Tag: Investment

London, United Kingdom – Blis, the programmatic advertising platform that doesn’t rely on personal data, has acquired a significant investment from LDC, the UK’s mid-market private equity firm. This investment will back the platform’s existing management team to further grow and expand the global business, enabling Blis to double its headcount in the next few years.

As it marks 18 years in business, Blis has spent almost two decades shaping the role of location in the evolving programmatic landscape. It has invested heavily in its privacy-first technology for many years, expanding its solutions beyond location and launching its planning tool, Audience Explorer, in early 2021. This future-proofed approach enables Blis to deliver integrated planning and buying solutions via the Blis Platform to deliver highly accurate, targeted campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands, through personalised and scalable targeting, without reliance on personal data.

According to Blis, some of the world’s leading global brands and their media agencies use its solutions to tackle challenges in a cookieless era. Blis’ unique approach provides personalised targeting and performance without relying on personal data, serving up relevant ads to the most high-value, addressable audiences across any channel. Ahead of impending industry changes, Blis is not only delivering privacy-first targeting, but it is also providing the most holistic understanding of customers by combining consented location data with other rich, powerful data signals, helping clients to prepare today for the increasing lack of intent data.

Greg Isbister, CEO of Blis, commented that he is proud of everything they have achieved in the past 18 years, and he is looking forward to accelerating the platform’s growth plans in partnership with LDC. 

“We have an incredibly dedicated and passionate team focused on the company’s growth and ready to help the industry move forward in the right direction. LDC believes in our promise as the audience-first platform that doesn’t rely on personal data, and their unparalleled expertise will, undoubtedly, help Blis to continue expanding globally,” said Isbister.

LDC’s investment director John Green and partner David Andrews will be joining the board alongside Isbister, Blis’ CFO Parm Dhami, and John Farrell, who joins Blis as non-executive chair. With more than 25 years of experience, Farrell has led some of the world’s biggest marketing services brands and was the former president and CEO of Publicis Group’s specialised agencies and marketing services arm.

Green shared that Blis has created a leading tech business that allows the advertising industry to move forward in a more transparent and effective way, and the management team, led by Isbister, now has the necessary support to further grow the business. 

“We can see a real opportunity to support the growth of Blis across the globe, and we’re excited to work in partnership to achieve great success and help advertisers deliver scale and result in a privacy-centric world,” said Green.

Singapore — International early-stage VC fund, Accelerating Asia, has announced its latest round of investments including nine new companies joining Cohort 6 of the flagship program and additional capital into four existing portfolio companies.

The new investments take Accelerating Asia’s portfolio to 52 startups that have raised a total of over US$42m. Cohort 6 continues the portfolio’s trend of attracting early investor interest with US$1.5m in soft commitments received during the first month of the program when access is reserved for Accelerating Asia’s network, adding to the $2.5m raised prior to joining the program. The new investments in Cohort 6 also have market traction and grow revenue with an average GMV of $100k per month and an average monthly recurring revenue of over $25k.

Cohort 6 startups have a market presence in more than ten countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, North America and Europe and cover verticals such as marketplace, fintech, logistics, e-commerce and health tech. The nine new startups also include 40% female co-founded startups.

Amra Naidoo, general partner at Accelerating Asia, said, “With the 9 new portfolio startups selected from 600 applicants and 4 follow-on investments, Accelerating Asia is excited to continue to invest in highly scalable pre-Series A startups that also have a positive impact on respective operating markets. Since 2019, we’ve built up our portfolio of startups with investors coming to Accelerating Asia to gain early access to a pipeline of startups that combine profit with purpose.”

Naidoo added, “Our VC accelerator model ensures high potential founders have greater access to needed capital financing, mentoring and skill sets to enhance their growth trajectory and quickly become leaders in their respective verticals while also lowering the overall risk for our investors at an early stage.”

In quarter 1 of 2022, Accelerating Asia also made follow-on investments into Shuttle, Transtrack.ID, Numu and Giftpack, adding to the additional investments into ProjectPro and iFarmer made last year. Accelerating Asia first invested in these six companies in 2020 and 2021, since then average monthly revenue has grown 332 per cent and is projected to grow revenue to an average of over $16m this financial year. Since joining the portfolio, the startups have also launched new product offerings, signed new clients and optimised operations to sustain revenue growth and develop new income streams.

Craig Bristol Dixon, general partner at Accelerating Asia, said that they’re excited to continue to invest in their portfolio companies as they grow alongside leading institutional investors. Dixon added that there is a significant market and investor demand for the portfolio, especially in the digitisation of transport and logistics networks with the industry at an inflexion point in emerging economies like Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Singapore – Singapore-based investment platform that empowers brands in India and SEA, Venturi Partners, has announced that its maiden fund has hit its final close of US$175m. The platform may, however, increase the quantum of the fund with the demand for investments going up. 

The investment platform’s expertise lies in identifying and supporting Asian high-growth consumer companies with an online or offline presence in sectors ranging from FMCG to education and healthcare services. The Venturi team has, in their previous roles, invested in and supported a variety of consumer brands such as Byju’s, Lazada, and Burger King, as well as Domino’s, amongst others.

Venturi said that it has already deployed 30% of the fund across three investments in India and Southeast Asia, and aims to deploy the rest over the next 24 months. The platform invests US$10m to US$40m in series B to series D rounds. Moreover, the team has strong prior entrepreneurial and operating backgrounds and will leverage this experience to be a value-added partner to its companies.

Nicholas Cator, Venturi Partners’ managing partner, noted that their aim is to build a long-term, partnership-based investment platform with a small number of families with similar values that want to participate in the Asian consumer growth story. 

“We offer our families more transparency on our portfolio than a traditional fund and will offer up to 100% of their commitment in co-investment opportunities. This enables us to deploy larger amounts into our portfolio companies and to support them over multiple rounds,” said Cator.

Bangkok, Thailand – Gulf Energy, a national electric power generation company, has announced that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with global cryptocurrency exchange Binance in establishing a digital asset exchange business.

As part of the MoU, Gulf Energy has also announced that it will be investing in Binance’s cryptocurrency coin BNB. The announcement by Gulf Energy to enter into the cryptocurrency business was made during the company’s recent regulatory filings with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).

“The company believes that this multi-level cooperation with Binance, which is the global leader in blockchain infrastructure technology, is aligned with the company’s target to be the leader in digital infrastructure while providing further opportunities for the Company to expand into other digital asset-related initiatives in the future,” Gulf Energy said in the regulatory filing.

In addition, Gulf Energy has announced that it has invested in a series seed preferred stock issued by BAM Trading Services Inc., the operator of a regulated digital asset exchange in the USA under the name Binance.US.

Gulf Energy’s venture into cryptocurrency is announced despite recent regulatory changes from the Thai government regarding the use of cryptocurrency and digital assets as means of payment.

Manila, Philippines – Seedbox Technologies, Inc. (Seedbox), a wealth management platform providing access to investment products for  Filipinos, has announced a US$6minvestment from new investors SBI VENTURES SINGAPORE PTE. LTD. (SBI VENTURES) and Philippine Equity Partners, Inc. (PEP).

Seedbox is a joint venture formed in 2016 by The ATRAM group, a Philippine asset and wealth management firm, and the Indivara group, an Indonesian IT and software firm. The platform allows consumers to become an investor with just a few clicks on their mouse. 

According to the company, the new funding will support Seedbox’s rapid growth and allow the company to scale its operations with investments in upgrading its technology platform, enhancing its product suite, and expanding its team.

Meanwhile, Mike Ferrer, CEO of ATRAM Group, Jusuf Sjarrifudin, CEO of Indivara and Rex Mendoza, Founder and CEO of Rampver, stated, “The shareholders and management team of Seedbox welcome the entry of SBI and PEP, leading firms in their respective fields, as our new partners. With their expertise and experience across the region, SBI and PEP will be able to contribute greatly to Seedbox’s ability to meet Filipino investors’ growing needs for new investment products and access points.”

The fund-raising effort comes after a time of rapid expansion for the company, which saw the number of active users surpass 1 million and surpass the number of online stock trading accounts in the country. Seedbox introduced digital sachet investing, where new investors can invest for as little as $0.96. Seedbox was also responsible for the digitization of the Personal Equity Retirement Account (PERA), the country’s y pension system which connects investors with administrators and providers.

Singapore – Indian merchant commerce platform Pine Labs has raised US$50m from Vitruvian Partners, a London-headquartered international investment firm.

With this newly secured investment, Pine Labs will continue to expand its BNPL offering in the Southeast Asia region. 

Amrish Rau, Pine Labs’ CEO, shared that they are deeply focused on the omnichannel play and are building frictionless and seamless payment experiences for their merchant partners and large enterprises. 

“We aim to further strengthen our recent foray in online payments via Plural and take our Buy Now Pay Later offering to new markets through strategic collaborations. We welcome Vitruvian Partners on this journey and thank them for the trust shown in us,” said Rau.

Meanwhile, Peter Read, Vitruvian Partners’ partner, commented that their investment in Pine Labs follows several investments they have made into the digital payments space, and they are excited to partner with the management team as they continue to drive digital transformation within the rapidly growing Indian payments market. 

“We were impressed by the versatility of the omnichannel payments platform, as well as the expanding geographic footprint,” said Read.

Earlier this month, Pine Labs has launched the ‘Mastercard Installments with Pine Labs’ program with Mastercard and DBS Bank to empower the bank’s two million customers in Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong SAR with Pay Later instalment purchase options at the point of sale.

Malibu, California – The open and fast blockchain Harmony (ONE) has announced its investment in LootMogul, a multiverse blockchain game platform for sports influencers and followers.

LootMogul’s fan engagement concept is driven by sports influencers from NBA, WNBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, ICC, Olympics, College, High School, etc. through gaming, developing sports arenas and lands, enjoying unmatched experiences with star celebrities, earning NFTs and cryptos, and so forth.

Raj Rajkotia, founder & CEO of LootMogul.com, shared, “At LootMogul, we are continuing to offer robust solutions to our sports community through scalable blockchain and strategic partnership. Partnership with Harmony allows us to build a scalable product for our entire sports & crypto community.”

Danny Carranza, creative lead at Harmony.one, commented, “As the Harmony ecosystem grows exponentially, we are always on the lookout for exciting projects that showcase promise. With this investment, we are excited to see what the LootMogul team can build for the sports and crypto community. LootMogul has a unique product positioning in the sports metaverse with star athletes and real-world premier sports & entertainment industry benefits. 

Carranza emphasised, “This investment is a part of our $300M ecosystem fund, which offers grants and investments to projects that share our vision to build a blue metaverse — the Harmony metaverse.”

Singapore – Revenue-based financing and growth platform Choco Up has announced a US$600k funding partnership with keyword advertising technology start-up ReverseAds. The funding will be used to accelerate its business growth in APAC, Europe and the United States – including opening the firm’s first office in Australia, as well as ramping up research in product development, and expanding the team to support its accelerating growth.

In addition, the funding will also lead to the incorporation of blockchain technology as part of ReverseAds App’s ecosystem. As a privacy-first keyword advertising platform, ReverseAds uses blockchain to validate that every click is from authentic, potential buyers of clients’ products or services, without Personal Identifiable Information (PII) collection or storage.

Percy Hung, co-founder and CEO at Choco Up, said, “The mission and vision of Choco Up are to help startups scale and grow by providing a better and more flexible funding solution. Our investment allowed ReverseAds to acquire extra capital for growth without losing any equity. As a result, they can continue to grow the company and boost their metrics, while we invest in a startup with immense growth potential.”

ReverseAds’ platform is an evolution of keyword advertising that helps identify a buyer’s journey post-search. It empowers clients with a diversified roadmap of opportunities at a ‘below the surface’ level of search compared to Google Ads, which are linear in nature and have only one opportunity to generate a click and ultimately a conversion.

Meanwhile, Michael Hahn, CEO, and founder at ReverseAds, commented, “We are grateful for Choco Up’s support, which will go a long way to bolster our expansion in APAC, enabling us to open an office in Australia and bring our unique offerings to a new market. This will enable us to fast-track product development and expand our R&D team in order to better serve our growing stable of clients.”

Singapore — Una Brands, Singapore-based e-commerce aggregator, has struck its first strategic alliance with South Korean domestic counterpart, KlickBrands. Together they will invest KRW₩120b, or US$100m, in the countries’ e-commerce market over two years.

The alliance will link Una Brands’ global cross-border network with KlickBrands’ understanding of the South Korean market. Together, they will help grow the local e-commerce brands domestically and into Southeast Asian markets namely Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Una Brands and KlickBrands will scale at least 25 or more profitable e-commerce brands, across categories such as health, K-beauty, baby, pets, and home and living brands. South Korea was identified as a key market for Una Brands, being the fifth-largest e-commerce market globally with an annual growth rate of around 14% and an expected market value of US$250b by 2025.

Kiren Tanna, co-founder and CEO of Una Brands, said, “Of all the local e-commerce aggregators, we chose KlickBrands as our strategic partner because of our shared vision, mission, and values. Their hands-on approach to working with the brands they acquire mirrors our own work ethic. This will make KlickBrands an instrumental partner in strengthening Una Brands’ presence in, and understanding of, the South Korean e-commerce landscape. In return, KlickBrands will benefit from our robust operational, technological, and acquisition capabilities.”

KlickBrands, founded in 2021 by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists Brian Hyun and Jung Ho Joo, is focused on creating opportunities for brand owners to accelerate their growth across eCommerce platforms and markets.

Brian Hyun, co-founder and CEO of KlickBrands, commented that the partnership with Una Brands bears testament to the growing possibilities for e-commerce brands in South Korea.

“When Una Brands approached us, we immediately recognised that their capabilities were a great match for our own, particularly with the strong team that they have built, their expertise in e-commerce in the Asia Pacific (APAC), and their global distribution network. We bring to the partnership local e-commerce expertise, as well as the understanding and empathy of local brand owners’ mindsets. We are very excited to have the backing of Una Brands as we continue to reach out to more brand owners in South Korea to support their next phase in expansion,” Hyun said.

Una Brands, an e-commerce aggregator in APAC that comprises a team with a wealth of experience behind it, has established its presence in key markets namely Singapore, Australia, India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan in under a year, with South Korea being the next strategic market for the business’ expansion and development. Since its launch in 2021, Una Brands has to date acquired over 20 firms, with the earliest brands seeing over a 50 per cent increase in sales and profits.

Tokyo, Japan – Investment and asset management has become the norm for people to grow their money, and more and more young people in Japan are showing interest in these topics and discussing them more frequently with their peers, new research from comprehensive real estate service platform RENOSY shows.

More than 70% of the young people in their 20s interviewed say that they do discuss asset management with their friends while only 30% of the older generation in their 50s discuss it. In addition, around 60% of interviewees in their 20s said that they do not worry about the assets build-up arrangement they are doing for now.

However, around 80% of the people interviewed answered that they feel they do not have enough money to support their lives after retirement relying on pension only.

In terms of the average amount they are willing to spend on investing, the average amount of investment for the younger generation is about ¥50,000 per month, while the older generation responded to an average of ¥150,000 per month.

“Since asset management will become part of the new high school curriculum starting from April 2022, we are expecting to see the younger generation become more cautious and familiar with money,” RENOSY said in a press statement.

In terms of the woes of the respondents in regards to having enough money to support investment after their retirement, the company remarked, “As people tend to live longer nowadays, the issue of finance after retirement will become a more and more serious problem for most people. As a result, we could see from the research result that 87% of the people we interviewed feel anxious about the financial arrangement after retirement.”