Bounty Media co-founders Jake Denney (L) and Claes Loberg

SOSV invests in zero-party data platform Bounty Media

Who is Bounty Media: Founded in November 2019 in Singapore, Bounty Media is an adtech and martech platform offering a monetisation solution for advertisers and publishers.

The plans: Bounty Media has partnered with Vidio and Viu in Indonesia to serve their collective 70 million monthly active users. It will be rolling out throughout Southeast Asia and greater APAC through 2021 and 2022, expanding its content partners to include entertainment, education and language learning, mobile gaming and more.

Also Read: Meet these 5 verified Experts that are ready to connect with you today

The connection with SOSV Mobile Only Accelerator is also timely as Bounty Media will be able to provide an extra monetization platform that underpins the 105 million users inside the MOX ecosystem, offering the ability for global brands to entertain audiences with premium content, apps, education, and news media in exchange for first-party data.

The deal brings Bounty Media’s total seed round raised to SGD550,000 (US$415,000).

gojek rumoured to have bought shares in retail giant Matahari

The story: PT Multipolar, backer of IDX-listed PT Matahari Putra Prima, is rumoured to have sold its shares to three companies — PT Pradipa Darpa Bangsa (4.76 per cent), Panbridge Investment (3.33 per cent), and Threadmore Capital (3.81 per cent).

Pradipa Darpa Bangsa is rumoured to have a link with ride-hailing giant gojek as they happen to be sharing a single address.

Matahari said in a statement that it has no information regarding the relationship between Pradipa Darpa Bangsa and gojek Indonesia.

gojek Chief Corporate Affairs Nila Marita declined to comment.

According to Matahari Corporate Secretary Danny Kojongian: “There is no information or fact that has not been conveyed that will significantly affect the company.”

Korea’s Giftiicon enters India

The story: Giftiicon, a Korean gifting platform, has launched in India with a new app startup specifically designed for the market.

What is Giftiicon?: Founded by father-daughter duo Nakkyun Chong and Ji Hyun Chong, the platform focuses on the casual gifting market where the act of giving and receiving gifts becomes instantaneous, impulsive and hassle free.

The app enables users to send a gift of their choice in just 30 seconds through SMS and WhatsApp without necessarily knowing the address of the recipient.

Target group: Aimed at millennials and Gen Z, the concept behind the platform is to simplify the gifting process and eliminate cumbersome registration requirements along with personal information.

Giftiicon allows users to pick from multiple categories of gifts listed on the platform, from F&B and Cosmetics to Home Decor and Flowers. At the time of redemption, users have the option of visiting the store to pick up the gift or request a pick-up via apps like Dunzo who is Giftiicon’s delivery partner. They also provide the option of scheduling a gift so that users remember important dates like birthdays or anniversaries. There is also a Gen Z focused unique feature called ‘Tease’, that lets users request a gift.

For the merchant, Giftiicon enables pan-India marketing and requires no extra inventory investment as products are only required when the gift is paid for. Giftiicon also has tie-ups with payment gateways, which eliminates the hassle of POS integration and encourages immediate purchases.

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Image Credit: Bounty Media

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In this latest coverage of e27 Luminaries, we are taking a look at the internal work of an organisation –the foundation of every successful business.

While we previously looked at people who contribute to developing great products and bringing those products to the market, today we are putting the spotlight on the operations and administrative heroes of the companies. People who are leading initiatives to improve how an organisation work, enabling them to face challenges in a particularly difficult time such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are different elements involved in operations and administration management, from human resource to finance. In this article, we are looking at high-achieving professionals that have supported their teams with their work:

Marlon Ramirez, Head of Operations at Ayannah

As the company’s Head of Operations, Ramirez played a great role in helping Ayannah’s navigate the changes brought by the pandemic, enabling it to continue its growth trajection.

“When the pandemic struck and the company reverted to a work from home set-up, Marlon and his team were able to ensure that our operations ran smoothly. Despite the pandemic, Ayannah grew eight times in 2020 and we attribute our success to the operations team’s ability to continuously serve our customers.”

Viktor Kyosev, Acting COO at Greenhouse

Greenhouse is one example of companies that have managed to survive the pandemic by pivoting their business –from operating a coworking space to providing a platform for curated B2B services marketplace.

“Viktor has shown how important it is to adapt even in the most challenging times. The pandemic dealt a deadly blow to the coworking sector, however, Greenhouse managed to emerge with a whole new business model in order to survive.”

Viktor Kyosev, Greenhouse. Image Credit: Greenhouse

Also Read: Winning the deal: Meet the business development professionals of e27 Luminaries

Punto Adhil Dewanto, Administrative Staff at Inavoice

The Jogjakarta-based startup is an example of a platform that launched itself at the peak of the pandemic –yet it managed to secure significant clients from the central bank to the leading FMCG companies in Indonesia. According to Inavoice, as an administrative staff, Dewanto played a crucial role in establishing the company.

“This person is credited with his ideas of developing a dexterous modern administrative form, and supporting the brand’s internal operations. Sometimes, [he could be] working more than the allotted time … Even though he is not the founder, Punto is a very important person in Inavoice.”

Punto Adhil Dewanto, Inavoice. Image Credit: Inavoice

Ming Hui Lee, Partner, Head of Operations at Moovaz

In 2020 alone, in the middle of the pandemic, Moovaz announced two acquisitions: the first one of expat-focussed media company The Finder, followed by van-hailing platform GetVan.

These major moves indicated the company’s growth from strength to strength and can only be achieved through a solid foundation in operations.

Ming Hui Lee, Moovaz. Image Credit: Moovaz

Jean Rosy Tency, Head of HR at MYCL

During the COVID-19 pandemic, MYCL found themselves shifting the focus of their operations towards the health and safety of their team members. The company even set up a task force to help employees transition to working from home setups.

“The challenges of working from home include not being able to unplug after hours, difficulties collaborating and/or communicating with colleagues, and a lack of motivation. [Tency] consistently initiated monthly activity engagement for team members,” the company explains. “Although productivity is important, the primary goal of these activity engagements … should be to maintain productivity while concurrently protecting employees’ mental health and well-being.”

As a result, the company has zero COVID-19 cases in 2020 and managed to save a considerable amount of cash.

Lee Chee Meng, Co-Chief Operations Officer at Pickupp

In a post that Meng has contributed to e27, he explained the three trends that will reshape the logistics and retail industry in Singapore in 2021 as the economy recovers from the pandemic.

“There will be opportunities for growth in 2021 as we learn to adjust to the post-COVID-19 world and form business decisions around the new trends and parameters,” he wrote. “New trends have emerged at the back of these customer behaviour shifts and it is vital for SMEs.”

Pickupp itself has announced a Series A funding round in November 2020.

Lee Chee Meng, Pickupp. Image Credit: Pickupp

Alexandre Wallemacq, Operations Manager at Propseller

In October 2020, proptech startup Propseller announced a US$1.2 million seed funding round that became a testimony to the strength of its operations as a relatively new platform in the ecosystem.

The startup said that it plans to use the funding to support talent acquisitions and product development, with the goal to triple its team size within the first half of 2021.

Also Read: Innovating for the future: Meet the engineers, developers, and products managers of e27 Luminaries

Lynette Seow, COO at Safe Space

The most interesting part about Seow’s journey with Safe Space, a Singapore-based startup that works in mental healthcare, is that she started out as a volunteer before joining the company as its COO.

“She has proven integral in the scaling of Safe Space and we would like to recognise her for leading both our product and research efforts,” the company writes.

The company announced a US$250,000 seed funding round in November 2020.

Lynetter Seow, Safe Space. Image Credit: Safe Space

Durgalakshmi Sathiakumar, COO at Shiok Meats

Alternative protein is one of the most popular verticals in foodtech today, especially as customers are becoming more health- and eco-conscious since the pandemic. Shiok Meats, a Singapore-based company, is one of the leading companies in the vertical.

In September 2020, the company made headlines with its US$12.6 million Series A funding round -a testimony to the strength of their operations and trust given by investors.

Durgalakshmi Sathiakumar, Shiok Meats. Image Credit: Shiok Meats

Nandini Joshi, Chief Operating Officer at StashAway

The COVID-19 pandemic and the restriction measures implemented in many countries have pushed businesses to make adjustments in their daily operations, and Joshi played a crucial role in making sure that the Singapore-based company is able to meet those requirements.

“Nandini let the internal coordination for us during the COVID-19 period and was the one that ensured that we met the restrictions and regulations imposed,” StashAway explains.

This week, as evidence of investors’ trust in the company, StashAway announced a US$25 million Series D funding round.

Nandini Joshi, StashAway. Image Credit: StashAway

Yin Ching Loh, Chief Financial Office | Head of Network at WhiteCoat

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of having access to healthcare services, and this is the issue that Loh has managed to tackle during her time at WhiteCoat.

“Yin Ching started and dramatically expanded our network of allied healthcare providers last year, successfully diversifying WhiteCoat’s suite of offerings from primary care (GP) to include specialist care and mental wellness service in the midst of the pandemic … Our users can now teleconsult a variety of licensed medical practitioners on the WhiteCoat app, at their convenience and in the safety of their own homes.”

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The e27 Luminaries is an initiative by e27 to celebrate the unsung heroes of the SEA startup ecosystem. Discover these notable companies and individuals here.

Image Credit: Studio Republic on Unsplash

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2021 has been a breakthrough year for the Korean startup ecosystem despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Korean Chat API startup Sendbird raised $100 million in Series C funding with a valuation of $1.05 billion. Sendbird is now one of the 12 unicorn startups based out of South Korea. South Korea’s largest e-commerce company, Coupang, raised around $4.6 billion in the biggest US initial public offering (IPO) this year. In the first quarter of 2021, at least 34 companies (many of which were tech startups), have applied to the Korea Exchange (KRX) for IPOs.

South Korea wants to grow its tech ecosystem and digital economy by making it easier for startups from abroad to expand in the country. The South Korean government aims to attract global startups to set up operations in South Korea and help broaden the spectrum of tech-related products and services available in the vibrant market.

As such, startups from around the world are now able to apply to K-Startup Grand Challenge 2021, South Korea’s government-backed global acceleration programme. The programme started accepting applications from April 15, 2021.

Organised and financed by the Korean government, South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) and National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), the programme represents an unparalleled opportunity for startups to expand into the South Korean and wider Asian markets.

What global startups can expect from the programme

The programme opens up a slew of perks for all interested participants. KSGC 2021 will offer 60 teams and entrepreneurs an all-expenses-paid, 3.5-month residency programme in South Korea that includes access to expert guidance, co-working spaces, state-of-art R&D labs, corporate partnerships, entry to Asian markets, and more.

Not only that, but startups will be able to immerse in a conducive environment where they have access to some of the latest innovations today. The acceleration programme is hosted at the startup campus in Pangyo Techno Valley, a tech hub near Seoul. The top ten chosen startups will also win grants worth $320,000, with the first-placed team receiving $120,000.

The programme has historically yielded some of the most successful expansions by global startups into the region.

Texas-based health-tech startup Ommo technologies spread its reach to the Asian markets with participation in the K-Startup Grand Challenge 2020 programme. Since joining the KSGC programme in the summer of 2020, Ommo technologies has raised US $3M led by Korean investors.

Kyul Ko, Co-founder & COO, Ommo technologies shared — “KSGC helped pave the way for us to reach out to potential investors and partners. Not only does the Korean government support domestic startups, but it also helps international startups help find their home in Korea to take advantage of the support it provides, KSGC being the epitome. Once you are able to run your business successfully in Korea, then all of Asia is within reach.”

How interested participants can join

To apply, startups must be less than seven years old, and their representative must be of foreign nationality. They must also demonstrate a clear interest in expanding into the Korean and East Asian markets.

The programme first launched in 2016, aims to promote the expansion of an open entrepreneurship ecosystem in Asia and assist in South Korea’s evolution into a prominent startup and business hub in the region. In the year 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the programme saw a 58% surge in applications, with 2,648 teams applying from 118 countries.

For further information and to apply for the K-Startup Grand Challenge, visit the website at https://www.k-startupgc.org. You may also check the Facebook page and the LinkedIn page for more information and further updates.

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

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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When you are just launching a business or entering the market with a brand-new product, due to resource constraints, you may be tempted to cut corners and use a minimally viable product. However, refusal from QA is not only the fastest way to exit from the market — but also missed opportunities.

QA can help your business “get ahead”, beat your competitors, and engage a lot of customers. All this because QA can be useful for startups not only in the form of testing. This is what I want to talk about in the article.

What do you see under the headings “Why a startup needs testing” most often?

•  Testing helps reduce budgets for improvements and bug fixing. The Pareto principle works here: 20 per cent of the testing budget will cost 80 per cent of the budget for improvements and bug fixing, and vice versa, 80 per cent of the testing budget will cost 20 per cent of the budget for improvements and bug fixing.
•  Your reputation and user loyalty. Yes, a new product needs to be loved by users; this is the only way to expand its audience. If your product has bugs or an inconvenient functionality, it will lose its audience and, probably, its market vitality.
• Developers are not testers. In startups, testing is often performed by everyone who can do it, for example, by developers. However, developers cannot properly test their products. They fail to look at the product from the user’s perspective, and it is more difficult for them, as creators, to evaluate its functionality and usability critically, the same cannot be said for testers.

This is the most relevant thing to come out, probably. While all of the above is actually true, there are still important things that few people talk about, but which are no less important for a startup and the growth of its business indicators. 

Competition analysis

Competitive analysis is a must-have for a new product. You need it to understand whether your product is better or worse in comparison with direct or indirect competitors. And this is what you could and should contact a QA engineer with.

Firstly, you need it to understand why competing products are better or worse; what new features they have; whether users like these features; what you can improve/change in your product to get more users. Without this information, you can hardly keep your finger on the pulse and maintain your product’s competitiveness in the market.

Also read: Why the success of your startup depends on software testing

Secondly, you need it, if you are just starting. Suppose that you have a new product. There is already something similar in the market. Ideally, you need to understand the user’s path with a competitor’s product — what users like, what is convenient for them, and what they don’t like; whether the competitor has cool features.

To do so, you collect a list of competitors and give it to QA engineers. They go through the functionality of all websites/apps, making a difference map, finding functional errors with competitors or some cool features that you did not take into account. This is your advantage and your chance to beat your competitors without making the same errors in your product functionality or to make it more convenient and more user-friendly than competing products.

Again, why a QA engineer? Indeed, you have developers, analysts, and the marketing service, after all. That is, QA engineers have a thorough vision, an extensive experience in both following the user’s path and understanding user logic. That is all you need for high-quality analysis.

Product logic

QA experts are those who would rather torment you with questions than leave any doubts concerning the product logic. A QA engineer knows what elements can interact with each other; how they might interact; a QA engineer understands the consequences of functional and logical errors.

This person starts asking questions like an ordinary user: How the system will behave further? What will the user do? If the user does this, where will this lead them? During a question session, errors in the product logic are often revealed.

We had such a case: our customer brought us some functionality for testing, and we started asking questions. It turned out that there were many inconsistencies in the product, more precisely, in the product logic. As a result, the product was sent back for revision, and not to its developers but to the marketing service, because of some issues that had not been studied initially at the stage of discussion with insurance companies and lawyers.

If such a product got to users, there would be global problems stemming from the errors in the logic itself. This is where the Pareto rule works, which I mentioned above.

Setting up work processes

As a rule, you need this in the case of a large startup and several divisions in your team. The product quality depends on how clearly the tasks and regulations for their implementation are set in your team; how transparent and understandable are the work processes.

Also Read: AI software testing platform Autify receives US$2.5M seed round, gearing up for global launch

Work processes are also interactions within your team or between teams/ divisions as well as the development processes themselves.

What is interaction within a team? Who should ask questions and to whom? What should be the form of these questions? How and to whom are tasks transferred? Who is responsible for what? And the list of questions goes on.

What are development processes? It is the development life cycle consisting of analytics, development, testing, and support. Here, it is important to understand the whole chain: How does the analytics work? Who is involved at this stage? What are the task statuses? When and to whom do the tasks transfer?

What is going on in your development team, and what are the testers’ activities meanwhile? How do they interact with analysts and developers at this stage? And many more questions to follow.

A QA engineer can set all this from scratch, adjust it, supervise it. So to speak, the QA is a big eye for the project, looking after all the processes, analysing and searching for any bottleneck that could potentially have a negative effect on the quality.

If any problems in the processes, even trivial ones: your designers and developers failed to agree, or marketers disagree with designers, the issues will occur when it comes to the product quality.

Some task may get lost in the depths of processes to eventually stay on the sidelines of the release. Finally, users will receive a low-quality product, and your business will rack up losses.

Startups need testing not only to avoid critical errors. You should not think of testers as experts looking for bugs only. Startups can find in testing a huge potential for growth and development, which is essential for a product that is just entering the market.

This is a competitive advantage that can help you acquire more loyal users and outperform your competitors in the market.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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

Image credit: Ildefonso Polo on Unsplash

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To learn more about the costs that diners face when ordering food to their homes, ValueChampion analysed the price of test orders from three of the most popular food delivery apps in Singapore: GrabFood, Foodpanda and Deliveroo.

We found that each app has different benefits and disadvantages for consumers, including not only the total cost of ordering but also promotional offers and the selection of open restaurants.

Methodology

We simulated 60 orders from 20 restaurants in Singapore across GrabFood, Foodpanda and Deliveroo. Using each app, we selected the same order from the same restaurant and compared the resulting fees, totals, promotions and estimated delivery times.

The test orders were simulated over the course of multiple weeks at various times, including both lunch and dinner. We ordered from a variety of restaurants and ordered quantities ranging from one to four individual servings. Some of the menu items we chose for the testing included dumplings, Korean BBQ, pizza, Mexican, Indian, and poke.

Besides the cost of the food itself, most delivery apps charge variable delivery fees, service fees and if applicable, small order fees.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: ByteDance game plan, and does AirAsia foray into food delivery even make sense?

Key findings

One of the first things we saw was that restaurants almost always offered the same menu prices across the three delivery apps. However, the addition of app fees led to significant differences in cost depending on which app we used to order an entree. These extra charges included:

Because platform fees were consistently very low and small order fees only appeared occasionally, we chose to focus on delivery fees. When we analysed orders where no promotions were offered, Foodpanda had the lowest average delivery fee of S$2.94, compared to S$3.04 at Deliveroo and S$3.76 at GrabFood. This included 9 of the 20 different entrees we ordered.

How much do delivery apps charge per order?

Despite FoodPanda’s clear advantage in terms of its low fee ratio, Deliveroo did find ways to compete closely on cost thanks to its many promotions. As for GrabFood, it consistently charged the highest average delivery fee regardless of promotions being available.

Also Read: AirAsia launches food delivery services in Singapore, promises 5 per cent lower fees than competitors

Overall, we also noticed that delivery app fees are actually the highest for smaller orders. Only seven orders had app fee totals over $S5, and six of them involved a food order costing less than S$15.

Deliveroo offered free delivery promotions more frequently than either Foodpanda or GrabFood. Out of the 11 orders that received promotions, Deliveroo accounted for nine of those orders, and all nine promotions included free delivery.

When we look at orders with no promotions, Foodpanda came out slightly ahead on delivery fees with an average of S$2.94. Without the promos, Deliveroo’s average delivery fee increases to S$3.04 and GrabFood remains the highest at S$3.76.

Small order fees can be expensive, especially when compared to the lower price of an individual meal. Some apps charge small order fees on orders that are below a certain dollar amount, which varies by restaurant. Deliveroo was the most expensive in this area, charging most of the small order fees we saw in our testing.

Although we only saw small order fees on nine of the 60 orders we tested, the actual fee amount was unpredictable. The small order fees we recorded ran from S$0.25 to over S$20.00, with an average of S$3.95. Out of the three apps we used, Deliveroo charged the highest and most frequent small order fees.

GrabFood and Foodpanda did not charge small order fees as often as Deliveroo, and when they did, they were under S$1.00. Small order fees have the biggest impact on individual orders, making it even more expensive for a single person to order food.

Also Read: Understanding the economics of food delivery platforms

This makes it important for solo diners to check multiple delivery apps or consider a different restaurant to avoid small order fees.

In our experiment, it took trial and error to find restaurants available on all three delivery apps. A restaurant would often only be available on one app, or in the case of chain restaurants, not every location would be on every app.

Several times, we observed that GrabFood tended to have restaurants we couldn’t find as active on the other apps.

What’s more interesting is that for restaurants available on all three apps, operating hours varied. A restaurant would be available to order from on one app but closed on a different one.

This can be due to a restaurant favouring a certain app over another (and not using that app) or not updating their operating hours on all apps. If the restaurant you’re trying to order from is closed on one app, it doesn’t hurt to check a different app.

Delivery times and food costs are similar

Our study didn’t find major differences in the cost of actual menu items or estimated delivery times across delivery apps. When food costs differed, it was generally because of a promotional discount for the specific restaurant.

Average estimated delivery times were similar across platforms, ranging from 29 minutes to 31 minutes.

Savvy consumers will understand why it makes sense to shop around when it comes to food delivery. Our data suggests that as a rule, you should check the restaurant you want on multiple apps in order to avoid small order fees.

Deliveroo is running any free delivery promotions. If you want something that’s not on FoodPanda or Deliveroo, you may have to spend more on GrabFood to get it.

Also Read: Weekly Cornerplay: Which is Singapore’s best food app?

Restaurants can also choose which apps to use and how to use them, which affects both their open hours and menu prices. Comparing the same menu across apps can save you a few dollars on each order and get you access to the restaurant you want.

If you order delivery often, using certain credit cards can help you save money on food delivery. Some cards have introductory offers that include vouchers for food delivery apps, like the OCBC 365 Card which offers a S$100 voucher for GrabFood.

Other cards offer ongoing discounts when you use a particular delivery app or statement rebates for online food delivery. For example, the POSB Everyday Card offers an 8 per cent rebate when you use it to pay for online food delivery and dining.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. This season we are seeking op-eds, analysis and articles on food tech and sustainability. Share your opinion and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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

Image credit: James Sutton on Unsplash

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TADA, an end-to-end customer retention platform based in Indonesia, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B1 funding, led by MDI Ventures, the VC arm of Telkom Group.

TMI, the venture capital arm of the Telkomsel, and existing investors Finch Capital (Netherlands) and Sovereign’s Capital (PE firm), also joined the round.

The capital infusion will further enhance TADA’s core technology platform and infrastructure.

Also Read: MDI Ventures’s new US$500M fund seeks to push digitisation of Indonesia’s state-owned firms

A portion of the money will go into strengthening its position in Indonesia and expanding its go-to-market strategies in the Southeast Asia region by growing its engineering teams, enterprise and SME sales teams, and recruiting strategic channel partners.

Launched in 2012, TADA aims to improve businesses’ sustainability by helping them retain customers better using solutions like digital membership, subscription, referral and digital rewards.

Its solution is adopted by both local and global enterprises in fast-growing industries in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Its clients include AXA, Allianz, DBS, UOB, Unilever, Castrol, Exxon, Kalbe Nutritionals, Erha Dermatology and Bakmi GM.

Antonius Taufan, founder of TADA, said: “We feel very grateful to be able to raise this funding in the midst of the pandemic, and for the unwavering confidence from MDI Ventures and TMI as the leading and influential companies in Indonesia. Today’s investment will allow us to deliver our mission to improve business’ sustainability by enabling them to retain customers better.”

Also Read: Meet the VC: How Indonesia’s MDI Ventures managed 3 overseas exits within a month

“We see an opportunity for a synergistic partnership between TADA and Telkom Indonesia to bring a more exciting and beneficial engagement and collaboration between various enterprise clients within the Telkom ecosystem. This funding is also aligned with MDI Ventures’ long-term goal to empower the growth of digital entrepreneurship,” added Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures.

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Image Credit: TADA

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Populix, an Indonesia-based consumer insights platform, announced today that it has raised US$1.2 million in a pre-Series A financing, led by existing investor Intudo Ventures.

Quest Ventures and a number of other strategic investors also joined the round.

Prior to this round, Populix has raised a US$1 million in seed financing led by Intudo Ventures.

The company said that it will use the proceeds to roll out new products, enhance marketing efforts, as well as for recurring.

Founded in January 2018, Populix offers a mobile-based platform that provides insights to businesses and researchers to help them better understand Indonesian consumers.

For large clients, Populix offers subscription-based customised services like brand health tracking, product launch perception auditing, customer satisfaction indexing, and more.

The company is currently developing dataset products that periodically track market movements, allowing businesses to closely follow market dynamics and consumer preferences.

Also Read: Consumer insights provider Populix raises US$1M to expand its footprint beyond Indonesia

It claims its technology is capable of recognising respondent invoices from across all major e-commerce players in Indonesia at a 93 per cent optical character recognition (OCR) accuracy rate.

Populix was also part of gojek’s Xcelerate programme’s second batch, which recognises outstanding female founders.

“As we roll out new products and services, Populix will be able to more accurately capture the pulse of market dynamics and create significant value for our clients. In the future, Populix will introduce even more sophisticated services for our major clients that address targeted needs while continuing to refine our mass-market offerings to open the door for more people to gain access to consumer insights products,” said Timothy Astandu, co-founder of Populix.

“Southeast Asia is fast fulfilling its potential as the epicentre of global economic growth with Indonesia as the foremost market. As global and regional brands pour resources into the region, ensnaring the growth dividend lies in sense-making the disparate markets ahead of the competition. We see that Populix has incisively deployed technology to modernise the old ‘market research’ service,” said Jeff Seah, Partner at Quest Ventures.

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Image Credit:  Lukas Blazek

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YC-backed startup Super bags US$28mn to grow its social commerce platform in Indonesia; Investors include SoftBank Ventures Asia (lead), Insignia Ventures, Y-Combinator Continuity Fund, partners of DST Global and TNB Aura; The company plans to double down on its presence in East Java and launch in other Indonesian provinces later this year.

Indonesia-based customer retention platform TADA secures Series B1; Investors include MDI Ventures (lead), TMI, Finch Capital and Sovereign’s Capital; TADA offers a solution for businesses that want to invest in building relationships with their customers, helping them to accelerate growth, improve sustainability, and maximise customer lifetime value by empowering them to deploy subscription businesses.

StashAway raises US$25mn Series D; Investors include Sequoia India (lead), Eight Roads Ventures and Square Peg; The capital will be used by the fintech firm to accelerate its investment product across its 5 markets, and buy back up to US$3mn in ESOPs from employees; A digital wealth management platform, StashAway delivers automated, personalised portfolio management to each client’s individual portfolios.

Temasek invests US$120mn in Indian edutech startup UpGrad; UpGrad helps working professionals, students and enterprises upskill themselves in highly courses like Data Science, Management and Law; The company claims to have an above 85% programme completion rate with over 40,000 paid learners on its platform.

‘Investors are returning to being more sensitive to value’: Goh Seng Wee of Brain Too Free Ventures; He also says the rate of unicorns/success stories from SEA will probably accelerate at the greatest pace compared to any other market continents in the world; Many winners will be from this region.

Temasek co-leads US$30mn Series C of Chin’s EAVision; The agri drone startup makes it possible for agricultural sectors to profit despite the demanding geographical constraints with the help of its stereo vision sensors and algorithms which enable it to navigate challenging terrains.

POC Pharma raises US$4.5mn to digitise pharmacies in Vietnam; Investors are Picus Capital (Germany), Goat Capital and FJ Labs (both US-based), Febe Ventures (Singapore) and 500 Startups; POC helps the stakeholders in the pharmacy industry (pharmacies, drug manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, payers) to digitally manage their interactions and collaborative workflows.

Indonesian consumer insights platform Populix raises US$1.2mn pre-Series A; Investors include Intudo Ventures (lead), Quest Ventures, and strategic investors; Populix offers subscription-based customised services like brand health tracking, product launch perception auditing, customer satisfaction indexing.

Philippine e-sports and entertainment startup Tier One raises funding; Investors include Gobi Partners (lead), Warner Music Group, Octava, KAYAC, and Atlas Ventures; The money will be used to expand operations in Blacklist International (Tier One’s e-sports team), and set up its first content creation hub in the Philippines.

Mortgage Master raises US$700K pre-Series A from angels; The Singapore-based mortgage brokering platform will use the money for customer acquisition, forging strategic partnerships, and to enter Indonesia; Since launch, it claims to have delivered advice for ~US$3bn worth of home loans and directly facilitated US$603mn in home loan transactions on behalf of partner banks.

Vietnam’s Topebox raises US$1mn to launch latest blockchain game My DeFi Pet; Investors are Axia8 Ventures, Blockdream Ventures, Megala Ventures, and Animoca Brands; Topebox is a mobile game developer that has produced hits like Pocket Army, Sky Dancer: Free Falling, and King Rivals; According to AppBrain, its portfolio of games has appeared in the top 100 apps in 10+ countries.

Indonesian fitness startup Doogether banks pre-Series A money after expanding into online classes; Investors are AsianTrust Capital, Prasetia Dwidharma, Alexander Rusli (ex-CEO of Indosat Ooredoo); DOOgether is a fitness studio and classes booking apps; It has 200+ partners and 20K+ classes available to be accessed in the Greater Jakarta, Bandung, and Bali.

UBS AG, Genting Group invest in Bukalapak; This brings the e-commerce unicorn’s latest round to US$400mn; This follows earlier investment from Microsoft, GIC, and Emtek; The round comes as the Indonesian firm prepares for IPO; Proceeds from IPO would shore up its chest war against the rising dominance of Shopee and Tokopedia.

Temasek, DBS, JP Morgan to launch new blockchain-based global payments platform; Called Partior, it aims to disrupt the traditional cross-border payments ‘hub and spoke’ model, which is typically costly and lengthy due to multiple validations on payment details by banks.

Indian food delivery major Zomato files for US$1.1bn IPO with market regulator; The company will be issuing about US$1bn in fresh equity shares, with early investor Info Edge India selling its stake, worth roughly US$100mn, in the IPO; In its filing, Zomato said its revenue from operations grew from US$62.7mn in FYE 2018 to US$350.5mn in FYE 2020.

Alibaba Business School launches ‘Netpreneur Training Program’ in Philippines; It is part of Alibaba’s wider initiative to promote inclusive development and empower entrepreneurs and businesses both large and small. Applications for this programme are open from now until June 20.

IMDA’s open innovation platform (OIP) to offer digital solutions; The OIP will soon have a discovery engine that makes the searching and matching of problem solvers to problem owners easier, through automated recommendations by analysing problem statements and recommending solvers with relevant experience; This will increase the accessibility of innovation to more enterprises.

The future of insurance lies in giving control back to customers; Hyper-personalisation is the way to make insurance more relevant to customers to continue to meet financial needs and close protection gaps in Singapore, says Income CEOAndrew Yeo; This approach is about tapping on data to support customers so that they can find the right solutions and make the best decision based on their needs.

SaaS, open source, and serverless: A winning combination to build and scale new businesses; Each of these can offer significant benefits. But the real breakthrough is in combining all three, flexibly combining services (such as a login) from a third-party SaaS provider and integrating them with other third-party services (such as recruiting management services) and company-specific functions (such as salary calculations) in a fully serverless architecture.

The future is (already) here: what FIs need to know about AI; There are countless benefits and integration opportunities for AI implementation; With increased automation of consumer interactions, financial institutions can help reduce operational costs, refocus on growth opportunities, and ultimately generate greater revenue.

From e-voting machines to blockchain-based e-voting?; Blockchain technology usually allows people to verify that their votes are recorded and counted correctly without compromising their anonymity; Moreover, anyone may be able to check the counting without the secrecy being hampered; However, there are security concerns in blockchain-based e-voting too.

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Photo by Fikri Rasyid on Unsplash

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(L to R) : Co-founders of Tier One Entertainment Tryke Gutierrez and Alodia Gosiengfiao

Tier One Entertainment, a Filipino gaming, and e-sports entertainment startup has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A round of funding.

Led by Gobi Partners, the round also saw participation from Warner Music Group, Singapore’s family office Octava, Japan’s internet company KAYAC, and American early-stage VC firm Atlas Ventures.

The infusion of financing will power Tier One to set up local operations in other Asian countries.

The proceeds will also be utilised to hire back-end teams that will further support their talents, expand its e-sports operations in Blacklist International (Tier One’s e-sports team), and set up its first content creation hub in the Philippines.

Tier One was founded in 2017 by e-sports veteran Tryke Gutierrez, cosplay and gaming superstar Alodia Gosiengfiao, and seasoned entrepreneur Brian Lim.

Also Read: EVOS raises US$12M in Series B to accelerate the growth of its e-sports platform

Together, they visioned to revolutionise Southeast Asia’s e-sports landscape by turning talents into gaming superstars.

As COVID-19 accelerates gaming and e-sports interest, Tier One plans to take advantage of this growth by acquiring more up-and-coming talents in other markets.

Some of its commercial partners include Adidas, Uniqlo, Riot Games, Mountain Dew, and Tik Tok.

As of now, the company has locked in top talents in the Philippines, Myanmar, and Malaysia.

“We have come a long way since our first business meeting at my home in 2017. With the growth of mobile gaming, streaming and e-sports as an avenue for youth entertainment, we came up with the foresight to develop and house these talents by building our very own YG Entertainment of gaming,” Gosiengfiao said.

“The gaming industry is going through a golden age and this funding will help accelerate our growth by allowing us to replicate our success in other markets. In just a few years of operations, we have found a winning formula in e-sports and gaming by developing a robust business model around top-tier content creation and authentic distribution,” Gutierrez added.

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Image Credit: Tier One Entertainment

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Week after week, we continually implement improvements on e27 Pro features tp make your experience better and more valuable. One of the improvements we have made was making the Connect feature more robust, in the aim of helping you successfully make meaningful connections with investors.

One of the things we want to highlight are the investors who have been very active in responding to connection requests, as well as in providing business feedback and mentorship to our Pro members. We are planning to launch Active Investors icon and the Investor widget this quarter to better feature these investors.

In the meantime, check out 5 active investors you can get connected with:

Spiral Ventures

Investment: USD 300k – USD 1M, Series A, Series B

Straight from Spiral Ventures: Spiral Ventures (SV) is a Japanese ventures capital fund and headquartered in Singapore. SV has been investing in early stage and tech startups in Southeast Asia, India, and Japan since 2013.

Also read: Meet the engineers, developers, and products managers of e27 Luminaries

Golden Gate Ventures

Investment: USD 50K – USD 3M, Seed, Series A, Series C & Above

Straight from Golden Gate Ventures: Golden Gate Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing across Southeast Asia. Since 2011, the firm has invested in over 30 companies across more than 7 countries in Asia. The firm invests in internet & mobile startups across many sectors, including e-commerce, payments, marketplaces, mobile applications, and SaaS platforms.

Qualgro Venture Capital

Investment: Pre-Series A / Bridge, Series A, Series B

Straight from Qualgro Venture Capital: Qualgro Venture Capital is a Venture Capital firm based in Singapore, investing mainly in B2B companies in Data, SaaS and Artificial Intelligence, primarily at Series A & B. Quality & Growth.

Monk’s Hill Ventures

Investment: Pre-Series A, Bridge, Series A 

Straight from Monk’s Hill Ventures: Monk’s Hill Ventures is a Venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology startups in Southeast Asia. We take a first-principles approach and are sector agnostic, investing across industries and sectors including healthcare tech, edutech, fintech, and logistics.

Also read: “Investors are returning to being more sensitive to value”: Goh Seng Wee of Brain Too Free Ventures

Wavemaker Partners

Investment: USD 250K – USD 5M, Angel / Pre Seed, Seed, Pre-Series A / Bridge, Series A

Straight from Wavemaker Partners: Wavemaker Partners invest in a broad range of technology-driven companies in the US and Southeast Asia. With 15 member funds across 4 continents, they are able to provide their Asia-based founders with world-class access, insight and scale. It is headquartered in Los Angeles and affiliated with the investment bank, Siemer & Associates.

The Connect feature is exclusively available for Pro members. If you want to start connecting with these investors, get a Pro trial account now!

Image credit: Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

The post Get connected with 5 of the most active e27 Connect investors appeared first on e27.