A picture of a Neat’s team member
TADA to launch multi-wet market shopping platform
The story: TADA, Southeast Asia’s blockchain-based zero-commission ride-hailing service, has launched TADA Fresh Market, an online multi-wet market shopping platform.
TADA Fresh Market serves as a one-stop solution for all fresh grocery needs delivered directly from popular wet markets in Singapore to the buyer’s doorstep. It offers free delivery of fresh vegetables, fruits, seafood, meat, and poultry from 36 stalls across the Tekka wet market and Tiong Bahru wet market daily at affordable prices, with just a minimum spend of US$36.5.
The plans: With this launch, TADA has invested in development to repurpose its delivery technologies for transporting fresh produce, and additional equipment to uphold their freshness and quality.
The wet markets promise to the buyers a distinctively superior freshness to foods and offer more value but are not well connected to digital distribution channels. TADA Fresh Market seeks to fill the offline to the online delivery gap for the wet market vendors and consumers.
To shop, buyers must place a minimum order of S$30 to shop from the TADA Fresh Market website and for anything less than US$36.5 they need to pay a delivery fee of US$2.8.
HK’s Neat secures US$4M extended Series A funding
The story: Neat, a Hong Kong-based fintech company that offers online company incorporation and multi-currency wallets to cross-border SMEs, has added US$4M to its US$11M Series A round closed in April 2020.
Also Read: That’s neat: Hong Kong-based Neat to launch banking app that tells how much you can spend today
Investors: MassMutual Ventures, Pacific Century Group, Linear Capital and Robby Hilkowitz, Vectr Fintech.
What is Neat: Neat’s mission is to enable the entrepreneur economy – starting with fully digital multi-currency accounts built for today’s international entrepreneur.
The Neat Account gives you the ability to send and receive money globally at more competitive exchange rates than you would get from a bank; access Neat corporate expense cards for online and offline spending, as well as ATM withdrawals; it also includes intuitive expense tracking and security features.
Bangladeshis edutech startup Upskill closes pre-seed funding
The story: Upskill, a Bangladeshi edutech startup, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Seed funding, led by SBK Ventures, English Essence, and the founder of The Legal Circle law firm.
The entire fund raised consisted only of female investors.
The plans: The funding will be utilised by Upskill to support product development, strategic hiring, and further investment in scaling up the current business.
What is Upskill: Upskill is a skill-sharing platform that transforms classroom experiences with a blended learning approach to maximize learning outcomes. With online learning platforms and offline masterclasses, Upskill produces and distributes courses focusing on all kinds of skills that help people to be productive and earn through sharing their skills with those in need. The contents are designed and delivered by key industry or subject matter experts.
Grab, Unilever establish a partnership through GrabProtect
The story: Grab and Unilever today announced a partnership in Southeast Asia to protect Grab drivers and riders as well as support the livelihoods of small business owners as they weather the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The partnership covers Grab’s Transport, GrabFood, GrabMart and GrabExpress services. Unilever’s personal and home hygiene brands such as Lifebuoy and Cif will support Grab drivers to deliver safer and more hygienic rides under GrabProtect.
By leveraging Grab’s platform and technology, Unilever products will be available for consumers to purchase directly from Unilever’s vast network of retailers in Southeast Asia through GrabFood and GrabMart, thereby also helping small retailers and mom-and-pop shops around the region.
The plans: With GrabProtect, Grab and Unilever seek to bring greater peace of mind to driver-partners and passengers by equipping vehicles in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines with Lifebuoy hand sanitisers and Cif disinfectant sprays, at no cost to driver-partners or passengers. It also seeks to help growing income for small and offline business owners through Unilever Ice Cream virtual stores on GrabFood and GrabMart.
On top of that, Grab’s on-demand delivery service for daily essentials available across eight countries in Southeast Asia. The partnership has kicked off in the Philippines and will expand to Indonesia, Singapore and other Southeast Asian markets by the end of the year. This will be complemented by GrabAds to help grow demand for Unilever products.
—
Picture Credit: Neat
The post In Brief: HK’s Neat raises US$4M; TADA launches grocery shopping platform appeared first on e27.