Category: Top Stories

Philippines: Blockchain Ticketing Startup Ticket2Me Secures $350K

Philippine blockchain-enabled ticketing startup Ticket2Me announced today that it has secured a US$350,000 seed funding from Singapore-based Citystate Group Pte. Ltd.

With the funding, Ticket2Me is set to implement its expansion plan not only in major cities outside Metro Manila and Metro Cebu but also to establish operations in Malaysia and Hong Kong. It established a regional office in Singapore in 2018.

Citystate’s investment in Ticket2Me is not just a vote of confidence in the excellent execution and product-market fit we’ve demonstrated since going live in May 2018. It’s also a continuing challenge for the company to keep delivering value for both event organisers and ticket buyers in the Philippines and very soon, in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, according to Ticket2Me Founder and CEO Darwin Mariano.

“We’re absolutely convinced that event organisers and ticket buyers in the region are both hungry and ready for event ticketing innovation—and Ticket2Me will be there to help them,” he said.

Citystate Group Pte. Ltd. has over 30 years’ expertise in business and lifestyle travel, food and beverage, restaurant management, property development and management, education, and general insurance underwriting and brokering.

The group currently consists of 55 subsidiaries and operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China, India, and with the Ticket2Me investment, will operate in the Philippines, as well.

“Citystate Group recognises that there is great market potential for a ticketing platform with regional ambitions and the flexibility to serve local communities for all their venue and event ticketing needs,” said Citystate Group Pte. Ltd. Director Julie Haw.

Ticket2Me is Southeast Asia’s first blockchain-enabled ticketing platform. The nine-month old platform can be accessed via the website, mobile site, and the iOS and Android apps.

To date, Ticket2Me has already hosted over 1,300 live events, accessed by over 11,000 unique users, and has sold more than 29,000 tickets. Ticket2Me is the Philippines’ first fully digital ticketing and event technology solution with more than 9,000 payment outlets, making it the most convenient and most accessible ticketing platform in the country.

Ticket2Me is also planning a public sale of blockchain-based tokens that ticket buyers and event organisers can use on the platform for 2019. – AsiaPEVC.com

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Vietnam’s Luxury E-Commerce Site Leflair Secures $7M in Funding

Leflair, Vietnam’s online premium outlet, announces its latest series-B funding round from GS Shop and Belt Road Capital Management for US$7 million, bringing the company’s total financing to date to close to US$12 million.

The last series-A funding round of the company was at US$ 3 million and happened 12 months ago in January 2018.

Following the flash-sales model that is proven to be successful in Europe (Vente-privee.com) and China (vip.com), Leflair offers a wide range of branded merchandise from Fashion, Beauty and Home worldwide to the Vietnamese consumers at an attractive price.

Since its launch in December 2015, the company has grown on average more than a 100% every year in gross merchandise value and is currently selling merchandise from more than 1,500 brands.

This round has the participation of two investors and also marks GS Shop’s first direct investment in Vietnam’s startup scene.

“We are going to use this capital first to leverage as much as possible the strategic partnership with GS and increase our flow of merchandise coming from Korea. It means investing in hiring the teams that will make this partnership a success and deploy resources in the areas of fulfillment, delivery and technology,” said Loic Gautier, Co-founder & CEO of Leflair.

As the demand for branded products continues to grow rapidly among the Vietnamese consumers, Leflair will continue to invest in their cross-border operations and bring in more international brands from overseas, in particularly Asia’s largest shopping hubs to Vietnam.

“Since the launch of our international hubs in Singapore and Hong Kong last year, we brought hundreds more brands, for the first time accessible to the Vietnamese consumers. International sales have been growing at an impressive 2x rate per quarter. We believe cross-border is the future of e-commerce in Southeast-Asia and with this additional funding, our customers will soon be able to purchase even more brands from new international hubs, in particular Korea and Japan, while enjoying the same delivery experience as for domestic deliveries.” Gautier commented.

Growing international operations is part of a bigger plan for Leflair to replicate the successes of Vietnam into other Southeast Asian markets.

“We started Leflair in Vietnam knowing that other markets with similar demographics are facing the same supply challenges. 2019 will be be the year of our regional expansion as we progress towards our mission of making the world’s best brands accessible to more consumers in Southeast-Asia.” Mr. Gautier said.

Until today, Leflair has closed a total of three rounds of investment from world-class angel investors and venture capital firms from the United States, France, Italy, Singapore, Hong Kong and now from Korea and Cambodia.

The company was founded by Loic Gautier and Pierre-Antoine Brun, two French entrepreneurs currently living in Vietnam. Leflair is operating in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and has offices and fulfillment centers in Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong. – AsiaPEVC.com

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Singapore’s GrabJobs Raises US$930K to Boost Recruitment Technology

GrabJobs, a Singapore-based mobile-first Job Platform focused on entry to mid-level jobs, today announced a round of funding in 2018 that has raised US$930k from seed funding, bringing total funding to over SGD$2.5 million.

The funds will be used for continuing product development and refinement for their
GrabJobs platform. To this end, they will be integrating Natural Language Processing
(NLP) and Machine Learning technologies into their signature interview chat bot.

This will be created in partnership with Mr. Erik Cambria, Associate Professor in Artificial Intelligence at NTU.

GrabJobs will soon launch a major product feature that aims to revolutionise recruitment by eliminating the need to apply for jobs with a CV.

Job seekers for high-volume recruitment jobs, such as retail and F&B services, will benefit from this feature as it allows them to apply for jobs quickly, without the need to create and craft a CV. Relevant questions will be managed through the chat bot in order to expedite the interview and screening process.

“We are proud to help high-volume recruiters hire faster and better. In 2019, we will also be expanding outside of our current markets in Southeast Asia by partnering with regional job sites to provide our services to recruiters in the region,” said GrabJobs CEO and Co-Founder Emmanuel Crouy.

Founded in July 2015, GrabJobs claims over 5,000 companies use its platform to simplify and cut down their hiring process from days to minutes. GrabJobs has won Best Job Portal and Best Recruitment Innovation at the Asia Recruitment Awards 2018, and Most Disruptive Innovation at the Singapore HR Awards 2018.

The company has raised a total of US$1.9 million in funding over five rounds that started in 2015. The latest funding its is biggest so far.

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Malaysia’s AirAsia Selling Merah Aviation to US PE Firm Castlelake for $768m

Malaysia-headquartered low-cost carrier AirAsia Group Berhard is selling 25 planes owned by Merah Aviation Asset Holding Limited to US private equity firm Castlelake in a deal valued at $768 million, AirAsia announced on its website.

AirAsia, through its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Asia Aviation Capital Limited, entered into agreements to sell Merah Aviation, which will comprise 25 existing aircraft, to AS Air Lease Holdings 5T DAC, an entity indirectly controlled by Castlelake.

Castlelake will also purchase four new aircraft that will be delivered to AirAsia in 2019, the airline said in a statement. The 29 planes – Airbus’ A320-200ceo and A320neo – will be leased back to AirAsia.

“This transaction is part of AirAsia’s ongoing transformation into something more than an airline. As we move towards becoming a travel technology company, the disposal of these aircraft will not only unlock significant value but also bring us closer to our goal of being a truly digital company,” said AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes.

The buyer, Castlelake specializes in providing creative, flexible capital solutions for its airline partners. Since its inception in 2005, Castlelake has invested in and managed more than 500 aircraft on behalf of its funds.

With the closing of this transaction, Castlelake’s current fleet will comprise more than 250 aircraft.

“Castlelake is pleased to support AirAsia as it pursues its strategic goals by offering full-service leasing and capital solutions,” said Castlelake managing partner Evan Carruthers.

As of September 30, 2018, Castlelake manages private funds and debt vehicles with approximately $13 billion in assets, on behalf of its investors, including endowments, foundations, public and private pension plans, private funds, family offices, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds.

BNP Paribas is acting as financial advisor to AAGB while Stephenson Harwood LLP and Tay & Partners are acting as legal counsels to AAGB. Castlelake retained Vedder Price PC as legal counsel. – AsiaPEVC.com

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SoftBank Vision Fund Leads $400m Funding in Biotech Firm Relay Therapeutics

SoftBank Vision Fund, a subsidiary of Japan’s SoftBank Group Co, has led the $400-million Series C funding round in US-based biotechnology firm Relay Therapeutics, according to a statement Thursday.

The financing round was also participated by Foresite Capital, Perceptive Advisors, and Tavistock Group. Existing GV, Casdin Capital, BVF Partners, EcoR1 Capital, Alexandria Venture Investments, and an affiliate of D.E. Shaw Research also backed the round.

Proceeds from this financing are anticipated to be used to accelerate the implementation of Relay Therapeutics’ long-term strategy. Relay said the fresh funds will support the expansion of the company’s discovery efforts, advance existing programs into the clinic and bolster its broad platform and diverse team.

Relay Therapeutics said it combines “unprecedented computational power” with leading-edge experimental approaches across the fields of structural biology, biophysics, chemistry and biology.

The integration of these disparate disciplines, tools and cultures enables Relay Therapeutics to overcome challenges that prior attempts have failed to solve and to design therapies against validated but previously intractable targets.

The company’s initial discovery programs in cancer have led to the development of highly selective inhibitors of disease-causing proteins in genomically defined patient populations.

“We are at a unique moment in the evolution of drug discovery where we can realize the promise of integrating ever more powerful experimental and computational discovery tools to tackle previously undruggable protein targets. The success of our early programs validates the potential of our platform to create breakthrough therapies that address a broad range of diseases,” said Sanjiv Patel, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Relay Therapeutics.

The latest funding round brings the company’s total funding amount to $520 million. It first raised $57 million in September 2016 for its Series A. In December 2017, the company raised another $63 million for its Series B.

“A financing of this magnitude allows Relay Therapeutics to significantly scale and advance both its platform and its pipeline. We are thrilled by the strong support of our investors for our mission, vision and strategy,” said Alexis Borisy, Chairman of Relay Therapeutics and Partner at Third Rock Ventures.

SoftBank Vision Fund, according to its latest amended SEC filing, raised a total of approximately $98.58 billion from 14 investors since its first sale on May 20, 2017. The fund has become one of the primary funding vehicles for technology companies around the world. Saudi Arabia provided $45 billion for the fund. – AsiaPEVC.com

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Lightspeed Venture Raising $560 Million For Two Chinese Funds

Lightspeed Venture Raising $560 Million For Two Chinese Funds

Lighstpeed Venture Partners, an American venture capital firm focusing on early stage investments in the enterprise technology and consumer space, is raising a total of $560 million for VC funds focused on China.

In its pair of filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Lightspeed Venture said it is raising $360 million for a fourth Chinese venture capital fund and $200 million for a Chinese select fund.

The two funds – Lightspeed China Partners IV and Lightspeed China Partners Select I GP – add to Lightspeed’s 15 funds that have raised a combined $7.6 billion, according to Crunchbase data.

For this year, the firm raised $3.8 billion for its four funds – Lightspeed Venture Partners Select III, Lightspeed India Partners II, Lightspeed Venture Partners XII, and Lightspeed Venture Partners Select III.

Founded in 2000, Lightspeed Venture Partners invests in various sectors: enterprise, consumer, big data, bitcoin, enterprise technology, cleantech, mobile, internet, financial technology, cloud solutions, e-commerce, storage, media, networking, energy, and software, software-as-a-service, information technology, biotechnology, and social.

It mainly invests in countries such as the United States, Europe, Israel, China, and India.

Since its inception, the firm has made 678 investments, with 203 of them as lead investor. Its most recent investment was on December 14, 2018, when it invested $60 million Faire, a startup that helps retailers fund and buy wholesale merchandise for their stores.

Lightspeed-backed companies have held 17 initial public offerings in the last five years, about half of which have occurred since the start of 2017, including messaging app Snap, personal stylist company Stitch Fix Inc, and data storage provider Nutanix Inc.

It also reaped windfalls when Cisco Systems Inc acquired AppDynamics Inc and when Salesforce.com Inc bought MuleSoft for multiple billions of dollars.

According to a Reuters report, Lightspeed is eyeing a business expansion to Southeast Asia and wants to add investments in cryptocurrency, biotechnology, new TV streaming services and even cosmetics companies. – AsiaPEVC.com 

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Philippines: Jollibee Takes 100% Ownership of US Burger Chain Smashburger

Philippine-based Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC), the largest Asian food service company, announced that it has completely acquired US burger chain Smashburger by acquiring the 15 percent stake it does not own in SJBF LLC, the parent company the entities comprising the Smashburger business for $10 million.

Jollibee paid Smashburger Master LLC in cash through its wholly-owned subsidiary Bee Good! Inc (BGI), according to its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Bee Good! Inc previously held 85-per cent stake in the burger chain after acquiring an additional 45-per cent stake for $100 million, paid in cash, last February.

Smashburger has 351 stores, mostly in the US, and has presence in Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, Kuwait, Panama, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom. It accounts for 7 per cent of JFC’s consolidated system-wide sales.

JFC further disclosed that it will inject more capital into the Smashburger business by converting $80 million loan held by Bee Good! Inc on Smashburger into equity before the end of this year in order to strongly support its growth in 2019 and in the years ahead.

“We look forward to the development of Smashburger into a very strong brand and business in the United States,” said JFC chairman Tony Tan Caktiong.

Additionally, JFC disclosed that Smashburger co-founder and chief executive officer Thomas Ryan will remain as the CEO of the burger chain. He has also been appointed JFC’s chief product development advisor effective immediately.

JFC’s country head for North America, Jose A. Minana, will also assume additional responsibility as president of Smashburger. His new responsibilities include introducing JFC’s business management system into Smashburger and prepare it for a strong sustained growth in the US.

The consolidation of Smashburger into JFC increases the Philippine-headquartered fast-food chain’s worldwide store network by 365 stores to a total of 4,162. This also expands JFC’s geographical presence from 16 countries to 21 adding Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, United Kingdom (England and Scotland), and Panama. – AsiaPEVC.com

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Singapore Proptech Startup Propseller Raises $731K in Seed Funding

Singaporean startup Propseller has closed a S$1-million ($731,000) seed funding round from industry entrepreneurs and senior executives, the company said in a statement.

Propseller helps prospective property sellers and landlords find and compare the best property agents. It will use the fresh funds to accelerate its growth and further develop its technology focused on a “transparent approach” to select an agent using
independent reviews and agents’ track records.

The startup’s model and progress have attracted investments from prestigious business angels. Local entrepreneurs Yang Bin Kwok and Erwan Mace, founders of two of Singapore’s most successful startups, Zopim and Muslim Pro respectively, were in the round.

They were joined by some industry senior executives. Most notably PJ Vandepitte (global COO of Foodpanda), and real estate industry veteran Yvan de Rham (former Chairman of Sotheby’s International Realty for Switzerland) who commented “Propseller is doing at scale something that the industry needed for a long time: to make agents accountable for their work, from the very first phone call until after the contract is signed.”

Only 12 months after its launch, Propseller said owners using the platform have already put up for sale or rent S$500 million in combined property value. On the agent side, the traction is just as high, with 500 handpicked agents – from estate agencies such as PropNex, ERA and Sotheby’s – embracing the transparency route, joining Propseller and allowing client to rate their services.

“We invite only the best agents to join, then we have a very clear game play with them: delivering the highest level of service is the only way for them to build and maintain a reputation on Propseller,” the startup said.

The startup sees its service as “complementary” to the property listing portals. “PropertyGuru or 99.co are presenting properties to buyers and tenants. – AsiaPEVC.com

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SoftBank Ventures Korea Co-Leads $20M Series C in Gauss Surgical

SoftBank Ventures Korea, the global early-stage venture capital arm of SoftBank Group, has co-led the $20-million Series C funding round in Silicon Valley-based AI healthcare technology firm Gauss Surgical.

Also co-leading the round is Northwell Health, with LS Polaris Innovation Fund and seven other leading US health systems chipping in.

The proceeds of the round will be used to accelerate the adoption of its Triton platform in hospitals and to develop new AI-driven applications for the operating room.

The company’s flagship product, Triton, monitors surgical blood loss in real time using digital imaging and machine learning on the iPad.

It has received de novo approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a European CE mark. It is in increasingly widespread use in hospitals across the United States; so far, Triton has been adopted by 50 hospitals which perform more than 200,000 infant deliveries each year.

Over the last 15 years, preventable maternal deaths and harmful postpartum health complications for mothers have increased precipitously in the U.S. due to undetected hemorrhaging, particularly in cesarean deliveries.

According to a recent study of 2,781 caesarean section patients published in the American Journal of Perinatology, implementing Triton was associated with significant increases in recognition of maternal hemorrhage and significant decreases in blood product transfusions and hospital length of stay.

“The practical application of AI in hospitals will be a major growth driver in the medical technology industry, especially in addressing high-cost, high-impact unmet clinical needs,” said Siddarth Satish, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gauss. “We are pleased to be strategically aligned with investors who bring significant operational experience both in AI-enabled services and in healthcare as we scale our platform.”

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The investors contributing to the Series C funding include the LS Polaris Innovation Fund of Polaris Partners, a Boston-based venture capital firm with more than $4.3 billion under management. It also includes the strategic venture arms of several leading healthcare systems including UNC/REX Healthcare, OSF Healthcare, Providence Healthcare, Orlando Health, Spectrum Health, Mount Sinai Health System, and the Memorial Hermann Health System.

“As a leader in the AI-driven healthcare technology field, Gauss is profoundly altering the delivery model for medical devices and services in hospitals. We are excited to back the company and its founder’s vision to fundamentally transform the way operating and delivery rooms work,” said J.P. Lee, CEO and managing director of SoftBank Ventures Korea. – AsiaPEVC.com

Singapore Data Center Startup AirTrunk Secures $621M Funding

AirTrunk, a specialist in hyperscale data centres, has successfully completed an AU$850 million ($621 million) financing process to fund a major expansion of its Australian data centres in Sydney and Melbourne, and across key Asia-Pacific markets.

The expansion has been driven by strong customer demand for hyperscale data centre solutions, the company said.

Deutsche Bank is the lead arranger, underwriter and sole bookrunner for the new senior secured debt facilities. The financing will be the largest by a data centre company in Australia.

AirTrunk founder and CEO, Robin Khuda, and shareholders, Goldman Sachs and TSSP, have also contributed new capital to support the expansion plans.

“We saw a substantial amount of global interest in AirTrunk throughout the process, and are delighted to complete this financing arrangement with Deutsche Bank. Together with the new capital recently contributed by our shareholders, the new funds put us in a strong position to meet the growing demand from large cloud, content and enterprise customers in the Asia-Pacific region,” Khuda said.

AirTrunk opened its two Australian data centres last year – AirTrunk Sydney in September and AirTrunk Melbourne in November. The two facilities are set to be the largest independent data centres in the Asia-Pacific region when completed at 90 megawatts and 84 megawatts respectively.

“AirTrunk continues to pursue its ambition to be the leader in hyperscale data centres for the region. The expansion in Australia will establish AirTrunk as the largest data centre operator in Australia by deployed capacity and we continue to pursue aggressive growth opportunities across the Asia-Pacific region,” added Khuda.

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AirTrunk is a hyperscale data centre specialist creating a platform for cloud, content and large enterprise customers across the Asia-Pacific region. The company develops and operates data centre campuses with industry leading reliability, technology innovation and energy efficiency. – AsiaPEVC.com