Same-day delivery service startup RaRa raises over US$800K in seed funding from 500 Startups
RaRa Delivery, a last-mile, same-day delivery service for e-commerce businesses in Southeast Asia, has secured US$834,000 in a seed funding round, led by 500 Startups, with angel investment from Angel Central led by Der Shing Lim.
Other investors in the round are GK-Plug n Play; Royston Tay, Co-founder and former CEO at Zopim (acquired by Zendesk); Yang Bin Kwok, Co-Founder and ex-CTO at Zopim; Vidit Agarwal, Head of BD at Stripe; Neelesh Suryavanshee, VP Marketing, Unilever Indonesia; and Vishal Gupta, VP Digital Transformation, Unilever.
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Karan Bhardwaj, Founder and CEO of RaRa Delivery, said that the funds will be used to acquire talent in Business Development, Operations, and Technology to further expand RaRa’s business in Indonesia.
With e-commerce GMV in Indonesia expected to reach around US$97 billion by 2025, consumers are now looking for faster and convenient delivery options, preferably a one-day delivery.
E-commerce giants such as Lazada, Shopee, and Bukalapak have already leveraged RaRa’s express same-day delivery services. RaRa is a graduate of GK-Play and Play Indonesia Batch 4 in April 2019.
Indonesian genomic startup Nusantics completes a COVID-19 qPCR test kit design prototype
Nusantics, an East Ventures-backed genomic startup, has finished a design prototype of qPCR diagnostic that can specifically detect SARS-CoV-2 virus on Friday.
The design process and laboratory testing of the test kit, named NUSANTARA TFRIC-19, was carried out by Nusantics as a member of COVID-19 Research and Technology Innovation Task Force (TFRIC19) formed by Indonesia Technology Assessment and Application Agency (BPPT).
CTO of Nusantics Revata Utama explained that Nusantics designed the NUSANTARA TFRIC-19 using genomic data from the SARS-CoV-2 Asia strain. Nusantics conducted a bioinformatics analysis of aligning the genetic sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 strains to specify target genes.
Based on the result, Nusantics decided to target two SARS-CoV-2 genes called as RDRP gene (that the virus uses to self-replicate after infecting a human cell) and N gene (which protects its nucleus).
It then tested the sensitivity and specificity of the prototype using RNA isolates acquired from abroad. Isolates from other countries are used to accelerate development while waiting for local RNA isolates to be available.
The test showed that NUSANTARA TFRIC-19 can specifically detect the SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, and not sensitive to the genome of SARS-CoV-1 or other Coronaviruses.
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As the next step, Nusantics will validate the kit using samples from local COVID-19 cases. The BPPT Task Force for COVID-19 is currently still waiting for samples from the Indonesia Agency of Health Research and Development (Litbangkes). After the local sample is available, the validation process will take two to three days.
Indian omnichannel beauty retailer Nykaa raises US$13M funding from Steadview Capital
India-based online beauty and skincare retailer Nykaa has raised US$13 million in funding from Steadview Capital, just a year after it closed a Series E financing round led by TPG Growth.
According to EconomicTimes, the company was founded in 2012 by former merchant banker Falguni Nayar. So far, it has expanded into newer categories such as the men’s grooming segment, and launching Nykaa Pro, and also stepped into an offline retail business.
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Image Credit: Nusantics
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