PE, VC & Alternatives Archives - Page 20 of 25

Society Pass (SoPa) Reports Full Year 2021 Financial Results, Sees 891% Year on Year Revenue Growth

Revenue grew 891% (from $52,453 for fiscal year ended December 31, 2020 to $519,885 for fiscal year ended December 31, 2021) driven primarily by revenues from the LeFlair lifestyle platform
SoPa is well capitalized for planned acquisitions of food & beverage, lifestyle, travel, merchant software companies in VIP (Vietnam, Indonesia, and Philippines) countries of SEA
SoPa expects to launch the Society Pass loyalty points platform in 2Q 2022, which SoPa believes will help substantially increase it online users and merchants across the VIP region

Society Pass Incorporated (SoPa) (Nasdaq: SOPA), a leading Southeast Asia loyalty and ecommerce ecosystem, reported its financial results for its fiscal year ending 31 December 2021.

The Company’s total revenues increased over eight hundred and ninety percent year on year mainly as a result of the relaunch of its Leflair lifestyle e-commerce business in September 2021. “2021 has been a strong year for SoPa in spite of the impact from the Delta and Omicron variants. Despite only operating in only the last four months of 2021, Leflair recognized monthly double digit revenue growth in the fourth quarter. With the region rapidly pivoting to recovery, we expected to see robust eCommerce growth in both transaction volume and basket size. SoPa’s healthy pipeline and strategy for acquiring rapidly growing eCommerce platforms will allow us to capture that exciting growth. We expect 2022 to be a stellar year for SoPa as we continue to build out our next generation loyalty platform and acquire more leading e-commerce companies in SEA”, said Dennis Nguyen, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Society Pass.

Key Highlights:

Total revenue grew by 891% primarily attributed to the acquisition of the Leflair lifestyle platform
The Company is well capitalized to rollout its business plan with cash on hand growing over 4,400% to $23.2 million, primarily due to the completion of its Nasdaq listing IPO in November 2021 (SoPa also completed a $11.5 million (gross proceeds) follow-on public offering in February of 2022)
Since its inception, Society Pass has acquired 4 eCommerce businesses in Southeast Asia namely; #HOTTAB, Leflair, and Handycart in Vietnam, as well as Pushkart in Philippines

In 2022, SoPa expects further growth as the SEA countries shift to focus on economic recovery. The Company also expects to launch of Society Points in Q2 2022, which it expects to increase profit margins and drive customer retention for merchants. In addition, SoPa plans to make additional acquisitions in 2022 that will generate additional revenue synergies and create cost efficiencies as part of the expanding SoPa ecosystem.

About Society Pass
Society Pass is a loyalty and data marketing ecosystem that operates multiple e-commerce and lifestyle platforms across its key markets. Its business model focuses on collecting user data through the expected circulation of its universal loyalty points. It seamlessly connects consumers and merchants across multiple product and service categories fostering organic loyalty. Since its inception, SoPa has amassed over 1.6 million registered consumers and over 5,500 registered merchants/brands on its platform. It has invested 2+ years building proprietary IT architecture with cutting edge components to effectively scale and support its Platform’s consumers, merchants, and acquisitions.

Society Pass provides merchants with #HOTTAB Biz – a convenient order management app for business partners on SoPa.asia, and #HOTTAB POS – a specialized POS technology solution, a comprehensive system for payment, loyal customer management, user profile analytics, and convenient financial support packages for small and medium-sized enterprises.

In addition, SoPa operates Leflair.com, Vietnam’s leading lifestyle e-commerce platform, Pushkart.ph, a popular grocery delivery company in Philippines, and Handycart.vn, a leading online restaurant delivery service based in Hanoi, Vietnam. For more information, please check out: http://thesocietypass.com/

Media contact
PRecious Communications for SoPa
sopa@preciouscomms.com

SCCG Venture Fund Makes Investment in Playcaller

Stephen Crystal announced today one of the first gaming opportunity investments in PLAYCALLER, a Client Partner of SCCG Management, offering strategic support and business development.

The SCCG Venture Fund (“SCCG VF”), managed by Stephen Crystal, David Hanlon, Pierre Cadena and Dave Antony, is an alternative investment fund that focuses on increasing value and distributing profit through investing in gaming opportunities, targeting the best opportunities for Seed / Series A funding.

The fund specializes in identifying the most innovative companies and founders that are involved in:
– Sports wagering
– iGaming
– Esports gaming and wagering
– Sports data
– Affiliate solutions
– Venue management

About PLAYCALLER

Play Caller Sports is planned as an innovative fan engagement platform that offers both fantasy sports and sports betting. It aims to reach the demographics of some of the most popular sports leagues like the National Football League, the National Basketball League, and the Major League Baseball.

About SCCG Venture Fund 1

The SCCG Venture Fund 1 is an alternative investment fund that focuses on increasing value and distributing profit through investing in gaming opportunities. Opportunities include equity, debt, direct asset ownership, and revenue sharing opportunities. It offers the potential for higher than normal returns for the risk tolerant investor.

About SCCG Management

SCCG Management is a consultancy that specializes in sports betting, iGaming, sports marketing, affiliate marketing, technology, intellectual property protection, product commercialization, esports, capital formation, M&A, joint ventures, casino management, and governmental and legal affairs for the casino and iGaming industry.

Source: Plato Data Intelligence: PlatoData.io

Singapore-Headquartered Cake DeFi Launches US$100 Million Venture Capital Arm

Looks to Invest in Global Web3, Gaming and Fintech Startups

Cake DeFi has launched Cake DeFi Ventures, its US$100 million venture arm committed to accelerating growth of tech firms, with a focus on investing in Web3, gaming and fintech startups.
Cake DeFi Ventures has earmarked US$100 million for investments over the next two years.
Deploys first investment in US-based media startup, The Edge Of Company, Inc.

Cake DeFi, a Singapore-based fintech platform that makes DeFi (decentralised finance) services and applications accessible for everyone, has launched Cake DeFi Ventures (CDV), its venture capital arm with US$100 million in earmarked capital.

Cake DeFi Ventures (CDV) is looking to invest in technology startups in Web3, gaming and fintech – especially those in the metaverse, NFT, blockchain and esports industries – that will bring synergistic value to Cake DeFi’s core business. Based in Singapore, CDV will look for global investment opportunities in startups around the world.

CDV is led by Cake DeFi’s Co-founders Dr Julian Hosp (Chief Executive Officer) and U-Zyn Chua (Chief Technology Officer) along with newly appointed Investment Partner Nicholas Khoo:

Dr Julian Hosp is a seasoned blockchain entrepreneur, widely regarded as a leading influencer in the crypto and blockchain space. His vision is to bring blockchain awareness and understanding to a billion people by 2025.
U-Zyn Chua, a blockchain engineer, enthusiast and investor for over a decade, was a Smart Nation Fellow on blockchain for the Singapore government. He was also the Lead Architect for the world’s first Central Bank Digital Currency (CDBC) – the Sand Dollar in the Bahamas.
Nicholas Khoo brings over 20 years in the tech sector with diversified experience in startups and multinationals such as Visa. For more than ten years, Nicholas has invested in a number of successful and fast-growing tech startups and has also served on the investment committees of investors such as the Global Fund.

Portfolio companies of CDV will receive strong support from Cake DeFi’s global and experienced leadership team, and the opportunity to access Cake DeFi’s connections, resources and expertise within the global blockchain industry.

“By launching Cake DeFi Ventures, we want to bring cryptocurrency and blockchain capabilities to the world. Cake DeFi is one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing fintech platforms. The projects that we invest in can expect to receive strong support scaling globally,” said Dr. Julian Hosp, Co-founder and CEO of Cake DeFi.

Deploys First Strategic Investment into US-Based ‘The Edge Of Company, Inc.’

At the time of CDV’s launch, the firm was in early to late-stage discussions with a number of global startups, including those in Southeast Asia, the U.S. and Europe. For its first strategic investment, Cake DeFi has selected tech, media and events startup, The Edge Of Company, which has been building the community and ecosystem for the NFT and Web3 space.

“The entire team at The Edge Of Company is honored to have Cake DeFi Ventures as part of the Edge family. Their know-how, relationships, and strategic insights will help propel this Web3 rocketship to new heights across our platform of tech, media, and events,” said Jeff Kelley, Co-Founder, The Edge Of Company, Inc.

“As an extension of our multiple blockchains support and having built up an R&D arm with cryptography deep tech capability, investing in companies that bring synergies to Cake DeFi’s core business will allow us to enhance and broaden our Web3 offerings,” said U-Zyn Chua, Co-founder and CTO of Cake DeFi.

To apply for funding from CDV, please email contact@cakedefi.vc with the project details. CDV will be in touch with shortlisted projects. Venture capital firms or investment funds interested in co-investment opportunities or strategic partnerships may also reach out for further discussion.

ABOUT CAKE DEFI
Cake DeFi is a fully transparent, highly innovative and regulated fintech platform dedicated to providing access to decentralised financial services and applications by enabling users to generate returns from their crypto and digital assets. It is operated and registered in Singapore and is fully compliant with all regulatory requirements of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

By enabling and empowering its users to harness the potential of decentralised finance (DeFi), Cake DeFi aims to educate and inform people around the world on crypto and DeFi in a simple, easy to understand and hassle-free manner.

In 2021, Cake DeFi saw a tenfold growth in its registered customer base, with over US$1bn customer assets. In the same year, Cake DeFi’s customers received over US$230 million in rewards.

ABOUT THE EDGE OF COMPANY, INC.
A media, events, and tech venture, The Edge of Company launched in 2021 with the Edge of NFT Podcast and has since created the NFT LA conference. NFT LA hosted March 28-31, 2022 will be the largest NFT & Web3 gathering in Southern California, and at over 100 episodes the podcast continues to feature “the top 1% in NFTs today and what will stand the test of time.” Believers in economic structures that value the attention of every participant, the company leverages its three founders’ experiences in various domains including blockchain, fashion, real estate, music, neuroscience, foodtech and high-growth startups to catalyze co-creation in the Web3 and NFT space.

For Media Enquiries, Please Contact:
cakedefi@preciouscomms.com

Wikisoft Corp – Pioneering Startup Funding with Blockchain Acquisition

Wikisoft Corp. (the “Company,” “we,” and “our”) (OTCQB: WSFT) recently announced that it has acquired 51% of Etheralabs LLC a New York City based venture lab and ecosystem that invests in, builds, and deploys disruptive technologies across the Blockchain space.

Wikisoft’s vision is to combine the company’s massive amount of data on start-ups, funds and investors with Etheralabs’ disruptive Blockchain technology to accelerate finance partnerships between startups and investors – Wikisoft providing the relevant data intelligence and direct investment opportunities and Etheralabs providing the Blockchain expertise and technology on contract execution.

Carsten Kjems Falk, Chief Executive Officer of Wikisoft Corp. said, “Our upcoming Wikifunding platform enriched with Etheralabs’ disruptive Blockchain technology will enable startups to connect to venture capital, funds and investors for funding in an automated, secure and transparent way. Investors, funds and venture capital will likewise have an efficient way of finding prospects and making the right investments.”

Bryan Feinberg, CEO and Founder of Etheralabs commented: “Wikisoft’s data capabilities coupled with our background in transforming large data ecosystems into vibrant venture communities creates a way to accelerate and disrupt the funding process.”

Extending far beyond bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, Blockchain technology is cutting out the middleman in most business sectors. A survey from the World Economic Forum underlines the transformation this technology will bring to the financial services sector with expectations of at least 10% of the global GDP being stored on Blockchain platforms by 2025. Deloitte recently wrote that 23% of the fund order process is still being handled manually, mainly though fax orders which have a significant impact on distribution costs and time. The fund sector that is seeking levers for processing optimization and that relies a lot on financial service intermediaries such as transfer agents, fund registries, and fund administrations will be particularly impacted. Blockchain could disintermediate the fund value chain and Escrow accounts, Transfer agents and fund administration would not be needed anymore reducing a lot of time to execute the transfer of value in a secure, transparent and automated way. The Blockchain has the power of an earthquake that would shake to the ground the whole funding industry.

The upcoming Wikifunding platform has an ambition to be at the frontier of startup funding and investment, bringing decentralization, security, immutability, and transparency to the fund distribution and administration market causing the first tremors in the funding industry.

This press release does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.

ABOUT ETHERALABS LLC

Etheralabs is New York City based venture lab and ecosystem that invests in, builds, and deploys disruptive technologies across the Blockchain landscape. Etheralabs fast-tracks ideas into solutions that help high-growth companies with a focus on capital appreciation and scale via early-stage identification and accelerated resource deployment. The acceleration model lays the foundation for taking promising IP from both concept to company and from revenue to profitability, culminating in a fully functioning portfolio venture that is ready to attract follow-on funding, an acquisition partner, or to operate as a standalone company.
More information can be found at: https://etheralabs.io

ABOUT WIKISOFT CORPORATION

In today’s fast-moving business world of increasing globalization, Wikisoft leverages big data and associated insights from business datasets to improve performance.

In line with this new phase of globalization, Wikisoft believes that there is a growing demand for access to credible and reliable business data. Data is essential to creating the complete view of customers, prospects, investors, suppliers, and partners necessary to power the right decisions.
Our vision is to create opportunity globally by collecting precise data, curating it, verifying it and putting it in the hands of professionals and businesses as consumable business intelligence. We believe in the power of Wikisoft to collect massive amounts of data and deliver it to businesses curated, credible and reliable.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains statements of a forward-looking nature about the Company. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “is/are likely to,” “future” or other similar expressions. The Company has based these forward-looking statements primarily on the Company’s current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that the Company believes may affect Company’s financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. There is no assurance that the Company’s current expectations and projections are accurate. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on the Company’s information on the date hereof. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking statements. The Company operates in a rapidly evolving environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. This press release does not constitute or form part of any offer or invitation to purchase, otherwise acquire, issue, subscribe for, sell or otherwise dispose of any securities, nor any solicitation of any offer to purchase, otherwise acquire, issue, subscribe for, sell, or otherwise dispose of any securities of the Company. The release, publication or distribution of this announcement in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law and therefore persons in such jurisdictions into which this announcement is released, published or distributed should inform themselves about and observe such restrictions.

CONTACT:
WikiSoft Corp.
315 Montgomery Street, San Francisco,
CA 94104, USA
Phone: +1-800-706-0806
Email: investor@wikisoft.com
Investor site: www.wikisoft.com

SOURCE: WikiSoft Corp.

Inceptio Technology Completes Financing of US$188 Million, Jointly Led by Legend Capital

On 28 February 2022, Inceptio Technology, an autonomous driving truck technology and operation company, announced its completion of a US$188 million Series B+ equity financing, jointly led by Legend Capital.

The successful closing of the fund is expected to be used for the development of Inceptio Technology’s self-developed full-stack autonomous driving system “Xuanyuan”, as well as mass production of trunks with Inceptio Technology’s joint partners, which will help Inceptio Technology to accelerate its layout in electrification. In the end of 2021, Inceptio Technology has realized the front-loading mass production of Level 3 (L3) autonomous driving trunks, with the cooperation with OEM partners. In addition, Inceptio Technology has deployed daily commercial operations on a range of routes with many top industry shippers. The commercial operation has validated the cost advantage of Inceptio Technology’s L3 trucks and is rapidly scaling up.

Lawrence Xue, the Managing Director of Legend Capital, said: “Legend Capital has extensive investments in the field of autonomous driving as well as logistics and supply chain. Following its investments in autonomous driving of passenger vehicles, Legend Capital chooses the self-driving truck developer Inceptio Technology and is very optimistic about its ‘technology + operation’ development strategy. We think highly of Inceptio Technology’s excellent execution and will continue to mobilize industrial resources to promote its innovation and growth. It is believed that Inceptio Technology will become a pioneer with great influence in the industry.”

Julian Ma, the Founder and CEO of Inceptio Technology, said: “Thanks to the shareholders’ confidence and long-term support to Inceptio Technology! With the L3 autonomous trucks rolling off the line, we have started a new chapter. We will stick to full-stack independent development and mass-production-driven in our system, to promote the large-scale growth of autonomous freight and to create more value to our customers. Inceptio Technology has confidence to form the data scale as well as technological advantages required for unmanned operation in the coming days and realize our vision of building a nationwide autonomous trucking network in logistics industry.”

Autonomous driving is one of Legend Capital’s main investment directions on intelligent and unmanned vehicles. In addition to Inceptio Technology, Legend Capital has also invested in the autonomous driving AI chip company Horizon Robotics, the millimeter-wave radar company Muniu Technology, the autonomous vehicle technology company Pony.ai and the ADAS solution provider Zongmu Technology. In addition, Legend Capital’s SL Capital also invested in Black Sesame, a visual perception and autonomous driving IP company.

Maxim Group LLC Initiates Coverage of Society Pass (SoPa)

SoPa’s fast growing ecommerce ecosystem in SEA offers lifestyle, F&B, merchant payment software and loyalty programs
The company was added to the Russell 2000 Index in December, 2021
Growth drivers include the relaunch of the Leflair luxury site in Vietnam (1.5M+ registered users), a growing F&B merchant platform, a loyalty points program, and future M&A.
SoPa’s current cash of US$33M and no debt are sufficient to fund M&A and organic growth plans for the next 3 years
Maxim Group projects significant revenue growth from US$1M in 2021, to US$38M in 2023

Society Pass Incorporated (SoPa)(Nasdaq: SOPA), Southeast Asia’s fastest growing loyalty and ecommerce ecosystem today, announced that Maxim Group LLC (Maxim) has announced that they have initiated equity research of SoPa and published their initial Equity Research Report, dated February 24, 2022.

In its report, Maxim highlighted the following key growth drivers for SoPa:

Large and growing South and Southeast Asia markets that are shifting towards digitalization
Launch of Society Points in 2H22 which is high margin and should increase customer retention.
Technology for data and loyalty programs should grow e-commerce.
Relaunch of Leflair in 2H21, which is a top-five luxury ecommerce site in Vietnam. Leflair generated ~$9M in revenue in 2019.
Grow merchant-related fees from partnership program, POS devices, software, and vendor finance offerings.
Grow new customers through event marketing with strategic partners, digital/social media engagement, and joint marketing with merchants.
Roll up smaller ecommerce-related companies. Opportunities are available at low multiples as target companies have fewer alternative forms of capital. Acquisition targets can generate revenue and expense synergies as part of the Society Pass ecosystem.

Maxim also highlighted the successful track record of SoPa Chairman and CEO, Dennis Nguyen in building out and selling businesses in China and Southeast Asia.

Dennis Nguyen, CEO of Society Pass said “The publication of this report is another exciting milestone for Society Pass so soon after our IPO. Investors continue to have a positive view of the Southeast Asian investment opportunity and this report will bring greater awareness and understanding to the market of our plans to build Southeast Asia’s fastest growing ecommerce and loyalty ecosystem.”

About Society Pass
Society Pass is a loyalty and data marketing ecosystem that operates multiple e-commerce and lifestyle platforms across its key markets. Its business model focuses on collecting user data through the expected circulation of its universal loyalty points. It seamlessly connects consumers and merchants across multiple product and service categories fostering organic loyalty. Since its inception, SoPa has amassed over 1.6 million registered consumers and over 3,500 registered merchants/brands on its platform. It has since invested 2+ years building proprietary IT architecture with cutting edge components to effectively scale and support its Platform’s consumers, merchants, and acquisitions.

Society Pass provides merchants with #HOTTAB Biz – a convenient order management app for business partners on SoPa.asia, and #HOTTAB POS – a specialized POS technology solution, a comprehensive system for payment, loyal customer management, user’s profile analytics, and convenient financial support packages for small and medium-sized enterprises. All tools offered above will allow businesses to attract and retain customers through personalized interaction based on analytics with a high profit margin.

In addition, SoPa operates Leflair.com, Vietnam’s leading lifestyle e-commerce platform, Pushkart.ph, a popular grocery delivery company in Philippines, and Handycart.vn, a leading online restaurant delivery service based in Hanoi, Vietnam. For more information, please check out: http://thesocietypass.com/

Media contact
PRecious Communications for SoPa
sopa@preciouscomms.com

Wikisoft Corp. Acquires Blockchain Tech Company – Etheralabs LLC

Wikisoft Corp. (the “Company,” “we,” and “our”) (OTCQB: WSFT) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 51% of Etheralabs LLC a New York City based venture lab and ecosystem that invests in, builds, and deploys disruptive technologies across the Blockchain space. Wikisoft is using equity to fund the acquisition, thus providing the Company the optimum financial flexibility in the future.

The transaction includes a global access to Etheralabs’ full stack of technologies across the Blockchain and global funding landscape. Etheralabs ecosystem allows development and finance partnerships throughout the blockchain world and beyond, and connects the blockchain community, investors and venture capital to relevant data intelligence and direct investment opportunities. With the majority stake, Wikisoft intends to ensure that Etheralabs future product and technology roadmap supports Wikisoft’s platform strategy including the upcoming Wikifunding site aiming to accelerate matching investors to startups.

Carsten Kjems Falk, Chief Executive Officer of Wikisoft Corp. said, “Etheralabs LLC’s disruptive Blockchain technology and products provide an outstanding opportunity to expand Wikisoft’s global reach with superior technology and venture accelerators. Our upcoming Wikifunding platform enabling startups to connect to the Blockchain community, investors and venture capital will have resources for ventures that are ready to attract follow-on funding and investors will have an efficient way of finding prospects and making the right investments. Short term the off-the-shelf products like a full press release distribution service will be accessible to the 90 million businesses now held in our database. We anticipate that Wikisoft’s global reach and data resources will accelerate our growth and provide greater earnings diversity.” The Company expects the proposed transaction to be accretive to earnings realized over the two years following the acquisition.

Bryan Feinberg, CEO and Founder of Etheralabs commented, “Wikisoft’s capabilities coupled with our background in transforming large data ecosystems into vibrant communities creates a definitive way to leverage our background to accelerate Wikisoft’s entry into the global blockchain market and we look forward to accelerating Wikisoft’s unique architecture and data environment into an active and vibrant venture community.”

This press release does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.

About Etheralabs LLC

More information can be found at: https://etheralabs.io

About Wikisoft Corporation

In today’s fast-moving business world of increasing globalization, Wikisoft leverages big data and associated insights from business datasets to improve performance.

Contact:ONTACT
WikiSoft Corp.
315 Montgomery Street, San Francisco,
CA 94104, USA
Phone: +1-800-706-0806
Email: investor@wikisoft.com
Investor site: www.wikisoft.com
SOURCE: WikiSoft Corp.

Winklevoss twins and global decacorn invest in US$29M Series A of Singapore-based fintech Volopay as it prepares APAC and MENA expansion

The enterprise FinOps platform has taken on a strategic investment from global blue-chip investors to drive continued expansion and technology innovation
The Series A funding round comprised participation from JAM Fund, Winklevoss Capital Management, Accial Capital, Rapyd Ventures, Jeffrey Cruttenden – CEO of Acorns along with Access Ventures, Antler Global, and VentureSouq
Volopay plans to strengthen its footprint in APAC and MENA with a multi-market expansion alongside further investment in product development

Volopay, a Y Combinator-backed Singapore-based corporate cards, and payable management startup has successfully raised US$29 million in its Series A round through a mix of equity and debt. The investment round included participation from JAM Fund, Winklevoss Capital Management, Rapyd Ventures, Accial Capital, fintech veteran and angel investor Jeffrey Cruttenden – CEO of Acorns along with Access Ventures, Antler Global, and VentureSouq.

The strategic investment from leading blue-chip investors will fuel Volopay’s foray into the APAC and MENA markets to tackle two of the most pressing problems that SMEs and startups face – high Forex (FX) charges incurred for international payments and the lack of a uniform platform to access all spend data. Volopay provides companies with multi-currency wallets to hold money in their base currency and any major currency – USD, SGD, EUR, GBP – and subsequently use it for payouts, eliminating exorbitant amounts of FX charges levied on international payments.

Since its seed funding, Volopay has grown exponentially to better alleviate its clients’ pain points. With a 150+ member team spread all over major business centres in the Asia Pacific region, such as Singapore, Australia, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, Volopay has amassed an impressive clientele with the likes of Funding Societies, Zipmex, Moneysmart, Smartkarma, and Austrionova among others.

Volopay is disrupting traditional business banking and aims to be adopted as the single and only solution growing, global businesses need for their cards, invoice automation, and bill payments along with the added bonus of a multi-currency business account without the hassle and limitations of a traditional bank. To achieve this, Volopay has embarked on the ambitious objective of building its own infrastructure and applying for financial licences in its markets, something no other company has done regionally. Through constructing their own infrastructure, Volopay will enable their global clients to eliminate the need for integration with multiple third-party financial services platforms, delivering a consistent and delightful customer experience regardless of the region they are operating in.

Rajith Shaji, cofounder and CEO of Volopay shared, “Volopay is an ambitious project. To build an alternative to Volopay, you would have to launch five different startups. We are building the control centre for modern companies for all their financial management needs. Our platform is as easy and seamless to use for a five-person company, as it is for a 500-person company. We want to take our vision of a unified spend management platform to all companies across the world after our initial markets of APAC and MENA.”

“With APAC & MENA making a big wave on the global stage by churning out several unicorn level enterprises every year, accelerating their growth requires an efficient expense management tool that is simple yet scalable, something that Volopay has always aimed for,” said Rajesh Raikwar, cofounder and CTO of Volopay.

Justin Mateen, founder of Tinder and JAM Fund who led the round, said in a statement, “I’ve worked closely with Volopay’s amazing team since my original investment at the pre-seed stage. Given the accelerating growth of the business, and the team’s ability to innovate quickly on the product side with a single-stack and scalable platform across multiple jurisdictions, it was only natural to triple down and lead the Series A round. I am proud to partner with a leader in this space and to help support Volopay to scale to greater heights.”

Michael Shum, Chief Investment Officer at Accial Capital said, “Accial Capital views the B2B corporate spend vertical as a way to support entrepreneurs and SMEs with liquidity and close the credit gap. Volopay has a great ambitious team focused on redlining the finance workflows with its robust technology. We are proud to partner with a leader in this space to help scale.”

Part of Volopay’s Series A funds will be put towards their forthcoming market launches, building and innovating new technologies to complement their existing product, in addition to enhancing integrations with leading enterprise software and project management applications. The company is also hiring aggressively for key positions in each of its markets.

About Volopay
Volopay is a Singapore-based company on a mission to build a financial control centre for modern businesses. Volopay combines business accounts, corporate cards, bill payments, expense reimbursements, credit, cashback, and accounting automation into one single platform. Since launching in Singapore and Australia the startup has been on a strong growth trajectory and is now stepping into India, Indonesia, and the Philippines with MENA expansion on the horizon. https://www.volopay.com/sg/

For media enquiries, please contact:
PRecious Communications for Volopay
volopay@preciouscomms.com

Society Pass (SoPa) Adds Vietnam’s Handycart To Its Next-Generation Digital Ecosystem and Loyalty Platform

Society Pass Incorporated (SoPa) (Nasdaq: SOPA), a leading Southeast Asian data-driven loyalty platform today, announced that it has acquired Dream Space Trading Company Limited (Dream Space), the operator of Handycart, a leading online grocery delivery service based in Hanoi, Vietnam. The newly acquired company will be integrated into SoPa’s F&B delivery vertical with SoPa’s existing merchant software platform #HOTTAB. Handycart founder and CEO, Seo Jun Ho, has been named Head of the new Business Unit managing both Handycart and #HOTTAB in Vietnam.

Founded in 2019, Handycart is an online grocery delivery app with its own fleet of delivery vehicles that focuses on servicing the Korean restaurant market and F&B sector in Hanoi. Korean food and pop-culture have taken Vietnam by storm, driven by the growing “Korean Wave”, a recent survey by market research firm Q&Me found that 58 percent of Vietnamese favor Korean cuisine.

Commenting on this strategic step, Ngo Thi Cham, SoPa Vietnam Country General Manager, said, “We are excited to welcome Handycart to our larger SoPa ecosystem which will enable it to harness our integrated marketing and technology proposition while also strengthening our collective senior management resources. We endeavour to combine the robust technology and operational efficiency of a specialty ecommerce brand like Handycart with our brand building experience. SoPa has witnessed, with our runaway success of Leflair, in Vietnam, that this move will lead to immediate returns in terms of cost optimisation and increased revenue generation. We are determined to increase merchant coverage to 500 restaurants in Hanoi by the end of 2022 and look to expand to HCMC in 3Q 2022.”

Leveraging on SoPa’s integrated technology platform to drive operational efficiencies and business performance Handycart will focus on dramatically increasing on-demand grocery shopping services to more consumers in the country, while empowering specialty F&B restaurants to transform business models and further tap into online markets.

Seo Jun Ho, CEO of Handycart said, “Handycart was established in 2019 with a mission of connecting Korean patrons seeking a taste of home through its established network of authentic Korean restaurants right here in Vietnam. Providing businesses with speedy access to authentic Korean products has helped us gather a loyal user base of over 3000 with more than 26,000 orders in 2021 alone. SoPa will now be able to accelerate Handycart’s growth given our well-established positioning as a go-to online grocery delivery service. Partnership with Society Pass will enable us to unlock growth opportunities within the industry and I am glad that Handycart can now avail itself of SoPa’s synergistic ecosystem.”

Vietnam has been one of the fastest-growing economies within SEA over the past two decades. The country’s e-commerce is growing tremendously, valued at 13.2 billion USD, it is expected to grow steadily from 2021 until 2025.

Focused on growing its operations in the VIP (Vietnam, Indonesia, and Philippines) markets, SoPa is an acquisition focused ecommerce holding company operating across 5 interconnected verticals (lifestyle, F&B, travel, merchant software and loyalty) with 6 unique business units connecting millions of consumers and thousands of merchants in Southeast Asia. Handycart is the group’s third acquisition in Vietnam following its acquisition of ecommerce marketplace Leflair and merchant POS and business app #HOTTAB.

About Society Pass
Society Pass is a loyalty and data marketing ecosystem that operates multiple e-commerce and lifestyle platforms across its key markets. Its business model focuses on collecting user data through the expected circulation of its universal loyalty points. It seamlessly connects consumers and merchants across multiple product and service categories fostering organic loyalty.

Since its inception, SoPa has amassed over 1.6 million registered consumers and over 3,500 registered merchants/brands on its platform. It has since invested 2+ years building proprietary IT architecture with cutting edge components to effectively scale and support its Platform’s consumers, merchants, and acquisitions.

Society Pass provides merchants with #HOTTAB Biz – a convenient order management app for business partners on SoPa.asia, and #HOTTAB POS – a specialized POS technology solution, a comprehensive system for payment, loyal customer management, user’s profile analytics, and convenient financial support packages for small and medium-sized enterprises. All tools offered above will allow businesses to attract and retain customers through personalized interaction based on analytics with a high profit margin.

In addition, SoPa operates Leflair.com, Vietnam’s leading lifestyle e-commerce platform, and Pushkart.ph, a popular grocery delivery company in Philippines. For more information, please check out: http://thesocietypass.com/

Media contact
PRecious Communications for SoPa
sopa@preciouscomms.com

GWI Drives APAC Expansion with Hire of Aditi Kohli

Following its successful US$180 million in Series B funding in February 2022, valuing the company at US$850M, GWI, the leading audience insights company, is well on its way to ambitious growth plans in the APAC region, spearheaded by the hiring of Aditi Kohli as APAC Senior Vice President. Aditi will be based in Singapore.

Aditi will drive the company’s growth, working with enterprise partners to help them gain a deeper understanding of local consumers. The investments are being utilized to further advance GWI’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, as well as hiring new talent to support global expansion.

GWI has already seen strong growth in APAC, with over 20% of its clients based in the region. As the company continues to expand, it will offer much-needed alternatives to traditional market research, which is often not fit-for-purpose, too slow, expensive, and difficult to scale. Through GWI’s intuitive and easy-to-use platform, as well as its extensive data collection in APAC, organisations can access an instantaneous view of harmonised data-sets representing 2.7 billion digital consumers across 48 geographies, including 14 markets in APAC, gaining faster and deeper insights to make data-backed decisions.

Many of the world’s most influential brands, media organisations and agencies already leverage GWI to deliver global insights at scale. With Asia home to 60% of the world’s population, and over 2,300 languages, there is a clear need for brands and businesses to fully understand the demands of each individual segment and have clear, unique and localised insights that allow them to make real business decisions.

“We are deeply committed to Asia-Pacific,” said GWI CEO and Founder Tom Smith, “The size and breadth of the region means it can be hard for companies to navigate and be able to make proper data-driven decisions. GWI is able to provide them with deep insights and allow them to create the right strategy. When we launched our new office in Singapore we knew that we would need to find the right person to lead this exciting growth opportunity and Aditi is the perfect person for this. Her breadth of experience will be instrumental in growing our presence, talent and customer base. We’re very excited for the future of GWI in APAC.”

Aditi has a proven track record in scaling businesses from scratch. She joins GWI after two decades of experience working in APAC leadership roles with Foursquare, Near, The Walt Disney Company and MTV Asia.

“I am honoured to join GWI as we continue to revolutionise insights on digital consumers worldwide through technology,” Aditi said. “We’re seeking to bolster the APAC team, and looking to hire talented professionals (commercial sales and customer success) with a passion for market intelligence and innovation who can support the rapid expansion of our business.”

GWI has emerged strongly from the COVID-19 global pandemic, promoting a positive hybrid working culture and placing great emphasis on training and developing its staff. With five offices globally, GWI plans to strengthen its hiring to over 600 employees by 2023. See here for the latest open roles.

About GWI

GWI is the leading audience insights company. Its SaaS platform and custom data products are trusted by the world’s biggest brands, media organizations, and agencies on a daily basis to gain a deep understanding of their audiences at speed.

The company’s flagship survey represents 2.7 billion people globally. Through a combination of survey data and analytics, clients can gather in-depth insights into behaviours, attitudes, and interests from rich data sets including GWI Core, GWI Kids, GWI Sports, GWI USA, GWI.

Media Contact:
The Hoffman Agency
GWISG@hoffman.com