Southeast Asia’s mental health startups are getting more investor attention. Last week, Intellect announced a strategic investment from IHH Healthcare, Asia’s largest private healthcare group. Now Thoughtfull, another digital mental health platform focused on Asia, has raised $4 million in a pre-Series A round led by Sheares Healthcare Group. Sheares is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek.

The round, which Thoughtfull said was oversubscribed, also included participation from returning investors Vulpes Investment Management, The Hive Southeast Asia, global family offices and founding members of companies like Grab and Zalora. TechCrunch last covered Thoughtfull in October 2021 when it raised its seed round.

Thoughtfull marks Sheares’ first investment in mental healthcare in Asia. Sheares’ other investments include its latest exit, a U.S.-based senior care company called Iora Health that was acquired by One Medical.

Called ThoughtfullChat, the startup’s platform includes personalized self-guided content and progress tracking, and access to mental health professionals through video calls and text-based coaching.

Thoughtfull claims that since its launch in 2019, its revenue has grown 30x in total. Over the past year, revenue grew 10x year-over-year despite economic downturns. Its mental health professional network now includes 57 locations in Asia and it has users in 95 locations around the world. Its app is available in 11 languages.

The startup tackles challenges like fragmented mental healthcare systems and the lack of coverage in insurance policies, which makes it difficult for employers to include mental well-being programs in their benefits packages.

Thoughtfull says in 2022, it became the first mental health startup in the region to partner with insurers like AIA Malaysia to give corporate customers access to mental health support through AIA’s Corporate Solutions portfolio. It also launched a similar partnership with FWD, another insurer, to provide access to affordable mental healthcare in Hong Kong and Thailand. One of the reasons it works with insurers is to make mental healthcare more affordable for both corporate employers and individuals.

In a prepared statement, Sheares Healthcare chief corporate development officer Khoo Ee Ping said, “Thoughtfull’s approach to scaling seamless, end-to-end mental healthcare aligns with Sheares’ mission to invest in companies that are shaping the future of healthcare through innovative and patient-focused care. Their successive payor partnerships clearly indicate the demand for their proposition and attest to the strength of their team.”

In addition to Intellect and Thoughtfull, Southeast Asia’s nascent mental healthcare startup ecosystem includes MindFi, a corporate mental health and wellness platform backed by Canva, Global Founders Capital and M Venture Partners.

Temasek’s Sheares Healthcare backs Asia-focused mental health startup Thoughtfull by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

The funding landscape in Southeast Asia is still wintery, but one fintech managed to land a major round. Kredivo Holdings, which offers credit services to underbanked consumers in Indonesia and Vietnam, has raised $270 million in what it says was an oversubscribed Series D.

The round was led by Japanese bank Mizuho Bank, a subsidiary of Mizuho Financial Group that contributed $125 million. It included participation from returning investors like Square Peg Capital, Jungle Ventures, Naver Financial Corporation, GMO Venture Partners and Openspace Ventures.

The company has now raised a total of about $400 million in equity, and has committed debt facilities of almost $1 billion to grow its loan book.

Kredivo CEO Akshay Garg declined to disclose Kredivo’s current valuation, but told TechCrunch that it has increased by 4x to 5x “in every valuation round historically.” He added that Kredivo now drives 3% to 4% of total GMV for its top e-commerce merchants in Indonesia, compared to 15% to 20% from credit cards.

The company nearly went public last year in a $2.5 billion SPAC deal, but nixed it, citing adverse market conditions. Garg said there are no plans to revive the SPAC and that Kredivo is “happy to stay private for the time being” and will evaluate public listing options later.

When asked how many active users Kredivo has, Garg said its approved user base is “now in the same range as the credit card population of Indonesia and we intend to exceed it over the next year or two.” According to the Bank of Indonesia, there are about 15 million to 16 million credit cards in circulation, but Kredivo’s surveys found most credit card holders have two, so the number of unique card holders is about half that number.

Kredivo’s founding team. Image Credtis: Kredivo

Formerly known as FinAccel, Kredivo is the parent company of Kredivo and Krom Bank Indonesia, its new neobank. The company’s products include online and offline buy now, pay later, personal loans, credit cards and banking services through Krom.

“Neobanking is very synergistic with our existing Kredivo business, and offers a very large business opportunity in its own right, given the scale of unbanked and underbanked users in Indonesia,” said Garg. Krom’s services will launch with deposits and transaction banking this year, pending final regulatory approvals.

Kredivo is also building an open loop credit card-like product, which includes Infinite Card, a virtual card partnership with Mastercard and offline card Flexicard, through direct partnerships with online and offline merchants.

Kredivo’s target demographic is underbanked consumers, or people who have access to bank accounts but little credit access because of poor credit bureau infrastructure and the reluctance of traditional banks to offer unsecured credit. Since Kredivo doesn’t rely solely on traditional credit bureaus, it gauges the creditworthiness of potential consumers through data sources like telcos, e-commerce accounts and bank accounts.

Another way Kredivo mitigates risk (and lowers the cost of its credit) is by targeting urban, white collar, employed customers, usually with bank accounts, compared to competitors that target higher-risk consumers and charge correspondingly higher interest rates.

Kredivo’s direct and indirect competitors include Akulaku’s BNPL and Bank Neo Commerce (the fintech also recently raised significant funding from a large Japanese bank), Advance.ai’s Atome BNPL service and Kredit Pintar cash loans and Sea Group’s Sea Money.

In a statement about the investment, Mizuho group executive officer deputy head of retail and business banking company, said, “Kredivo has a stellar track record in Southeast Asia, leveraging on its deep data partnerships to promote financial inclusion within Indonesia and Southeast Asia, while maintaining bank-like risk metrics and building a capital efficient business model.”

Southeast Asian credit fintech Kredivo scores $270M Series D by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Over the last three years, Ho Chi Minh City-based Medigo has grown to 500,000 active users by providing 24/7 one-demand prescription delivery services. Now it’s planning to grow its telehealth ecosystem with $2 million in new funding by East Ventures, with participation from Pavilion Capital and Touchstone Partners.

The new capital will allow Medigo to expand its remote doctor consultations, medicine delivery services and home testing services, including blood tests, urine tests and pregnancy tests.

Medigo’s app connects users to nearby licenses pharmacies and delivers medicine within 20 minutes. It currently has 1,000 pharmacy partners in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s three biggest cities, and will began expanding to Tier 2 cities, like Binh Duong, Vung Tau and Hai Phong, this year.

The startup’s CEO and co-fouder Ha Le began working on the app after he had trouble finding fever reducers for his daughter in the middle of the night. “When I was in university as a software engineer, I never thought that working in the healthcare space would be the center of my daily life, but now, it is my life’s mission,” he told TechCrunch.

Medigo has plenty of competitors, including Doctor Anywhere, Jio Health, Edoctor, Long Chau, Pharmacity and Rightnow. Le said Medigo differentiates by working with pharmacies that are open around the clock so it is able to operate 24/7 consistently. It also plans to connect different providers, so users can have more choices on the same platform.

In a statement about the investment, East Ventures managing partner Koh Wai Kit said, “Digital technologies can improve the accessibility and affordability of good quality healthcare. We are excited by Medigo’s mission to revolutionize pharmacies and healthcare services in Vietnam.”

Medigo’s app makes prescription deliveries available 24/7 in Vietnam by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Transcelestial team members installing CENTAURI device on a building

Transcelestial is on a mission to make the internet more accessible by building a network of shoebox-sized devices that send lasers to one another, creating a fiber-like network. Today, the Singaporean-based startup announced it has raised $10 million, with the goal of expanding its wireless laser communications system in Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States. Eventually, it has its eyes on space, deploying its wireless fiber optics from orbit.

The company’s A2 round was led by aerospace venture firm Airbus Ventures, with participation from Kickstart Ventures, Genesis Alternative Ventures, Wavemaker, Cap Vista and Seeds Capital, along with returning investor In-Q-Tel. This brings Transcelestial’s total raised since it was founded in 2016 to $24 million. Some of its previous backers include EDBI, Entrepreneur First, 500 Global, SparkLabs Global Ventures and Michael Seibel.

CEO Rohit Jha told TechCrunch that he and co-founder Mohammad Danesh believe “connectivity is a human right” and improving internet connections for at least a billion people drives all their commercial and technical decisions.

The two say current internet infrastructure is the main reason so many people lack reliable internet access. Undersea cables, for example, are expensive to build and only link two points. Terrestrial long-haul networks gives Tier 1 cities good coverage, but leave smaller cities and towns behind. Middle-mile and last-mile distribution is often costly, and runs into right-of-way issues.

Transcelestial’s laser communications systems does away with underground cables, which are expensive to install and maintain, and radio-frequency based devices, with their complicated spectrum licensing regulations. As a result, Jha said Transcelestial can offer a significantly lower cost per bit option. Transcelestial’s shoeboxed-sized devices, called CENTAURI, have already been deployed in South and South East Asian markets.

A CENTAURI installation

The startup recently proved that its laser technology can deliver 5G connectivity during a demonstration at the University of Technology Sydney. Its next stop is space: Transcelestial is working on bringing its technology to a low-earth-orbit (LEO) constellation, with the goal of deploying its wireless fiber optics from orbit directly into cities and downs.

In the meantime, it’s planning to move beyond its markets in Asia and start expanding early market access in the U.S., where research by the Pew Trust found that 27% of people in rural areas and 2% of those in cities lacked readily available internet connections. Transcelestial plans to enter the U.S. by exploring collaborations with the government, enterprise and telecoms over the next 12 months. Jha said the company is already working under stealth with a few ISPs and a major enterprise cloud and data center company on the West Coast.

Part of Transcelestial’s new funding will be used to prepare Terabit Factory, its production facility, against uncertainties in the supply chain. The facility has the capacity to manufacture up to 2,4000 CENTAURI devices annually, which Trancelestial says is the largest deployment volume of any lasercomms producer globally.

In a statement about the funding, In-Q-Tel managing director Clayton Williams said, “Transcelestial’s laser communications platform CENTAURI is a best in class solution for low cost, high bandwidth terrestrial communications. We are excited to help expand this capability to enable a space-based data backhaul for secure point-to-point communications from the U.S. and anywhere on earth.”

Singapore-based Transcelestial uses lasers to build affordable internet networks by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Aspire, the Singapore-based neobank that wants to become the financial operating system for SMEs, has raised an oversubscribed $100 million Series C round. Investors included Lightspeed and Sequoia Capital SEA, along with Paypal, Tencent, LGT Capital Partners and returning investors. 

TechCrunch last covered Aspire when it raised its Series B in 2021. Founded in 2018 to provide working capital loans for small to medium-sized businesses, Aspire began offering more services, including bank accounts for cross-border businesses, corporate cards, payable and receivable management and automated invoice processing connected to financial management software. 

Co-founder and CEO Andrea Baronchelli says that over the past 12 months, Aspire has tripled its annualized total payment volumes to $12 billion, serving over 15,000 businesses in Southeast Asa. 

Baronchelli told TechCrunch that the startup focuses “primarily on new age business whose purchase decisions are driven more and more by UX and usability, from single director businesses to 500+ employee.” This covers a wide range of sectors, including IT companies, professional services, goods businesses and startups.

Most Aspire’s customers use it for payment accounts, multi-currency management, payable and receivables management. 

Before switching to Aspire, Baronchelli said customers would “us a combination of incumbent financial institutions, Excel or multiple fintech providers for cards, spending management credit. But these systems don’t talk to each other, so simple yet important things like financial approvals take place across multiple platforms without a visible source of truth. We have bundled all of a business’ needs under a single finance operating stack for businesses. Aspire integrated with Xero, Quickbook, Netsuite, Accurate, Jurnal and other major accounting software. 

Aspire will use its lastest funding on product development, regional expansion and growing its team. 

In a statement about the funding, Lightspeed parter Bejul Somaia said, “Aspire has emerged as a leader in the B2B fintech space in Southeast Asia, with a complete end-to-end product for managing business finance, a strong track record of growth, and solid fundamentals. 

Singapore-based neobank Aspire raises $100M from Lightspeed and Sequoia SEA by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

The rise in open banking and payment services like India’s UPI and Singapore’s PayNow means lower costs for businesses, as well as new payment options for hundreds of millions of customers in emerging markets who don’t own credit cards. Tazapay was created to combine both card and real-time payment methods as a full-stack service for merchants who sell across borders, so they only need to use one payment platform.

The Singapore-based fintech, which enables cross-border payments in more than 170 markets, announced today that it has raised $16.9 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia. Other participants included EscapeVelocity, PayPal Alumni Fund and angel investor Gokul Rajaram. Existing investors Foundamental, January Capital, RTP Global and Saison Capital also returned for the round.

Rahul Shinghal, Tazapay’s CEO and co-founder, told TechCrunch he has spent most of his career working in payments. He began as a product manager for the e-commerce vertical at Indian bank ICICI, before moving onto position at NETS, PayPal and Stripe. “Throughout the past 25 years of my career, I have seen how complex cross-border payments can be, including having to juggle keeping costs low and settlement times short while navigating regulations across multiple jurisdictions and the provision of multiple currencies,” he said.

Tazapay was created to solve those problems. Its API covers over 170 markets for card payments, and 85 markets for local payments collection, which means its customers can accept payments in different countries without having to set up local entities. Shinghal said the service supports a wide range of customers, including B2B operations, e-commerce platforms selling directly to consumers and B2B2C.

Some of the startup’s customers include B2B marketplace IndiaMART, which claims more than 7.4 million sellers and 165 million buyers on its platform; live-learning platform BrightCHAMPS; used trucks marketplace WTX; travel platform Rezlive; and employee engagement SaaS platform Advantage Club. It is also partnered with Standard Chartered, the British multinational bank, to offer digital escrow services.

The funding will be used to scale Tazapay’s business in Asia and expand in regions like the Middle East and Europe. The startup plans to apply for payment licenses and add more local payment methods to serve its verticals, which include cross-border e-commerce, edtech, SaaS and travel.

In a statement about the funding, Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia vice president Aakash Kapoor said, “Buyers increasingly prefer to use local real-time payments over traditional networks and businesses are keen to expand globally without going through the hassle of a local set-up. The Tazapay team has unique insights and experience to leverage this tailwind, and Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia is excited to partner with them as they double down on the opportunity.”

Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia backs cross-border payments startup Tazapay by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

If you follow Southeast Asia funding, you’re probably familiar with iSeed SEA. Some of the startups the fund has invested in since it launched in 2020 include Dat Bike, Skuad and Upmesh. What you might not know, however, is that iSeed SEA is a solo GP fund. Now that solo GP, AngelList alum Wing Vasiksiri, is back with a new fund, called WV Fund II.

The second fund brings Wing Vasiksiri’s total assets under management to $14 million. The core thesis of iSeed SEA and WV Fund II is to close the gap between Southeast Asia and Silicon Valley, since most of Vasiksiri’s network and many of his LPs are in the U.S. This means investing in seed-stage startups from a wide range of sectors, and introducing them to LPs or operators in the U.S., or bringing them onboard as co-investors.

Vasiksiri typically writes checks between $100,000 to $500,000, depending on whether he is the lead investor or not, and the valuation stage of a company.

The 30 startups in Vasiksiri’s portfolio have raised a combined total of over $85 million in follow-on funding from a who’s who of investors, including Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, AlphaJWC, AC Ventures, East Ventures, Jungle Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Monks Hill Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures and MDI Ventures. Some examples of his investments include Humble, HD, Virtual Internships, Mio, Delos, Staffinc, Rukita and TCC.

Investors in Vasiksiri’s second fund include institutional LPs such as Republic Capital, EGR Partners (Elisabeth de Rothschild’s family office), Kamco Invest and Central Pattana. Individual LPs include Duo founder and CEO Dug Song, Albert Wenger and USV managing partner Susan Danziger, Doordash and Square executive Gokul Rajaram, former Airbnb China COO Kum Hong Siew and operators from Dropbox, Discord and Github.

The solo GP model is new to Southeast Asia, but has gained traction in Europe and the U.S., where Elad Gill, Lachy Groom and Josh Buckley are examples of investors running funds on their own.

Vasiksiri told TechCrunch that solo GP funds first started in the U.S. with angel investors who were getting allocations to good deals and proprietary networks, and wanted to institutionalize their investing. So they raised capital from other sources to invest at a larger scale.

Before launching his own funds, Vasiksiri worked in operations at AngelList, where he got close to AngelList India founder Utsav Somani, who now serves as one of his advisors and is the founder of micro-fund iSeed. The two thought about launching AngelList Southeast Asia, but then the pandemic got in the way of their plans. They continued talking to investors and founders, however, and got excited about trends they were seeing in the region. These included a relatively high GDP per capita, a growing middle class and more people coming online. The first generation of startups were going public, including Grab and Bukalapak, and the problem of downstream capital was being solved by funds like Tiger.

Vasiksiri said benefits of a solo GP fund include speed and transparency since he’s the only decision maker and can commit to a round within days, or even hours.

“There are both pros and cons to this model, but I think the biggest pro is the shape of your relationships with founders is drastically different when the relationship is entirely with you. There’s no kind of hierarchy to it,” he said. “You think about a traditional fund, what a founder does is talk to the analyst, the top-tier associate, maybe talk to a partner and then they talk to ICs or GPs. Oftentimes, the founder is telling the same story.”

With a solo GP fund, however, the GP plays all those roles. “You can dig deeper, you can really build up more of an authentic, genuine relationship with the founder by spending more time with them. I think it eliminates the principal/agent problem entirely.”

Another benefit is that a solo GP can relate to the experiences of founders. “I consider myself a founder, too, just instead of starting a company, I started a fund. I think having that high empathy for the entrepreneur journey, thinking through similar things and understanding how hard it is to be a new entrant competing with incumbents in this space.”

Being a solo GP is also helpful when working with other investors because Vasiksiri isn’t fighting to get high allocations and he doesn’t have ownership requirements. This lets him collaborate instead of compete with other funds. “As you scale up your fund, your collaborators and competitors change at every stage of them game,” he said. “I think remaining disciplined and small, this fund size allows me to do things like openly share deals, avoid adverse selection from other funds, and build off other relationships in a win-win way.”

Vasiksiri focuses on Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia as his core markets, and also looks for opportunities in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. Vasiksiri is sector agnostic, and instead looks at big contributors to GDP in each country. For example, this include agriculture and aquaculture in Indonesia, so Vasiksiri invests in companies like Delos, a startup developing sensors and other tech to help shrimp farmers increase their yields.

Other areas he’s interested in include fintech, particularly payments and infrastructure, and gaming. “I think Southeast Asia is uniquely positioned for either a big game publisher or a game developer to emerge,” he said. “There are a lot of users here, especially with mobile games, and a lot of players are located in Thailand, the Philippines, a lot of creative talent as well.” Climate tech is also another important sector, since Southeast Asia is expected to become a net importer of natural gas by 2025, and needs to transition to green energy.

While there are only a handful of solo GPs in Southeast Asia, Vasiksiri expects more to emerge as the ecosystem matures, especially as founders of successful startups become angel investors.

“I think a source of solo GPs might emerge it becomes more institutionalized, from writing personal checks to raising funds,” he said. “This is the first generation of solo GPs here and I believe as the ecosystem matures, we’ll see a lot more.”

The solo GP behind iSeed SEA launches his second fund for Southeast Asia by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

For freight forwarders, procuring pricing data for their customers usually involves going to multiple sources, and then consolidating information into spreadsheets. That’s time-consuming and complicated, especially since pricing data constantly changes. Freightify wants to make the process as simple as comparing airfare with its vertical SaaS platform.

The Singapore-based startup announced today it has raised a $12 million Series A led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from Trail Mix Ventures and Alteria Capital. The round also included returning investors Nordic Eye Venture Capital and Motion Ventures.

TechCrunch last covered Freightify in July 2021, when it raised $2.5 million in seed funding. Freightify is now used by more than 200 freight forwarding companies in 45 countries, and says its revenue has tripled over the last year. The company refers to itself as the “Shopify for maritime freight” because it provides white-label rate management and e-booking tools for freight forwarders to set up online stores. The startup’s SaaS platform also provides track and trace solutions to let freight forwarders see the live location of vessels.

The startup was founded in 2016 by Raghavendran Viswanathan as a freight marketplace before pivoting into an automated rate management system, in a move he compares to Shopify’s evolution from an online snowboard store to e-commerce ecosystem.

Viswanathan said pricing data from shipping liners, non-vessel operators, land carriers and consolidators come in different formats and currencies, which means freight forwarders have to consolidate all the data manually. Gathering freight rates usually involves sending multiple emails, looking at PDF documents, filling spreadsheets and keeping browser tabs with pricing data open. Then sharing it with customers can take a couple days, depending on how complex their requests are. Freightify’s rate management and quoting features means freight forwarders can procure and quote freight prices in less than two minutes, including possible ancillary changes.

Freightify is currently post-revenue and its pricing packages are pay-per-use. Viswanathan said that Freightify’s main competitors are still spreadsheets and “the reluctance of freight forwarders to use technology,” but more are willing to adopt technology, thanks in part to the drive toward digitization prompted by the pandemic.

There are more marketplaces and digital forwarders emerging in different markets, and part of Freightify’s competitive strategy is selling a SaaS product. “The industry is not a winner take all market and freight forwarders can recognize a useful solution when they see one,” Viswanathan said.

Freightify’s new funding will be used on product development and launching new features, growing its international sales team, channel partnerships and marketing.

Sequoia Capital India backs Freightify’s vertical SaaS platform for freight forwarders by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

MUFG, Japan’s largest bank by market cap, announced today the launch of a $100 million fund focused on Indonesian startups. The fund, a collaboration between MUFG subsidiaries MUFG Innovation Partners, MUFG Bank and Indonesian commercial bank Danamon, is called MUFG Innovation Partners Garuda No. 1 Limited Investment Partnership.

The fund, which is the third one managed by MUFG’s fund management company MUIP, will make strategic investments in startups that can work with Danamon, a commercial bank acquired by MUFG and MUFG Bank in 2019. Danamon’s goals are to increase product competitiveness, promote digitalization and partner with portfolio companies to tap into their customer contacts.

Since its inception in 2019, MUIP has invested a total of more than 40 billion yen (about $307.5 million USD) in startups around the world. The launch of its new fund comes about a month after MUFG invested $200 million in Akulaku, a Jakarta-based fintech. That was also a strategic investment, with Akulaku and MUFG planning to collaborate on tech, product development, financing and distribution.

MUFG has been focused on increasing its presence in Southeast Asia, and earlier this year it purchased the Philippines and Indonesian units of Home Credit BV for €596 million.

MUFG, Japan’s largest bank, launches $100M fund for Indonesian startups by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Secai Marche, a farm-to-table fulfillment platform serving farmers in Japan and Southeast Asia, announced today it has raised 210 million Japanese yen (about $1.6 million USD) in Series A funding. The round included participation from venture capital firm The Agribusiness Investment and Consultation Co., Spiral Ventures Asia Fund I and Beyond Next Ventures.

This brings the startup’s total raised so far to $4.5 million. TechCrunch last covered Secai Marche when it raised seed funding from Rakuten and Beyond Next in 2021.

Since its seed funding, Secai Marche has built out its warehouse management and fulfillment system for perishables and established a cold supply chain from farm to end-users that covers over 300 farmers. Founder Ami Sugiyama told TechCrunch that by optimizing its supply chain and minimizing lead time for deliveries, Secai Marche is able to maintain a wastage rate of less than 1%.

Sugiyama said that the food service distribution industry in Southeast Asia is very large but highly-fragmented and inefficient. Secai Marche helps smooth bumps along the F&B supply chain with its in-house software, like a warehouse management system and demand forecast for perishable items. Over 4,000 items are available on the platform from farmers in Southeast Asia and Japan, including vegetables, fruit, eggs and seafood. They sell to more than 500 retailers and HORECA (hotels, restaurants and catering) customers.

Other farm-to-table startups in Southeast Asia that have raised funding over the last few years include Eden Farm, Kamereo and FreshKet.

Secai Marche strives to differentiate from other farm products wholesale platforms by providing an end-to-end fulfillment solution open to all farmers, which means it carries a wider variety of products, and providing more transparency

The funding will be used to develop Secai Marche’s demand forecast system and optimize truck routing as it expands its service areas.

Southeast Asia farm-to-table startup Secai Marche raises Series A by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Founded by two insurance industry veterans, Eazy Digital wants to give small insurance companies in Southeast Asia the same advantage as their larger competitors. Its SaaS platform lets insurers digitize many parts of their operations, enabling them to scale up more efficiently.

The Bangkok-based startup announced today it has raised $850,000 in an oversubscribed seed round led by Wavemaker Partners, with participation from Seedstars International Ventures, Wing Vasiksiri and Sasin Bangkok Venture Club.

Eazy Digital was founded last year by Haprem Doowa and Maethavee Sukul. Doowa was previously co-founder and CEO of Frank Insurance, an online digital broker in Thailand that was acquired by Bolttech in 2021. Sukul was head of operations at Frank, Bolttech Insurance Broker and digital health insurance broker Benix.

Eazy Digital co-founder Haprem Doowa

Doowa told TechCrunch that while working together at Frank, he and Sukul “both realized that the insurance industry was plagued with manual work and quick home-built solutions.” Many insurance companies in Thailand manage their agents using a combination of Excel, Line chats and phone calls.

While larger insurance companies have the money and team members to build their own software, their smaller competitors, which Doowa said make up over 90% of insurance companies, struggle to digitize their operations. Eazy Digital’s goal is to give them a platform that is affordable and helps solve their scalability issues. It enables insurers to manage agents, operations, user referrals and engagement.

Eazy Digital’s competitors include eBao, Appman and ZA Tech, which also build software for insurers. Doowa said Eazy Digital differentiates by focusing on distribution and the efficiency of agency sales and customer referrals. “Both are revenue-earning for the companies which makes it easier for insurance companies to say yes to working with us,” he added.

The startup’s new funding will be used for marketing, hiring and product development with an eye on expanding to other Southeast Asian markets.

Eazy Digital helps Southeast Asia’s small insurers digitize their operations by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Good Meat announced today it has received regulatory approval from the Singapore Food Agency to use serum-free media for the production of its cultivated meat. The brand, which is the cultivated meat division of U.S.-based food startup Eat Just, says it is the only cultivated meat producer in the world with the ability to sell to consumers. Its lab-grown chicken is currently available in Singapore, where Eat Just gained regulatory approval to sell its lab-grown chicken meat in 2020.

“Today’s news is another historic milestone for us and for the entire industry as it brings us all closer to a more scalable and sustainable production of real meat without slaughter,” said Eat Just head of communications Andrew Noyes. “Our R&D team worked diligently to replace serum with other nutrients that provide the same functionality and their hard work over several years paid off.”

The latest approval from the SFA means Good Meat will be able to sell chicken meat cultivated without using animal serums. Serums like fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is made from the blood of fetuses extracted from cows during the slaughter process, are usually needed for cells from a living animal to duplicate. Finding way to produce cultivated meat without animal serums is one of the key challenges alternative protein startups are trying to solve.

Good Meat is currently working on its Singapore production facility, which it says will house the largest bioreactor (a 6,000-liter vessel built with ABEC) in the cultivated meat industry. Once it opens next year, the facility will be capable of using the serum-free production process and producing tens of thousands of pounds of meat.

Eat Just’s backers include the Qatar Investment Authority (the sovereign wealth fund of the state of Qatar), Vulcan Capital and C2 Capital Partners, which has Alibaba as its anchor investor.

The Singaporean government has supported alternative protein startups as the island nation seeks to make its food industry more self-sustaining. In a statement, Singapore Economic Development Board executive vice president Damian Chan said, “Good Meat is a key member of our growing ecosystem of more than 70 alternative protein companies and we look forward to their continued contributions in driving agrifood innovation from Singapore for the region and beyond.”

Good Meat approved to sell serum-free cultivated meat in Singapore by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch