Tag: Southeast Asia

Singapore – Super app Grab in Singapore has bought and relaunched the country’s well-loved food site HungryGoWhere and its accompanying social media channels. This revamped HungryGoWhere brand aims to address the growing interest of diners to reconnect with the local food scene in much deeper ways.

HungryGoWhere aims to spotlight up-and-coming personalities and the origins of popular foods that are not often told. The site will act as a one-stop platform that explores the highways and byways of the local food scene through food reviews and recommendations, profile interviews, and a behind-the-scenes look at the food.

To ensure its curation of content constantly addresses what consumers are looking for, HungryGoWhere will also leverage rich insights derived from Grab’s superapp data, such as popular food trends and frequently visited places in Singapore, amongst a spectrum of other interests and preferences.

Moreover, it will provide F&B businesses with another channel for expanding their reach and growing their business. To help featured brands gain as much visibility as possible, relevant stories on HungryGoWhere will also be shared with Grab’s wide base of highly engaged users via the Grab app and on Grab’s marketing channels.

Cifer Ong, Grab Singapore’s managing director of strategy and partnerships, shared that HungryGoWhere is a brand that many Singaporeans have grown to love since its inception more than a decade ago and many were sad to see it go, and they feel privileged and excited to be bringing back its longstanding legacy, while aiming to take it to the next level with this rebrand. 

“Eventually, we want to establish Grab and our associated brands as the go-to source for diners seeking the best food recommendations and F&B brands looking to grow their business. We believe that our deep relationships with merchants and key learnings from the food sector, coupled with our extensive superapp insights, will help us achieve this. We look forward to the continued support of the F&B community and diners, and trust that the new HungryGoWhere will continue to serve them well,” said Ong.

The revamped brand retains its name and iconic red hue, in a nod to its longstanding legacy as a trusted food discovery platform in the F&B scene. It also sports a trendy and approachable new look that reflects its commitment to engaging with consumers through new and exciting content. Amongst its offerings is a brand-new 20 Questions With interview series with the who’s who of the F&B sector. Co-founders of popular bagel chain Two Men Bagel House, Jereborne Lam and Jerome Lam, will kick off the series with a candid interview, in which they touched on everything from their favourite bagels to their guilty indulgences.

The new site will also feature From Scratch, a series exploring the origins of popular foods and the work that goes into making them. In the first instalment, Kim Guan Guan Coffee Trading, a Singapore coffee roaster with a rich history, takes readers through the various steps of brewing a fragrant cup of local coffee.

Aside from HungryGoWhere.com, diners can also connect with HungryGoWhere on its Facebook, Instagram and YouTube pages, as well as HungryGoWhere’s Telegram channel.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Indonesia’s consumer payments platform Flip has secured a Series B funding round led by Tencent, with participation from Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.) and existing investor Insight Partners.

This new funding brings Flip’s total Series B to more than $100 million and follows on the heels of Flip’s first Series B round in December 2021, which was co-led by Sequoia Capital India, Insight Partners, and Insignia Ventures Partners. 

With the newly secured funding, Flip will be ramping up its workforce with a focus on engineering and product teams, investing in new product and technology development to provide a higher quality of service, and further accelerating its business expansion.

Flip aims to be the world’s most customer-centric financial technology company by enabling individuals and businesses to conduct fair, low-cost financial transactions from anywhere to anyone on a digital platform. Its products include online P2P (peer-to-peer) payments with interbank transfers to more than 100 domestic banks, international remittances, e-wallet top-ups, and business solution products.

Rafi Putra Arriyan, Flip’s co-founder and CEO, shared that they are laser-focused on helping millions of Indonesians, both individuals and businesses, execute various money transactions at a low cost through their platform. 

“We believe in the vast potential of P2P (peer-to-peer) payment because it is customary in Indonesia to send money via transfer for both personal, family, or household purposes. Despite many others trying and failing, we have succeeded in capturing the market because of our customer-focused understanding,” said Arriyan.

Meanwhile, Gita Prihanto, Flip’s chief operating officer, commented that they are thrilled to welcome Tencent and Block, who share the same purpose of making fintech accessible to everyone in Indonesia. 

“The knowledge and expertise from our strong partners, both renowned global firms and angel investors, will help us to grow our business amid the challenging times facing today’s global market and tech landscape. This investment phase invigorates our aspiration to have an even greater positive impact on society by continuing to expand our fintech solutions and by promoting the digital economy ecosystem in Indonesia,” said Prihanto.

Indonesia – Global confectionery company Cadbury has launched a new TVC for its Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate brand, reinforcing the brand’s ethos of ‘generosity’ and brand platform of ‘goodness in everyone’ to consumers and markets in the SEA region.

The TVC, which was created in collaboration with creative agency Ogilvy, was developed with the objective to demonstrate the Cadbury goodness or the ‘Rasakan Lembutnya Kebaikan’, which in English translates to ‘Taste/Feel the softness of goodness’. Its story is anchored in the universal truth of not judging a book by its cover, to go beyond snap judgment and allowing softness in action and reaction, which manifests into a little more goodness around us. 

Cadbury said that the authentic tone of the brand and the storytelling which has the duality of ‘goodness in us’, as well as the product, is captured in the story and also breaks ad stereotypes in the region.

Nikhil Nicholas, Cadbury’s chocolate category lead for SEA, commented, “We fell in love with the script and it’s amazing to see it come to life on screen. Rasakan Lembutnya Kebaikan is our way of marrying both product and purpose for Cadbury Dairy Milk by showing how softness leads to goodness which speaks to the heart of this piece of communication.”

Meanwhile, Nicolas Courant, chief creative officer at Ogilvy Singapore, said that their teams in SEA came together and undertook a massive strategic and creative exploration process across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines, over a 6-month period to bring this story to life. 

“It was a true reflection of our commitment to borderless creativity and to Cadbury as a brand. In some markets our relationship with Cadbury stretches over 50 years, so we could tap into an immense amount of knowledge and experience across the network,” added Courant.

The TVC is now available in Indonesia and Malaysia, and is set to launch in the Philippines in July.

Vietnam – Vietnamese MSMEs with B2C e-commerce export value are forecast to grow from US$3.3b in 2021 to US$11.1b by 2026, according to a report by the e-commerce exports program Amazon Global Selling.

The newly released report found that if ‘B2C e-commerce’ were an export category, it could be the fifth-largest export category in Vietnam in five years. It also discovered that 88% of surveyed MSMEs in the country feel that e-commerce is critical for their ability to export, while some of them anticipated greater sales growth prospects overseas with 42% more than in their home country with 11%. 

Moreover, the survey has revealed that key challenges can be narrowed down to three categories, namely barriers in cost, regulation, and information and capabilities.

Meanwhile, more than 80% of surveyed local MSMEs yet admitted that they lack information on relevant regulations overseas, while 85% believe they lack the ability to compete with other sellers globally, and 81% admitted that they are unsure of foreign consumers’ demands and preferences. 

Gijae Seong, Amazon Global Selling’s head for Vietnam, noted, “Local businesses of any size can benefit from the report on Vietnam e-commerce export trends to update about export potential, the perspective of local MSMEs, and best practices to achieve that potential.”

Vietnam – Houze, a proptech startup in Vietnam that offers a fully integrated real estate ecosystem for agents and customers through its offline-to-online platform, has raised a $2m of funding led by DKRA Group, giving the company resources to continue expanding its services and growing its team to meet the demand in Vietnam and beyond.

Houze has created a multi-platform for both real-estate agents and home-buyers, offering integrated services from the transaction, management, investment, and financing options. It features services such as Houze Agent (digital brokerage), Houze Commerce (property management platform under SaaS), and Houze Invest (Fintech resulted from real estate), amongst others. All these services are integrated and linked in Houze, providing a seamless experience for its users, and managing to combine the elements into one unique platform. 

The newly secured funding will be used in completing the leadership team, as well as enhancing the core products. In addition, it will be used for the strategic partnership with Vietnam’s real estate service brand DKRA Group, which creates the advantage of exclusive inventories and enhances battlefield experience in the real estate industry in the country

Houze said that it is also in the process of closing an additional fund with venture capital to launch new products such as Houze Portal, Houze Super App, and Houze Finance.

Pham Lam, Houze’s founder, said, “Technology will disrupt geographical limitations and human capital, closing the gap between agents and home-buyers and professionalise the brokerage community.”

Vietnam – Ancient8, a blockchain gaming guild in Vietnam, has closed a US$6m private round of financing led by Makers Fund and C² Ventures, with participation from existing and new investors Pantera Capital, 6th Man Ventures, and IOSG Ventures, amongst others. This round of financing brings Ancient8’s total capital raised to US$10m.

Ancient8 helps GameFi studios reach passionate gamers and run web3-native targeted advertising through its GameFi Identity product and launchpads. Gamers and crypto communities will soon be able to create GameFi identity profiles to track and showcase their achievements in Web3, discover high-quality blockchain games, and access guild scholarships and blockchain education more effectively.

With this round of financing, Ancient8 will be accelerating the development of the infrastructure for GameFi and the Metaverse by building its next-generation software products, community, and guild. It is also developing a number of software products designed to underpin the future of blockchain-based game development. 

In the coming months, Ancient8 will be launching its GameFi Identity product and a pair of GameFi Token and NFT Launchpads designed to enhance the go-to-market strategy of Web3 games. These products will help the platform connect top blockchain games with its deeply engaged global community of GameFi enthusiasts and enable users to enjoy the most intuitive experience possible in the world of Web3.

Howard Xu, Ancient8’s co-founder, noted that they will continue to expand their product offerings, partner with more innovative projects and games, and grow their influence and reach with a large global community.

“As cultivators of the first native generation of Metaverse citizens, we are excited to be building the foundational infrastructure that will drive mainstream GameFi adoption,” said Xu.

Hanoi, Vietnam – Vietnam’s technology solutions and digital entertainment content provider Appota Group has closed a financing round led by Mirae Asset Venture Investment, with participation from other strategic partners. The investment is earmarked for developing the company’s blockchain ecosystem based on its 10-year gaming publishing business.

Anthony Tran, Appota’s group co-founder and COO, commented, “We are excited to have Mirae Venture on this journey. As an Appota investor since 2017, Mirae’s guidance has been crucial to our focus on continuous innovation. This initiative will make blockchain technology more accessible to gamers, developers, and community members.”

One project, ChainVerse, aims to serve hundreds of local independent game studios by removing the steep learning curve and letting developers focus on building great games. Tuan Nguyen, ChainVerse’s CEO, said: “We provide developers with powerful, effective, and affordable tools for integrating blockchain digital assets and reaching 50 million mobile users in Appota’s ecosystem.”

Meanwhile, another project initiative, AceStarter, is a next-generation launchpad that curates and launches world-class blockchain projects globally. The platform is a bridge that connects communities and investors with high-potential, early-stage offerings.

Tran shared, “With ChainVerse and AceStarter, we are well poised to capitalise on opportunities, not unlike the early Internet revolution. Appota will debut products relating to game guilds management platform and web3 game streaming platform by the end of this year.”

Singapore – Food manufacturing group OTS Holdings has launched a new plant-based, ready-to-eat food brand ANEW, which aims to deliver quality, nutrition, and convenience to consumers with a taste of heritage, coupled with the tagline ’Better Food Forward’.

Developed by its in-house R&D team and manufactured in Singapore, the first product line-up from ANEW consists of three luncheon meat products that are inspired by the group’s popular luncheon meat products.

ANEW’s nutritional product features include non-GMO, cholesterol-free, trans-fat free, and no added preservative. Its luncheon meat products are sold in online stores and will be made available in major supermarkets across Singapore.

Bee Chip Ong, managing director of OTS Holdings, shared that increased awareness of environmental and sustainability benefits have been a key driving force for plant-based alternatives to become a growing part of consumers’ diet around the world.

“In addition, plant-based alternatives can also mitigate concerns of food security as the world’s population continues to grow. With ANEW, we see an opportunity to participate in the fast-growing plant-based foods market, where we want to be able to meet consumer’s expectations so that they can continue to enjoy their favourite food experience with our plant-based products based on our popular recipes,” said Ong.

California, USA — Citcon, the one-stop gateway to the growing payment options that enable cross-border and in-market commerce to scale, has announced the organization’s latest expansion efforts in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Following a successful Series C fundraise in October 2021, the global payments provider has expanded its portfolio of local wallets and alternative payment schemes to more than 200 and added in-market senior leadership and support staff to bolster its market presence throughout the APAC region.

With its expanded in-market presence, Citcon is rapidly expanding digital wallet and local payment scheme integration throughout APAC, recently adding more than 50 popular local wallet solutions to better serve consumers in South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and many more.

Additionally, Citcon has also expanded its integration with AliPay, WeChatPay, PayPal, and Klarna which have emerged as leading payment platforms serving global markets. Today, Citcon’s single API solution enables merchants to access more than 200 payment methods through a single integrated payment, reconciliation, and settlement solution.

Chuck Huang, founder and CEO of Citcon, commented, “The booming middle class in APAC markets is the most important force driving global commerce. While western brands and western styles will find eager customers throughout Asia, buying and selling merchandise is still a hyper-localized process. We have rapidly grown our APAC market presence, including adding in-country experts and staff to help our partners to scale their businesses throughout the continent and beyond.”

To manage its on-the-ground presence, Citcon has expanded its in-market leadership team in key locations, including Japan, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Citcon recently welcomed Andrew Meimes, VP and head of Citcon APAC, as well as Ian Zhang, GM for Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, and Siddharth Sahi, director of APAC payment partnerships based in Singapore.

Meimes shared, “As our markets have rapidly evolved from largely cash-based to cashless, consumer culture has undergone a dramatic shift. Merchants need the functionality to integrate into the new shopping and commerce models in these markets and the cultural insights to optimize their presence with the consumers they wish to engage.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Southeast Asian automotive marketplace platform, Carro, has invested US$53.8m to become a 50% shareholder of Indonesian consumer automotive and transportation company MPMX’s car rental arm MPMRent.

This investment will see Carro providing MPMX with an end-to-end ecosystem for consumers in Indonesia, including an online marketplace, financing, and rental, as well as repair, and aftersales.

The move is part of MPMX’s continuous effort to unlock the value of existing businesses, as well as invest in innovation and accelerate its digital transformation. Through this, Carro will be bringing its fully integrated online ecosystem from car marketplace to financing, big data, AI access to a fast-growing vehicle database, and relevant computer vision and pricing algorithms technologies. 

As a result, MPMRent will now be able to solidify its leading market position as the leading regional car rental company in SEA, providing access to a rapidly growing network of workshops, strategic nationwide rental and auction locations, and a profitable and diversified customer base, as well as strong operational capabilities.

Suwito Mawarwati, MPMX’s group CEO, commented that they are pleased to announce the agreement with Carro, and they are also grateful for the support and active role of their parent shareholder, Saratoga, in realizing this partnership.

He further shared that the company and Saratoga believe that Carro is an excellent partner that would be able to add strategic value to the business of MPMX through its standing track records of success and operational experiences in a fully-integrated online automotive ecosystem.

“This is an important and exciting next chapter for MPMRent whereas this partnership will create a one-of-a-kind integrated online and offline automotive ecosystem in Indonesia that offers a complete product and services offering for our customers using the marketplace, from rental and financing to insurance serving B2B and B2C markets,” said Mawarwati.

Meanwhile, Aaron Tan, CEO of Carro, noted that they remain steadfast and committed to investing and advancing their business in Indonesia despite the uncertain global macro environment. 

“We look forward to partnering with MPM to supercharge growth and transform the customer’s experience through the hundreds of engineers and data scientists across the CARRO Group,” said Tan.