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).

—

Image Credit: PropertyGuru

The post Ecosystem Roundup: PropertyGuru bags US$150M from REA; AirAsia buys Delivereat for US$9.8M appeared first on e27.

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.

—

Image credit: Rever

The post Ex-Zalo executives’ proptech startup Rever snags US$10.2M from Mekong Capital appeared first on e27.

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.

—

Image Credit: PDAX

The post PDAX raises US$12.5M to take advantage of the popularity of cryptocurrencies in Philippines appeared first on e27.

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.

—

 

The post In brief: Hashnode, HOMA2U, Shandi raise investment; Wanted Lab launches IPO in Korea appeared first on e27.

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.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast or infographic

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

Image credit: primagefactory

The post Insurance industry is poised for its “PayPal moment” in Asia appeared first on e27.

In July this year, logistics and supply chain company iStore iSend announced a “seven-figure US dollars” funding round from Kuroneko Innovation Fund, a Japanese corporate VC firm owned by Yamato Holdings and managed by Global Brain Corporation.

This funding round was an extension of its US$5.5 million Series B funding announced earlier this year, which was co-led by Gobi Partners and logistics company EasyParcel.

Funding announcements are always a great reason to celebrate. But in times of pandemic, where travels in many Southeast Asian countries remain restricted, it has become an even bigger achievement. For the curious minds, this might lead to the million-dollar question: How does one manage to meet and build relationships with potential investors when events are cancelled and face-to-face meetings are limited?

In an exclusive interview with e27, Joe Khoo, Co-Founder and CEO of iStore iSend, reveals how the company builds the relationships that eventually lead to the investment. There are certainly challenges that the pandemic has brought, but the founders are able to utilise tools to help them overcome it.

It is a lesson in perseverance and faith that all startup founders can benefit from.

The decision to reach out

Before we can get to the “secret sauce” behind the company’s successful relationship building with investors, we need to understand the history behind iStore iSend. Interestingly, before making headlines with their funding announcements, the Malaysia-based company operated for a decade as a self-funded company.

According to Khoo, while the market today has an understanding of the importance of logistics in supporting the e-commerce industry, the situation was different when iStore iSend began their journey.

“We’ve been kind of under-the-radar … we’re not like the typical startup that a lot of people talked about,” he says.

Also Read: Singapore’s Janio raises US$8M to expand its logistics solutions to emerging markets

Their fundraising journey was even harder as it happened right at the beginning of the pandemic when opportunities to network became harder to find, if not impossible. This was a major challenge as they were supposed to expand their network as a foundation for their fundraising effort.

“You are building a relationship with a potential partner that you will be doing business with for a long time,” Khoo says. “So, think of [fundraising] as a relationship-building exercise first, before you can move on to pitching. I liken it to making a friend: your first meeting may not be the best, but after that, you keep on talking, sharing, and finding commonalities.”

To tackle the challenge of making a new connection from the safety of home, Khoo used tools such as the Connect feature, available exclusively for e27 Pro members. The feature enabled startups to make connections with investors in the platform, as an entry point to further collaboration.

“As a company that was fundraising for the first time, we didn’t really know anyone, and we couldn’t attend any events because of COVID-19. So we relied on the leads that we got from e27 Pro Connect. From there, we started talking to people, expanded our network, and got introduced to other people,” Khoo says.

“Global Brain was one of the leads that we got through Connect. From there, it blossomed into a relationship that we now have,” he continues.

He further explains how the tool enabled him to get introduced to people he would not otherwise know. The process itself was not always instantaneous; Khoo says that it took months until iStore iSend finally received a callback. The earlier months were all about getting themselves known and connecting to as many investors as possible.

In fact, after they had their initial contact with Global Brain Corporation in early 2020, Khoo honestly thought the deal was never going to happen. It was not until June that iStore iSend could finally move the conversation forward.

“If it was not for Connect, I would not be able to … know where to start getting contacts for the investment. It was really crucial in helping me start the process,” Khoo stresses.

“What Connect has done is create a platform for companies to connect with potential investors, and I think it has worked really well for us. After that, the constant communication via Zoom or WhatsApp continued, and that was how we maintain the relationship.”

The secret sauce to successful fundraising

Khoo says that the fundraising process is something that is often romanticised in the tech startup community, especially with Hollywood displaying popular images of founders and investors meeting in a fancy restaurant –then having the deals written on a piece of napkin.

But the truth is that fundraising is “real, serious” work.

Also Read: Locad lands US$4.9M seed funding to provide logistics infra for e-commerce businesses

“I spent the whole of 2020 learning the ropes of fundraising from scratch and that was really hard work. You need to have a lot of preparation,” Khoo stresses.

This preparation mostly involves the kind of questions that potential investors might ask founders which can include plenty of numbers.

“For a good three to six months, I was just [focussing on] learning. How to approach investors, how to give them the best version of our company’s story. Along the way, you learn which information is not that important,” Khoo continues.

“And trying to convey that message in a concise and clear way is not easy. It’s difficult; it’s definitely a skill … you can definitely learn that, but it takes time.”

This is why, during this period, it is good to have partners that founders can practice with. That way, the partner can help founders by playing devil’s advocate and asking difficult questions.

What is next for iStore iSend?

Now that the funding is secured and the company has built a network that can help it move forward with confidence, iStore iSend has plenty of plans to execute. Their main focus is to expand their business regionally, particularly to Vietnam and the Philippines.

“We are also in the middle of hiring talents,” Khoo closes.

—

Ready to start fundraising? Start building your investor network! Use our Connect feature to directly connect, engage, and speak with the most active investors in the region. Connect is exclusive for e27 Pro members, but you can try it out for free. Head over here to start connecting.

Image Credit: iStore iSend

The post How iStore iSend builds a relationship with potential investors in this pandemic appeared first on e27.

Teleport, airasia digital’s logistics venture in Southeast Asia, has acquired Malaysia-based on-demand food delivery platform Delivereat for US$9.8 million.

The deal, which values Teleport at US$300 million, is expected to close by Q3 2021 after final approvals.

Under the agreement, Delivereat’s husband-wife co-founder duo Leong Shir Mein and Tan Suan Sear will join the management team of Teleport and airasia digital.

This development comes more than a month after airasia digital acquired the Thailand operations of Gojek.

The partnership will help Teleport expand to all major cities in Malaysia while spurring the growth of Delivereat and AirAsia’s logistics venture in ASEAN. 

Also read: Gobi Partners, MAVCAP, Sunway Group launch early-stage fund for Malaysian startups

“This acquisition comes at an opportune time, as we launched airasia food in Penang in April this year,” said Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia Group. “It strengthens airasia digital’s plan to cover the end-to-end logistics chain, from first-mile to last-mile deliveries, providing a complete digital ecosystem.”

Apart from Malaysia, Teleport has made inroads into Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Singapore and China.

According to the AirAsia Group’s financial statement for Q1 2021, Teleport’s revenue has tripled compared to the last quarter of 2020. Quarterly revenues from its super app also grew 45 per cent y-o-y to RM10 million (~US$2.3 million).

Built in 2012, Delivereat claims to have completed more than one million orders to date and offers food and express delivery services on an on-demand basis from more than 4,000 merchants (consisting of restaurants, wet markets, pharmacies and groceries).

The startup owns a fleet of up to 4,000 registered delivery partners.

In 2017, Delivereat received US$450,000 from a collaboration fund between Gobi Partners and Malaysia Venture Capital Management in a pre-Series A financing round.

In 2019, Teleport and Gobi Partners co-invested US$10 million in local e-commerce and parcel delivery company EasyParcel.

Also read: airasia acquires Gojek’s Thai operations as SEA’s supper app battle intensifies

“The need for firms to complete last-mile deliveries will continue to increase across the globe,” said Dave Anderson, managing partner at the US-based Supply Chain Ventures. “The successful ones in the long term are those capable of growing rapidly to capture market share.”

Malaysia is home to as many as 156 logistics tech startups, according to Tracxn, which produces fierce competition in this space. 

Foreign giants such as Singapore’s e-commerce unicorn Shopee also look to open food delivery services in Malaysia as it opened recruitment for delivery couriers in the country this June.

—

Image credit: Dealivereat

The post AirAsia’s Teleport acquires Malaysia’s Delivereat for US$9.8M to further its super-app ambition appeared first on e27.

Customer experience (CX) is one of the most important competitive differentiators for consumer brands. A brand encompasses more than just its products. Brands must also focus on how they engage with their customers, from how potential consumers navigate the product website to how they speak with customer service staff.

The leading brands of today’s internet age have successfully created a digital-first CX strategy. With the customers migrating online at astonishingly fast rates, customer support software company Freshworks, is launching RE:SOLVE, the biggest summit for digital-first CX. World-class leaders will share their secrets to delighting customers, retaining them, and growing their business.

Also read: Revolutionising the food industry with Malaysia’s StixFresh

Happening on 26 August 2021 at 10 AM SGT, RE:SOLVE is a virtual event where audiences can learn tips and tricks, borrow ideas, and get insight into unlocking business growth by leveraging the power of CX.

With diverse topics ranging from how a fintech giant uses artificial intelligence for contactless customer service to how an e-commerce leader uses instant messaging to scale reach, RE:SOLVE will demonstrate the remarkable value of digital-first CX in today’s world. Even better, attendees will also get exclusive access to live, curated masterclasses that focus on ways you can begin to improve CX in your business.

Hear firsthand from leading brands leveraging digital-first CX

As this year’s biggest summit for digital-first CX, RE:SOLVE officially kicks off at 10 AM SGT in Southeast Asia. It will also go live simultaneously across India, Middle East, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

The event will feature some of the leading names across various business sectors including retail, edtech, food delivery, fintech, and more. Sharing inspiring stories of how they disrupted CX with digital-first strategies and achieved exponential growth for their businesses at RE:SOLVE are international convenience store chain 7-Eleven, Asia’s leading online fashion platform Zalora, world’s most valuable edtech company, Byju’s, Asia’s fastest-growing fintech firm, PhonePe, and India’s leading hyperlocal delivery app, Dunzo. Other top brands who will speak about their CX stories include Lenskart, Booktopia, Multichoice, MTN Cameroon and Landmark Group.

Audiences can look forward to keynotes by guest speakers, topic-tailored sessions, and hands-on workshops.

Discover digital-first CX with immersive sessions and live masterclasses

Interested in learning how to utilise digital-first strategies to turbo-charge your brand’s CX? Here is a detailed rundown of RE:SOLVE.

The virtual event will feature six immersive sessions and three live curated masterclasses organised into three distinct tracks.

The three tracks are:

• Digital CX for Mobile Apps – Track A
• Customer Service as a Profit-centre – Track B
• Modern Customer Service Architecture – Track C

Track A focuses specifically on creating a more engaging customer experience via mobile applications. This involves two sessions: the first, “Contactless customer service with AI chatbots”, demonstrates how to create an engaging, contact-free customer service experience with artificial intelligence, and the second, “Instant responses for mobile-first customer”, zooms in on how to ace mobile-first customer service. The track will finish off with the masterclass on how to get started on creating your chatbot

Meanwhile, Track B helps audiences learn to leverage customer service as a centre for profit. It comprises two sessions, “Re-inventing CX from sales to support” and “How CX drives relationship and revenue”. The first session will cover how brands need to address the blurring lines between sales & customer support, and how customer-facing teams need to work on a common goal: the customer. During the second session, 7-Eleven talks about how their contact centre helps contribute to revenue by making it effortless for their customers seeking assistance. This track ends off with the masterclass “Calculating the ROI of your customer service”.

Also read: Messaging tips for startups: a primer on improving one’s customer service

Last but not least, Track C goes in-depth into modern customer service architecture. Like the other two, this track also consists of two sessions. The first session features Singapore’s largest omnichannel eyewear retailer, Lenskart, who talks about the importance of an omnichannel customer service architecture for today’s shoppers. The second session, “Line is the new toll-free for customer service”, will focus on how the freeware messaging app Line Messenger has adapted to the business’ CX needs. Finally, audiences can end off with a hands-on masterclass, “Getting started with Line Messenger”, where they can learn how to get started with LINE Messenger’s API.

The sessions and masterclasses will last 30 minutes each.

Some speakers who will share their own companies’ experiences of digital-first CX include:

• Zalora, Director of Payments & Customer Operations, Kannan Rajaratnam
• 7-Eleven, Business Process Innovations consultant, Allian Marie Sheila
• Dunzo, chief customer officer, Vidyanand Krishnan
• Byju’s, vice president of operations, Mohnish Jaiswal
• Lenskart, co-founder and head of Product, Ramneek Khurana

Save your seat now to unlock your company’s growth with digital-first CX. To sign up or learn more about RE:SOLVE, head to the event website.

– –

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

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.

The post RE:SOLVE — the biggest summit for digital-first customer experience appeared first on e27.

In the context of a technological revolution that is advancing at a very high speed, the potential for development, collaboration and enrichment of the digital offer is exponential –especially for African startups in the young continent.

Admittedly, the internet penetration rate (25 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa) is not yet up to the ambitions, but connectivity is advancing quickly, investments are sustained, and skills are not lacking.

If we exclude this pandemic period, the increase in the internet penetration rate has been dazzling with a growth rate of 10,199 per cent over the period 2000-2018 (570 per cent in Europe and 219 per cent in North America), according to the Internet World Stats Institute.

The first cables connecting Europe, Africa and Asia were only put into operation in 2002 and this development is mainly the result of the boom in wireless technologies and African fintech in particular.

The World Bank mentions an average of 25 per cent of internet users in sub-Saharan Africa, against 60 per cent in North Africa and the Middle East, for a global average of 50.8 per cent (against 82.4 per cent in Europe and 87.6 per cent in North America).

South Africa passed the 57 per cent mark of the population with internet access in 2019 from 70 per cent. According to figures released by the Digital Report 2020, 59 per cent (4.5 billion people) of the world’s population had access to the internet at the end of 2019.

The banking rate remains among the lowest in the world, but that does not prevent the rapid and limitless development of Mobile Money. In 2020, the African continent had 562 million Mobile Money accounts which represent 45 per cent of the number of Mobile Money accounts opened in the world with more than 500 million dollars of transactions per day. Safaricom’s launch in 2007 of M-PESA is considered a success and a global benchmark.

Also Read: iPhone co-inventor joins SG insurtech startup bolttech’s US$180M Series A round

Bolstered by this growth and access to new technologies, innovative young African startups have nothing to envy of Western or Asian nuggets. They need investment and funds to develop and are increasingly looking to Asia.

Africa is not only natural resources (biodiversity, forests, hydrocarbons, mines, phosphates, fishery resources), it is also a market that will reach two billion in 2050 and has endless opportunities for innovation and new technologies.

We see more and more African countries forging new relationships with Asian countries in a win-win relationship or South-South collaboration. African startups have a lot to gain from the Asian experience and from following the same path, believing, or even sharing the ambitions of tomorrow.

Several startups such as SunCulture and Socowatch (Kenya), MeQasa (Ghana), LIfeQ and Jumo (South Africa), VConnect and Kobo360 (Nigeria), Koolskools and Chari (Morocco), Glamera and Brimore (Egypt), Zafree Papers (Ethiopia), Enova Robotics (Tunisia), Yobante Express (Senegal), Easy Matatu (Uganda), Cowtribe Technology (Ghana), Bag Innovation (Rwanda), and Kilimo Fresh (Tanzania), in several sectors are making headlines with their prowess and inventiveness.

They are revolutionising Africa now and can go further if the opportunity presents itself tomorrow to create a better world for all.

Trade relations between the countries of Southeast Asia (SEA) and Africa have been developed in recent years and should be pushed forward in the target of South-South cooperation. The fintech sector in emerging markets and especially in Africa has exploded over the past five years according to the “State of Fintech in Emerging Markets” report.

African startups expect a lot from private and public actors in SEA to support the African digital economy by making financial and technological resources available to take a new step forward. The creation of cross-funds between SEA and African companies and states dedicated to supporting young digital entrepreneurs are certainly expected and appreciated initiatives.

The co-development of infrastructures accompanying the digital revolution that is taking place on the continent is also a means of accelerating this cooperation across the entire value chain of the technological ecosystem.

In 2025, technologies and mobile services will constitute an important part of Africa’s GDP and will have to create an added value of several billion dollars, especially with the ongoing development of platforms and open banking.

–

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast or infographic

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

The post Uninhibited African startups in search of a win-win collaboration with SEA appeared first on e27.

With a raging pandemic, the past few years have been a difficult one for many Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia. But the year 2021 also saw historical moments made by startups in the country’s ecosystem which might just take it to the next level.

From the first IPO by a local unicorn to acquisitions by global companies, Indonesia continues to prove itself as a favourite destination for both investors and founders. The existing challenges that the market is currently facing only serve as an exciting stimulant for creative minds.

Here is a handy list of 27 Indonesian startups that have made headlines in 2021 with their achievements and milestones, as covered by the e27 team:

Pintu

Pintu, a mobile-first crypto wallet and trading platform, secured US$35 million in an extended Series A financing, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

With the fresh capital, Pintu aims to aggressively employ fresh people across all major functions and build Indonesia’s “largest cryptocurrency exchange”. Besides, the startup also plans to develop new products and features to improve user experience and make inroads into other asset classes, as well as to conduct mass-market education programmes.

Bukalapak

The first among Indonesian unicorn startups to go public, e-commerce giant Bukalapak made its debut on the Indonesia Stock Exchange on August 6, raising US$1.5 billion in its initial public offering (IPO).

Debuting at IDR850, the shares price rose 25 per cent and was capped at IDR1,060 (US$1=IDR14,369). Bukalapak wants to use the proceeds from the IPO to support the operations of its holding company and its subsidiaries.

Also Read: How millennials and the pandemic are driving the growth of cloud kitchens in Indonesia

Blibli

Even before this year, Indonesia is already home to many unicorn startups. Blibli is the latest to secure the status this year.

This information was confirmed by CEO Kusumo Martanto in an exclusive interview with DailySocial for its Mastermind column. “However, as a digital company, what we really want is to create a sustainable business with a positive value and impact for the society,” he states.

Kredivo

FinAccel, Kredivo’s parent company, has announced a merger with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings II (VPCB), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by Victory Park Capital (VPC), to go public in the US.

The transaction assigns FinAccel an approximate valuation of US$2.5 billion. It is expected to deliver over US$430 million of gross proceeds, including a private investment of US$120 million led by Marshall Wace, Corbin Capital, SV Investment, Palantir Technologies, Maso Capital, and sponsor Victory Park Capital.

HappyFresh

E-grocery platform HappyFresh has secured US$65 million in a Series D funding round, co-led by Naver Financial Corporation and Dutch investor Gafina. STIC, LB, and Mirae Asset Indonesia and Singapore, besides existing investors such as Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund and Z Venture Capital also participated, the company said in a statement.

HappyFresh will also use a part of the capital injection to put in place plans to improve service offerings.

GudangAda

GudangAda has raised US$100 million in a Series B funding round led by Asia Partners and Falcon Edge. The company stated that the funding round was oversubscribed as it initially targeted to raise US$75 million. It brought the company’s total funding to date to approximately US$135 million.

It is one of the Indonesian startups that have raised a significant amount of funding in a relatively short time.

Aruna

Fisheries and marine platform Aruna announced that it has raised US$35 million in a Series A funding round led by Prosus Ventures and East Ventures (Growth Fund). This news comes after the company raised US$5.5 million in 2020.

With the newly raised capital, Aruna aims to expand its presence nationwide and strengthen its supply chain infrastructure. This funding round has turned Aruna into one of the most well-funded fishery and marine startups in the country, following the steps of eFishery.

Oy!

Fintech platform Oy! raised a US$45 million Series A funding round led by Softbank Ventures Asia and MDI Ventures. The accumulation of the funding rounds is said to bring the company’s valuation to beyond US$108 million.

The company has also named minimarket chain Alfamart as a strategic partner which opens up opportunity for Oy! to enter the O2O segment.

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

BukuWarung

BukuWarung, a fintech firm that helps Indonesia’s micro SMEs digitise their business, raised US$60 million in a Series A funding led by American VC firm Valar Ventures, along with fintech unicorns Wise, N26, and Goodwater Capital. Former GoPay CEO Aldi Haryopratomo and Klarna founder Victor Jacobsson, as well as partners from SoftBank and Trihill Capital, also participated in the funding round

This brings the two-year-old company’s total funding raised so far to US$80 million.

TaniHub

TaniHub Group, which operates e-commerce and P2P lending platforms for farmers in Indonesia, has closed its US$65.5 million Series B round of financing, led by MDI Ventures. New and existing investors, including Add Ventures, BRI Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Intudo Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Tenaya Capital, UOB Venture Management, Telkomsel Mitra Inovasi, and Vertex Ventures, also joined the round.

With this funding round, TaniHub is now one of the most well-funded agritech startups in the country.

BukuKas

BukuKas, a digital ledger app for MSMEs in Indonesia, announced that it has raised US$50 million in Series B funding. The round includes participation from angel investors Gokul Rajaram, an executive of DoorDash, and Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of Wise (formerly known as TransferWise).

This news comes just four months after the company’s US$10 million Series A fundraise led by Sequoia Capital India.

GoTo Group

Indonesian unicorn startups Gojek and Tokopedia confirmed that they have combined their businesses to form GoTo Group. First reported by Bloomberg earlier this year, the merger and the launch of the GoTo Group identity have been one of the most crucial developments in the Southeast Asian tech startup ecosystem.

Though the company did not mention the financial details of the merger, in a press statement, they said that the agreement “marks the largest ever business combination in Indonesia and the largest between two Asia-based internet media and services companies to date.”

Social Bella

Beauty tech company Social Bella raised approximately US$56 million in a funding round led by L Catterton, marking the US-based PE firm’s maiden investment in Indonesia. Indies Capital, along with existing investors East Ventures and Jungle Ventures, also participated.

Social Bella will use the capital for product innovation and continued expansion across Southeast Asia.

Amartha

Amartha, a P2P lending platform focused on women micro-entrepreneurs, raised US$28 million investment from the Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II fund and MDI Ventures. Mandiri Capital and UOB Venture Management also participated in the funding round.

This follows the company’s US$50 million debt financing round from US-based Lendable in February.

The investment will be used to strengthen its community-based lending business and further develop its product.

Also Read: Yummy Corp extends Series B round to scale its cloud kitchen biz into 50 new locations in Indonesia

Bibit

Robo-advisor startup Bibit.id raised US$65 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital India. Prosus Ventures (global consumer internet group), Tencent and Harvard Management Company, besides existing investors AC Ventures and East Ventures also joined the round.

This round came just under four months after it secured US$30 million from Sequoia, East Ventures, EV Growth and 500 Startups.

HaloDoc

HaloDoc raised US$80 million in a Series C funding round led by local automotive conglomerate Astra with the participation of TMI, Temasek, Novo Holdings, and Bangkok Bank. It plans to channel the fresh capital towards expansion plans in its healthcare verticals and improve the patient experience on its platform.

Ruangguru

Edutech startup Ruangguru raised US$55 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from GGV Capital. With the new financing, the company plans to further accelerate its business expansion across Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

This funding round came just a year after it closed a US$150-million Series C round led by Global Atlantic and GGV Capital.

Shipper

Digital logistics provider Shipper secured US$63 million in a Series B funding round led by DST Global partners and Sequoia Capital India. The funding round also included the participation of Prosus Ventures, Floodgate, Lightspeed, Insignia Ventures, AC Ventures and Y Combinator.

This round comes less than a year after Shipper raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding in June.

Ajaib

Online investment platform Ajaib Group raised an additional investment of US$65 million for its Series A round led by Silicon Valley-based fintech VC firm Ribbit Capital. Participating investors include ICONIQ Capital, Bangkok Bank, and notable angels such as Nubank’s David Velez and Toss’s SG Lee.

This marks Ribbit’s inaugural investment into a Southeast Asia company.

Pluang

Wealthtech startup Pluang announced a US$20 million pre-Series B round led by returning investor Openspace Ventures. Other existing investors, including Go-Ventures, also participated.

This funding round comes two years after the fintech startup bagged US$3 million in Series A funding in March 2019.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: GIC invested US$94M into Bukalapak before its IPO; All about the cloud kitchen industry in Indonesia

Xendit

Digital payment infrastructure company Xendit secured US$64.6 million in a Series B funding round led by Accel. The funding round also included the participation of Y Combinator, which brings the fintech firm’s total amount raised to date to US$88 million.

Warung Pintar

Micro-retail tech startup Warung Pintar announced the acquisition of Bizzy Digital, an integrated logistics and distribution supply chain B2B platform, for US$45 million. This is part of Warung Pintar’s push to solidify its position in Indonesia’s B2B e-commerce market, which it says is expected to grow to become at least thrice the size of its B2C cousin.

Following the acquisition, Bizzy Digital will still remain a separate entity as a brand and organisation.

Mekari

Mekari, a SaaS platform for human resource and finance management, acquired Qontak, a startup that provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and omnichannel communications platforms, for an undisclosed sum. Following the acquisition, Qontak Founder & CEO Brendan Rakphongphairoj will be joining Mekari’s top management. He will continue his leadership position at Qontak as one of Mekari’s business units.

This acquisition followed Mekari’s US$21 million Series D funding round led by Money Forward in April.

Hangry

Cloud kitchen startup Hangry announced an “oversubscribed” funding of US$13 million in an Alpha JWC Ventures-led Series A round. The funding round also included the participation of Atlas Pacific Capital, Salt Ventures, and Heyokha Brothers.

Hangry plans to use this capital to scale its business and open more than 120 outlets in total, with the aim of launching 20-plus dine-in restaurants across Indonesia in 2021.

Kopi Kenangan

The founders of coffee chain startup Kopi Kenangan launched an angel investment fund targeting early-stage Indonesian companies, called ‘Kenangan Fund’. Its average ticket size ranges from US$10,000 to US$150,000 per investment and is sector-agnostic.

It has invested in startups such as Dropezy, Bukukas, Noice, and Otoklix.

Traveloka

Travel tech giant Traveloka is planning to publicly list in the US in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The startup has reportedly engaged JPMorgan Chase as plans to go public accelerate. Traveloka is said to be valued at close to US$6 billion.

Ula

Ula, a micro-retail e-commerce platform, announced a US$20 million Series A funding round co-led by Quona Capital and B Capital Group. The funding round also included the participation of existing investors Lightspeed India and Sequoia India.

This follows a US$10.5 million seed funding in June 2020.

—

Having an updated profile in the e27 Startup Database opens up opportunities for greater exposure among potential investors and collaborators. Create and update yours now.

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

Image Credit: ferli

The post The 27 Indonesian startups that have taken the ecosystem to next level this year appeared first on e27.