Singapore – Metigy, an AI-powered marketing solution for small businesses, has opened its first office in Southeast Asia and hired a team of four in Singapore, as part of its commitment to make digital marketing easier for SMEs across the region.

The market expansion comes one year after the company had raised US$20m in funding.

As part of the new Singapore office, Hemant Doshi will step in to lead the team in the market as the company’s first director of strategic partnerships. Prior to joining Metigy, Doshi was CEO of The Praxis Company Singapore and Malaysia, and had previously co-founded DriveMate. He is now driving Metigy’s partner-led growth strategy in the region. 

Speaking about the appointment, Doshi said that Singapore is an essential pillar in their geographic expansion strategy as they look to ramp up efforts in Southeast Asia. He added that having an office that serves as their headquarters for the entire region is key for their market presence in Singapore, and for the benefit of SEA clients.

“We’re already working with some great local partners such as the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME), JustCo and Julian Grey and are focused on growing the local content, growth and customer service teams, giving them access to tools designed to help make digital marketing easier for SMEs in Southeast Asia,” he stated.

The ASME, JustCo, and Julian Grey are Metigy’s local channel partners in Singapore.

Meanwhile, David Fairfull, CEO and co-founder of Metigy, commented, “There’s a massive opportunity to help the 150 million small businesses across Southeast Asia. According to Google, 97% of Southeast Asian SMEs have no ad tech or martech solutions and also lack the supply of talent to meet that demand. In response, technology like ours will solve the challenges faced by this market.”

Metigy’s platform operates by turning contextual real-time data from social and digital advertising channels into easy-to-understand insights and recommendations. This in turn takes the guesswork out of marketing to help businesses who don’t have large or experienced marketing teams.

Sydney, Australia – Australian AI-powered marketing platform Metigy has partnered with freelance services marketplace Fiverr, to service the growing need of microbusinesses for digital solutions.

According to data from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), there had been a 14% increase in new business registrations during the pandemic. With this, comes an increased demand for digital, and both Metigy and Fiverr aim to provide digital marketing expertise by co-creating and launching a stream of free educational resources on their owned channels, helping freelance and small business community upskill in areas of digital marketing and business growth.

The new initiative also gives Metigy’s customers the ability to tap into a broad range of digital services such as photoshop editing, social media design, and copywriting, as well as programming, while generating new business opportunities for the skilled freelancers on Fiverr. In addition, Fiverr’s sellers will be exposed to a larger pool of SMEs actively seeking digital solutions.

Metigy’s CEO and co-founder David Fairfull said that they are excited to partner with Fiverr as both of them are on a mission to support small businesses.

“Amid the pandemic, we saw many small businesses close but this led to the rise of microbusiness owners and freelancers, many of whom made that scary leap to kickstart their own business. Now is the time to be investing in our global small business community, ensuring they have the right tools and technology in place to support growth and reach their full potential,” added Fairfull.

Meanwhile, Liron Smadja, the senior director of global brand marketing and international expansion at Fiverr, commented that the partnership with Metigy is a first of its kind for them, helping to boost exposure and business opportunities for their global freelance community predominantly in Australia but also in Singapore and the US.

“The partnership comes at the perfect time as we continue to build our presence in Australia, expand opportunities for our network of Fiverr sellers and continue championing the small business community. We can’t wait to see what this partnership brings and are looking forward to working closely with the Metigy team,” said Smadja.

The partnership is Fiverr’s first major marketing investment in Australia, while the announcement of the tie-up also comes after Metigy’s recent Series B funding round led by investment banking firm Cygnet Capital earlier this year.

Sydney, Australia – SME marketing company Metigy in Australia has recently concluded its funding round, which the startup will use in expanding its services globally.

The funding, closing at USD 20M, will be initially used to expand its business to the United States and Southeast Asia, specifically in Singapore. Furthermore, the funding will also aid in growing the company’s product and engineering teams in Australia.

We’ve had fantastic growth so far but it’s just the beginning — there’s a massive opportunity to help the nearly 30 million small businesses in the U.S. and 150 million businesses across South East Asia. According to Google, 97% of SEAsian SMEs have no ad tech or martech solutions and also lack the supply of talent to meet that demand. Innovative technology developed with the SME in mind is the only way to solve this problem

David Fairfull (pictured left), CEO and co-founder at Metigy

He also added,“We created Metigy to make digital marketing an effective tool for all types of businesses, not just those with massive marketing budgets. Half of all small businesses fail within the first two years, and marketing — or a lack of effective marketing — is always one of the key reasons. We want to improve those odds and give them a fighting chance.”

The startup is working closely with Google and telecommunications company Optus, and has created strategic partnerships with companies such as Singapore’s SingTel, who co-sell Metigy’s tools to add value to their own business customer relationships.

Speaking about the funding round, Darien Jagger, lead investor at Cygnet Capital, states that Metigy’s fast expansion pushed the venture capital to invest in the startup.

“Cygnet was an early-stage investor in Metigy and after seeing their impressive growth, it absolutely made sense to lead this current raise. Completing the raise 100% oversubscribed in this market with an all Australian investor group is a testament to the solid business the team has built. Strategically, this also places Metigy firmly on the path to remaining Australian based,” Jagger stated.