Most would agree that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) form the economic backbone of Southeast Asia. They employ the bulk of each country’s workforce — 85% in Thailand, for example, and a staggering 97% in Indonesia and Vietnam — and, correspondingly, contribute significantly to gross domestic product (GDP).

However, with the pandemic wreaking havoc on these businesses, it is imperative to come up with initiatives that help sustain them. With lower earnings and smaller economies of scale, SMBs are less able to bear the brunt of lacklustre economic prospects. Before COVID-19, almost 73% of the region’s SMBs expected revenues to either increase or remain constant. During COVID-19, 84% anticipated some form of a decrease in revenue.

These economic consequences are intensified by the region’s overall reliance on tourism. However, with global travel restrictions unlikely to be lifted any time soon, SMBs that rely on tourist traffic continue to suffer.

Thailand, for instance, looked to tourism for about 20% of the country’s GDP before the pandemic. Many of its 3.1 million SMBs are located in the tourism industry and continue to struggle to stay afloat. Despite debt-relief measures in the form of low-interest loans, experts predict that not all SMBs will be approved for these measures. Even if they do successfully obtain a loan, SMBs may not survive or grow amidst the bleak economic outlook.

Hence, to expand their businesses in the post-pandemic world, SMBs need to adopt creative and innovative marketing strategies, and platforms like TikTok offer them an easy-to-use and powerful avenue.

Leveraging TikTok’s wide reach and cultural impact

The video-sharing app has amassed millions of users worldwide and is now a staple of many people’s media consumption. It enables users to connect with diverse communities and express their creativity using a wide array of in-app creative tools.

With lockdowns forcing people across the world to stay at home, people have turned to TikTok for content. It’s even spurred intergenerational bonding, with multiple accounts of parents, grandparents, and children creating and sharing TikTok videos together.

The app boasts a wide diversity of users from different backgrounds. Gen Z, millennials, baby boomers, and even senior citizens have found their creative outlet through TikTok. 82-year-old Charles Mallet, for example, has almost 5 million followers.

Also read: KoinWorks super financial app ecosystem sees growth in Q2 2021 as it helps boost SMEs amidst the pandemic

Furthermore, users come from a variety of different countries and cultures. You can find everyone from the average Joe to celebrities like Gordon Ramsey and BTS on the platform. It’s no overstatement to say that more and more, anyone is finding their way to TikTok,  regardless of background.

This means that the app essentially presents a huge prospective customer base for any company.

With the amount of attention that TikTok puts on digital content, there is massive potential for TikTok to be used as an avenue for advertising. SMBs can leverage TikTok’s vast reach to grow their business, tapping on the diverse customer base and laser-sharp user algorithm to execute targeted marketing campaigns effectively.

Tailored solutions to bolster and uplift Southeast Asia’s SMBs

TikTok has been firmly committed to SMBs since the launch of its self-serve ad platform, TikTok Ads Manager, in June 2020. One tailored SMB solution introduced by TikTok was Shop Local Saturday, which ran in June 2021, and allowed SMBs in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam to elevate their presence on the platform. SMBs could boost their brand engagement and user discoverability through the initiative, driving results for every business and marketing need.

Throughout June, SMBs that participated in Shop Local Saturday were spotlighted extensively across the app. Over 170 SMBs featured received top perks, including a dedicated main page feature, in-app promotion, and access to creative workshops and creators. TikTok values the local businesses that empower Southeast Asia’s communities and wanted to highlight them as much as any large brand may be visible on TikTok.

TikTok’s support of SMBs, including during Shop Local Saturday, has produced promising results for these businesses.

For Thai game app developer GAMEINDY, they turned to TikTok to help drive their Call Me Master game exposure and reach new audiences. Within just a week of participating in TikTok’s Shop Local Saturday initiative, organic downloads for the game rose by 20%, and they were able to connect with previously untapped audiences from across the country.

Also read: Scaling your startup: A closer look at building your local entity and remote teams

“TikTok has been a great partner for us,” said Chanon Khamchay, GAMEINDY’s Senior Marketing Associate. “We had no other new campaigns or PR launches during that period, so we think that most of the boost was thanks to TikTok’s Shop Local Saturday.”

Vietnam’s polo shirt maker, Poloman, also experienced similar successes on TikTok. With an ambition to become the top-of-mind brand for Polo shirts in Vietnam, they set clear objectives of increasing their number of TikTok followers and doubling the traffic volume to their e-commerce sites. Using ad creatives that leveraged trendy upbeat music, TikTok creators, and exclusive promotions for TikTok users, Poloman also launched an engaging campaign to raise their brand awareness.

Their campaign was a hit, garnering over 12 million impressions and over 149 thousand clicks. But, most importantly, they exceeded their target revenue by 1.3 times, hitting an all-time revenue high of 3.2 billion VND (140,000 USD) during their Shop Local Saturday promotion.

TikTok supports SMBs year-round

Previous TikTok initiatives for SMBs span a holistic suite of tools, resources, and best practices that enable them to reach and connect with new audiences. For example, in February 2021, TikTok kickstarted Grow with TikTok: Starter Lab, a monthly programme where more than 6,600 SMBs received the opportunity to learn from established figures in the marketing industry and TikTok experts.

Having augmented its broad and diverse audience with these targeted solutions, TikTok is, without a doubt, incredibly relevant for SMBs. The tools offered by the platform helps SMBs grow their businesses.

TikTok offers full-funnel ad solutions to meet different business and marketing objectives. From raising brand awareness and consideration to conversions in driving online sales and app installs, TikTok has everything your business needs to supercharge its advertising efforts.

Also read: STPI’s Vision Programme: empowering Taiwan-based startups to tap into Southeast Asia and beyond

Advertising tools and solutions for campaigns of any budget and businesses of any size are also available. For example, the TikTok Ads Manager is an ad creation platform that allows SMBs to launch and monitor their advertising campaigns. SMBs can create new or repurpose existing creative assets, find their target audience, and set their campaign budgets through a simple and easy-to-use interface. They can also measure the effectiveness of their campaigns and obtain data and insights about their ads.

TikTok has driven results across the board. According to a study done by TikTok in Southeast Asia in the first quarter of 2021, 1 in 4 Thai SMBs and 1 in 3 Indonesian and Vietnamese SMBs that have used TikTok choose it as their most preferred ad platform, citing TikTok ads as the most effective for their business goals. TikTok is indeed the rising marketing channel for businesses both big and small.

For more information on TikTok For Business, go to https://www.tiktok.com/business/.

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

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NUS partners with Indonesian universities to scale entrepreneurship in the region

The story: The National University of Singapore (NUS) is collaborating with two of Indonesia’s top universities – Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), and Universitas Indonesia (UI) – to foster and cultivate innovation between the two countries.

More about the story: Under these agreements, NUS, through its entrepreneurial arm NUS Enterprise, will be
offering scholarships and support for Indonesian students from UGM and UI to attend its Master of Science in Venture Creation in Singapore, as well as to jointly establish a venture creation programme in Indonesia.

Following the signing, NUS, UGM, and UI will work together closely to plan the launch of their joint initiatives within the next 12 months. Indonesian students from these universities under the scholarship will attend NUS’ Master of Science in Venture Creation in Singapore starting from 2022.

OYO raises US$660M

The story: India’s OYO has raised a debt financing of US$660 million from undisclosed institutional investors.

What the funding will be used for: Retire its past debts, strengthen the balance sheet and boost the product technology, among other things.

About OYO: A global platform that empowers entrepreneurs and small businesses with hotels and homes by providing full-stack technology that increases earnings and eases operations; bringing easy-to-book, affordable, and trusted accommodation to guests.

More about the story: According to Oyo, the offer was oversubscribed by 1.7 times and it also received commitments of close to $1 billion from leading institutional investors.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: AirAsia is set to fly higher, Bukalapak looks for the largest IPO in IDX history

SCB 10X to invest in DeFi dashboard Ape Board

The story: SCB 10X, the venture arm of Thailand’s oldest bank, has announced its latest investment in Ape Board, a cross-chain DeFi dashboard.

More about the story: “SCB 10X is excited to announce our investment in Ape Board, which now has more than 350,000 users within four months of inception. This investment will further our goal of integrating traditional finance and decentralized finance by championing projects that resolve complexity and fragmentation issues in DeFi to bring a truly user-friendly experience. Ape Board will enable users, both crypto natives, and newcomers, to track all their cross-chain assets and manage portfolios in one place with features like monitoring impermanent loss,” said Mukaya (Tai) Panich, Chief Venture and Investment Officer of SCB 10X

ApeBoard currently supports more than 79 protocols across five chains, including  Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, Terra, and Polygon.

BHyve raises US$300K from JITO Angel Network, others

The story: BHyve, an India-based SaaS platform for employees, has raised US$300,000 in a funding round.

Investors: JITO Angel network, Letsventure, and other angel investors.

What the funding will be used for: Marketing, product enhancement, and growing its clientele.

About BHyve: A  SaaS platform that enables organisations to document employee’s implicit knowledge and launch peer learning networks at just a click.

BHyve currently serves leading corporations from BFSI, Healthcare, Pharma, and manufacturing sectors and soon aims to enter the North American market.

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Skills Union, a Singapore-headquartered edutech startup offering active learning courses in partnership with leading universities and employers, announced today the closing of a US$1.5 million investment.

The round was led by Online Education Services (OES), part of the Australia-based Seek group of companies.

Notable investors, including KDV, Hustle Fund, Singaporean business tycoon Koh Boon Hwee, Siu Rui Quek (co-founder and CEO of Carousell), Ishreth Hassen, Sumardy Ma, Simin Zhou, and Anvesh Ramineni, also joined the round.

According to a press statement, this is a major milestone for Skills Union on its mission to become a leading provider of university-accredited courses, which promise job-ready graduates to tech companies needing a digitally equipped workforce with trusted university credentials.

“Skills Union represents a partnership between learners, universities, and employers, delivering specialist online, part-time, vocational courses that accelerate careers and businesses,” said Colin Mansell, Skills Union CEO and co-founder. “This investment gives us the lift-off we want to further scale our programmes and impact the lives of many more students.”

Also Read: ‘Edutech will be a hot commodity going forward’: GREDU co-founder Rizky Anies

Skills Union offers accredited cohort-based, active learning courses in partnership with leading universities and employers. It offers courses that are in demand by high-growth companies, such as software development, user experience design and growth marketing, aimed at both the consumer and business audiences.

Since its establishment in Singapore in 2020, Skills Union has partnered with institutions including Nanyang Technological University and London’s Ravensbourne University. It has a growing network of university partners in the UK and US.

“We have been impressed with Skills Union’s business offering, approach to growth and global outlook. Their product has many impressive features, including a flexible, stackable set of courses with a clear path to accredited degrees,” said Denice Pitt, CEO of OES. “We are seeing a global shift in the way that universities and employers are working together to close the skills gap, and we are really excited to be able to play our part in the current revolution we are seeing in tech education.”

The global online education sector is projected to reach US$660 billion by 2027. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for one-third of the global market and is anticipated to experience the fastest growth over this period.

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Image Credit: Skills Union

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Indonesia-based fintech platform Oy! has been reported to raise a US$45 million or IDR653 billion Series A funding round. Softbank Ventures Asia and MDI Ventures led the funding round with the participation of investors such as Pavilion Capital, AC Ventures, Alfamart, Central Capital Ventura, and Wavemaker Partners.

In addition to being recorded on the regulatory body, sources familiar with the matter have also confirmed the funding round to DailySocial. The accumulation of the funding rounds is said to bring the company’s valuation to beyond US$108 million. AC Ventures’s participation in the funding round also introduced Pandu Sjahrir into its board member.

Oy!’s seed funding round –closed in 2017-2020– included the participation of investors such as MDI Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, Pavilion Capital, and Central Capital Ventura.

Also Read: How tech can help smaller brands scale in SEA by helping them maintain customers’ loyalty

Oy! Indonesia provides different kinds of services for businesses and individual customers. In the B2C segment, they provide the Oy! Indonesia mobile app that helps customers with inter-bank transfer. The platform’s capabilities also included international remittance.

For business customers, the company provides API to ease transaction processes. Based on DailySocial‘s observation, looking at the direction of the platform’s feature development, Oy! Indonesia seems to be more serious in this segment. The open finance sector has such great potential that local ecosystem players have begun to include ease of transaction as an offering in their platform.

In the individual customers’ segment, Oy! is competing directly with Flip. We have conducted a comparison between the two platforms and concluded that there is enough space in the market for both services. According to data by Bank Indonesia, in 2019, the domestic transaction volume has crossed 218 million transactions, valued at IDR84 trillion (US$5 billion). The remittance business itself has recorded 37.7 million transactions valued at IDR90 trillion.

The service was also created to fix the issue of interbank transfer fees. The participation of Alfamart as a strategic partner is also an interesting move; it bears the potential of Oy! entering the O2O segment in promoting its services. This is in line with the fintech company’s vision to serve the underbanked community in the market.

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The article Oy! Kumpulkan Pendanaan 653 Miliar Rupiah, Jadi Centaur Selanjutnya was written by Randi Eka Yonida in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial. English translation by e27.

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Singapore-based communication and commerce platform Tinvio has raised US$12 million in a Series A funding round led by AppWorks Ventures and MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) Innovation Partners, bringing the company’s total raised to US$18.5 million.

Other investors include Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Global Founders Capital, and Partech Partners.

The fresh funds will be used to accelerate product development on its financial technology stack, and fire up growth engines to scale the platform across new segments and markets. Tinvio has further expressed plans to expand to three new markets this year.

Launched in 2019, the startup aims to help small and mid-sized business owners keep track of their orders, accounts, and receivables through a chat-led interface.

In addition to that, the platform also localises payments solutions for its operating markets by building modularised integrations with regional payment gateways.

This allows the company to focus on user experience, and scale the payments stack beyond borders in a capital-light model.

Also Read: [Updated] Tinvio bags US$5.5M seed funding to make tedious business transactions easy for SMEs

As of now, the company claims to have grown 4 times more to over 5000 activated users on the platform since its seed round.

Another development in the making is that Tinvio is partnering with one of the largest banks in Japan, MUFG bank to pilot and offer new trade solutions (e.g. transaction financing, card issuing, invoice factoring), which would be backed by MUFG’s banks in the region.

“The first time I ventured into payments was at Loop, where I observed how a brilliant user experience built on Braintree’s payments stack created and dominated a new category in consumer commerce. As a banker, when I covered Mastercard and Visa, I quickly realized there was a shifting focus from consumer cards to B2B real-time payments,” said Ajay Gopal, founder at Tinvio.

“I remember being dialed into earnings calls, frantically jotting key points on this massive market opportunity being completely underpenetrated (despite being worth trillions of dollars globally), and questioning how I could make a solid impact in this category. Fast forward to Tinvio, we’re building a user experience that makes it incredibly easy for merchants and suppliers in Asia to transact,” he added.

“B2B trade digitisation is ridiculously challenging, but everything we build for these businesses, from our proprietary checkout to real-time fund flows to risk assessment, we’re breaking new ground in user experience and engineering,”. 

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Carsome buys 19.9% stake in ASX-listed iCar Asia from Catcha Group; Together with Catcha, Carsome made a joint proposal to acquire the remaining 80.1% of iCar from its shareholders; The total transaction is estimated to be worth more than US$200M; With this deal, Carsome became the first unicorn startup in Malaysia.

Nium adds US$78M more into its kitty from Vertex Growth, others: report; This funding round comes close on the heels of its acquisition of the India unit from the scandal-hit German fintech giant Wirecard; To date, the company has raised over US$170 million across several rounds of financing.

Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures leads Singapore wealthtech startup Syfe’s US$30M Series B; Other backers are Presight Capital and Unbound; This takes Syfe’s total capital raised to date to US$52.6M; The fresh funds will be used to expand into new markets in Asia, invest in top talent, and develop new products and services.

Bambu acquires Tradesocio to scale its B2B wealthtech offerings, in talks to raise Series C; Tradesocio’s presence across EMEA and India is set to grow Bambu’s reach in a rapidly expanding and evolving global digital wealth market; Bambu provides digital wealth technology for B2B businesses across the globe; It had previously raised US$20M Series A, led by Franklin Templeton Investments.

Next Gen adds US$20M more to its war chest to take its plant-based chicken brand TiNDLE to US; Investors include Temasek, K3 Ventures, GGV Capital, Bits x Bites, and Dele Alli; A portion of the capital will also be used for the continued international expansion in APAC and the Middle East; The roadmap for the next one to two years includes raising Series A funding, product diversification, and continued international expansion, notably into Europe.

Indies Capital makes first close of Fund II to target late-stage tech firms in SEA; Targeted at US$80M, Fund II received support from Indies’s existing investor base, with the first closing achieving commitments totalling more than 70% of the target fund size; It will invest into sector-leading technology companies that have an established growth trajectory and clear visibility of profitability or exit.

Tinvio raises US$12M Series A to help SMEs manage their trade accounts through chat; Investors include AppWorks Ventures and MUFG Innovation Partners; The startup aims to help small and mid-sized business owners keep track of their orders, accounts, and receivables through a chat-led interface; As of now, the company claims to have grown 4x more to 5,000 activated users on the platform since its launch.

Indonesian SaaS tax compliance solutions firm OnlinePajak bags US$12M; Investors include Tencent, Altos Ventures, and Warburg Pincus; It brings the company’s valuation to nearly US$170M; OnlinePajak had raised US$25M Series B in Oct 2018; The startup claims that its corporate customers can cut down time spent on administration from an avg. of 208 hours down to only 5 hours.

Nas Academy raises US$11M to help creators make a sustainable living; Investors include Lightspeed (lead), TechAviv Founder Partners, and 500 Startups; Unlike other edutech platforms, Nas Academy supports creators with curriculum development, marketing, and community management; In just over a year, Nas Academy claims to have helped creators generate millions of revenue and teach students from 110 countries.

edamama, an e-commerce platform for moms in Philippines, raises US$5M; Investors are Gentree Fund, Robinsons Retail, Globe Telecom’s subsidiary Kickstart Ventures and Foxmont Capital Partners; edamama aims to address the issue of quality and other challenges such as channel fragmentation, non-established brand trust, the lack of a discovery-led buying experience, and poor customer service.

Vara secures US$4.8M to provide easy workforce management solutions for SMEs; Investors include Go Ventures, RTP Global, Alpha JWC Ventures, Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, FEBE Ventures, and Taurus Ventures; Vara’s product, Bukugaji, is geared towards the Indonesian market and claims to have serviced the staff management needs of over 100K small firms.

V-Flow’s recyclable energy solution with an expected lifespan of 25 yrs seeks to replace Li Ion batteries; V-Flow’s VRF batteries are ideal for micro-grid applications, grid balancing applications, and EV charging, claims CEO Dr Avishek Kumar; He says existing battery technologies like lead-acid and lithium-ion are not suitable for long-duration energy storage as they suffer from performance degradation and thermal run-away.

Taiwan’s Hive Ventures looks to invest more in SEA after second fund launch next year; Within SEA, the VC firm is currently researching the Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia markets; Hive will join other Taiwanese VC firms such as AppWorks and Ace Capital that already target SEA.

Professional employment organisation platform Multiplier raises US$4M; Investors are Sequoia India Surge (lead), Golden Gate Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, Picus Capital and angels; Multiplier provides integrated solutions that allow companies to hire talent from anywhere in the world, efficiently, with all compliance taken care of.

Malaysian VC Vynn Capital invests in HK-based trade finance company Velotrade; With this partnership, Velotrade plans to scale its technological infrastructure and expand into new geographies in SEA; Vynn Capital Carsome from Malaysia and Travelio from Indonesia; Velotrade operates a digital platform that matches corporates in need of working capital with institutional investors willing to advance funds.

Malaysia’s Speedhome attracts US$1.7M Series A to expand its zero-deposit property rental platform into Bangkok; Investors are Gobi Partners and Allianz Malaysia; A zero-deposit automated platform, Speedhome connects landlords directly to quality tenants providing rental protection services; It claims its mobile app has over 575K app downloads and a database of more than 128K property listings in Malaysia.

Edukasyon investor Foxmont joins Philippine proptech startup AHG’s US$1.1M seed round; Real estate mogul David Leechiu, entrepreneur Melissa Limcaoco, and Magsaysay family also joined; AHG focuses on rolling out asset-light accommodation brands, organising and structuring integrated services for renting and buying, and developing proptech apps.

Vietnam to pilot virtual currency as crypto thrives in grey zone; In Vietnam, using crypto to make purchases is illegal; The move comes amid a wide-ranging crackdown on private cryptocurrencies elsewhere, from a China clampdown that sent bitcoin prices plummeting last month, to a ban on the Binance platform by the UK.

Philippines’ biggest bank seeks slice of mobile payment boom; BDO Unibank early this year launched BDO Pay, a mobile wallet for bills, merchant payments and money transfers; Its venture into the mobile wallet business highlights how traditional lenders are pushing further into digital services amid a growing threat from fintech challengers.

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Image Credit: Carsome

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Singapore- and Malaysia-based Artificial Intelligence-powered foodtech startup, Easy Eat AI announced today it has secured US$5 million in a fresh round of financing.

Investors include Aroa Ventures (the family office of Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal, Reddy Futures Family Office, Prophetic Ventures, Maninder Gulati (Global chief strategy officer of Oyo), Cem Garih (Managing Partner at Alarko Ventures), Fethi Sabancı Kamışlı (founder and Managing Partner of Esas Ventures, and a few Silicon Valley-based VCs and angels.

The company will utilise the capital for team expansion, founder and CEO Mohd Wassem told e27. Over the past three months, the team has grown from 10 to 40 people.

Also Read: (Exclusive) AI foodtech startup Easy Eat rakes in funding from ex-Uber CPO, Silicon Valley veterans to ramp up Malaysia ops

The latest deal is sealed just over a month after Easy Eat secured an undisclosed amount of funding from a clutch of investors such as Silicon Valley veteran and former Uber chief product officer Manik Gupta. Previously, East Eat bagged pre-Series A round from investors such as Bala Chandra, Managing Partner of Vernalis Capital, and his family office, besides five other unnamed angels.

Easy Eat was founded in early 2020 by friends Mohd Wassem, Rhythm Gupta, Abdul Khalid and Akshay Chauhan.

The foodtech startup digitises all customer-facing interactions in restaurants — from browsing menu, ordering and tracking to payments. It also personalises and rewards users’ dining experience. At the heart of its technology is an operating system with integrated QR-based table ordering, loyalty programmes, payment solutions, social media integration, inventory and integrated delivery services.

Once the restaurant adopts Easy Eat AI’s technology, the entire operations move online. Just like any other technology company, restaurants can capture each and every data point in the value chain which leads to a better understanding of customer choices, higher revenue and reduced cost.

Easy Eat claims it has been able to increase the revenue of restaurants by 30 per cent and reduce the operational cost by 15 per cent.

In Malaysia, Easy Eat AI is already serving hundreds of merchants, including brands like Richiamo Coffee, Mr. Fish Fishhead Noodles, WTF Group, and Hailam Toast.

“The current pandemic scenario has accelerated the digital transformation of the restaurant industry, with more and more restaurants and customers increasingly wanting contactless services. Easy Eat AI partner restaurants have been able to withstand the impact of COVID-19 better than other restaurants. Even during the worst of the lockdown period, our merchants were generating 50 per cent of the usual revenue,” said Wassem said.

“The most affected restaurants are those with no clear digital strategy that will continue to struggle even post- COVID-19 with limited revenue-generating opportunities, escalating cost of operations and they would continue to rely on third-party platforms for deliveries paying 30-35 per cent commission,” said Wassem.

“The team is customer-obsessed and understands the pain problems of the industry. Their innovative software platform will be disruptive to the entire F&B ecosystem and how customers engage through the F&B lifecycle in the online-to-offline world,” said Keshav Reddy, Managing Partner, Reddy Futures Family Office.

Also Read: AI startup Easy Eat aims to transform restaurants into tech firms and make dining more interactive

Southeast Asia’s F&B industry is estimated to be around US$100 billion in size, where the majority prefer eating out. In some countries, more than 90 per cent of people consume at least one meal outside a day. Plus, the region has a high female working population. All this bodes well for Easy Eat.

Wassem has previously built and exited Bobble Keyboard, for which he raised multiple rounds of funding from SAIF Partners, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (co-founders of Flipkart), Deep Kalra (founder of MakeMyTrip), Amit Ranjan (co-founder of Slideshare) and Prashant Malik (co-creator of Cassandra).

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Image Credit: Easy Eat AI

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Singaporean alternative asset manager Indies Capital Partners has announced the first close of its second fund, Indies Strategic Technology Fund II (ISTF II).

Targeted at US$80 million, ISTF II has raised commitments totalling more than 70 per cent of the target fund size.

The new fund aims to invest in top tech companies in Southeast Asia with an established growth trajectory and valuation of US$500 million and above.

Just as its first fund portfolio featured three decacorns, five unicorns, and five centaurs, ISTF II will continue the momentum by targeting mid-to-late-stage technology companies across all verticals in the region.

“Southeast Asia is one of the world’s fastest-growing internet markets, underpinned by favourable demographics and strong economic fundamentals. Increasing digitisation, rising consumption, and rapid development of the region’s tech ecosystem represent an exciting investment opportunity. With the exit market for the ecosystem’s first wave of unicorns actively taking shape, this is an optimal time for entry,” said Pandu Sjahrir, Managing Partner of Indies.

Also Read: Southeast Asia to become the fastest growing mobile wallet region in the world: report

“Despite the leaps in the development of the ecosystem in the past few years, secondary share sales in Southeast Asia remain hugely disorganised. Given our investment lineage in special situations and growth equity, we identified a latent opportunity and started deploying into this strategy five years ago to address the unmet needs for intermediate liquidity in Southeast Asia. The region has seen unprecedented growth in early-to-mid stage funding in the last few years, and we think this will pave the way for the formation of a robust supply of investable companies for ISTF II,” added Harold Ong, Partner of Indies.

Southeast Asia has long been a breeding ground of opportunities for many tech companies.

In particular, new startups catering to digital adoption, including education, health, and financial technology have gone on to become success stories.

In total, the region’s tech upstarts have gone on to raise a total of US$8.2 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg.

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Malaysian VC firm Vynn Capital invests in Hong Kong-based trade finance Velotrade

Plans with the capital: With the new financing and partnership with Vynn Capital, Velotrade plans to scale its technological infrastructure and expand into new geographies in Southeast Asia.

What is Velotrade: It operates a digital platform that matches corporates in need of working capital with institutional investors willing to advance funds. Launched in 2017, it has since granted short-term financing of outstanding invoices to thousands of corporates, including Fortune 500 companies and SMEs.

Through the partnership with Vynn Capital, Velotrade will further scale its operations and expand into Malaysia and other markets of Southeast Asia. In addition to financing, Vynn Capital will actively contribute company-building expertise and provide access to an extensive network of resources in Southeast Asia to Velotrade.

Singapore launches global challenge to encourage AI adoption in fintech

The story: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has launched the Global Veritas Challenge to promote the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions in the financial sector.

Also Read: Easy Eat AI attracts US$5M from Ritesh Agarwal’s family office, others

More about the challenge: It aims to accelerate the development of AI and data analytics solutions that adhere to the Veritas framework’s fairness, ethics, accountability, and transparency (FEAT) principles. The FEAT principles were developed in 2018 by MAS and the financial industry to strengthen internal governance around the use of AI and data management and use.

The challenge, supported by a leading global professional services company, invites fintech companies, solution providers, and financial institutions from around the world to submit solutions for problem statements aimed at validating the fairness of AI solutions. Banks identified these statements in product marketing, risk, compliance, and fraud monitoring, loan origination and know-your-customer, and credit scoring and profiling.

Babydash raises US$300K bridge via ECF, positioned for regional expansion

The story: Malaysia’s digital baby store Babydash has raised US$300,000 (RM1.27 million) via equity crowdfunding (ECF) platform pitchIN. This raise also saw the participation of the Malaysian Government via the Malaysia Co-Investment Fund (MYCIF) further strengthening government support for the digitalisation of the economy.

Plans: To drive up revenue per transaction while expanding its footprint in ASEAN leading towards the goal of doubling the size of the company in the next 12-18 months.

About Babydash: Founded 10 years ago, Babydash has evolved into a one-stop online shopping destination that provides the largest range of genuine, curated, high-quality mum and baby products at the best prices. With customers increasingly relying on e-commerce solutions during this pandemic, Babydash has provided parents with an invaluable helping hand to meet their needs.

Over the last few months, Babydash has been investing in new technology which enhances customer experience as well as its data analytics capabilities, delivering on its primary goal of serving customers better. Investment proceeds from this campaign will drive Babydash into the next phase, boosting their lead and market presence in Malaysia and growing the Singapore market as they expand their roots across the region.

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Image Credit: Babydash

The post In brief: Vynn Capital invests in Velotrade; Babydash raises US$300K crowdfunding appeared first on e27.

Nas Academy, a Singapore-based education platform that empowers creators to build their own academy, has raised US$11 million in a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Other investors include TechAviv Founder Partners, 500 Startups, Graph Ventures, FreshFund, Metapurse, Balaji Srinivasan, Emilie Choi (President and COO of Coinbase), Ritesh Agrawal (founder and CEO of OYO), Markian (a creator with over 10 million followers), and the founders of Jellysmack.

With the fresh funds, the company plans to expand its network of creator partners and strategic partners to make the platform’s content accessible to every person in the world.

Nuseir Yassin, a Harvard-educated software engineer-turned-creator with over 40 million followers across all social media platforms, founded Nas Academy in 2020 because he himself was part of the explosion of the creator economy and witnessed firsthand its full potential to reach everyday fans.

Yet he recognised a core problem for creators; despite reaching millions of followers and billions of views, creators still struggled to make a sustainable living from social media platforms.

There was also an untapped market to help creators spread the wealth of their skills to other budding creators.

Yassin wanted to create a different type of education platform — one with creators in mind that removes the barriers for creators to become educators

Also Read: Edutech will be a hot commodity going forward: GREDU co-founder Rizky Anies

Unlike other edutech platforms, Nas Academy supports creators with curriculum development, marketing, and community management.

In just over a year, Nas Academy claims to have helped creators generate millions of revenue and teach students from 110 countries.

“Nas Academy was born out of a problem I faced. If a creator wants to teach, they need to use multiple services, figure out marketing, and spend a lot of time and effort to build a learning experience. With our support and platform, we make it super easy and straightforward to turn a YouTuber into a professor,” said Yassin.

“COVID-19 has also changed education as we know it. Nas Academy will decentralise online education. Just like social media platforms enabled a kid from a village to get more views than CNN, Nas Academy wants to enable one creator to become bigger than Harvard,” he added.

Akshay Bhushan, Partner at Lightspeed, said: “New media is increasingly dominated by creators and Nuseir & team, having been successful creators themselves, are uniquely positioned to enable creators to become educators to teach and monetise their respective crafts.”

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Image Credit: Nas Facebook Page

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