Cloud kitchen is not an entirely new concept in Indonesia. In a sense, Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut are cloud kitchens and have been around for many years. These fast-food chains follow a model wherein a single kitchen is managed and operated by a single brand focused only on delivery and takeout.

This model has evolved over the years and adopted a ‘co-working style’, accommodating multiple brands from the same or different owners operating on the same premises.

Trends indicate that cloud kitchens are fast becoming a vital part of the food delivery market in Indonesia. According to a March 2021 report by Savills Research, the cloud kitchen market in the archipelago is on a growth trajectory. The tech pioneers in the space are Grabkitchen (Grab) and Dapur Bersama (Gojek).

As the industry grew, the list of companies entering the sector also increased. Savills estimates that seven operators in Jakarta alone operate 70 cloud kitchen branches comprising 500-plus kitchen pods. The names include Yummy Corp., Hangry, Everplate, Kita Kitchen, Telepot Co-Kitchen, and Eatsii.

The different models

Cloud kitchen encompasses mainly three business models:

• Online food court or space rental (e.g. Everplate, GrabKitchen, and GoFood)
• Online restaurants (e.g. Hangry and Dailybox)
• Managed kitchens (e.g.Yummykitchen by Yummy Corp.)

Then there are companies such as Lookalkitchen, which aim to connect underutilised commercial kitchens with a network of brands to create revenue-sharing opportunities. 

The archipelago started seeing some interest in cloud kitchens in late 2018, and it became a full-blown topic in 2019. An already booming food delivery industry contributed to this boom.

In addition, some F&B brands have been able to gain significant volume from food delivery channels and significantly higher ROI than traditional restaurants.

Millennials also accelerated this growth. This new generation of youngsters is already familiar and dependent on on-demand delivery due to their tech-savvy nature and busy lifestyles within urban and rural cities. 

Also Read: How Philippine cloud kitchen industry is piggybacking on the country’s unique food culture, shifting customer behaviour

The COVID-19 effect

However, the most significant contributor to this accelerated growth has been COVID-19.

“The cloud kitchens sector has been growing tremendously through the pandemic as F&B brands get disrupted in the traditional model of serving up food to consumers,” said Yiping Goh, Partner at Quest Ventures. “This trend will continue as the pandemic evolves into an endemic eventually. Indonesian F&B owners are tired of the numerous, extended lockdowns imposed and are forced to look for new models that are more endemic-resilient.”

She, however, believes that it is still early days in the cloud kitchen growth story. More innovation in the model, especially in the food delivery and experience, will continue to grow.

Momentum Works notes that the online food delivery market size in Southeast Asia nearly tripled in size from US$4.3 billion in 2019 to US$11.9 billion in 2020, mainly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Indonesia, which alone accounts for 31 per cent of the opportunity mentioned above, the growth is filled with inequity. Kitchens — which are slow to adapt, conduct rapid menu changes, and adopt new technology and marketing strategies — continue to fall behind. 

“In general, the pandemic has greatly accelerated the digital adoption of most digital services; online food delivery is no exception. This is because people are still confined to their homes, and dining out option is not feasible,” said Abraham Viktor, CEO of Hangry.

However, Mario Suntanu, CEO and co-founder of Yummy Corp., believes that regardless of COVID-19, consumer behaviour was moving towards significant consumption via food delivery due to a population that was getting busier and the traffic that was getting worse. 

“Cloud Kitchen mainly addresses the merchant problem, and the merchant problem remains the same. It’s just that the urgency was higher during the pandemic, which accelerated the adoption,” he noted.

“We learned that products that sell well via delivery channels hadn’t been necessarily the same products that sell well in malls and shopping centres, especially when seen from the perspective of form and pricing. So it means that as malls open, there may be some readjustments of share of wallet, but overall the intersection of consumers would not be large enough,” Suntanu stated.

Branding and maintaining quality are key

Viktor believes that as a brand, the most significant risk for Hangry is not earning customer’s love but maintaining food quality (and consistency) and branding.

“One one of the main challenges is how to keep our product consistent among all of our outlets, including the taste, quality, and how we package it. As a brand, we should also stand out from other F&B companies so customers can choose us from the available brands,” he said.

Also Read: Hangry swallows US$13M Series A to scale its cloud kitchen and multi-brand concept in Indonesia

The other task at hand is to ensure that delivered food is of the best quality. “For traditional F&B companies that started as a dine-in service, it will be more challenging to do food delivery. It is because their operations are designed to serve good quality food for quick consumption,” Viktor elaborated. “But when it comes to delivery, it is challenging for them to maintain the same quality even after it is prepared and delivered by the rider. 

“In our case, our operations have been streamlined since the beginning. Our recipe has been optimised to maintain the highest possible quality and consistency, even after the food delivery,” he claimed.

Hangry follows a multi-brand culinary model; it builds all of the brands by itself. In other words, it has developed its proprietary cloud kitchen-inspired concept that it uses exclusively to support its brands.

Startups such as Lookalkitchen work with highly scalable brands that are easy to prepare and have a high taste quality. “Brands invest in expansion through a revenue-sharing structure with the partner kitchen, and everybody earns revenue only when a transaction is made,” said Peter Choi co-founder and CEO of Lookalkitchen and ex-VP of Gojek.

“As a result, Lookalkitchen provides the quickest way for a brand to expand and enables them to open up new locations in less than two weeks. We help outlets onboard to the delivery platforms, and in parallel, we set up the technology and operations,” Choi noted.

Investments are pouring in

The amount of capital injected into the sector has been on the rise, evident from the number of players in the market compared to a few years ago. VCs and prominent tech companies, especially ride-hailing giants, have doubled down on their cloud kitchen facilities in Indonesia.

Recently, Yummy Corp. extended its Series B round with an investment from Sembrani Nusantara, a fund managed by BRI Ventures. This round came less than a year after it bagged US$12 million in Series B, led by Softbank Ventures Asia, in September 2020.

Hangry has also seen some investment coming in in the recent past. In May, Hangry announced “oversubscribed” funding of US$13 million in an Alpha JWC Ventures-led Series A round.

But why is the vertical attracting investors? 

The cloud kitchen startups are fixing many operational efficiencies and pain points from both the operator’s and the customer’s perspectives.

Additionally, the F&B industry always offers ample opportunities with new trends constantly emerging. As a result, this space has attracted investors from private equity, venture capital, and even strategic investors such as large F&B groups (both local and foreign).

“With a cloud kitchen, customers have instant access to many choices for cuisines with the convenience of one order and location while businesses have better operational efficiencies, better unit economics, and access to more comprehensive customer data. In addition, with multiple brands at play, operators have more customer data that they can leverage off of to have greater insight when determining the next brand to create,” according to Eko Kurniadi, Partner at Alpha JWC Ventures. 

He further noted that today, F&B infrastructure is more established with technology at the forefront, from the customer-facing point of view to the business supply chain and operations. As a result, local brands start to thrive, bringing processes to international standards. 

“Online food aggregators help F&B players to extend their coverage. Leveraging data is important to build a sustainable brand; players establish direct-to-consumer channels by launching their apps to order and even deliver. Furthermore, supporting systems like ERP and POS that allow businesses to digitise their workflow and continually improve their economies are getting mass adoption,” Kurniadi elaborated.

A bright future

Nicko Widjaja, CEO at BRI Ventures, believes that only 37 million people use food delivery, accounting for billions of dollars of untapped potential each year. As this model helps merchants grow their businesses providing more options to customers, the Indonesian cloud kitchen industry is heading to a bright future. 

“Cloud kitchens help small businesses to stay afloat amidst the pandemic by helping reduce capex and give them access to stronger partnerships with online platforms such as Grab, Gojek, Shopee and so on,” he remarked.

“There is a considerable high barrier to entry, as operating a cloud kitchen requires heavy capital. Therefore, local nuance is highly required in helping this model grow — just as home-grown startups have been successfully working in the Middle East (Kitopi), the US (Kitchen United), and India (Rebel Foods), to some sense.

Also Read: Gojek’s VC arm invests US$5M in India’s cloud kitchen startup Rebel Foods

“Providing a standardised food court does not work, as different areas have different favourite F&B types. Partnering with various cuisines makes cloud kitchen play a modular one, thus making this model very interesting to grow in Indonesia,” Widjaja went on.

But are cloud kitchens missing out on something?

Indonesia has a rich entrepreneur culture, and food-selling is the largest category among micro and small businesses. Many people make food, sells it through social media, and use services such as Gojek or Grab to deliver the food products to customers.

“This trend is growing, and these kinds of businesses are becoming more popular. However, it doesn’t look like cloud kitchens are tapping into this massive opportunity,” said my colleague Anisa Menur, who hails from Jakarta.

If the current consumption and investment trends are anything to go by, cloud kitchens are here to stay. But the success of this model depends on the quality of the food delivered in the quickest possible time. “Cloud kitchen would need to be carving out a distinctive experience to elevate the overall food delivery experience, such as speed, customer service, and packaging,” remarked Yummy Corp.’s Suntanu.

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Photo by Eugenia Clara on Unsplash

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Parcel Perform, a Singapore-headquartered cloud-based delivery experience platform for e-commerce businesses, announced today that it has secured US$20 million in Series A investments led by Cambridge Capital.

New investor SoftBank Ventures Asia also joined the round, alongside existing investors Wavemaker Partners and Investible.

The startup will use the strategic investment to expand globally, build out its technology offerings, and invest further in artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. It includes scaling its proprietary ‘Date of Arrival’ prediction engine that allows customers to know precisely when their parcels will arrive.

With over 100 employees across Asia-Pacific and Europe, the new funding will also enable the company to establish a regional headquarters in North America and grow to 150 employees globally by the end of the year.

Parcel Perform was co-founded by Dr Arne Jeroschewski (CEO) and Dana von der Heide (chief commercial officer). Jeroschewski previously co-founded Zalora and was its CEO. He has also held senior leadership roles in Singapore Post and DHL, where he worked with der Heid.

Also Read: SaaS parcel tracking platform Parcel Perform lands in Europe

The startup enables modern e-commerce enterprises to create “unique end-to-end customer journeys” and optimise logistics operations with data integrations, parcel tracking, delivery notifications and logistics performance reports in real-time.

It claims its SaaS platform executes more than 100 million parcel updates daily. It has integrated with 700-plus carriers, providing real-time visibility of tracking data and helping businesses to increase customer lifetime value by up to 40 per cent.

With offices in Singapore, Vietnam and Germany, the firm claims its revenue grew 5x since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parcel Perform’s clients include Nespresso, Decathlon, and Singapore-based Love, Bonito.

The startup recently extended its B2C website Parcel Monitor — initially a tracking service for end-consumers — into a global community page providing free access to logistics data insights for e-commerce logistics professionals.

In 2018, Parcel Perform raised a US$1.1 million seed round from Wavemaker Partners, and 500 Durians.

“With e-commerce becoming the primary retail channel, the need for merchants to provide an excellent post-purchase experience has become business-critical. Parcel Perform is uniquely positioned to capitalise on this opportunity with its enterprise-grade solutions and its globally standardised logistics data integrations,” said CEO Jeroschewski.

Based in the US, Cambridge Capital is an investment firm focused on the applied supply chain. It provides private equity to finance the expansion, recapitalisation or acquisition of growth companies in transportation, logistics and supply chain technology.

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Image Credit: Parcel Perform

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

Existing investors, including Alameda Ventures, Blockchain.com Ventures, and Castle Island Ventures, also joined the round.

The first tranche of this round came from Pantera Capital, Intudo Ventures and Coinbase Ventures in late May — bringing Pintu’s total Series A investment to US$41 million.

With the fresh capital, Pintu aims to aggressively employ fresh people across all major functions and build Indonesia’s “largest cryptocurrency exchange”.

Besides, Pintu 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.

“As the fourth-most populous country in the world and with only 1-2 per cent of Indonesians having exposure to cryptocurrencies, there is an immense opportunity for retail investors to gain access to diversified and dynamic investment opportunities through Pintu’s unique crypto assets trade offerings,” said Jeth Soetoyo, co-founder and CEO of Pintu.

Also read: Coinbase Ventures, others invest in Indonesia’s crypto exchange Pintu

Founded in 2020, Pintu provides solutions to deal with the pain points of investing in crypto-assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum for millennials and retail users. It “offers comprehensive trading tools, simple UI/UX, advanced security features”, and educational content to assist investors in trading, analysing, managing assets, and learning about cryptocurrencies.

Pintu also claims that its app downloads saw a 3.5x rise in the first half of 2021, accompanied by a 4x rise in active traders on the platform — all through organic growth.

The platform currently supports 16 different dynamic cryptocurrencies for trading. It intends to add more coins in high demand by investors, including NFT tokens.

According to the Indonesian Ministry of Trade, there were over 6.6 million crypto investors in Indonesia as of June 2021, almost twice the country’s 2.2 million public equities investors.

Government support has been the strong tailwind for Indonesian crypto-assets development as it promotes regulations to ensure safe and responsible crypto asset investing activities through legally licensed crypto-assets brokers such as Pintu.

In 2018, the Indonesian Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (also known as Bappepti) under the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia has elected to regulate bitcoin and other crypto-assets as commodities.

Other Indonesian cryptocurrency exchanges are Indodax and Binance-backed Tokocrypto.

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Image Credit: Pintu

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Some of the biggest barriers to technology adoption are whether a business has a need for it, if they can afford it, and if it drives value. Perhaps this is why the food and beverage industry, a primarily offline and relationship-driven sector with tight margins and legacy practices, had never quite seen the need for technology adoption, until the pandemic. 

In what has been possibly the toughest 18 months for any customer-facing industry, F&B has been hit particularly hard. In Singapore, some venues have reported losing as much as 90 per cent of their revenue, while others went under, despite their best efforts. 

These aren’t easy circumstances to bounce back from, but there is a silver lining. Many F&B businesses are now sharing their experience of how being backed up against the wall actually pushed them to pause, pivot or overhaul how they do business.

Whether that’s exploring new avenues for revenue generation, optimising their workforce and back offices, or planning ahead to future-proof for the long-term.

Technology, while far from being a silver bullet, has played a crucial role in enabling these changes. Growing competition and demand has also driven down prices and improved its accessibility to businesses of all sizes, yet participation remains an obstacle to widespread adoption within F&B. 

At OrderEZ, we’ve seen these challenges play out in many ways for our clients over the last year, as well as the opportunities.

After speaking with countless distributors, craft brewers, distillers and roasters, here’s our take on three (out of many) crucial ways in which technology can create value for them in the near and long term. 

Cashflow security 

The elephant in the room for businesses across the board, and particularly F&B, is cash flow management. The pandemic has made it clear that F&B businesses need more diversified revenue streams if they are to build their cash reserves and comfortably pay their staff during hard times.

Also Read: How Warung Pintar builds tech solutions to help warung owners embrace the future

We’ve seen this play out with many F&B businesses adopting bottled cocktails, for example, and/or adopting e-commerce solutions to reach their customers.

But what this points to overall is the need for a fluid business model that is agile enough to pivot and change. Ways of working have had to change. And while technology is not the only solution, it is a critical tool in building new revenue streams by allowing businesses to take a step back, review their business and see how they can reach new customers and make money. 

Supply chain security

One of the biggest lessons for F&B  has been prioritising supply chain security – something that was almost taken for granted pre-pandemic, and particularly in a hub like Singapore. Statistics show that globally, only 22 per cent of companies had a proactive supply chain strategy and that restaurants that used SaaS ordering systems were able to reduce wastage by over 80 per cent. The writing was on the wall, but it took a crisis of this magnitude to finally bring these concerns to a head.

With so many F&B businesses seeing their cash flow seriously impacted by pandemic-induced logistics issues, forward-thinking supply chain planning is becoming an  increasingly fundamental part of future-proofing.

Technology, be it inventory management, transparent ordering processes, data analysis or simply connectivity, will play a crucial role in enabling this. 

Workforce optimisation

Technology influences every aspect of business optimisation, but workforce is an incredibly crucial area for F&B businesses that often run on lean teams.  One prominent example of this is efficiency i.e. doing more with less and with less room for error.

Already, technology platforms such as ours that digitise manual processes and integrate with other software are helping create seamless workflows between different functions, from sales to accounting and HR. 

A less obvious example is the role of technology in connectivity and helping the workforce stay connected, accountable and productive, which goes a long way in improving  employer-employee relationships.

To drive employee participation in such solutions, the onus is on businesses to adopt systems and solutions that are simple, useful and effectively cater to their specific business needs. 

Different ways of working, new customer preferences and imminent crisis situations are here to stay– for the next few years at least, if not for good. The important thing for F&B businesses at this time is to move out of survival mode and into planning mode, with the last 18 months serving as a crystal ball for the years ahead of us. 

Also Read: Ghost kitchen startup MadEats makes it into Y Combinator, in talks for fresh round of investment

Technology will undoubtedly play a role in helping F&B businesses navigate and grow into the demands of the evolving industry landscape. What they do next comes down to which technology they choose, how it will serve their business, and how they can drive participation and value for both their employees and customers.

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Fuse, an insurtech startup based in Indonesia, has announced the completion of its Series B funding, led by GGV Capital.

Existing investors, including EV Growth, SMDV, Golden Gate Ventures, Heyokha Brothers, and Emtek, also co-invested.

According to a Deal Street Asia report of June, Fuse raised US$30 million in this round.

A press statement said that the startup will use the new fund for the product and platform innovation and expanding into other markets in Southeast Asia.

Two industry veterans Andy Yeung and Ivan Sunandar launched Fuse in 2017 to solve the country’s last-mile trust gap in the insurance industry (97 per cent of Indonesians are underinsured for a lack of trust in the current system).

The startup has adopted an agent-focused model. The company, which claims to be offering instant closing and rapid claims processing, currently has more than 50,000 agent partners on its platform. Its total gross written premium (GWP) exceeded US$50 million (IDR 720 billion) in 2020.

Also Read: Fuse raises Series A funding from EV Growth, to multiply presence across country

It has partnerships with more than 30 insurance companies and 300 insurance products on the platform. It covers everything, from employee benefits to digital insurance embedded in e-commerce platforms.

In 2018, it supported Tokopedia in launching its first transactional top-up micro-insurance product.

In October 2019, Fuse secured “a couple of million USD” in Series A round from investors including EV Growth.

“We have always been very focused on product and platform innovation and will continue to invest into developing products and platforms that make insurance accessible and affordable for everyone in Southeast Asia. Seven insurance companies have already chosen Fuse to be their strategic Insurtech partner in Indonesia. Lastly, we will expedite to replicate our successful experience on Agent Partner and micro-insurance model to other parts of Southeast Asia, on top of Indonesia and Vietnam,” said CEO Andy Yeung.

“We made Fuse our first Insurtech investment in Southeast Asia as we believe it has the most thoughtful and strategically sound approach to insurance distribution in the region. Our experience in other emerging markets suggests that there is a ‘trust deficit’ in local communities that can be bridged by local leaders. They function as trust nodes in these localities. Similar to how a warung owner bridges the ‘trust deficit’ between FMCG brands and consumers, Fuse agent partners can bridge the ‘trust deficit’ between insurance brands and consumers”, said Jenny Lee, Managing Partner at GGV Capital.

GGV Capital is a global venture firm that invests in local founders. With US$9.2 billion under our management, it has investments in the US, Canada, China, Southeast Asia, India, Latin America, and Israel. As a multi-stage, sector-focused firm, GGV invests in seed-to-growth stage companies across three sectors: social/internet, enterprise tech, and smart tech.

Over the past two decades, CGV has backed more than 400 companies around the world, including Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Big Commerce, Boss Zhipin, Grab, HashiCorp, Hello, JD MRO, Keep, Kujiale, Manbang, NIU, Opendoor Technologies, Peloton, Poshmark, Qunar/Ctrip, Slack, Square, StockX, Udaan, Wish, Xpeng, Zendesk, Zuoyebang, and more.

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Image Credit: Fuse

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The Indian market is up for a creative disruption. Increasing internet penetration, on top of the presence of a vibrant youthful population who are ready to explore new things in life, has left space for startups to bloom and alter our habits and lifestyle.

The sharp shift towards digital education, the culture of work-from-home, playing indoors has altered our consumer habits. The pandemic has even motivated us to take personal hygiene and health seriously.

Let us look at some startups that are here to make our lives easier.

ByteLearn

ByteLearn, an AI-powered EdTech startup is revolutionising education by building an AI assistant for math teachers and students. The name “Byte” stems from the concept of a 1-on-1, personalised tutor for students, which is also a super-powered assistant for teachers. The pandemic has caused a sharp shift to remote learning, thus burdening teachers and demotivating students. Teachers already have spread thin managing over 100+ students, and are struggling to assign and grade homework, provide immediate and personalised feedback, track individual knowledge gaps, and provide practice to remediate gaps. Students are hurt too as they often lack the immediate, short, targeted help they need while solving math problems. ByteLearn viewed this as a big market opportunity and created an AI assistant to do the heavy lifting and equip teachers with the superpowers that they need to teach and inspire students to reach their true potential.

Also read: How Malaysia’s ServisHero transforms Southeast Asia’s home service market

The founders, Aditya Singhal and Nishant Sinha, are IIT graduates and serial entrepreneurs with 15 years of experience in the EdTech industry. The startup’s team consists of talented AI/ML scientists who previously worked at IBM and Sun Microsystems, an education and content team affiliated with Teach for America and a product design team with previous experience at Khan Academy and Imagine Learning. With a robust team and vision, ByteLearn has raised a sizeable seed funding round from marquee VCs so far. ByteLearn is aiming to become a dominant market player as it uses cutting edge AI technology to create adaptive learning tools and envisions itself as one of the pioneers in changing the education landscape, thus solving both teachers and student problems. Its business model covers all bases, B2B and B2C, with both freemium and premium pricing strategies. ByteLearn has a clear product roadmap for the next 5 years as it plans to expand to global markets and cover subjects beyond Math.

Pariksha

Pariksha, founded by Karanvir Singh, Utkarsh Bagri, Vikram Shekhawat and Deepak Choudhary in 2015, is a vernacular EdTech company that seeks to make education accessible and affordable to students who may be first-time mobile users.

Today, Pariksha operates in 16 states, 8 languages and offers around 120 courses. With the increasing digitalisation of rural India, Pariksha aims to go phygital and presently operates from 3 blended learning centres. It has also launched India’s first education stack that seeks to empower education service providers.

ImaginXP

As India is focused on skilling its youth population, ImaginXP, a virtual university platform that ties to universities to provide degree programs or certification courses ranging from Bachelor of Design, BBA, MBA, B.Tech, and the like.

Founded by Shishir Kumar and Shashank Shwet in 2013 at Pune, ImaginXP has around 2,500 students enrolled in full-time degree programs.

The MyCoach platform connects companies with students so that students are imparted industry-relevant skills which would come in handy when they enter the job market. Today, more than 15,000 students are enrolled in this platform. The pandemic which has disrupted the traditional university programs has helped in propelling its growth.

Tamasha

Founded by Siddharth Swarnkar and Saurabh Gupta in 2020, Tamasha provides the ideal space for content creators and social media influencers to interact with their fans.

Tamasha is a unique influencer-led live gaming platform where content creators and social media influencers can have the opportunity to host live online games.

Also read: Fintechs ushering in a new era for a more digital India

At a time when social media is booming and Youtubers are the new stars, Tamasha offers an exclusive space for the young talents to engage with their audience and figure out their game-plan.

Rooter

Founded by Akshat Goel, Piyush Kumar, and Dipesh Agarwal, Rooter is a game streaming app available in 10 Indian languages. It allows gamers to join popular streamers, upload gaming videos or images, and even create one’s gaming content. The views may get virtual benefits as well.

Today Rooter gets an average of over 80,000 live streams in a single day, and tournaments are held almost weekly. It presently occupies the top spot in the Sports section of Google Play Store.

Power Gummies

In a fast-moving consumer-centric world, we as individuals have neglected our health for too long. Power Gummies which seem simple, nutritious and attractive have offered a new alternative.

Founded by Divij Bajaj, also known as the gummy man of India, in 2018, Power Gummies has brought forth chewable vitamin gummies thereby influencing over 100,000 lives including many celebrities. Today the gummy man has made it to Business World 30 Under 30 Super Entrepreneurs of India 2021.

PeeSafe

Many women suffer from Urinary Tract Infection due to unhygienic sanitary practices. Starting as a toilet hygiene company, PeeSafe which was founded by Vikas Bagaria, Srijan Bagaria and Dheeraj Jain has been able to venture into women’s hygiene products like sanitary pads, menstrual cups and even intimate wash products for both men and women.

Today Pee Safe is accessible in more than 3000 stores, owns more than 90 per cent of the market in the toilet seat sanitiser category. It grew 80 per cent in the last financial year and expects a growth of 100 per cent over the next three years.

TruNativ

A health-conscious mind cares about the ingredients which go into the making of whatever he consumes. As many food products produced using harmful artificial ingredients crowd our FMCG marketplace, TruNativ claims that their products are environmentally conscious, they use only real food ingredients and their products are backed by science.

Also read: Going Global: Malaysia’s homegrown fintechs take on the world

Founded by Pranav and Mamta Malhotra in 2019 TruNativ Foods and Beverages is aware of urban malnourishment in our cities and wants to make a difference by converging health, hygiene, convenience and taste.

Raskik

Millenials want to experiment with their beverages and Raskik, a brand that produces natural fusion fruit juice is emerging as one of their options. Founded by Vikas Chawla, Abhay Parnekar and Satyajit Ram who were veterans of CocaCola, Raskik presently offers three variants of coconut water and fruit juice fusions at just 30 bucks.

The growing $2 billion fruit juice category has offered huge scope to experiment and dismantle the way we drink our favourite fruit juice.

Coutloot

We may have noticed that our local shopkeepers do not get sufficiently empowered by the presence of e-commerce giants. Coutloot, India’s largest offline to online social commerce platform, offers a solution in such a scenario.

Founded by Jasmeet Thind, Mahima Kaul and Vinit Jain in 2016, Coutloot enables the ‘local’ to be ‘vocal.’ Almost anyone can sell their products online in under 30 seconds and customers can even bargain! This is how the online marketplace is built and can be at par with the offline ones. 

Evenflow

E-commerce is going to be a $150 billion market by 2025. Consumers usually go for trusted brands while shopping online which puts new brands at a disadvantage.

Taking a cue from the US and Europe, Evenflow which was founded by Utsav Agarwal and Pulkit Chabbra offers to manage inventory, performance marketing, on-platform merchandising, cataloguing and new product development to third party brands who raise 80 per cent of their revenue through e-commerce. This is how local brands can be adequately empowered.

Entrepreneurs, investors and internet penetration offer the foundation of any start-up ecosystem. India is going strong on all parameters. This will change our lives for the better.

These startups will be pitching at the 9Unicorns Venture Catalysts demo day with other up-and-coming startups offering their unique products and services. Join them on August 11 and 12 to connect with some of the most promising young startups in a virtual networking session. To learn more, visit their official page here.

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Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 9Unicorns

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Vietnam Silicon Valley (VSV) Capital announced today it has invested up to US$50,000 each in eight startups through VSV Capital Accelerator Batch 7. They range from logistics, education to recruitment and sports.

The eight companies are:

• Song Nhat Tinh: a technology platform providing digitised solutions for Vietnam’s logistics
• ThingsTwin: a smart home monitoring app integrated with Samsung SmartThings
• uCall: an AI-applied callbot platform for businesses in telemarketing and customer services
• Nerman: a health and beauty care ecosystem for men with AI-integrated app
• MyLeague.vn: a planning and managing software for sports tournaments
• MarketingWorks: a leading recruitment platform for marketing jobs
• Future English: an effective English learning application using videos and podcasts
• Sunbot: a STEAM and robotics early education programme for pre-school.

Apart from an injection of the seed funding in cash, VSV Capital will provide a four-month intensive acceleration bootcamp as well as assistance packages from Amazon Web Services and Freshworks. In addition, VSV Capital will continue to accompany the startups for six to eight years in order to boost their business indicators, optimise costs and operation systems, and provide consulting in fundraising strategies.

“Although COVID-19 brings a lot of difficulties for startups and limitations for venture capital firms in evaluating and selecting startups to invest, this is also an opportunity for us to evaluate the endurance of the founding team and the agility in pivoting their business model,” said Tra Hoang, managing director at VSV Capital. “We expect that with the financial and non-financial resources of the programme, startups will have breakthrough growth and improve key business indicators despite the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Also read: Loship rakes in US$12M to grow its B2B delivery service for small stores, F&Bs in Vietnam

VSV Capital’s programme aims to help startups verify products and markets, optimise the business models and boost their business metrics by working directly with local and global experts from the VC firm on many common topics when operating businesses. Selected startups will have the opportunity to join the demo day on the final week of the bootcamp to prove their potential to domestic and international investors.

Founded in 2014 by veteran women entrepreneur Le Anh Thach, VSV Capital is Vietnam’s first accelerator and early-stage venture capital firm. The firm has invested in over 80 pre-seed and seed-stage companies with a few exits such as enterprise SaaS platform Base.vn, which was acquired by Vietnam’s IT giant FPT this May.

The VC firm claimed that nearly 70 per cent of its portfolio succeeded with the next funding rounds, such as Vulcan, Loship, Loop POS, Ship60, and Hachi. Loship recently raised US$12 million in a pre-Series C round co-led by Ant Group-backed BAce Capital and the direct investment unit of Sun Hung Kai & Co.

Besides accelerator programmes, VSV Capital also support follow-on deals and deals pipeline coming from its global VC network, targeting pre-Series A to Series B investments.

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Image credit: VSV Capital

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Gone are the days of in-store or online. Retail commerce – even in-store – has transformed almost completely into digital e-commerce, the term used to describe the blend of online and offline commerce that we all enjoy today.

Whether it is the purchases themselves or the payment methods used to facilitate them, digital platforms are now an integral part of the retail experience.

This has empowered brands with global aspirations to scale quickly across regions, reach new markets, and to gain market share. But it goes without saying that this is easier said than done.

In many parts of the world and has been evidenced in growing Southeast Asian markets like Indonesia, digital transformation represents the growth of social economic consumer groups, internet infrastructure, and the prolific usage of smartphones.

However, in more established economies, these factors have enabled a range of transactions and payment methods that we can now recognise as forms of e-commerce– but it has evolved at different stages in different regions, with some markets witnessing a more competitive e-commerce landscape than others.

To take their slice of the pie, businesses of all sizes and industries need to match their payment capabilities to the regions in which they operate, ensuring the solution offered matches the market they are targeting, and is sensitive to its complexities and nuances.

The new commerce, from E to M

There is no longer a distinct line between “traditional” retail and e-commerce. Whether shopping online or in-person, for household supplies or clothing, traditional purchase behaviour tends to be routine and considered (as opposed to a one-off purchase).

And such transactions are always conducted with a preferred payment method, if a preferred payment method is not available, the purchase is unlikely to be completed.

Also Read: 8 mobile e-commerce platforms to help you achieve great prosperity

Apps have enabled pre-programmed transactions with automated payment authorisation. In fact, apps have been found to convert three times better than mobile websites.

For example, the likes of Grab and foodpanda have built their business around this on-demand model powered by apps that function like commerce utilities – these tend to be more spontaneous purchases made whenever the need arises.

Cards? Who needs cards?

While plastic cards may be used like cash in some economies, this payment behaviour is quickly being supplanted in the Asia Pacific region by even more convenient payment methods. For example, payment wallets like Fave or GrabPay and QR code payments are commonly used forms of payment in Singapore.

Such transactions are thought of as “pull” transactions since they pull the necessary funds from a store of value somewhere else. In this case, the web browser serves as the “wallet.”

It’s worth noting that app-based m-commerce is extremely effective in driving conversions because shoppers engage with their phones in such a habitual way: messaging, scrolling through social and news feeds, playing games (which are themselves often a form of m-commerce with their in-app purchases).

This almost reflexive behaviour lowers barriers to purchase, as does complete purchases utilising locally preferred payment methods.

Banks as brands, not places

As electronic platforms continue to enable increasingly efficient commerce, the distinctions between banks and payments companies are beginning to blur, with digital payment platforms beginning to function like banks. The implication for e-commerce and m-commerce is that purchase transaction behaviour will become even more reflected.

This also means the relationships between the local payment methods and the consumers who use them will become more closely aligned. This, in turn, means that merchants conducting cross-border commerce or serving international clientele need to tap into these systems if they are to thrive and grow their customer base.

In fact, the change to more convenient electronic payment methods tends to be driven by habits adopted by youth. This means the move to truly cashless commerce that does not rely on credit cards is inexorable and will accelerate, relying on a growing range of electronic local payment methods.

Retailers looking to succeed in this world will need to look past their websites or even their apps, all the way into their customers’ wallets.

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Southeast Asia’s buzzing tech startup ecosystem is going through a period of spectacular growth, emerging as one of the global hotspots for foreign investment., Despite the impact of the pandemic, startups from the region attracted investments totalling US$8.2 billion in 2020. The region’s digital economy is on track to be worth more than USD 200 billion by 2025, backed by an estimated USD 50 billion in expected funding.

The region’s internet economy is fostering a strong startup sector in several of its fastest-growing markets like Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and in the region’s financial hub, Singapore. Startups within the region are attracting FDI from all over the world as they pursue higher growth, while foreign tech unicorns and venture capitalists are looking to benefit from business opportunities presented by a significant market.

The ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries collectively represent a market equivalent to the fifth largest economy in the world. SEA’s overall economy is expected to grow by over 5 per cent every year, and is also home to a large pool of young talent with more than 30 per cent of the population aged between 15 and 34. By 2030, around 500 million people in Southeast Asia will be of working age.

Given the favourable demographics of a large connected young customer base, it is obvious that a host of high growth startups and tech unicorns from the rest of Asia, the US, and Europe are eyeing the ASEAN market.

SEA: a rapidly maturing digital economy

Southeast Asia’s digital maturity makes it a lucrative proposition for global startups looking for their next big growth market. Both the supply of talent and demand for digital products and services are growing at an incredible rate.

The ASEAN market is also maturing at a rapid rate, with homegrown startups expanding throughout the region and some even venturing beyond. COVID-19 has spurred much higher digital adoption among the population, with 70 per cent of Southeast Asia — 400 million people — now online thanks to the pandemic, according to a report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company.

The number of digital consumers is surging in Southeast Asia, driven by the combination of rising disposable incomes, access to affordable devices, and a large untapped market. Google estimates around 3.8 million new users across Southeast Asia will continue to come online each month.

For startups looking to expand in Southeast Asia, Malaysia is the perfect entry point

Malaysia is currently ranked as the 11th best-emerging startup destination in the world. Startup hotspots include the capital Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Selangor. These tech hubs boast an abundant supply of skilled talent, as well as attractive costs of business operations. Strong government support has helped shape an ecosystem of accelerators and incubators that make Malaysia a highly suitable destination for high growth startups wanting to establish a presence in Southeast Asia.

With a population of 33 million, Malaysia has a well-educated and highly diverse workforce who speak multiple languages. Malaysia has experienced a steady improvement in its business climate for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises, moving up three places to a global rank of 12th out of 190 economies in the latest ease of doing business ranking by the World Bank.

Also read: Fintechs ushering in a new era for a more digital India

Decades of industrial growth and political stability has seen Malaysia become a major tourist destination and a manufacturing powerhouse. Thanks to reliable digital infrastructure, Malaysia is an attractive base for companies in the financial, IT, and logistic sectors. Geographically, Malaysia is located in the heart of the ASEAN region. Its immediate neighbours are three burgeoning growth markets – Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore – making Malaysia a great HQ location for companies involved in cross-country operations.

With its balanced mix of languages, people, and industries, Malaysia is a true microcosm of Southeast Asia. Malaysia’s business-friendly regulatory environment can help startups to leverage the Malaysian market as the perfect entry point to quickly establish a presence in Southeast Asia and to better understand the culture, consumer behaviour, and market dynamics. Startups entering Malaysia will find the ideal launch market where they can refine the business model that will work best for them to achieve success in the wider region.

ServisHero: transforming home services in Southeast Asia

ServisHero is a technology-enabled marketplace for blue-collar workers headquartered in Malaysia with operations in Singapore and Thailand. Karl Loo, Founder and CEO of ServisHero, pursued Southeast Asia as a growth market because he felt with the high adoption of mobile technology, the timing for a services marketplace was right. Launched in 2015 as one of the first regional mobile apps to hire home service providers such as Cleaners, AC Technicians, Plumbers, Electricians etc., the app quickly became popular with Malaysians.

The startup operates under two business models — a consumer-focussed app; and under the sub-brand WorkMagic, it provides large enterprises with flexible teams of blue-collar technicians that can perform tasks such as building maintenance or installation services.

Large enterprises like Samsung and Kimberly Clark work with them to eliminate the operational complexity of managing their own service teams. The software developed by ServisHero allows them to effectively manage worker operations and allow clients to receive real-time updates on task fulfilment.

Loo says that people use our blue-collar service solutions because – “consumers can find and book a reliable home service conveniently from their smartphone; enterprises can offer services to their end-users without having to invest in their own labour infrastructure, and blue-collar workers and partners on our platform (we call them “Heroes”) get a consistent stream of high-value work that offers them enhanced earning potential.“

ServisHero is backed by leading Southeast Asian VC funds including Golden Gate Ventures and Cradle Seed Ventures.

In 2017, ServisHero participated in the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre’s (MaGIC) programme, Distro Camp, to help them expand to other countries in Southeast Asia, and to form partnerships with many of the region’s leading companies. ”MaGIC has been incredibly supportive with our goals to grow and scale our business. In particular, MaGIC has provided us access to digital marketing training for staff, as well as support to recruit local talent through their career fairs,” shared Karl Loo, Founder and CEO of ServisHero.

Also read: Going Global: Malaysia’s homegrown fintechs take on the world

Loo feels that apart from Malaysia’s strategic geographical location, “the key factors that make Malaysia a great place as a launchpad for start businesses, include: a) focused government support for startups; b) talented and young workforce that is keen to work in startup environments; c) relatively low costs to run a business.”

During the pandemic, ServisHero mobilised its network of workers to provide disinfection and sanitisation services to businesses and consumers under the brand Disinfection2U.com – this unit quickly became one of the largest COVID-19 disinfection companies in the region. “ServisHero is committed to creating work opportunities for the underserved, and we work closely with various government agencies to provide earning opportunities for Malaysia’s B40,” adds Loo.

Helping Samsung service customers during COVID-19

In 2020 during the pandemic, Samsung was looking for a better customer experience for people ordering appliances online.  Samsung wanted a trusted partner with nationwide installation capability and selected ServisHero as their installation service provider for appliances purchased directly from Samsung’s online channels across Malaysia.

ServisHero leverages its platform to provide a flexible team of installers for Samsung reducing operational complexity for Samsung and increasing online sales conversions.

Loo says having spent several years operating in the region, they understand Southeast Asian users and can deliver extremely relevant services for them. He hopes to offer their “blue-collar workforce in the cloud” to more enterprises, as well as continue to serve their loyal B2C user-base.

MaGIC: empowering entrepreneurs since 2014

Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre’s (MaGIC) is the agency under the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) on a mission to develop a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem in Malaysia. They empower technology startups and innovators through a series of mentorship, training, and development programmes, aimed at Early Stage, Mid Stage and Late Stage startups.

For late-stage global startups who want to expand into the region, MaGIC offers a Virtual Global Market-Fit Programme (GMP), a platform for high growth innovative startups to explore cultures, understand ways of business and gain international market access in countries beyond ASEAN. MaGIC also periodically opens applications to MyStartupHub (MSH), a soft-landing program for innovative global startups from all over the world to establish a business hub in Malaysia. Collaborating with Malaysian ministries and agencies, MyStartup Hub provides assistance in company incorporation, local talent acquisition, and Malaysia’s market access.

Also read: How these four India-based startups are impacting the earth

Through this programme, MaGIC will assist startups in business set-up, talent recruitment, and vertical-specific market access via their network of partners including government agencies, corporates, and universities. In exchange, startups are required to hire at least 3-5 local talents to help run operations in Malaysia.

MSH seeks to instil the exchange of knowledge between local and international startups to be more forward-thinking and relevant to industrial revolution 4.0. It also aims to provide global startups entry into Malaysia as the testbed and gateway to the larger ASEAN market. Moreover, the programme is designed to leverage Malaysia’s strong positioning in the regional ecosystem for local and international startups.

For more information, visit MaGIC’s official website at https://www.mymagic.my.

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

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On this National Day, despite everything that Singapore has to go through during the pandemic, there are still reasons to celebrate. One of them being the local tech startups that have made notable achievements and milestones this year.

These achievements and milestones range from securing unicorn status, confirming plans to go public, and raising more than US$15 million in a single funding round.

For your reading convenience, we have gone through our news coverage of the Singapore startup ecosystem this year and compiled the top 27 for you.

Nium

Nium, which offers cross-border payment services in multiple countries around the world, has become Southeast Asia’s latest tech company to get the unicorn status, following a US$200 million Series D investment round led by US-based Riverwood Capital.

Temasek, Visa, Vertex Ventures, Atinum Group of Funds, Beacon Venture Capital, and Rocket Capital Investment also joined the round. Notable angels such as DoorDash executive Gokul Rajaram, FIS’s CPO Vicky Bindra, and Tribe Capital co-founder Arjun Sethi also participated.

PropertyGuru

PropertyGuru has
announced that it will merge with Bridgetown 2 Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) formed by Pacific Century Group and Peter Thiel’s Thiel Capital, to go public in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

The combined entity will have an enterprise valuation of approximately US$1.35 billion and an equity value of approximately US$1.78 billion at closing, according to a statement.

Syfe

Syfe, a Singapore-headquartered digital wealth management company, announced that it has closed its Series B funding round of SG$40 million (US$30 million) led by Valar Ventures, the US-based VC firm co-founded by Peter Thiel. Existing investors Presight Capital (US) and Unbound also participated.

This capital injection comes just nine months after Syfe’s US$18.6 million Series A round led by Valar Ventures in September 2020.

NextGen

Plant-based foodtech startup Next Gen Foods has extended its seed financing round by raising US$20 million afresh.

This comes less than five months after it raised US$10 million from a host of investors, including Temasek and K3 Ventures — bringing the total funds raised from this round to US$30 million.

SCI Ecommerce

Cross-border e-commerce enabler SCI Ecommerce announced the final close of its ongoing fundraising, bringing the total capital raised from this round to approximately S$88 million (US$65.4 million).

The first tranche of this round worth US$38 million, announced on May 3, 2021, was led by Asia Partners.

Also Read: Lucy, a Singaporean neobank focused on women entrepreneurs, bags seed funding

Cialfo

Cialfo, a startup in the international student mobility space, raised US$15 million in an extension of its Series A round co-led by new investors SIG and Vulcan Capital. Backers also include January Capital, Bisk Ventures, Patrick Walujo and Teik Ngan Loy.

Cialfo will use the new capital for product innovation as well as expansion to India, China and Southeast Asia.

Endowus

Endowus.com, a MAS-licensed digital wealth platform, announced that it has received investments from strategic investors, including UBS, Samsung Ventures, and Singtel Innov8. Lightspeed Venture Partners and SoftBank Ventures Asia also joined the round.

The strategic investors will play a critical role in Endowus’s growth and ambition to become a leading robo-advisor and digital wealth manager in Singapore and Asia.

Zenyum

Zenyum, a direct-to-consumer dental products startup, raised a US$40 million Series B funding round led by L Catterton, a global consumer-focused private equity firm. L Catterton invested US$25 million into the startup in this funding round.

Existing Zenyum investors including Sequoia Capital India, RTP Global, Partech, TNB Aura, Seeds Capital, and FEBE Ventures also participated in this funding round.

MatchMove

US-based tech company Nityo Infotech invested US$100 million in embedded finance company MatchMove Pay in return for a significant equity stake. With this investment, Nityo will become the largest shareholder in MatchMove.

Together, the two companies aim to empower clients to embed own-brand digital financial services in their own platforms and apps.

Osome

Osome, a startup that has developed an accounting and corporate compliance app for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), secured US$16 million in Series A funding. Investors are Target Global (Berlin), AltaIR Capital, Phystech Ventures, and S16VC, besides Peng T. Ong, Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures.

The fresh capital will be used for international expansion and to fuel product integrations.

Pace

Pace Enterprise, a ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) startup owned by Spacemob founder Turochas “T” Fuad, secured an ‘eight-figure USD’ debt financing round led by Genesis Alternative Ventures.

The fintech startup will use the cash to grow its business in Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Singapore’s INKR bags US$3.1M led by Monk’s Hill to make digital comics universally accessible

Carousell

Leading online classifieds company Carousell is mulling public listing in the US via merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), says a Bloomberg report, citing undisclosed sources.

The transaction could value the tech company at about US$1.5 billion. It is already working with an adviser on the potential deal.

Engine Biosciences

Engine Biosciences, a Singapore- and US-based drug discovery company, raised close to US$42 million (S$57 million) in Series A financing from a slew of investors. Led by Polaris Partner, the round was also joined by Invus, 6 Dimensions Capital, WuXi AppTec, DHVC, EDBI, Baidu Ventures, Vectr Ventures, Goodman Capital, WI Harper, and Nest.Bio.

This comes after over three years after it raised US$10 million in seed funding from leading US, Singapore and China-based VCs and multi-stage investors.

Hummingbird Bioscience

Clinical-stage biotech company Hummingbird Bioscience announced the close of its US$125 million Series C financing round, led by Novo Holdings.

The round also saw participation from new investors including Frazier Healthcare Partners, Octagon Capital, EDBI, AMGEN Ventures, DROIA Ventures, Morningside Ventures, Pureos Bioventures, Polaris Partners, Affinity Asset Advisors, Ally Bridge Group and Altrium Capital Management.

MVLLabs

MVLLabs, a mobility blockchain company, raised US$15 million in a Series B funding round led by Korean automotive parts manufacturer CENTRAL. Singapore-headquartered TRIVE Ventures also participated in the round.

MVL will channel these funds towards expanding its mobility offerings – beginning with the launch of its first electric vehicle (EV), the ONiON T1.

Rainforest

Rainforest, an e-commerce brand aggregator, announced its launch with a seed financing round of US$36 million. The funding round consisted of US$6.5 million in equity financing, led by Nordstar, with participation from Insignia Venture Partners, and a US$30 million debt facility from an undisclosed US-based debt fund.

Rainforest will use the funds to acquire promising Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) brands, invest in technology, and hire top talent to join their Singapore-headquartered and globally distributed team.

Glints

Glints, a Southeast Asia-focused online platform for career development and recruitment, raised US$22.5 million in a Series C funding round led by Tokyo-listed PERSOL Holdings.

Returning investors, including Monk’s Hill Ventures, Fresco Capital, Mindworks Ventures and Wavemaker Partners, besides angels such as Binny Bansal (co-founder of Flipkart) and Xiaoyin Zhang (former Head and Partner at Goldman Sachs TMT China) also participated in the round.

Also Read: Monk’s Hill Ventures head of talent’s guide to startup jobs search in Singapore

Trax

Trax secured US$640 million in a Series E financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and technology-focused funds managed by existing investor BlackRock. This round of primary and secondary capital financing also saw participation from new investors including Canadian pension fund OMERS and Sony Innovation Fund.

The blockbuster Series E round is more than double what the company raised in the past decade. To date, the firm has raised US$1.03 billion in investments and is understood to be valued at over US$2 billion

Grab

Grab confirmed its plans to go public in the US in partnership with Altimeter Growth, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The company expects it to be the largest-ever US equity offering by a Southeast Asian company.

The combined entity expects its securities will be traded on NASDAQ under the symbol GRAB in the “coming months.”

The proposed transactions value Grab at an initial pro-forma equity value of approximately US$39.6 billion at a PIPE size of more than US$4 billion.

Austrianova

Biotech company Austrianova signed an agreement with Luxembourg-based private alternative investment group GEM Global Yield to provide it with a share subscription facility of up to US$100 million for a 36-month term, following a public listing.

The deal will allow Austrianova to draw down funds by issuing shares of common stock to GEM.

StashAway

StashAway, a robo-advisor for both retail and accredited investors, raised US$25 million in its Series D funding round led by Sequoia Capital India.

Existing investors, including Eight Roads Ventures (the global investment firm backed by Fidelity International and early investor in Alibaba), and Australian VC firm Square Peg also participated in the round.

Patsnap

PatSnap, a provider of R&D intelligence and IP intelligence platforms for brands and enterprises, secured US$300 million in Series E financing round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Tencent Investment.

This round puts PatSnap into the unicorn club.

Ryde

Ryde, a mobility app company, announced that it is preparing for an IPO launch on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), according to a press statement.

The IPO is slated for 2022 at a S$200 million (US$148 million) valuation.

Also Read: Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures leads Singapore wealthtech startup Syfe’s US$30M Series B round

Grab Financial Group

Grab Financial Group (GFG), the fintech arm of the Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant, announced an over US$300 million Series A funding. The round was led by Korean asset management company Hanwha Asset Management, with other investors such as K3 Ventures, GGV Capital, Arbor Ventures and Flourish Ventures, joining.

The fresh funds will go towards expanding its team and increasing “more affordable, convenient and transparent” financial solutions in the region, the company said in a statement.

iSTOX

iSTOX, a Singapore Exchange (SGX)-backed digital securities platform, announced a US$50 million Series A funding round, as two Japanese government-backed investors joined the round. The VC arm of Japan Investment Corporation, JIC Venture Growth Investments (JIC-VGI) and government-owned Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) joined other new investors including Japan’s Juroku Bank and Mobile Internet Capital (MIC) in the latest round of financing.

Existing investors SGX, Japan’s Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings and Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management also made fresh investments.

BlueSG

Goldbell, a Singapore-based transport and engineering group, confirmed the acquisition of local electric car-sharing startup BlueSG in February.

The group expects the acquisition to be completed before August 2021 and claims it will help accelerate BlueSG’s development and expand its operations to other smart cities across the Asia Pacific region.

RWDC Industries

RWDC Industries secured nearly US$168 million over its six years of existence from renowned VCs such as Vickers Venture Partners as well as the ‘Iron Man’ star Robert Downey Jr.

RWDC Industries is one such startup that has long been working on developing a biodegradable alternative. It produces medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (mcl-PHA) biopolymers that are designed for use across a broad range of applications.

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