announced “seven-figure” funding in pre-Series A from VinaCapital Ventures, Class 5 Global, Pegasus Tech Ventures, 1982 Ventures, and  Antler, among others.

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The Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) announced today it has raised US$12.5 million (₱ 630 million) in funding led by an unknown VC firm based in the UK, with participation from Hong Kong-listed fintech company BC Group.

Most of PDAX’s existing investors, including Beenext and CMT Digital, besides Ripple and several prominent family offices in the country, also joined the round.

UBX, the VC arm of leading Filipino digital bank UnionBank, is also an investor in the firm.

Also Read: Inside the changing landscape of Asian cryptocurrency exchanges

Nichel Gaba, founder and CEO of PDAX, said that the latest investment would fuel its short- and long-term growth plans as it continues to expand, improve, and roll out more products and features to help digitise the financial services landscape in the country.

Launched in 2018, PDAX is a cryptocurrency exchange. It provides Filipinos with a platform to trade the world’s leading digital assets, including Bitcoin, directly with PHP and at globally competitive rates.

The company claims it has seen 25x growth in user count and an 80x rise in monthly volumes since the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020. In the latter part of that year, PDAX also launched a mobile app.

It has also expanded into tokenised securities by collaborating with the Bureau of the Treasury and Unionbank in launching Bonds.PH. Bonds.PH is the world’s first blockchain-enabled app that allows retail investors to invest in retail treasury bonds right from their mobile devices.

PDAX plans to continue developing its cryptocurrency exchange into a world-class platform. PDAX also intends to add more features and support more digital assets towards the end of the year.

The company also looks to grow the Bonds.PH app by introducing more investment options and features, particularly for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who want to invest in the country.

According to Gaba, today, the world needs inclusive financial services more than ever. However, the age-old problems such as the lack of accessible, secure, and affordable ways to transact and invest remain.

Also Read: Why only regulation can solve cryptocurrency’s perception problem

“We are in a golden age of cryptocurrency adoption and technology-driven transformation in the Philippines,” Gaba added. “We are already making remittances into the country much cheaper by helping remittance companies utilise cryptocurrencies. We also provide them with a deep and liquid market to convert crypto into Philippine pesos.”

According to the World Economic Forum, the Philippines has seen the third-highest rate of cryptocurrency usage in the world behind Nigeria and Vietnam.

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Blogging startup Hashnode raises US$6.7M in Series A

Investors: Salesforce Ventures (lead), Sierra Ventures, Sequoia Capital’s Surge, Accel Partners, Naval Ravikant (co-founder, Angellist), Des Traynor (co-founder, Intercom), Guillermo Rauch (co-founder, Vercel), Salil Deshpande (general partner, Uncorrelated) and Ed Roman (managing director, HackVC).

The plans: The funding will be used to continue to grow the platform’s user base, accelerating its mission of becoming the number one platform for software development, engineering, and technology content – in turn, powering the creator economy for the rapidly expanding developer community.

There are now nearly 25 million developers working worldwide, so there’s a huge market opportunity for Hashnode to help plug knowledge gaps – particularly important as remote working remains popular among developers.

O2O marketplace for building materials, home finishing products HOMA2U secures US$570K

Investor: Warisan Quantum Management.

Plans: Serving both KL and JB market, HOMA’s next expansion plan is 10 more new locations by 2022 using the manless material box concept namely Yellow Box to reach the target RM100m milestone by 2024. It also looks towards prioritising the sustainability factors in their day-to-day business operations to reduce the environmental impact.

Also Read: Ex-Zalo executives’ protech startup Rever snags US$10.2M from Mekong Capital

More on HOMA2U: HOMA2U is a new retail platform that offers building material and home finishing products at bargains that focus on sustainability. Founded in 2017, HOMA has repurposed more than RM20 million worth of overstock inventories to more than 8,000 homes. The platform currently houses more than 500 professional profiles including Architect, Interior Designer, Contractor.

Korea’s AI job matching platform Wanted Lab launches IPO in KOSDAQ

The story: Wanted began trading publicly on the KOSDAQ and drew a competitive IPO subscription of 1,731 to 1, accumulating a deposit of over 5.5 trillion korean won. After pricing shares at 35,000 krw in its IPO, Wanted saw its shares double in price to open for trading, then further hitting the upper pricing limit of 30% by the first day of trading last Wednesday.

More on Wanted: Founded in 2015, Wanted is a referral-based recruitment model that incentivises people to leverage their social and professional networks to refer talent to jobs for a monetary reward. It has over 10,000 companies recruiting on the platform. It has a community of 2 million professionals in five Asian markets, including Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

It offers Wanted Gigs (freelancer matching platform), Wanted+ (online videos for learning/career development), and RoundUp (video interview collaboration tool).

The company is also leveraging its recent acquisitions of KreditJob and CommonSpace (B2B employee management solution) to expand its reach across the entire lifespan of a person’s working career.

Plant-based food-tech company raises US$700K seed funding

Investors: Singapore-headquartered Tolaram (lead), Australia-based foodtech accelerator SparkLabs Cultiv8, and former CEO-India for Louis Dreyfus and prominent angel investor Simmarpal Singh.

The plans: The fresh funding will be used to set up a manufacturing facility in Singapore to commercialise and scale Shandi’s proprietary plant-based chicken products, including expanding partnerships in the food sector. While Shandi has produced chicken analogues in various formats such as pieces, shreds, strips and drumsticks, part of the proceeds would be allocated to further product innovation and development on new textures, formats, and other meat analogues.

Also Read: PDAX raises US$12.5M to take advantage of the popularity of cryptocurrencies in Philippines

More on Shandi: Shandi was founded in 2019 by food industry expert, research veteran and lifelong vegetarian Dr Reena Sharma. The foodtech company uses a unique process to develop and manufacture their plant-based chicken, which is made only with natural, non-GMO ingredients such as pea protein, chickpeas, quinoa, flax seeds, brown rice, and coconut oil, and is free from artificial flavourings and other additives.

Shandi’s patent-pending production process involves isolating specific amino acids from plants to emulate the amino acid profile found in chicken. This results in an end-product that is like chicken not only in its nutritional composition, but also in the way the animal-meat releases certain molecules (called pre-cursors) during the cooking process. This is a paramount and often overlooked element in designing a meat alternative as many manufacturers add artificial flavours that die or do not react during the cooking process. By re-creating the taste using natural amino acids instead of chemical additives, flavourings, and seasonings, Shandi is able to offer a product that is tasty, nutritious, and versatile at a highly competitive price.

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Buying an insurance policy can be overwhelming for some. There are pages of policy details with a lot of small print and hard-to-understand terms to consider, while deciding which type of policy, such as life, health and home insurance, you need can also be a difficult decision to make.

It’s been that way for a long time, with big, slow-moving legacy insurance firms dominating the market for more than a century, investing little in innovation and technology and failing to connect with large swathes of the population.

Finally, though, the industry is on the cusp of a major transformation. It’s poised for a “PayPal moment” that will make coverage options simpler, more accessible and affordable for millions of previously excluded people.

Similar to my experience in tech-driven and customer-centric disruption in other financial services such as payments and lending, I expect that insurtech will scale up from a product-market fit and innovation theatre stage in the next two to three years, demanding that traditional firms adapt or die while ushering in innovative new partnerships and digital-first players.

The shift is already well underway, led by the US and Europe. In the first five months of this year, European insurtech firms raised US$1.9 billion across 52 deals, surpassing all of 2020’s total by US$1 billion.

Globally, the insurance industry grew sluggish three per cent from 2010 to 2019. But the best-performing quartile of players registered growth of around 19 per cent in the same period, showing that there are opportunities for players who identify promising sub-markets and are able to deliver customised products.

While Asia is still in the early stages of insurtech adoption, there’s good reason to believe it will be its most exciting frontier. The region has leapfrogged the West in many digital services thanks to its rapid adoption of mobile apps and high levels of connectivity.

Also Read: Fuse closes Series B in a GGV Capital-led round to grow its insurtech platform beyond Indonesia

This comes amid low credit-card penetration and a high unbanked population in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.

Both countries have a huge population of young, digitally savvy consumers and micro business entrepreneurs who have largely been disconnected from the insurance industry and who stand to benefit enormously from better, more flexible and accessible coverage.

Less than four per cent of Indonesia’s 270 million people have insurance coverage, for example. In the Philippines, the rate is at around two per cent. With no ties to legacy insurers, these consumers represent a massive opportunity for innovative newcomers.

Since insurance penetration is low, I anticipate that more insurtech will focus on innovating the distribution of products to the unbanked and underbanked customer segments of the population.

Reforming the traditional insurance industry

The big problem for traditional insurance players in tapping this market has always been their distance from consumers. Customers tend to come to insurance companies when events dictate they need a policy, but firms have otherwise lacked a way of continuously engaging with people to better understand their needs. This is where technology and smart partnerships have the potential to supercharge the industry.

By going direct to consumers through their smartphones, insurers can finally bridge that gap and build a much richer understanding of customers through individualised data.

In doing so, they can change the current event-based model into a transaction or engagement model and lower the negativity attached to insurance from customers’ point of view.

This will enable them to create individualised, simple, low-cost policies that meet the needs of these countries’ rapidly expanding middle class.

After partnering with insurance companies, Oriente’s customer’s experience 72-hour, no-questions-asked claim processing and flexible policies based on predictive risk that fit with an individual’s work/life balance. The customer-centric features will enable these players to expand their reach and opportunities for further engagement.

Southeast Asia is already seeing a flurry of insurtech activity. In Indonesia, MicroEnsure, Qoala, PasarPolis, Fuse and bolttech are among the innovative startups that are partnering with insurers and distribution platforms in the lending and payments space and are already making an impact.

In 2020 alone, six new insurtech companies were approved in Indonesia and more have applied for a license, which reflects the willingness of the country’s Financial Services Authority to back the digital insurance industry.

Also Read: Why Asia’s insurance industry is poised for collaborative disruption

I expect that companies like Cover Genius, iptiQ, bolttech and MicroEnsure will continue to expand their presence in multiple Asian countries, including the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, where insurtech players are starting to disrupt traditional players and annual growth in the sector is expected to reach nine per cent by 2025.

A great strength of the technology platforms will be their ability to gather data much more dynamically and in more detail than firms still relying on paper forms, enabling them to erode established companies’ century-old advantage in just a few years.

To avoid becoming dinosaurs, traditional firms will need to partner with digital platforms focused on channel distribution, customer experience, conversion ratios and performance marketing.

Oriente, for example, is already receiving testimonials from young customers in Indonesia and the Philippines, all of whom express their approval of the quick, simple onboarding process and rapid claims processing on auto and travel policies.

However, the inflexion point at which insurtech platforms will become the new normal isn’t quite here yet. Countries still have to put in place regulatory frameworks that fully clear the way, a process that’s likely to take some years and will be delayed by the traditional industry’s lobbying efforts.

But I see the inflexion point is inevitable, just as it was for the payments and lending fintech industry. Led by Indonesia, insurtech is expected to drive growth of US$8 billion in new premiums in Southeast Asia by 2024/25, becoming increasingly fundamental to the industry’s success.

Once regulations for digital insurance are in place, we will likely see a decisive shift as it moves from the area of innovation to being adopted across the industry as core to operations.

To avoid being left behind, traditional players should be developing strategies now to build the IT architecture and partnerships they’ll need to tap new customers and show them that insurance can be a much more positive experience that is aligned with the region’s untapped, underbanked population.

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