Indonesian vehicle tracking startup Webtrace raises funding

The story: Indonesia-based vehicle tracking and fleet management solutions startup Webtrace has secured an undisclosed amount of investment in an extension of its seed round.

Investors: Corin Capital.

The seed round was led by Prasetia Dwidharma, with the participation from Astra Ventura and a Singapore-based unnamed angel investor.

Plans: The funds will be used to strengthen its marketing and customer acquisition strategy as well as expanding sales headcounts.

What is Webtrace: Trucking companies and fleet owners in Indonesia are in the race of tight pricing competition, largely caused by the huge population of commercial vehicles (9.6 million units as of 2019). Webtrace aims to help those companies to be more efficient in cost saving as well as improve the utilisation rate, productivity, and safety by implementing IoT sensors.

99 Group appoints Shivkumar Krishnan as new CTO

The story: Singapore-based 99 Group, which operates several property portals including 99.co, iproperty.com.sg and rumah123.com, has appointed tech veteran Shivkumar Krishnan as Chief Technology Officer.

Who is Shivkumar Krishnan?

With close to two decades of experience in the tech industry, Krishnan spent more than 10 years in the US at tech giants, such as Microsoft and eBay, as well as startups.

Prior to joining 99 Group, he was the Director of Engineering at Circles.Life and the Engineering Leader at Grab.

He holds a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Hiring 100 people: The company also said it will boost its tech workforce by hiring about 100 additional tech staff over the next 12 months, in a move to accelerate the company’s tech innovation for an evolving real estate industry.

The company is recruiting talent such as front- and back-end engineers, app developers, product managers, UX/UI designers, and data analysts, with the job openings already live at 99.co/team.

Meet the 8 startups presented at Iterative’s virtual Demo Day

The story: Iterative, an early-stage startup accelerator focused on Southeast Asia, launched in February and on Monday hosted its first Demo Day for investors across Southeast Asia and in the US.

The virtual Demo Day was the culmination of a 12-week programme that featured eight companies from Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Which are the startups?

1. Become: Affordable teeth straightening for Asia
2. Bungkus: Halal food delivery
3. Haulio: Tech-enabled first mile logistics
4. Outside Voice: No-code app builder for Whatsapp
5. Propseller: Technology powered real estate agency for Southeast Asia
6. Sendhelper: The fastest way to hire top home service professionals
7. Starboard: Xero for corporate entity management
8. TendoPay: Buy now. Pay on installments for your online purchases

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Image Credit: Webtrace

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Kevin Nguyen is no stranger to e27’s thriving contributor community, having consistently published at least one article per month on the platform on topics he’s most passionate about –travel and healthcare.

“I’m most interested in these topics because these are the industries that my software clients are from,” he said, giving a nod to the software firm he established three years ago, Adamo Digital.

He learned a lot from dealing with these clients, whom he claimed mostly based in Singapore, US, and Australia. Because of his love for writing, he then decided to write regularly about the trends in the healthcare, food tech, and travel tech market.

From software engineer to a CEO

Adamo Digital, the software company he founded in 2018, now has employed 50 people and is based in Hanoi, Vietnam. Nguyen himself said that back then in the university days, he studied business and learned about programming on his own.

Before starting his own software company, Nguyen first got his toe dipped in the tech world working in a travel tech company. He used to build a booking system for flights, hotels, and tours for people to travel to Vietnam.

Not long after that, he ventured on his own by combining his tech knowledge and business background. He started Adamo Digital that focusses on mobile app and website developments from different tech companies.

He regularly came across companies in healthcare and travel tech, and even now, is working on a Singaporean healthtech company that connects patients and doctors without the need for face-to-face meetings.

Also Read: Rachel Lau of RHL Ventures on the kind of thinking that allows innovation

From a reader to a thought leader

Having been an avid reader of e27 since three to four years ago, he began to develop a passion for writing and used the contributor channel to publish his thoughts.

“Until now, with the new contribution policy, I still faced rejection. But I think it’s a good exercise because e27 has this intact policy regarding the quality of writing that can be associated with its brand, which helps filter only the tech-related industry enthusiasts and experts to share their thoughts,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen’s use of e27’s contribution channel goes so far as trying to publish at least one article per month.

“I think I’ve learned a lot from reading the articles published on e27, as it’s always something that readers can gain information from. I tried to emulate that in my articles, and when it’s working, I get to share my experience with my clients, from my point of view,” he added.

On writing as a personal branding

e27’s contribution channel branded itself as a hub where a thought leader can contribute ideas and opinions. Nguyen said that it may motivate contributors to do more research in topics worth talking about, to explore ideas, and finally, to write about it to establish oneself as a thought leader.

“I think it has to do a lot with personal branding. It’s all about the content that you write. I started out didn’t really have much to say, but I took the time to read and understand the industries where my clients are and follow the trend. By writing for e27, I think in a way, I’ve branded myself as the expert in the industry, especially if I focus on several topics only,” Nguyen said.

After seven articles published on e27, what comes next for Nguyen?

“It will always revolve around what learnings I gained from some of my clients at Adamo Digital. I will write more about things that are pertinent to our client’s market and tie it to what’s trending. It’s a formula I tried to apply in my writings,” he concluded.

For more of Nguyen’s articles, click here.

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Image Credit: Kevin Nguyen

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Singapore-headquartered PropertyGuru Group said today it has secured an additional investment of SGD300 million (US$220 million) in recent funding rounds by leading global investment firms global private equity giants TPG and KKR.

The proptech giant will use the funds to further invest in identified strategic areas of growth, including PropertyGuru Finance, its recently-launched mortgage marketplace, and PropertyGuru FastKey, an end-to-end sales enablement solution for property developers.

Hari Krishnan, CEO and Managing Director, PropertyGuru, said: “The additional investments from TPG and KKR will enable us to continue building Southeast Asia’s property trust platform and accelerate our momentum in key markets like Malaysia and Vietnam.”

Also Read: PropertyGuru’s CPO shares the secret sauce of building a highly productive remote team

The realty-tech group had earlier raised US$144 million from KKR in October 2018.

Launched in 2007, PropertyGuru provides solution to resolve home-seekers’ pain-points using data and digital tools. This way, it aims to improve transparency in the property ecosystem for consumers, developers, and agent partners across Southeast Asia.

Over the decade, the group has expanded into multiple markets in the region with a portfolio of property portals, including Batdongsan.com.vn (Vietnam), DDproperty.com (Thailand), and Rumah.com and RumahDijual.com (both Indonesia).

The group claims it provides “the widest option of more than 2.7 million homes” and in-depth insights and solutions for property seekers in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

It said the group recorded 24 per cent revenue growth y-o-y and continues to lead in Southeast Asia with 57 per cent market share.

Olivier Lim, Chairman of the Board, PropertyGuru Group, said: “We have scaled rapidly across Southeast Asia by anticipating and addressing consumer needs with a data-driven strategy, underpinned by a talented team of ‘Gurus.This year, amidst the changing business realities, the demonstrable strength of our platforms has solidified our relative market leadership and provides new opportunities to accelerate both organic and inorganic growth with new investments.”

In October last year, PropertyGuru had decided not to proceed with its proposed initial public offering (IPO) on the Australian Securities Exchange on account of the IPO market sentiments then.

Also Read: Can SEA’s proptech come back to its pre-COVID-19 glory? Experts speak

As behaviours adopted during the pandemic reshape consumer habits and preferences in a new normal, digital transformation is accelerated across sectors.

As per the latest report by Bain & Company and Facebook, nearly 70 per cent of Southeast Asians are expected to be digital consumers by the end of 2020.

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Image Credit: PropertyGuru

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Digital media group REV Asia Berhad today announced that it has agreed to acquire iMedia, a Malaysian digital media company focussing on content, technology, and social influencer marketing.

iMedia owns and represents digital properties in the country which the company claims to have a combined reach of over eight million Malaysians monthly.

iMedia is expected to make over US$723,000 in net profit after tax in 2021, which would see a total acquisition price of US$9.6 million, if achieved.

REV Asia noted that the founders of iMedia are taking the entire consideration in shares in REV Asia. As part of REV Asia, access to capital markets and liquidity is expected to allow the company to accelerate its acquisition and growth plans.

Nielsen Malaysia recently reported that digital advertising spent in Malaysia from January to May 2020 exceeded US$104 million, accounting for more than 22 per cent of total advertising spend in the country. This has placed iMedia to capitalise on the opportunity in digital advertising spend in Malaysia and other key Southeast Asian markets.

Also Read: Media Prima Digital set to buy Catcha Group’s REV Asia for US$24M, becomes largest Malaysian digital media company

Voon Tze Khay, CEO, and Co-founder of iMedia said, “There are hundreds of independent digital media and advertising businesses in Malaysia that would be better under one unified roof where they can share technology, data, content, sales teams, and clients. We aim to be that single digital home for Malaysian digital media properties. We are looking to invest in or acquire numerous companies in this exact space in both Malaysia and then across the region.”

iMedia’s social influencer marketing platforms were built in Malaysia, and they have powered influencer campaigns across the top 1,000 influencers in the country.

In 2016, REV Asia its group of companies announced that its 70 per cent-owned subsidiary, namely Rev Digital Sdn Bhd has entered into a Business Assets Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Netnion Technology Sdn Bhd for the proposed acquisition of popular Chinese social news and content websites, Viralcham and Rojaklah.

Shortly after, it followed with the acqusition of three popular Malay content portals called Siraplimau, Myresipi, and Kongsiresep.

In 2017, however, REV Asia was acquired by Media Prima Digital, a subsidiary of the Malaysian media giant Media Prima for US$24.2 million. The deal fully incorporated REV Asia into Media Prima’s digital platform, making the platform the largest Malaysian digital media company.

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Image Credit: REV Asia

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Blanja.com, an Indonesian e-commerce platform co-owned by US behemoth eBay and state-owned telco firm Telkom, has ceased operation per September 1, its official statement read.

Blanja.com was founded in September 2012 as a C2C marketplace. According to the article released by Tech In Asia, it was known for its gadgets offering that’s bundled with an internet data package from Telkomsel, Telkom’s wireless network unit. In its development, Blanja also offered items such as beauty products as well as food and beverage.

In 2016, both Telkom and eBay reportedly injected US$25 million into Blanja.com.

Blanja.com had had a hard time competing with unicorns such as Tokopedia and Bukalapak, as well as Shopee, in terms of customer acquisitions and retainments.

According to iPrice data, by Q1 2020, Blanja.com fell to 27th place, with just over 400,000 monthly web visits.

Also Read: How aCommerce, Blanja, and Pinjam maintain employee retention

In 2018, Aulia Marinto who was the company’s CEO, resigned from Blanja.com to return to Telkom Group.

So far, the company only left steps on its site for its customers to withdraw their e-commerce balance from Blanja.com’s e-wallet before the end of September.

This is the latest notable shutdown that has happened in the Indonesian e-commerce scene since the start of COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Previously, fashion e-commerce site Sorabel also announced its shutdown in July.

In our special report, Sorabel CEO Jeffrey Yuwono revealed that the company’s cash reserves were already depleted as the pandemic hit, even though it has managed to secure several investment offers. The pandemic had made the situation worsen as foreign investors were unable to travel to Indonesia to follow-up the deals.

In Indonesia, even unicorns such as Traveloka are struggling during the pandemic, despite their ability to continue on closing new funding rounds.

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Image Credit: Blanja.com

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PasarPolis, an Indonesia-based online insurance aggregator, announced today it has closed US$54 million in a “heavily oversubscribed” Series B round of financing.

Investors of this round include LeapFrog Investments, SBI Investment, AlphaJWC, Intudo Ventures and Xiaomi, in addition to its existing Series A investors, including Go-Ventures, the VC arm of gojek.

With the funds, the insurtech firm will be able to advance its Artificial Intelligence technology and leverage Big Data to build tailor-made insurance products for the digital ecosystem.

Also Read: PasarPolis confirms Series A funding round by Indonesian unicorns Go-Jek, Tokopedia, Traveloka

The Jakarta-headquartered firm also aims to make deeper penetration into its existing markets, including Vietnam and Thailand where it forayed into in May last year.

“Through this funding, we will continue this mission in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. As we move forward into a more digital world, the presence of insurtech has become an essential aspect of the industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased awareness and demand of insurance, but consumers’ online purchasing lifestyle has resulted in insurtech becoming indispensable,” said Founder and CEO Cleosent Randing.

The LeapFrog partnership will accelerate its efforts in making insurance available for emerging consumers, whereas Xiaomi will help it create an easily accessible insurance through mobile-first technology.

Also Read: How insurtech is changing the game in Southeast Asia

Founded by Randing and Michael Saputra, PasarPolis aggregates insurance products from over 30 insurance companies in Southeast Asia, and has built a network of over 10,000 agents across Indonesia.

In 2019, PasarPolis said it issued more than 650 million policies to first-time insurance purchasing consumers, ride-hailing drivers, delivery couriers and online SMEs.

In February, PasarPolis announced a partnership with gojek to launch GoSure, a platform that offers insurance products to users.

“With 30 insurance companies, and 25 digital partners, together serving over 4,000,000 new customers in June 2020 alone, the opportunity for PasarPolis to expand its offering and geographic reach is extraordinary. There is huge potential for positive social impact,” said Fernanda Lima, Partner, LeapFrog.

“As part of our investment, LeapFrog will focus on helping PasarPolis improve its consumer insights and product innovation capabilities, and expansion in other markets,” he noted.

In 2018, the firm had confirmed a Series A fundraise from gojek, Tokopedia, and Traveloka.

Since then, the number of monthly policies issued by the firm grew more than 80x and the number of partners grew 4x, it said in a statement.

As per a study, the insurance penetration rate in ASEAN remains low at approximately 3.6 per cent.

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Image Credit: PasarPolis

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Mobio Interactive raises US$1.8M seed funding

The story: Singapore-based Mobio Interactive has raised US$1.8 million in seed funding, according to Mobihealthnews.

Investors: Verge HealthTech Fund, Atlas Asset Management, Creative Ventures and SOSV

More about the story: The startup will use the funding to improve its deep tech capabilities and clinical validations for its Am Mindfulness (Am) app.

Also Read:  Meet the first batch of e27 Pro Perks partners

About the company: Mobio Interactive builds software to prevent, measure and treat mental illness. Its Am app enables users to quantify stress through a machine learning tool without using a wearable device.

GoBear cuts off 11 per cent of its workforce

The story: Singaporean fintech startup GoBear has let go of 22 employees, (about 11 per cent of its workforce), according to Vulcan Post.

Out of the 22 employees, about 50 per cent are locals and the rest are permanent residents.

More about the story: This news comes weeks after the company raised US$17 million from Walvis Participaties and Aegon.

The reason: The company has said that the layoffs are due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and is a way to “future proof” the business.

“We have had to take measures to adapt our business to overcome challenges and future-proof it for what lies ahead, by focusing on our growth engines of digital lending and digital insurance brokerage,” Adrian Chng, CEO of GoBear said.

The company: Founded in 2015, GoBear was initially meant to be a metasearch engine before making a transition into financial services. It currently has over 100 commercial partners, including banks and insurance providers, and is used by over 55 million people.

Myanmar’s Zay Chin raises funding

The story: Online grocery store platform Zay Chin has raised an undisclosed amount of funding to enables customers to shop for groceries from wet markets in Myanmar.

Investor: Indonesia’s UMG Idealab

More about the story: The fresh funding will be used for regional expansion, operational upgrades, and technological enhancement to create a better shopping experience.

Also Read: PropertyGuru raises US$220M from TPG, KKR to accelerate growth in Malaysia, Vietnam

According to the company, traditional wet markets grocery products are high in demand among local housewives in the country.

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Image Credit: GoBear

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Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hits the global market and forced everyone to rethink how things are being run, digital transformation and its risks have already stolen the attention of many business players, as reported in this Wall Street Journal article.

But with the pandemic restricting movement in various countries, the Southeast Asian (SEA) startup ecosystem saw a surge in popularity of platforms that enable digital transformation for conventional businesses among investors. In August, e27 covered at least four of such funding rounds.

Each of these companies is covering the different aspect of digital transformation. Wahyoo and BukuKas are working with medium- and small-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia while Intrepid Group’s reach also includes major consumer-facing brands.

In fact, from the VC side, MDI Ventures had announced a new US$500 million fund that aims to help the digitalisation of Indonesian state-owned firms.

Another trend that has been widely discussed among investors, including Paul Meyers and Jussi Salovaara in an e27 Webinar episode, is the rise of M&A and strategic acquisitions. In August, we saw the acquisition of TradeGecko by global SaaS giant Intuit, which proved that the SEA market remains a promising destination for global companies. In addition to them, there were also the acquisitions of EmpatKali by AfterPay and iMoney by JurisTech.

Also Read: OKR is a startup lifesaver. Here is how to craft them

Popular sectors

As with the previous months, there are sectors that continue to be popular among investors in SEA such as fintech (Clik raised US$3.7 million in seed funding while Incomlend raised US$20 million in Series A) as well as e-commerce and logistics (Anchanto raised US$12 million, KitaBeli raised an undisclosed seed, and SIRCLO raised US$6 million in Series B).

We also saw investments in edutech (Doyobi), gaming (Potato Play), and alternative protein (Lever VC’s first fund).

In the agritech sector, particularly in Indonesia, fishery became the centre of attention as eFishery and Aruna announced their funding rounds.

In Singapore particularly, the deep tech sector continued to see funding trickled in as Gero.ai, TADA, and See-Mode secured their funding rounds, both raising more than US$2 million.

For the unicorns, Grab was reported to be in the process of raising US$200 million from a South Korean private equity firm. The company has declined to comment on the report.

What this means for the ecosystem

August was the month where we saw most of the predictions about the SEA startup ecosystem coming true. In addition to the M&A activities and the popularity of platforms that enable digital transformation, we also continue to see investor favourite during the pandemic flourishing –from e-commerce to medtech to logistics.

Also Read: Why e27 Pro member Incubate Fund remains optimistic about the startup ecosystem in Japan

We predict that this trend will continue in September –perhaps even all the way to the end of 2020. As the dominating theme of the year, the pandemic will continue to affect investors’ appetite and setting up trends in the ecosystem.

What can startups do to seize this opportunity? There are many approaches to explore. While a startup should always be ready to make adjustment through a pivot, they can start by trying out new strategies such as collaboration with external parties or adjusting your financial prjections.

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Image Credit: Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

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