InVent, the corporate VC arm of Thailand-based Intouch Holdings, has announced investments into two local startups Datafarm (Series A) and Swift Dynamics (pre-Series A).

The transaction details remain undisclosed.

Both the companies, according to the VC firm, will play a crucial role in supporting corporates to strongly step into the fully-digitised 5G era.

Founded in 2012, Datafarm is a cyber security company that helps enterprises prevent cyber risks on their IT infrastructure by providing them with increased protection.

It helps government agencies and businesses protect their data through three main stages, which include penetration testing (Pentest), Vulnerability Assessment (VA), and cybersecurity consulting.

“The tools created by Datafarm focus on ease of use and can be compiled according to various standards/requirements at an affordable price which is scheduled to be released by the end of this year,” Pisuttisak Chongboonchuer, CEO of Datafarm, said.

Also Read: Robowealth rakes in Series A from Beacon VC to lower wealth gap in Thailand through tech

“From funding support and business cooperation with Intouch affiliates, and tremendous increase of the cybersecurity market, company expects revenue will increase to 300 per cent within three to five years,” he further added.

Launched in 2018, Swift Dynamics is an IoT management provider which connects multiple devices of clients to the cloud.

The firm provides tools for businesses to improve every part of their business, starting from customer relationship management, procurement management, business operations management, project, construction management, to logistics management.

Co-founder Natee Singhaputtangkul believes that Swift Dynamics is one of the very few firms in Thailand that provides customers with all-in-one IoT-based solutions using 5G network.

The startup also plans to expand overseas in the next five years.

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Image Credit: InVent.

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Eden Farm, an Indonesian agritech startup focussing on the farming supply chain, has received an undisclosed amount in a pre-Series A funding round, led by Australian VC firm Investible. AC Ventures, Corin Capital, and unnamed strategic angel investors also participated.

The fresh funds will be used to expand Eden Farm’s operations in the Java and Sumatra regions and offer increased stock-keeping units (SKU) selections for its merchant partners.

The company also seeks to develop technology to further automate its business processes and grow its farmers’ funding unit.

Must Read: A comprehensive guide to Indonesia’s agritech ecosystem

Indonesia is home to over 30 million farmers, with the agriculture sector contributing 14 per cent of its GDP — US$140 billion in market size. However, it is heavily fragmented with inefficient supply chains and significant margin leakages, limiting farmers’ income.

Founded in 2017, Eden Farm focuses on tackling the problem by connecting farmers and communities upstream with F&B businesses, including restaurants, street food vendors and central markets.

The Y Combinator alumnus aims to achieve this by bringing farmers’ produce directly to businesses. On the demand side, Eden Farm allows street vendors and restaurants to reduce costs, save time and increase income.

Besides, it supports farms by creating better access to quality inputs (such as seeds and fertilisers), as well as financing services to support their farming businesses.

Eden Farm claims it services over 25,000 merchants in 12 cities across Java. On the supply side, Eden Farm is supported by more than 1,500 individual farmers from the islands of Java and Sumatra. The company expects this number to grow exponentially in 2021, enabled by its stronger foothold and upstream sourcing capabilities.

Also Read: Robots on the farm: This startup is enabling farm mechanisation in India to cope with rising food demand

“Eden Farm disaggregates the food supply chain by efficiently leveraging communal farming to provide just-in-time inventory to food wholesalers, resellers and hotels. The business has an incredible opportunity to decrease food prices and wastage across Indonesia,” said Daniel Veytsblit, Investment Director of Investible,

“Eden Farm has created strong defensibility through its upstream sourcing capability, demand aggregation and simplifying of the supply chain, enabling farmers to receive stable demand and buyers to purchase fresh produce at more affordable prices and better quality,” opined Adrian Li, Managing Partner of AC Ventures.

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Image Credit: Eden Farm

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Singapore-based global consumer internet honcho, Sea Group, has launched a venture fund to invest in tech startups.

The group has also allocated an initial amount of US$1 billion for the fund, called Sea Capital, to be invested over the next few years.

The announcement was made during a conference call on Tuesday.

Also Read: How Garena became extremely important for Tencent’s future

As per a press statement, Sea Capital is a new platform launched to manage the group’s investment efforts, and further strengthen its investment and capital allocation capability. It will help accelerate the growth of the overall digital economy and create real and lasting value for our users, business partners and communities.

The corporate venture capital fund will be headed by Chief Investment Officer David Ma, who will report directly to Sea Group founder Forrest Li. Ma is founder of Composite Capital Management, a Hong Kong-based global investment management firm which has recently been fully acquired by Sea Group.

“Sea Capital will focus on identifying, partnering with, and investing in technology companies that share our vision of bettering the lives of consumers and small businesses through technology,” Sea CEO Forrest Li said.

As per a Bloomberg report, Sea is following in the footsteps of internet behemoths SoftBank and Tencent by creating a corporate investment arm as the company aims to deepen its offerings in gaming, e-commerce and digital financial services as well as look for new areas of growth.

Also Read: How Shopee uses AI, data to build a marketing strategy that suits changes in user behaviour

Founded in Singapore in 2009, Sea owns and operates a number of internet properties, including Shopee (e-commerce marketplace), Garena (online game developer and publisher), and SeaMoney (a digital financial services network in Southeast Asia).

In 2017, it listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Image Credit: Sea Group

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Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), the leading cloud communications platform, released its second annual State of Customer Engagement Report today. Combining insight from the Twilio platform, which powers over 1 trillion human interactions annually, with results of new global research of 2,500 enterprise decision-makers, the report reveals that digital communications were critical to business survival in 2020, and that the solutions that were built will shape business success in the post-pandemic economy.

“For nearly every organization dealing with the impacts of the pandemic, increased digital engagement was a core part of their solutions. From remote learning to work-from-home contact centre agents to vaccine distribution logistics, digital communications have played a critical role. We expect that to accelerate through the pandemic recovery and become the new normal,” said Glenn Weinstein, Chief Customer Officer at Twilio.

Also read: Meet these 5 verified investors that are ready to connect with you today

The 2021 State of Customer Engagement Report outlines the major trends in digital engagement that emerged in 2020, and how they are shaping digital adoption across global companies in every industry. The trends include soaring digital interaction between businesses and customers, and what this means for personalization; the rise of the agile workforce; how highly regulated industries are leading in digital adoption; the next generation of video; and how businesses are choosing to build unique experiences. Key findings from the report include:

● Red tape didn’t stop play in APAC — even highly regulated industries experimented. 86% of APAC companies across finance, government and healthcare report COVID-19 spurred their highly regulated organization to explore new strategies to serve customers. 78% of the same companies report it will be critically or very important to their success going forward.

● 2020 catapulted Singapore into a hybrid economy, where nearly every in-person interaction will have a digital element. 93% of Singapore business leaders report that COVID-19 accelerated their move to the cloud, equipping companies with the flexibility to serve customers from anywhere. 95% plan to increase or maintain their current communications channel offerings after the pandemic, and expect to add an average of four new channels this year.

● Digital engagement will remain essential to Singapore’s business survival and success. 90% in Singapore report that increased customer engagement during the pandemic drove new customer insights. 82% report digital customer engagement will be critically or very important to their success going forward.

● Companies that adopt a “builder” mindset will survive, those that do not will be outcompeted. 89% of enterprise decision-makers in Singapore report they will choose to build communications solutions to meet customer demands in the future, rather than buy a pre-configured solution. 91% of C-level executives in Singapore found developers were crucial to solving business challenges brought on by COVID. 
The report recognizes Twilio Engagement Builders, innovative organizations that built cutting edge digital solutions to stay connected to their customers and communities in 2020. Engagement Builders include Comcast, BGL Group, Delta Air Lines, Norwegian Refugee Council, and LINE Japan. To explore what they built and read the full report, go to twilio.com/state-of-customer-engagement.

Also read: Scaling communities like startups

Methodology: This report draws insight from Twilio platform data, which reflects digital engagement activity that occurred on Twilio in 2020. Twilio platform data do not represent Twilio’s historical or future financial performance and are presented solely as a context for broader market trends. The report also includes original research from a survey of over 2,500 enterprise decision-makers across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, and Singapore. The research was fielded by a third party to understand how businesses view the role of digital engagement. Survey respondents are full-time employees of companies with 500 to 25,000+ employees, from the director to the executive level.

About Twilio: Millions of developers around the world have used Twilio to unlock the magic of communications to improve any human experience. Twilio has democratised communications channels like voice, text, chat, video, and email by virtualizing the world’s communications infrastructure through APIs that are simple enough for any developer to use, yet robust enough to power the world’s most demanding applications. By making communications a part of every software developer’s toolkit, Twilio is enabling innovators across every industry — from emerging leaders to the world’s largest organizations — to reinvent how companies engage with their customers.

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

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Budget airline operator AirAsia Group Bhd has launched a food delivery service in Singapore today, according to TodayOnline.

Despite the growing competition of similar services within the region, AirAsia intends to woo customers by promising a five per cent lower delivery charge in comparison to its competitors.

The company is also offering a two-week free delivery for orders within 8 km until March 16. Users can book orders via their website AirAsia Food or its app, where flights can be booked too.

AirAsia Group’s chief executive officer Tony Fernandes said at an online press briefing that its food delivery app will not be having features such as “maps” to locate delivery agents, calling it an unnecessary “frill”.

“Just like AirAsia doesn’t have all the frills of Singapore Airlines, AirAsia Food, for instance, (won’t) have maps. We don’t think you really need to know where your driver is, because that costs us,” he mentioned.

Its platform currently has 24 food-and-beverage outlets which include Swee Choon Tim Sum, Maki-san, PizzaExpress, and Indian Wok, and is in talks to get 300 more food operators on board.

Also Read: COVID-19 accelerates food delivery startups in SEA with Grab responsible for near half of growth: Report

Additionally, AirAsia Food also plans to launch its food delivery service in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines before the end of this year.

It has also revealed plans to enter the fresh produce delivery market in Singapore where consumers can order imported fish from Japan or short ribs from Korea directly to their homes in Singapore within 48 hours.

COVID-19 has accelerated the food delivery market in Southeast Asia (SEA) and at the same time badly hit travel and hospitality companies.

With the lockdown prompting many in the region to download apps offering food delivery services, the number of downloads has increased 2-2.5 times in March and April.

This trend has led AirAsia to hop into the food delivery space as it bets on the growing potential of the sector while also leaning towards other sources of income to survive.

However, will AirAsia be able to stand up against the likes of established market leaders such as Grab, Deliveroo, and Foodpanda?

Only time will tell.

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Image Credit: Macau Photo Agency

 

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AppWorks, a Taipei-based early-stage VC firm and an investor in companies like Carousell and ShopBack, has raised US$114 million for its third fund, DealStreetAsia (DSA) has reported.

The new fund, with a target corpus of US$150 million, will seek to invest in startups in the AI, Internet of Things, blockchain and decentralised finance sectors, said the report, quoting its chairman and partner Jamie Lin.

The initial plan was to close the third fund at US$100 million, but it later decided to increase the target size to US$150 million after it observed a funding gap for Series A and B startups in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

While AppWorks’s previous fund focused on angel and seed investments, the new US$150-million fund will be used to invest in fast-growing Series A and B startups.

Also Read: AppWorks Founding Partner Jamie Lin discusses the outlook for Taiwan’s startup ecosystem

Founded in 2010, AppWorks is one of Southeast Asia’s largest startup accelerator and VC firms, having invested in a total of 395 startups and 1,331 founders within its ecosystem, producing a total turnover of US$8.05 billion.

Four of AppWork’s startups — Uber, NetPublishing, KuoBrothers, and MobiXwent — on to launch IPOs.

The company invests between US$200,000 and US$400,000 in seed-stage companies, up to US$3 million in Series A and US$10 million in Series B firms.

AppWorks launched a virtual Startup Showcase in November 2020, featuring 20 early-stage startups from Greater Southeast Asia (Taiwan and SEA).

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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Easy Eat, a Singaporean Artificial Intelligence-powered foodtech startup with operations in Malaysia, has closed a new round of funding with a clutch of investors such as Silicon Valley veteran and former Uber chief product officer Manik Gupta.

Exiting investor Bala Chandra (Managing Partner of Vernalis Capital) also participated in the new round, which comes less than a year after its secured its pre-Series A.

Co-founder and CEO Mohd Wassem shared with e27 that Easy Eat will utilise the fresh capital to ramp up its team and regional presence, as the startup is seeing “great adoption and engagement” for its products among F&B outlets in Malaysia.

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

The foodtech venture was established in early 2020 by friends Wassem, Rhythm Gupta, Abdul Khalid and Akshay Chauhan.

In a nutshell, Easy Eat digitises all customer-facing interactions in restaurants — from browsing menu, ordering and tracking to payments. It also personalises and rewards users’ dining experience. The firm’s AI solution even suggests customising options based on users’ preferences and history; the more a user uses Easy Eat AI tech, the more personalised it gets.

“F&B is the least digitally-advanced industry globally. Sooner or later, the industry will have to empower its customers to take charge of their ordering, be it dine-in, take-away or delivery,” said Wassem.

“Our technology allows customers to place and customise their orders, request services and make payment via their smart phone. This establishes direct connection between the customer and the restaurant, enabling the latter to promote delivery, take-away or advance bookings,” he explained.

During the COVID-19-induced lockdown, Easy Eat’s restaurant partners generated nearly 60-70 per cent of their pre-lockdown revenue, thanks to its technology. Wassem also claimed that almost 95 per cent of its restaurant partners, which were on-boarded in 2020, are still using its solutions.

According to investor Gupta, even though food delivery is the main focus right now due to the pandemic, dine-out and take-out present multi-billion dollar opportunities.

“Easy Eat has a great product, and its understanding of the market and customers are amazing. It helps restaurant owners weather the ongoing crisis with a new technology stack with a great attention to detail. I’m confident that Easy Eat will become an iconic company which will redefine how dining is done in future,” noted Gupta.

Also Read: Coping with consumer behaviour during the COVID-19 crisis

Southeast Asia’s F&B industry is estimated to be around US$100 billion in size, where 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

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Last month, we covered at least four notable acquisitions in the Southeast Asian tech startup ecosystem, involving startups from various sectors and markets.

In Indonesia, there was the acquisition of B2B e-commerce platform Bizzy Digital by new retail platform Warung Pintar for US$45 million, as part of the latter’s effort to expand its offering to the B2B segment. This acquisition is another proof of the rising popularity of platforms that enable digital transformation for conventional businesses, particularly SMEs. In the past months since the pandemic started, this sector has become more significant as businesses look for ways to respond to challenges.

Green tech also continued to dominate headlines. In addition to investment into RWDC Industries by Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr’s fund, we also saw the acquisition of electric vehicle (EV) company BlueSG by Goldbell. While there might be some challenges to face for full-on EVs to dominate the local market, the acquisition indicated that Singapore remains a promising market for the technology.

As part of its effort to compete with social media giant TikTok, global media and entertainment company ZASH acquired 80 per cent stake in Singapore-based video-sharing platform Lomotif. Since its launch in 2014, the platform to have increased its average monthly community by over 400 per cent with over 740 million videos shared on the platform. It also claimed a “tremendous” presence in Latin America and Asia.

LottieFiles, a platform that builds tiny, open-source animation file format, announced its acquisition of India-based design asset marketplace Iconscout. Acquired for an undisclosed amount, the move was made following LottieFiles’s recent US$9 million Series A funding round.

Also Read: Dropezy bags funding from Taurus Ventures, Kopi Kenangan to scale its next-day grocery delivery service in Indonesia

Focus on the Philippines

Another highlight of February is the number of notable investments happening in the Philippines. While the scandal involving property tech startup Revolution Precraft has been stealing headlines in the last weeks of February, these funding announcements indicated that the market remains promising for up-and-coming innovation.

Tyme, a subsidiary of the South Africa-based digital bank, announced a US$110 million Series B funding round and its plan to secure digital banking license in the country. Previously, there have been reports about the Philippines being one of the most promising SEA markets for digital banking services, but investors’ interests in the sector further strengthened this idea.

In line with the trend of digital transformation, Mosaic Solutions, the company that builds digital solutions for F&B, retail and hospitality industries, raised an additional US$1 million in a pre-Series A preferred equity offering.

Supply chain and logistics are also gaining popularity among investors throughout the pandemic, and the US$4 million seed funding round raised by Expedock proved that. In addition to raising a massive amount of funding, the startup also managed to gain the attention of Ali Partovi, who is known for his investments in household names such as Airbnb, Dropbox and Facebook.

Avion School, an edutech startup that focussed on software development training, also announced its entry to the prestigious Y Combinator programme.

Beyond these funding announcements, fintech player Ayannah also revealed to e27 its plan to raise a Series B funding round. The company aims to fuel its expansion to Vietnam and India.

Also Read: Advotics secures funding led by East Ventures to expand supply chain solutions for SMEs in Indonesia

What the rest is doing

February also saw the launch of funds that are focussing on specific verticals or investing in startups that are working in solving a particular problem. Examples of these funds would include Rainmaking with its US$22 million fund. It will work together with SEEDS Capital to invest in maritime tech startups in the region.

Dole Asia also announced a US$2 million fund that is aimed to support startups in sustainability, food access and waste.

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Image Credit: Austin Distel on Unsplash

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Citics, a Vietnamese online real estate platform, announced today it has raised US$1 million in a pre-series A round from a group of international and domestic investors.

The investors include Vulpes Investment Management, a seed investor in Singapore-based unicorn PropertyGuru, Nextrans and TheVentures.

Previously, the startup has raised US$700,000 from multiple angel investors, many of whom also participated in this round.

The startup plans to use the new funds to further develop its proprietary SaaS and DaaS products, as well as expand its footprint across Vietnam.

Also Read: How proptech is set to empower the Southeast Asian property market

Citics was founded two years ago by Tran Minh Long, a real estate veteran and former CEO of real estate broker Cen Group’s Southern Vietnam region.

By digitising and centralising many fragmented data sources, Citics aims to build a comprehensive real estate data platform “to power trustworthy, speedy, and seamless real estate transactions that include real estate valuation, sales-purchase, lease and mortgage.”

Its first product is a Data-as-a-Service offer that banks use to validate the value of real estate employed as collateral for loans.

By using a proprietary valuation map, bankers can now check the details and preliminary values of properties with just a few clicks. The official valuation report is completed within three hours, equal to only one forth the time it takes other valuation services.

More importantly, Citics Valuation enables banks’ risk department to control mortgage risks related to property values and locations by digital price map technology.

Currently, Citics has data of more than nine million properties across Vietnam and has estimated values for nearly four million of them and growing, as per a press release.

Also Read: Owning a house in Vietnam is no longer a distant dream, thanks to Homebase

Since launching its product in early 2020, Citics claims to have been able to sign contracts with 10 banks and achieved a monthly growth rate of more than 30 per cent.

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Image Credit: Citics.

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Employment Hero bags US$35M to bring integrated HR platform into SEA

Investors: Led by returning investor SEEK. Others are OneVentures and AirTree Ventures, Salesforce Ventures.

What will the funding be used for: To support Employment Hero’s continued growth in its local Australian market and facilitate an expansion of its business across Southeast Asia, starting with Singapore and Malaysia.

Also Read: When is the right time for a startup to hire an HR person?

About Employment Hero: The Australian company has created an HR platform that offers an integrated suite of people, payroll and benefits solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The company claims its core platform reduces time spent on administrative processes by up to 80 per cent. Employment Hero has over 6,000 paying businesses, collectively managing over 250,000 employees.

Apna raises US$12.5M to expand vertical professional networking platform for India’s working class

Investors: Sequoia Capital India and Greenoaks Capital (both co-lead), and existing investors Lightspeed India and Rocketship.vc.

What will the funding be used for: To strengthen its presence in existing cities, expand into new geographies, invest in exceptional talent, and improve engineering and product capabilities.

About Apna: Founded in 2019, the company helps grey and blue-collar workers unlock professional, networking and skilling opportunities. The app comprises vertical communities for skilled professionals like carpenters, painters, field sales agents and others. Users in the app can get access to local job opportunities, network with peers, and practice interviews together.

Apna claims it has more than six million users and 80,000 recruiters on its platform. It has grown over 50x in the last eight months alone and currently serves users in seven cities in India, with plans to expand into new metros and tier two cities in India this year.

Drone specialist ideaForge snags US$2M

Investors: The fresh funds came from Blacksoil, an India-based venture debt firm.

What will the funding be used for: To expand its team for it to service its increasing order book.

Also Read: EPS, Schulte Group back F-drones that develops autonomous drones capable of delivering 100kg payloads over 100km

About ideaForge: The Indian startup provides drones for homeland and security agencies in the country. The company revealed it recently received a US$20 million order from the Indian Army. It has applied for more than 20 patents in India and abroad for its drone technology and has deployed more than 1,000 drones.

Quest Ventures, ScaleUp Malaysia to invest in 11 Malaysian startups

Amount invested: The duo disbursed a total amount of MYR 2.8 million (US$680,000) in investments for their second cohort. These companies will receive an investment of MYR250,000 (US$61,000) each to grow their business regionally.

The 11 startups are:

ERTH (e-Waste Recycling Through Heroes): A social enterprise that specialises in collecting and recycling e-waste from household and businesses.

Fefifo: Pioneering digitalised, standardised farming in ready-to-farm modern farm spaces, to bring sustainable and profitable smallholder farming into Southeast Asia.

Hatio: Specialising in supply chain and logistics. Its services span warehouse automation, smart logistics, robotics, artificial intelligence and the internet of things.

Hauz: A data-driven enterprise solution that manages and monitors mobile workforce operations in the service industry.

Homa2u: An O2O firm building materials and interior finishes marketplace for house projects.

Kiddocare: An online platform that connects parents with trained Malaysian baby sitters and early childhood education providers for personalised, on-demand services.

Load2Go: An on-demand logistics platform for booking trucks for large freight, construction and manufacturing industries.

MMC: A food-based company that operates several different businesses, including a central kitchen, food mart, cafe and vending machines.

MyBump: A car wrap advertising company that matches brands with drivers for data-backed creative execution outdoor advertising.

Pomen: A SaaS automotive maintenance platform that specialises in connecting fleet companies and vehicle owners with workshops and service providers.

Quadby: The Nextdoor for universities. Quadby is a community app for students to find and chat with peers on campus.

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Image Credit: Employment Hero

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