Due Diligence (DD) is an inevitable part of an investment process. In the VC parlance, DD is about the investor and the startup getting to know each other and getting into a comfort level. DD is a long process and often takes weeks or months to complete.

In this episode of e27‘s Fundraising Fundamentals webinar series, Paolo Limcaoco, Investment Officer at Accion Venture Lab (a fintech VC firm), talks about the three aspects of the process.

Below are the excerpts from his session:

DD is about investors getting to know the startup. This is done mainly on three levels — team-level, operations/business model-level, and the financials-level.

1. Team

The very first level is obviously getting to know the team (founders). It is almost like going on dating before you enter into a long-term marriage. You need to get to know each other before the big days. Because once you invested, it’s very difficult to get out of it, and you have to make sure that your partnership works. Of course, there will be disagreement between both parties.

Also Read: ‘Want VC funding? Your startup needs to be valued at least US$700M in 10 years’: Jeffrey Paine

DD can go both ways. While investors do diligence on companies/startups, founders are also expected to perform their diligence on all investors they are speaking to.

It is very important that you guys get to know each other, the values and mission of the investors, their time horizon, as well as about their other portfolio companies. You should try to learn as much as possible about the investors.

By investing, we — as an early-stage investor — are basically making a bet on the founders and management team. It is potentially an early product, early traction and early product-market fit, and we don’t really know how it’s gonna play.

In normal times, what we would do here is spend a couple of weeks on the ground. We talk about a variety of topics, including the business model. We also conduct greater reference checks on the founders by reaching out to our common contacts on LinkedIn, our co-investors and also other founders in the ecosystem.

It is not just that we gain value only from meetings with the founders but we also interact with their employees in the office in person.

During the pandemic, we do Zoom calls, Google Meet or even WhatsApp calls with the founders and their business partners. So it is more about scheduling calls and spending time with the founders and the management team.

2. Operations.

Here we check whether the company has a product-market fit, how innovative and differentiated their product is and if they are able to acquire customers — everything that revolves around the operations of the business.

We look at the high-level macro trend to understand what’s happening on the macro side.

If it is a company that’s working with small merchants/businesses/ individuals, we try to meet them. We will also try to meet their distributors/customers/clients. So it is worthwhile thinking about how to bring your customers, products and services closer to your investors.

Another key aspect is obviously the product and technology. So aside from really trying to understand how it works, we try to understand the front-end and back-end operations. We will normally have a tech call with the founders or CTO, alongside a couple of members from our Venture Lab team, and try to understand the process.

3. Financials

We need to ensure that a company’s financials make a lot of sense on the business side. You may not be making any profit yet but in the long-term, the forecasts and economics must make sense.

Because in the end, a lot of businesses survive a long time without making any money. It would be good to at least have an idea of how the company will get to scale. So the financial due diligence is quite important.

Also Read: How investors are adapting to effective due diligence practices in the new normal

It is really about us getting comfortable with the assumptions of the business model and the things that you’re presenting.

When we make an investment, we will definitely look at the similar companies we have invested in in the past. For example, when we are looking to back an SME lender, we can take a look at some of the learnings that we have made from investing in other markets and will try to validate if the assumptions/forecasts make a lot of sense.

It is also very important that you’re able to back up the assumptions. We have seen companies trying to make the numbers look as nice as possible but in the end, there has to be some backing to it.

Normally, we do take those with a grain of salt and are trying to look at more how to be on the more conservative aspect of things.

So, so, yeah, so we make sure making sure that, you know, when you present financial models, your assumptions are solid, clear, and have some level and some level of backup there.

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Image Credit: Accion Venture Lab

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IDCloudHost, an Indonesia-based cloud service provider, has secured US$5 million in funding from Bukalapak’s co-founder and CEO Achmad Zaky’s investment firm Init 6.

The startup intends to utilise the fresh funds to improve its technology offerings and expand its team.

Launched in 2015 by Alfian Pamungkas Sakawiguna and Muhammad Mufid Luthfi, IDCloudHost provides cloud-based services, including domain handling and server creation for customers ranging from startups and small businesses to individual developers.

The company claims it has served over 100,000 customers and counts companies including national telco Telkom Indonesia and Mandiri Capital (the corporate venture arm of Bank Mandiri) among its clients.

Also Read: How cloud computing is helping startups navigate the new normal

Luthfi, IDCloudHost’s chief marketing officer, noted the pandemic has accelerated digital transformation across several sectors. “The ever-growing digital ecosystem is an opportunity as well as a challenge for us to produce innovative products tailored to the needs of the growing market.”

In 2019, the startup acquired Dewabiz, a provider of SSD (solid-state drives) hosting, virtual private servers, and domains. The move was aimed at widening IDCloudHost’s business coverage as well as help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) digitize their business.

Init 6 is an independent investment vehicle set up by Zaky and his co-founder Nugroho Herucahyono (Xinuc). In October 2020, the duo announced their first undisclosed investment in edutech startup Eduka System.

Zaky and Xinuc met during their college days at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), where they founded Bukalapak in their college dorm in 2009.

According to the Business Times, Bukalapak is weighing a listing in the US public markets via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The local e-commerce giant is set to be valued at up to US$5 billion.

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Image Credit: NextPay

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While a rich, modern messaging experience is a technical reality, it may feel out of reach for startups who are, say, establishing a customer support team for the first time.

Messaging might feel ambitious now, but you can still plan for it down the road, and there are more than a few reasons why you should.

Let’s get started.

The importance of messaging

We’ve seen a big acceleration of messaging in 2020, and we think it’s safe to say the trend will continue.

We know that customers want to talk to companies on the channels they’re already using to talk to friends and family, and increasingly, that includes messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and even native messaging apps. Already, 69 per cent of customers use messaging to contact customer service, and the reality is, they will expect this even from startups. Given the many benefits of messaging, it’s easy to see why.

Context is retained so that customers don’t have to repeat themselves, conversations are engaging and interactive, and bots can help make services more accessible during off-hours.

3 steps to take before you launch messaging

So we know messaging is important, but sometimes you need to walk before you run. Here are 3 things you can do right now:

1. Master the channels you already have in place

As a young startup, you might only have a few channels, such as email and self-service. These foundational channels are still important, and it’s worth the effort to get them right. Here’s why: Research shows that nearly half of customers would switch to a competitor after just one bad customer service experience.

Every customer counts when you’re a startup, so you need to make a good impression on the channels you already have. Here are a few tips:

Email: Respond to emails as quickly as possible. Most customers expect an email response within 12 hours.

Self-service: Expand your library of help centre articles. A good goal is 40 articles within the first year of funding, according to our startups’ benchmark.

Social media and live chat: Take advantage of apps to help you capture customer data, so you can provide more personalized service. Here is an overview of helpful apps for startups.

2. Understand your customers’ priorities

As a startup leader, you should be intimately familiar with your customers’ needs—and that understanding should extend to customer service.

Before adding a new support channel, you should make sure it’s right for your customers. Customer feedback forms can help you see how your team is performing, and customer surveys (if done efficiently and effectively) can help you find out what your customers want to see from you in the future.

To find out if messaging is important to your customers, try asking questions like: is it convenient to talk to our customer service team via email? What is your preferred method of contact when reaching out to customer support? Do you find it helpful when you can talk to customer support via SMS or messaging apps?

Also read: Making cross-border partnerships work within a Covid-19 reality

You should also consider your customers’ context. For example, a retail customer might prefer the immediacy of live chat or messaging, while a cloud software customer might choose email, which allows them to respond as they have time.

But it’s not all or nothing. Customer preferences might change depending on the type of question or circumstance. It’s good to provide options.

3. Level up with live channels

Live chat is a logical next step for startups that want to offer the convenience of real-time conversations. You might be wondering, what’s the difference between live chat and messaging? Good question. Here is a quick breakdown:

While both mechanisms operate as real-time conversations, messaging threads are retained overtime. This format works best for building stronger customer relationship. On the flip side, live chat threads are limited to individual sessions, making it most suitable for answering questions quickly.

Top startups in our benchmark were 20 per cent more likely to roll out live chat within their first two years. But more importantly, it’s not just startups. There are more than four times as many Zendesk customers using chat compared to five years ago.

Planning for the future

There is no rush to adopt messaging, but it’s something you can plan for. You might even be more ready than you think. An out-of-the-box solution like Answer Bot can be a good first step that’s well within reach.

But the most important thing you can do as a growing startup is keep your customer in focus. Worry less about channels and more about the help you’re providing. If you can deliver fast, reliable service, the rest will follow.

Also read: Twilio’s annual State of Customer Engagement report

Zendesk gives you the tools you need to deliver a better experience for your customers and connects you with the resources to help you grow strategically as you scale. Startups in the e27 community can apply to the Zendesk for Startups Program to get 6 months free of our customer support and sales CRM solution.

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

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The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of the Philippines is creating a P250-million (US$50 million) venture fund aimed at investing in local startups, as per a report by BusinessMirror.

The fund is line with the Innovative Startup Act 2019 and is aimed at supporting product research and development, product manufacturing, sales and marketing of startups.

Although the draft guidelines are yet to be finalised, the venture fund aims to  provide equity financing.

Also Read: Digital banking platform for Filipino entrepreneurs NextPay accepted into Y Combinator, raises funding

According to Rafaelita M. Aldaba, Trade undersecretary for competitiveness and innovation, the fund may provide between P5 million and P25 million (US$100,000 and US$500,000) to each startup, which means five to ten  startups are likely to receive funding.

On Monday, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez informed that the money for the programme was included in the budget during its meeting with the National Development Company (NDC) last week.

“Although we were affected by the pandemic and there was a bit of difficulty in completing the process, nevertheless, it is in our agenda for this year and hopefully we will be able to launch that venture fund to be managed by NDC,” Lopez said.

Currently,  DTI is working on another initiative, called Startup Business One-Stop Shop, which intends to facilitate end-to-end registration of startups, in addition to serving as a portal keeping startup-related information.

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Atomionics, a Singapore-based startup building quantum sensors for navigation and resource exploration, has raised an undisclosed sum in seed funding.

Led by Wavemaker Partners in partnership with SGInnovate and Cap Vista, the round also saw participation form 500 Durians, Apsara Investments, 6th Horizon, Entrepreneur First and other prominent angels.

With the new funding, the startup plans to ramp up its hiring process, further enhance its product and deliver it to the market.

Atomionics was founded in 2018 by Sahil Tapiawala and Ravi Kumar who met with each other at the Entrepreneur First incubator programme.

Prior to founding the startup, Kumar conducted his post-doctoral research in cold atom physics at the Center for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore, while Tapiawala completed his research in multi-material 3D printing and soft robots at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

The duo decided to launch the startup when they felt that the technology for sensing systems in places like underwater navigation was largely primordial.

Also Read: Uncovering the rise and challenges faced by deep tech startups in Singapore

The startup aims to build an atomic sensing technology for navigation and exploration using quantum sensors, which can pinpoint mineral and hydrocarbon reserves, provide precise navigation and create a universal positioning system that works in places like underground, underwater and space.

“At Atomionics, we realised the common factor amongst industries like mineral and resource exploration, defense and security is the measurement of gravity, acceleration and rotation. We measure these three parameters exponentially better than the current state of the art by utilising atoms as measurement tools,”said Tapiawala.

“What excites us the most is that we can build a completely new global positioning system without the need for any satellites or external signals through gravity-aided navigation and positioning that works anywhere – underwater, underground and even in space,” he added.

“Atomionics has developed a significant step-change in sensing technology that will impact behemoth Industries like energy, infrastructure, and disaster management in unparalleled ways. The rapid adoption of Atomionics’s breakthrough products has the potential to transform this “made in Singapore” deep technology company into a pioneering global firm,” Vishal Harnal, partner at 500 Durians, commented.
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Image Credit: Atmonics

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ACKTEC Technologies, a Singapore-based immersive learning startup, has raised US$1 million in seed funding from local family office Octava.

SEEDS Capital, EduSpaze, Govin Capital and a group of angel investors also participated.

The company said the fresh capital will be used to scale its immersive learning content marketplace KQwest across Asia.

Founded in 2018 by Rayvan Ho, ACKTEC specialises in providing digital learning ecosystems, structuring and digitising learning and development (L&D) content for organisations.

According to the firm, through its immersive learning platform ACKTEC Learn, organisations and institutions can transform their existing L&D content into immersive learning modules utilising technologies such as AR, VR and interactive 3D while maintaining a mobile-friendly format.

Also Read: A case for adult learning: How it is the answer to bridge the employment gap

“COVID-19 is changing the way people work and learn. There is a movement worldwide to more blended and digital modes of delivery– but it may be difficult to undertake this process without an understanding of how course content should be restructured, and what technologies and modes of learning are best suited to meet the organisation’s and the consumer’s needs,” said Ho.

“With this funding, we will be able to better support organisations who are looking to digitalise their learning processes, and help them transform and participate in the growing global digital learning ecosystem,” he added.

By cutting out the need for costly equipment and catering to the growing population of mobile device users, ACKTEC aims make immersive learning accessible and affordable for all.

“The ACKTEC Learn platform already serves over 705,000 active learners across 16 countries, through industries as varied as transportation, education and finance, and we believe in their ability to scale and reach a global audience,” shared Tan Ying Yong, Director at Octava.

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Image Credit: ACKTEC Technologies

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As an organisation that invests in transformational technologies, we at Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India (VVSEAI) are no strangers to challenges and change. That’s why this year’s International Women’s Day theme, #ChooseToChallenge, resonates deeply with our philosophy.

There is no question that gender disparity is a real issue: the trailing numbers in wage amounts and leadership representation compared to men are clear for all to see.  We recognise now that women are just as capable as men, especially in the workforce, and broadly agree that maintaining gender diversity is not just a sensible thing to do but it also makes a lot of business sense.

Accepting and adapting to differences

Very often, businesses see securing the best talent as one of their key priorities and may even relate it to their profitability.  On paper, men are the more reliable hires because they don’t need months of maternity leave.

This means less disruption to business operations, which can be appealing to companies with limited manpower such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs).  However, this ignores the individual value of female workers, as well as the ability of companies to adapt workflow processes to their needs.

I believe that with the right support, women can be strong leaders without neglecting their other roles as wives and mothers.  Businesses that genuinely value their female employees will consider arrangements that help them balance working and caring for their families.

Remote working is one such example; now that companies are more familiar with it due to COVID-19, working mothers have a new option for more flexible work.

Meaningful change vs jumping on the bandwagon

It’s true that there are more women in leadership than before, but many still tend to hold ‘supporting’ roles such as in human resources, communications, and marketing instead of ‘frontline’ roles, such as being CEOs or being on the Board of Directors. In fact, the Singapore Board Diversity Index showed that 45 per cent of listed companies in Singapore lack female representation on the Board of Directors.

Women are not asking for special treatment. We just want to compete on an even footing with our male peers. I was fortunate that the leaders in VVSEAI were progressive enough to consider having women partners before it became fashionable to do so, but my experience shouldn’t be an exception.

Also Read: How women in tech can navigate the 2021 business landscape

Gender equality is not altruism. It isn’t unreasonable to want the removal of barriers such as gender-based discrimination and prejudice or to want to be judged on merit instead of gender, being paid what the role is worth, and having zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Having quotas for female leaders and staff is a good PR initiative to emphasise a company’s commitment to gender inclusivity, but it’s still just paying lip service if they are filled based purely on gender and are limited to certain types of roles or levels. While all companies should strive to support gender diversity at the workplace, only an authentic approach will inspire true change.

That is why at VVSEAI, our ambition as a company is to have a workplace where there are equal opportunities to succeed in every function and at every level. I believe the shift is starting but it will take time for a multi-generation bias to change.

Rejecting stereotypes in favour of merit

Women have been called the ‘weaker sex’ for generations – not just physically, but mentally as well. This is especially a disadvantage at the workplace, where the archetype of the ideal leader continues to be predominantly masculine.

Leadership qualities such as being direct, firm and no-nonsense are celebrated in men but are seen as being undesirable in women – even among other women. Yet these are just stereotypes created by our society. They have no bearing on actual performance.

Ultimately, organisations want to hire the best talent and talent does not discriminate between gender, age, race or religion – so neither should we. Employers should focus on the abilities of an individual when making selection decision. Companies should judge all employees based on the same criteria: performance, work ethic, experience and skills.

They shouldn’t fear diversity and difference; in fact, diversity builds stronger organisations by virtue of creating a more informed and tolerant workplace, making us better people by extension.

Taking on the challenge

At VVSEAI, our DNA and duty as a venture capital firm are to challenge the status quo by backing leading startups offering innovative business models and transformational technologies. We always strive to make a difference in everything we do. We will always #ChooseToChallenge the barriers and stereotypes that hold us back from progress as individuals and as a society, and gender equality is one of the ultimate obstacles that we must overcome together.

Our priority is to nurture tomorrow’s leaders, and some of the ways we have pledged are to create a more inclusive environment by creating more visibility for women leaders and celebrating their achievements as well as to identify female entrepreneurs in the investment opportunities we see.

Also Read: How ZaZaZu aims to empower women by starting conversation about sexual wellness

That said, change must always start from the top. The onus will be on the management to lead the way in shifting the gender mindset. For myself, being at Partner-level in what is still a predominantly male-heavy industry is already pushing the boundaries for more inclusiveness.

An inclusive workspace means respecting the difference of individuals to ensure people are valued and empowered, whoever they may be. As the cycle of leadership continues to turn and a new generation steps up – one more exposed to inclusiveness and equality – I hope that the shift away from this multi-generation bias will become less of a challenge and more of an eventuality.

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Pluang, a wealthtech startup headquartered in Jakarta, announced today it has raised US$20 million in a pre-Series B round led by returning investor Openspace Ventures.

Other existing investors, including Go-Ventures, also participated.

This round comes two years after the fintech startup bagged US$3 million in Series A funding in March 2019.

With the fresh capital, Pluang plans to launch several new asset classes and provide users with proprietary financial products. One new focus will be to introduce a novel way to utilise government bonds as a savings product.

It also plans to onboard several new partners over time using a part of the capital.

Also Read: Digital micro-savings startup Pluang raises US$3M, becomes the latest Go-Ventures’ portfolio

Founded by Claudia Kolonas and Richard Chua while they were at Harvard Business School, Pluang provides easy access to micro-savings and micro-investment products in Indonesia. By logging into its mobile app, users can check or top up their accounts, make transactions or cash out, anywhere anytime.

Users can make micro-savings as low as ~US$0.50.

Currently, Pluang offers gold, US equity indices and cryptocurrencies.

The company has been selected to provide mini-apps within gojek, Dana and Bukalapak.

The firm claims to have served over one million users to date.

“We plan to expand our product offerings in 2021, focusing on new financial products to give our users simple and convenient access to a wider variety of asset classes. Previously, these assets classes were only available to the wealthy in Indonesia. However, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to grow their savings, and our new products will reflect this,” said Kolonas.

Pluang believes financial education in Indonesia, a country with very low financial literacy requires a joint effort. Ecosystem partners can make a huge difference in educating users as they have existing user bases.

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

“Pluang has demonstrated tremendous growth over the last 12 months with industry leading unit economics. We’re excited to continue supporting the team, as they sustainably accelerate their ambitions to help every Indonesian grow their savings,” said Shane Chesson, founding partner, Openspace Ventures.

“As a nation, Indonesians are just starting to get familiar with savings, investing and growing their wealth. Pluang is making excellent in-roads into educating new users, and getting them started on their savings journey,” said Aditya Kamath, Partner, Go- Ventures.

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Image Credit: Pluang

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M Capital Management, a newly-established VC firm based in Singapore, announced today that it has made the final close of its maiden fund, M Venture Partners, at US$30.85 million.

The names of the LPs have not been disclosed.

The fund intends to invest in about 40 ventures — mainly in the seed and pre-Series A stages — focused on technology-enabled B2B or B2B2C business models. The average initial cheque size will be about US$500,000.

“We intend to remain sector-agnostic in this maiden fund. However, we are extremely focused on investing in seasoned talent. We seek to partner with entrepreneurs who have pedigree professional experience and strong academic backgrounds,” said co-founder Mayank Parekh.

“While it may sound simplistic, at this early stage, it’s all about ensuring the talent has the mental acuity, maturity, and resilience to build to last,” he added.

MVP was founded by Parekh, a former investor, and management consultant, along with Joachim Ackermann, former managing director of Google Asia Pacific. Other key team members include Dr. Tanuja Rajah who joins from Entrepreneur First, and Chethana Ellepola, previously Research Director at Acquity Stockbrokers.

Also Read: Founders should be able to back up their ideas with sales; Golden Gates newly-appointed Principal Jeffrey Chua

Since its inception, the VC firm has made 11 investments in total.

Its prominent investment is 3D Metal Forge, which recently got listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Other investees are health coaching startup Naluri, AI-enabled credit company Impact Credit Solutions and health-tech startup Cipher Cancer Clinics.

“While maintaining Southeast Asian, broader regional and global aspirations, a majority of our portfolio companies will be Singapore headquartered. Singapore presents a fabulous venture ecosystem and support network for our entrepreneurs and an ideal springboard to launch innovative and disruptive technology start-ups across multiple markets,” said Ackermann.

Singapore’s VC ecosystem is buzzing as of late even as the world is yet to come out of the COVID-19 crisis. On Tuesday, Niklas Holck, former Chairman of Nordic Eye Venture Capital, announced the launch of Tradeworks.vc.

The boutique VC firm targets early-growth startups and scale-ups at the seed to Series A funding stages, mainly in the logistics-tech segment.

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Image Credit: M Capital

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NextPay, a digital banking platform for small businesses and entrepreneurs in the Philippines, has secured US$125,000 in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator (YC).

With this, NextPay becomes the fifth Filipino tech startup to be backed and selected by YC after Kalibrr (2013), PayMongo (2019), Avion School (2021), and Dashlabs.ai (2021).

Y Combinator is popularly known as the launchpad of many iconic startups such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe and Twitch.

NextPay said in a statement that fresh funds will be used to expand its line of digital banking services for payments, credit and personal cash management.

The fintech firm is also looking to partner with human resource and accounting software companies to further streamline enterprise financial operations.

Launched in 2020, NextPay is an alternative to bank accounts for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Its platform enables companies to collect customer payments via digital invoices, manage their cash, and pay their employees, suppliers, or bills in batches to any bank or e-wallet.

Also Read: Why digital lending services for MSMEs are the next big thing in SEA

NextPay operates on a pay-per-use model and does not require any set-up fees and minimum balances.

The company disclosed it has processed more than US$2.5 million worth of transactions for over 100 businesses in the Philippines. 

“Our goal is to empower smaller businesses with a spectrum of banking services that were previously unavailable to them because of the steep requirements and high fees that are typically aimed at larger, more developed companies that can afford them,” said Don Pansacola, CEO and co-founder of NextPay.

“NextPay wants to help the Philippines bounce back. We want to enable growing enterprises to maximize their capital, reach more customers, and generate more jobs and opportunities. This then stimulates economic transactions and creates a demand for stronger partnerships. It’s a domino effect,” he added.

“The opportunity to provide digital financial services to these market segments, which make up 99.5 per cent of all businesses, and are the lifeblood of the Philippine economy, is huge. Through our platform, MSMEs can conduct their transactions seamlessly and allow business owners to free up resources and focus on their operations,” noted Aldrich Tan, co-founder and Chief Experience Officer.

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Image Credit: NextPay

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