As many as 37 venture capital firms spanning South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam have pledged over US$800 million to support Vietnam’s startup ecosystem over the next three to five years.

The pledge-signing ceremony was held at the Vietnam Venture Summit 2020, organised as part of The Vietnam Tech and Startup Week, in Hanoi.

The VC firms who pledged investments include VinaCapital Ventures, Do Ventures, Nextrans, ThinkZone, NextTech, VietCapital Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, Smilegate Investment, FEBE Ventures, Genesia Ventures, Monk’s Hill Ventures, Vertex Holdings, 500 Startups, and Quest Ventures, among others.

Also Read: Vietnam’s mobile commerce is set to open up avenues for startups

As per a press statement, the commitment marks the return of uptake in investments within the Vietnamese startup ecosystem.

According to an industry report by Do Ventures, US$861 million was invested in 123 deals within Vietnam, more than double the number in 2018. However, the pandemic put an end to this increase.

Investment proceeds in the first half of 2020 decreased by 22 per cent, from US$284 million in the same period last year to US$222 million, due to travel restrictions and uncertainties in global financial markets.

Therefore, the US$800 million pledged should result in resumption in increased investments into Vietnam.

This summit comes on the heels of the US-China trade war as Vietnam sees a shift of manufacturing and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.

With US$100 billion in electronic goods exported yearly and an annual GDP growth rate of seven per cent for the past decade, Vietnam is poised to take advantage of manufacturing firms moving south.

It is a key manufacturer for some of the greatest phone producers, such as Google, Samsung and LG.

Also Read: How to bridge the tech talent gap in a post-pandemic world

Recently, Chinese acoustics manufacturer Goertek, announced that its production of Apple’s Airpods wireless headphones will move to Vietnam, as a result of the trade war.

Ed Grefenstette, CIO at Dietrich Foundation, said: “We look towards past experiences in China to draw parallels and access opportunities in Southeast Asia. While talent used to be a bottleneck in Vietnam, we are seeing extraordinary best practices being adopted from around the world here.”

Vietnam, with its strong pipeline of tech talent, fostered by years of education and retraining by the government, is ready for the shift for talent demand. 

Among the delegates at the event were leaders from global tech firms such as PayPal and Google, industry veterans from Vietnamese startups such as VNG and Tiki and investors from VCs such as Softbank Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

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Image Credit: Vietnam Venture Summit

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Indonesia’s instant credit financing platform Kredivo bags US$100M credit line from Victory Park Capital; It will accelerate business scalability and realise Kredivo’s target of serving up to 10M new users in the next few years; Kredivo is operated by Singapore-based FinAccel. e27

Applications open for Singapore’s US$37M fund to spur sustainability efforts; The government-backed fund will support ground-up projects that aim to build a more sustainable future; Applicants will be expected to co-fund their projects; They may receive funding of up to 80%, subject to a cap of US$747K. The Straits Times

HH Investments VC Founder Maarten Hemmes on why the entrepreneurial journey is more important than the end result; He says the firm’s goal is to support 100 companies in the next 10 years; Distraction is the enemy of any thought leader as you will never be able to get to the bottom of a problem and simply end up with a lot of unrefined thoughts and little execution. e27

Enterprise investor Jason Green on SPAC hopefuls versus startups bound for traditional IPOs; “I would say in H1 of next year, I could easily see SPACs being the more likely go-to-market for a public company, then the latter half of next year, once the vaccines have kicked in and people feel like we’re returning to somewhat normal, I could see the traditional IPO coming back’. TechCrunch

The Elon Musk of Singapore looks to engineer the next deep tech unicorn; Peter Ho, CEO of engineering firm Hope Technik, is like the Elon Musk or Tony Stark of Singapore; The company’s products are diverse, ranging from robots to sensors to vehicles. TechInAsia

Investors pledge US$815M for Vietnamese startups through the next 5 years; Investors include CyberAgent Capital, AlphaJWC, Monk’s Hill, 500 Startups, Beenext, VinaCapital Ventures, Do Ventures; Vietnam has been identified as the next growth market for tech investment after Indonesia. TechInAsia

Why neobanks are better than digital banks; Fully-licensed digital banks undoubtedly have the opportunity to become strong challengers to traditional banks and deliver delightful service to customers; However, less publicised neobank business models could prove to be more nimble and innovative. e27

theAsianparent closes Series C round with an investment from SCB 10X; This deal follows an 8-figure fundraise in an oversubscribed Series C round in 2019, led by Fosun; The two firms will work together to provide curated financial info and analysis that will assist Thai parents to make informed decisions concerning household financial matters. e27

SEA will make US$205B each year if it builds sustainable agrifood system, says Bain & Co; The region lags other global regions in with regards to the development and implementation of ‘green’ initiatives; At current levels, SEA is expected to account for more than half of the world’s ‘mismanaged’ plastic waste by 2025; it also treats the least wastewater of any region, and suffers the highest deforestation rate in the tropics. AFN

Philippines’s New Wave joins hands with Emissary Capital to launch US$50M fund for ASEAN startups; The 2 firms will form a JV to serve as the new fund’s General Partners; The fund’s key focus market will be Malaysia and Philippine; New Wave will invest up to US$7.5M in the new fund as an LP. e27

MDI Ventures, Finch Capital join hands to launch new US$40M fund Arise to plug ASEAN’s pre-Series A gap; Arise seeks to invest in Indonesia-focused startups in SEA and the average ticket size will be US$250K-US$3M; A recent report shows local tech investing fell to US$5.6B in 2020, a 13% drop compared to the same period in 2019. e27

BRI Ventures’s Sembrani Nusantara fund hits first close at US$10M; Grab and Celebes Capital are among the investors; The fund, which targets US$21M in the final close, aims to build a pipeline for Indonesian startups to grow and find good exits; The fund aims to look beyond typical investment areas like fintech and focus on MSMEs. e27

Conversational AI and NLP startup Kata.ai raises Series B led by TPTF and MDI Ventures; It has also unveiled a social commerce platform QIOS, which allows SMEs to use and integrate AI in their sales process through chat-based apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram. e27

Filipino proptech platform AQWIRE raises US$2.1M Series A; Investors include Spiral Ventures (lead), Gentree, Vulpes, Steve Melhuish; It expects another US$2M in venture loans; AQWIRE helps developers and brokers access foreign property investors including the 12M overseas Filipinos; Its services include listing, mortgage loans, property management, payments processing. e27

The-Wolfpack debuts with US$5M fund targeting D2C startups in SEA; The ‘Wolfpack Pioneer VCC’ will look to invest in startups in the consumer goods, leisure and media sectors; The VC firm is now looking to raise a second fund targeted at more than US$15M. e27

Vietnam’s Lozi bags a bridge round to expand its B2B services; Investors include Vulpes Investment; Daal Ventures, Wealth Well; Lozi currently offers services such as food, grocery, medicine, package, flower, and B2B supply delivery, as well as ride-hailing and laundry services. TechInAsia

HR-tech startup Pulsifi bags US$1.8M to expand to Europe; Investors include Kairous Capital; Founder of KVC group; RedMart co-founder Rajesh Lingappa; Pulsifi’s platform unifies multiple hard skills and soft traits data on each candidate or employee, and accurately predicts each person’s work styles, role fit, culture fit and other outcomes. e27

Jakarta, Singapore named as top global fintech ecosystems in a new report; Europe and North America no longer dominate the top 20 global fintech ecosystems as Asia Pacific continues to contribute emerging global hubs; Jakarta’s entry to the list was pushed by the number of exits and funding round that the city has experienced. e27

TNG Fintech Group founder and CEO Alex Kong shares how to grow your human capital; There are a lot of things that you need to build a successful team, but one thing that has always stuck his my mind is people that are part of the solution; ‘When they come to me with a problem, I want them to think about solutions. You don’t come to me with just a problem’. e27

Why only regulation can solve cryptocurrency’s perception problem; Cryptocurrency has the potential to be an evolved form of money; It has features that existing forms of money do not have; Access to global liquidity, transparent and detailed tracking, and asset tokenisation are to name but a few. e27

Fintech Thailand Startup Map 2020 showcases growing industry; The map showcases the domestic fintech startup ecosystem which includes startups operating in payments sector (20), blockchain (20), financial comparison (10), insurtech (9), retail investment (9), P2P lending (8), personal finance (6); As of July 2020, the Thailand SEC had so far approved 13 crypto businesses the license to operate which includes cryptocurrency exchanges, brokers and dealers. Fintech News

Meet the 15 Asian startups that will advance to Seedstars World Competition 2020; Startups from Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan have made to the list; These firms stand to win the Global Winner prize of US$500K in equity investment in the Grand Finale. e27

Exploring Singapore’s thriving e-sports startups scene; With the rise of online gaming in the region, eSports startups in Singapore are establishing themselves as key players in the industry; Research from Newzoo found that Singapore is going to see a considerable surge in investors and players; The region is now the fastest-growing in the world for e-sports. Tech Collective

Meet the 4 SEA startups that have made it to Sequoia Surge’s new batch; They are Tazapay, Aampe, Otoklix, Epsilo; In total, 17 early-stage startups have been selected selected; The batch-4 startups have collectively raised US$45.35M in funding from both Surge and other investors. e27

How data can help the global fight against COVID-19; A singular platform and marketplace solution to load, store, integrate, and securely share any amount or type of data is needed to prevent future outbreaks of COVID-19 as communities around the world relax social distancing policies. e27

Five startups win Grab Ventures Ignite accelerator in Vietnam; Winners are bePOS, Stringee, GoDee, Papaya, Vbee; Grab Ventures Ignite helps Grab realise its aim to accelerate tech entrepreneurship and grow a thriving tech startup ecosystem in Vietnam. Vietnam News

Making Malaysia an attractive investment destination; After a sharp contraction in the second quarter of 2020 due to the Covid-19 containment measures, private investments in Malaysia have shown signs of gradual recovery; However, while business sentiment has begun to pick up steam, domestic investment remains below pre-pandemic levels. The Star
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Photo by Bayu Syaitson Unsplash

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MadEats, a cloud kitchen startup headquartered in Manila, the Philippines, has received an undisclosed sum in pre-seed investment, led by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, with participation from Paymongo co-founder Luis Sia.

This marks Mateen’s third deal in the Philippines after his investments in PayMongo in September 2019 and Avion School in July 2020.

“Our pre-seed money will go into operations and marketing. We want to launch a handful of internet food brands by the end of 2020,” MadEats’s Co-founder Mikee Villareal told e27.

MadEats is an online restaurant group that creates brands specifically engineered for delivery.

Also Read: Yummy Corp bags US$12M Series B to grow its cloud kitchen brand in Indonesia

The company was set up amid the COVID-19 crisis by an all female founding team of Villareal (CEO), Andie Cruz (CMO) and Keisha Lao (CPO) — who have been working in the F&B industry throughout their career.

“During the pandemic, we witnessed the struggles of brick-and-mortar restaurants in pivoting their businesses to delivery-friendly formats,” Villareal said. “At the same time, we also saw a huge demand for on-demand food delivery, especially in the cloud kitchen space.”

The trio sniffed an opportunity and discussed creating online-only food brands. According to Villareal, MadEats wants to innovate brands engineered for delivery that customers can keep coming back to, through thoughtful user experiences. What this means is that everything — from the ordering platform and packaging to the food — has been created with the customer in mind.

“With the rise of on-demand food delivery and the increased habit of eating at home, we believe that the future of F&B is online, and delivery is here to stay,” Villareal said.

First brand 

Villareal believes that cloud kitchens enable one to launch food brands quicker, and is an opportunity for founders to scale faster.

The startup has rolled out its maiden brand, Yang Gang, which she claims is a “painfully addictive Korean Fried Chicken brand”. Launched a week ago, Yang Gang aims to bring the Korean street food experience to customers — all packed into a box and delivered to the customer’s convenience.

Before the year-end, MadEats aims to launch two more brands — Lucky Chow, a fast casual Chinese concept; and Fried Nice, a progressive fried rice brand focused on inventive takes on the comfort food staple.

While there are a handful of cloud kitchens such as CloudEats and GrabKitchen in the archipelago, Villareal differentiates itself by being a product- and consumer-centric internet restaurant group that is agnostic towards any digital platform.

The market size

The on-demand food delivery of Southeast Asia is expected to grow 4x by 2025, from US$4 billion to US$8 billion, according to a research from Dataspring. During the pandemic-induced lockdown, there was a huge spike of new users for online food delivery.

Also Read: Dhaka’s first full-stack digital food court Kludio shines despite COVID-19

“The Philippines has one of the fastest growing internet economies in the region with its internet economy standing resilient at US$7.5B. It has 73 million active social media users, who spend an hour more than the average social media user in its neighbouring countries,” she remarked.

With the Philippines having one of the strictest and longest lockdowns in the world, there was an obvious exponential growth for the food delivery market.

However, challenges are aplenty, admits Villareal. “With the rise of more and more food concepts, the market can be quite saturated. Aside from this, there are so many things to consider in operations, especially with the nature of our business being delivery-heavy.”

“You also have to consider traffic, the weather and internet access — all of which can harm the dining delivery experience of a customer, in spite of these things sometimes being out of our control. But we also know how to take a step back and look at the things that we can change in the experience,” she concluded.

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Image Credit: MadEats

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BRI Ventures, the VC arm of Indonesia’s state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), has announced the first close of its Sembrani Nusantara fund at IDR150 billion (US$10.62 million).

As per a press note, this represents more than half of the fund’s IDR300 billion (US$21.24 million) closing target.

Launched in June 2020, the Sembrani Nusantara fund aims to build a pipeline for Indonesian startups to grow and find good exits.

The fund focuses on potential billion-dollar startups that are pursuing sustainable growth and real metrics, rather than hype-driven unicorns that are notorious for unrealistic and paper-based valuations.

As per a press release, the fund will announce new investment deals with two Indonesian startups this month.

Incoming investors are largely Indonesia-based, including VC firm Celebes Capital, Fazz Financial Group, serial investor Pandu Sjahrir, Indonesian fintech platform Investree, as well as Grab.

Also Read: Grab, BRI Ventures, Mandiri Capital join LinkAja’s US$100M Series B round

“We have been heartened by the response from Sembrani Nusantara Fund’s investors on this first close. The fund’s backers are primarily Indonesians with experience investing in startups and venture funds,” explained Nicko Widjaja, CEO of BRI Ventures.

“Some are startup founders themselves, who believe in our goal to build a pipeline of future, sustainable Indonesian champions,” he added.

Neneng Goenadi, Managing Director of Grab Indonesia, said, “The Sembrani Nusantara Fund managed by BRI Ventures shares our vision of building a robust and thriving tech ecosystem in Indonesia.”

“We want to help Indonesia-made tech and Indonesian startups to take the spotlight on the world stage and are committed to supporting this goal through funding, mentorship, and capability-building,” she remarked.

“We also believe that startups have a key role to play in advancing the digitalization of MSMEs and supporting Indonesia’s economic recovery. Through the Sembrani Nusantara Fund, we hope to give high-potential startups a boost as they help to accelerate the growth of Indonesia’s digital economy,” she further shared.

The fund aims to look beyond typical investment areas like fintech and focus on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

BRI Ventures claims it plays to its parent company’s strength as the world’s largest microfinance institution by aligning the fund’s investment thesis to focus on education, agro-maritime, retail, transportation, and healthcare sectors.

News of the first close represents a fresh boost to the deal landscape in Southeast Asia.

In the first half of 2020, the total number of tech deals dropped 15 per cent, with the total value of investments dipping by 13 per cent. Indonesia, however, remained a bright spot, accounting for 75 per cent of the total investment value.

Also Read: Dealing with fundraising problems? These three startups may have the answer

Widjaja explained, “With travel restrictions possibly making due diligence and dealmaking onerous for foreign VCs and investors, Indonesia-based investors now have the upper hand in knowing the lay of the land and understanding which startups to bet on.”

“The skyrocketing valuations predicated on building market share alone is no longer enough. Now the investment community has turned to find startups that can survive the Covid-19 stretch and carve a path to sustainable, profitable growth,” he opined.

The fund seeks to ensure diversity across investment cycles by helping local startups pursue IPOs as an exit route.

To that end, BRI Ventures and the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) recently formalized a joint partnership designed to help more local startups pursue IPOs on the local stock exchange.

Through its new fund, BRI Ventures is also exploring new ways for investors to participate in the nation’s startup community.

As the limited partner-general partner legal structure does not yet exist for Indonesian funds, the Sembrani Nusantara fund operates like a mutual fund, Widjaja noted.

“Given our investors’ collective goal of supporting the local digital economy and building a class of IPO-worthy startups, BRI Ventures recognizes that Sembrani Nusantara Fund may play a more active role in the local funding landscape going forward — offering a mixed bag of equity and venture debt options to promising tech companies,” he concluded.

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Image Credit: Fikri Rasyid on Unsplash

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Thousands of organisations – governments, healthcare providers, and businesses – are all asking the same questions as the spread of the virus slows: Which social distancing measures should we relax, when, and at what cadence? How do we prevent future outbreaks and the hike in COVID-19 infection cases globally. If one does occur, what resources will a local area need to stop another outbreak?

Data will answer these questions, and provoke more questions from these organisations, such as: How difficult will it be to acquire this data? Is it analytics-ready? How often is it updated? How much will it cost? Is there one place we can find this data and acquire new data sets as they emerge? Can we easily combine it with the data we own to reveal additional insights previously unavailable to us?

The data providers, and data analytic service providers, continue to step up. They are making available myriad solutions and data sets that rely on data about infection rates, population densities, the impact of social distance measures, and even weather patterns.

Every day, new data sets become available for free to help ensure a safe society in the months and years ahead after we gain control of COVID-19 and others like it.

However, these data and solution providers are asking their own questions to make this happen: How do we enable the consumers of these data sets, and at what pace? What data security measures do we need to take? What about data governance and data privacy? How much information can we share and how should we do that?

At the centre of everyone’s efforts is data. Technology companies have been busy enabling solutions and providing free data sets to help fight COVID-19 and to prevent new outbreaks as communities globally begin to relax social distancing measures.

Also Read: 99 Group acquires real estate portal and data provider SRX to expand market share in Singapore

A singular platform and marketplace solution to load, store, integrate, and securely share any amount or type of data is needed to prevent future outbreaks of COVID-19 as communities around the world relax social distancing policies.

According to Gartner, data marketplaces will grow to be one of the key trends, such that by 2022, 35 per cent of large organisations will be either sellers or buyers of data via formal online data marketplaces, up from 25 per cent in 2020.

Data marketplaces provide single platforms to consolidate third-party data offerings. These marketplaces provide centralised availability and access to analytics and other unique data sets that create economies of scale to reduce costs for third-party data.

To monetise data sets through data marketplaces, data and analytics leaders should establish a fair and transparent methodology by defining a data governance principle that ecosystem partners can rely on.

Paired with live, governed, secure, and instant data sharing as the foundation of its marketplace platform, providers have the ability to share read-only access of these data sets listed on the marketplace. This allows the data to remain live at all times, so data consumers can receive updates immediately from data providers.

Additionally, data marketplaces enable data consumers to utilise any of these data sets, providing them with the ability to combine them with their own data to acquire previously unobtainable insights. The data security, governance, and privacy features enable data providers and consumers to adhere to industry and regional data compliance regulations.

Both platform and marketplace are key to enabling these organisations to assemble these applications and data sets, build these tools, and make them available in days, not weeks or months, so they can have an impact now. They are connecting to each other’s data and tools through data marketplaces to enhance their solutions beyond what’s possible if they had worked in silos.

Also Read: Bursting the big data bubble: Why we don’t need more data scientists

Protecting humanity, protecting data

To help contain COVID-19 now and in the future, we need easily accessible data and tools that will have an immediate impact on both country and global levels. We also know that protecting the data required to achieve this goal is equally as important.

This is why all anonymised COVID-19 data sets should be managed by the organisations that compile them and the third-party organisations they have partnered with to review these initiatives for data accuracy, consent, anonymity, governance, and transience. It is important that technology companies do not own this data. Instead, technology providers need to enable these solutions to make these data sets and tools readily available.

Fully defeating COVID-19 will take much more than data. Yet until we have a vaccine, data will stay at the centre of this effort. Just as important, data sets and tools will help fight the next potential outbreak. Let’s not forget that this is humanity’s fight, albeit a long one, and unlocking the value of data has never been more critical.

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Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up programme for startups in Southeast Asia and India, has announced the names of the 17 early-stage startups selected for its 4th batch.

They span a wide range of sectors, including edutech, fintech, SME tech, devtools, consumer, healthtech and B2B marketplaces. 

Among them, four are from Southeast Asia.

Eleven of the 17 companies are building for cross-border markets, pushing beyond their geographical borders since their launch. Several are digitising and disrupting traditionally offline industries such as logistics, automotive and insurance.

Like Surge 03, Surge 04 will run entirely online till March 2021. 

As with previous cohorts, founders receive US$1-2 million from Surge early on to start hiring and building their product immediately to gain a competitive advantage.

The batch-4 startups have collectively raised US$45.35 million in funding from both Surge and other investors. 

Also Read: Meet the 8 Southeast Asian startups receiving US$1-2M each from Sequoia’s Surge programme

“This cohort is a reflection of how the region’s startup ecosystem will look and think for the next few years — possibly impacting entire economies. Businesses going beyond home markets, thinking digital-first and leveraging technology to solve problems at scale for industries around the world. It’s incredible to be a part of this growth story,” said Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Sequoia India.

Below is a snapshot of the four Southeast Asian startups:

Tazapay: A Singapore-based platform for cross-border commerce with a focus on SMBs.

Aampe: A Singaporean startup that produces an automated testing tool that allows messaging to be personalised for the individual customer, driving better retention.

Otoklix: An Indonesian digital platform serving the automotive aftermarket sector by providing online to offline solutions for car services.

Epsilo: A Singapore-headquartered SaaS company that helps e-commerce marketers and category managers deliver effective advertising operations across online retail platforms in the region.

Also Read: Due diligence meets imagination: How SGInnovate plans to further support the deep tech ecosystem

Applications for Surge 05 2021, which kicks off in May 2021 are now open.

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Image Credit: Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

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The-Wolfpack, an early-stage startup fund in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) sector, has announced its launch in Singapore.

Christened ‘The Wolfpack Pioneer VCC’, the US$5 million debut fund is focused on helping early-stage startups in APAC to reach customers through smarter media and experience-first strategies.

The fund, which is fully subscribed, aims to be the venture partner of choice for startups in the consumer goods, leisure and media sectors — who require strategic capital to drive growth in nuanced markets across Southeast Asia and Australia.

Also Read: Why Kay Mok Ku of Gobi Partners thinks VCs will become like influencers in a post-pandemic world

It will work closely with founders to scale strategically with impact by leveraging on its industry network with key C-suite decision-makers in the region.

As per a press note, the team is in a stage of deployment with an eye on eight to ten companies.

The-Wolfpack claims investments are made with portfolio synergy in mind to give companies opportunities to collaborate and cross-sell with others. Portfolio companies will also be invited to a quarterly session where they will have the opportunity for knowledge-sharing and gain insights from corporate partners and industry leaders. 

In parallel, the VC firm is looking to raise a second fund targeted at more than S$20 million (US$14.90 million).

Furthermore, the team is eyeing an expansion into Thailand and has been identifying opportunities to bring their portfolio into the market and invest in early-stage companies there. 

“Most VCs will tell you to focus on one thing and do that really well but we’ve built enough major consumer brands to know that’s not enough to succeed in complex markets across APAC,” said Toh Jin Wei, Co-founder and Managing Partner of The-Wolfpack. 

“Products and services need to deliver experiences, inspire community advocates and create media ecosystems. That’s why we’ve launched The-Wolfpack — to help startup founders close this critical gap,” he added.

Also Read: D2C: Is it time for the next phase of ecommerce in SEA?

“We’re in this for the long-haul with our founders and plan to grow The-Wolfpack to support their journey. Our portfolio companies will know that our Rolodex will never be closed to them,” said Simon Nichols, Co-founder and Managing Partner of The-Wolfpack.

“Tackling this region is no easy feat for D2C companies, which is why The-Wolfpack has so much value to bring. You need a 360 approach to win over individual markets here — this means having a sound rollout strategy that captures local nuances and access to the right media, events, digital and place-making partners is critical,” said Vit Suthithavil (Song), Managing Director of Panther Entertainment and The-Wolfpack’s Strategic Thailand Advisor.

“The-Wolfpack is the missing piece D2C startups need. Having worked closely with Jin Wei and Simon over the years, I’ve seen firsthand how their sharp on-the-ground insights and local connections with decision-makers can pivot companies to new heights,” said Glenn Sugita, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Northstar Advisors and Mentor to The-Wolfpack.

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Image Credit: The-Wolfpack

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Kata.ai, a conversational Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (NLP) startup, has secured an undisclosed amount in Series B funding, led by Taiwan-based Trans-Pacific Technology Fund (TPTF) and MDI Ventures.

Alongside this, Kata has also unveiled its new product QIOS, a social commerce platform that allows small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to use and integrate AI technology in their sales process through chat-based applications such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger.

“We will allocate the Series B funding acquired to expand Kata.ai’s business and services to the commerce, healthcare and insurance technology industries,” said Irzan Raditya, Kata.ai’s CEO and Co-founder.

Also Read: Kata.ai raises US$3.5M in Series A funding round

“This year, our focus is to develop QIOS, which aims to help SMEs expand their sales network and improve the customer shopping experience. The QIOS app initiative was inspired by the condition of SMEs in Indonesia, especially with the current pandemic, where we notice up to 70 per cent decrease in sales for SMEs,” Irzan added.

“We hope that QIOS can help SME entrepreneurs develop their business with the help of AI and automation technology,” he continued.

Kata.ai develops AI technology in understanding human conversation to allow better interaction between humans and computers. Its NLP has been used to create chatbots for companies and other stakeholders in Indonesia, including Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredoo, Bank BRI, Pertamina, Blue Bird Group, OVO, Midtrans, Warung Pintar, Healthcare and Social Security Agency, Ministry of Education and Culture, and Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.

As per a report, social commerce platforms are predicted to have a significant role in online commerce sales in Indonesia. McKinsey predicts that by 2022 the total Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of social commerce in Indonesia will reach 25 billion US dollars.

As QIOS is based on chatting apps such as WhatsApp, which has more than 125 million users in Indonesia, QIOS allows SME merchants to target large potential market shares with a new approach.

The QIOS platform is also currently connected to e-wallet and e-payment apps such as OVO, GoPay, LinkAja and DANA, as well as online courier platforms such as GoSend and GrabExpress to help the QIOS platform users in their business.

Also Read: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Is the technology only as good as the human behind it?

Kata Platform has processed more than 700 million conversations and three million monthly active users who interact with chatbots created by Kata Platform.

During the pandemic period, the number of conversations that took place also accelerated significantly, with growth reaching 3 times the number of normal conversations.

“We are grateful and proud of our achievements. Apart from obtaining Series B funding, Kata.ai has also recorded consistent growth in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) for three consecutive years, namely the 2018-2020 period,” noted Irzan.

In August 2017, Kata.ai had raised US$3.5 million in Series A funding round, led by TPTF.

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New Wave, a subsidiary of Philippines-based IP E-Game Ventures, has signed an agreement with Malaysia’s boutique investment firm Emissary Capital to set up a US$50-million fund for ASEAN startups.

The Emissary Capital Growth Fund 1 aims to build stronger collaboration between startups in the region, with a key focus on the Malaysian and Philippine market.

As per a press release, New Wave will invest up to US$7.5 million in the new fund as a Limited Partner. The two firms will form a joint venture to serve as General Partners to manage the fund’s investment decisions.

“We are looking to strengthen the corridor between Malaysia and the Philippines, as well as with the rest of Southeast Asia. Technology businesses today must have a regional outlook and entrepreneurs must demonstrate the ability to scale this way,” said Enrique Gonzalez, Director, New Wave.

Also Read: 3 startups thriving amidst COVID-19 lockdown in the Philippines

“Our fund is looking to invest in Southeast Asia’s growth companies led by founders that have proved resilience and success,” he added.

With both countries harnessing the digital economy to hasten COVID-19 recovery, the investment firms are keeping a bullish outlook on Malaysia and the Philippines as growth hubs, especially for tech-based startups.

Kuala Lumpur and Manila are seen to be among the top emerging startup ecosystems in the world, ranking 11th and 31st respectively in the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 (GSER 2020). 

Also Read: How Malaysia has become a global digital investment destination

In 2019, the Philippines officially enacted the Innovative Startup Law which aims to incentivise MSMEs in the country, while Malaysia has been working towards enabling businesses to innovate through the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

Despite the disruptions of the pandemic, fintech is a common sub-sector strength identified in the report by both markets, evidenced by the proliferation of e-wallets and digital payments-focused business models. Other strong sub-sectors noted are Malaysia’s e-sports growth and the Philippines’ high e-commerce demand.

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Image Credit: Photo by Eugenio Pastoral on Unsplash

 

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Taiwan-based AppWorks Accelerator has launched its inaugural virtual Startup Showcase. The event features 20 promising early-stage startups from Greater Southeast Asia (Taiwan and SEA).

The companies selected have displayed traction and leverage digital technologies to tackle problems in key markets across the region.

“COVID-19 has not only accelerated the importance of digital transformation, but also transformed the way entrepreneurs engage with the market, investors, and strategic partners,” said Jessica Liu, AppWorks Partner.

“With the GSEA Startup Showcase, we hope to provide an efficient gateway for quality founders to connect with and learn from peers, collaborators, and partners, regardless of location,” she added.

Also Read: Taiwan’s incubator AppWorks reveals 18 startups joining its demo day, to showcase Southeast Asia’s AI, blockchain capabilities

With the addition of startups recruited this year, AppWorks claims there are now a total of 395 active startups and 1,331 founders within its ecosystem, collectively producing a turnover of US$8 billion.

There are over 10 nationalities represented among the 20 pitching teams, of which 30 per cent have at least one female co-founder.

More than half of the founders have started at least one venture before, with some having exited to companies such as Yahoo and Societe Generale Group, while others have prior experiences in leading tech companies such as LinkedIn, Google and Microsoft.

From healthcare and human resources to productivity and education, here’s a snapshot of the participating companies:

Moladin: Empowers automotive sales agents in Indonesia to sell better and faster through its mobile-first marketplace. It recently raised a pre-series A round led by East Ventures.

Docosan: Allows patients in Vietnam to compare healthcare providers across a wide range of specialities, book appointments online 24/7, and manage their own health data. 

Workbean: An online platform that helps employers more effectively convey their culture and branding to prospective hires, with the aim of reducing the mismatch between companies and job seekers.

Mighty Jaxx: A global platform to buy toys and art collectibles. It partners with leading brands such as Warner Bros, Marvel, and Disney to design pop culture collectibles.

Also Read: Online designer toys and collectible platform Mighty Jaxx secures US$1.6M financing

SoopahGenius: Utilises Artificial Intelligence to help live streamers significantly decrease the time and cost of producing content from their raw materials.

Poseidon Network: Distributed global node network that collects and distributes idle resources from P2P devices, allowing everyone to build their own services in the cheapest way all around the globe.

Astra: Uses face recognition to help organisations manage part-time and remote employees more easily and efficiently across multiple locations and regions.

Accredify: Stores, displays and authenticates medical records securely through the use of blockchain technology.

AyoBlajar: An e-learning platform that provides basic learning content, live class, 1-on-1 mentoring, and LMS, focusing on high-school students.

Chip Chip: An online platform connecting Filipino teachers with Vietnamese kids for English conversation and study.

ZumVet: A televet solution for pet owners, providing them with services such as video consults, drug delivery and digital health records at the touch of a button.

Aiello: Conversational Artificial Intelligence SaaS platform for property management, hospitality and service industry.

Cognicept: Provides Human-in-the-loop (HITL) error handling with telerobotic networking technology and human remote operators.

Fatster: A mobile social network whose mission is to help overweight people find their best buddies to lose weight with.

Glints: Full-stack talent platform for professionals to connect, upskill and get matched with employers.

Minastir: Artificial Intelligence-based asset management solutions for fund managers.

Freehunter: Asian-focused freelance marketplace for designers, writers and programmers.

Pitchspot: Integrated workflow management and strategy planning canvas to enable innovative teams to work smarter, and faster.

GoBuddy: An all-in-one tool for online sellers, combining an e-commerce platform with booking and ticketing management.

GrowthSpot: A digital platform catering to sellers with limited knowledge and knowhow.

Check out the team pitches at the online startup showcase portal here.

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Image Credit: AppWorks Accelerator

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