Living Lab Ventures’ Post

🚀 This Week in Innovation: Startups Redefining the Future! 🌟 The startup ecosystem is on fire 🔥, with bold ventures securing massive investments and leading us into a more innovative and sustainable future. Here are 6 game-changers that are shaping industries with creativity, tech, and vision: 1️⃣ Rebel Foods – 🌍 The world’s largest cloud kitchen chain, delivering iconic brands like Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, and Wendy’s. With a $210M boost, it’s redefining dining experiences globally! 💡 💰 Key Investors: Temasek, Evolvence 2️⃣ CarDekho Group – Helping Southeast Asia buy, sell, and finance cars seamlessly 🚗. With a $60M investment, it’s speeding ahead in Indonesia, the Philippines, and beyond! 💰 Key Investors: Navis Capital Partners, Dragon Fund 3️⃣ Haber – Revolutionizing industries with AI-powered robots 🤖, optimizing energy and water usage across food, agriculture, and oil sectors. Their $44M funding is driving a sustainable future! 💰 Key Investors: Accel, BEENEXT 4️⃣ Wooden Street – 🛋️ From Jaipur to the world, this custom furniture brand blends online convenience with an offline presence. With $43M raised, home décor just got a personal touch! 💰 Key Investors: Premji Invest 5️⃣ SolarSquare Energy – Bringing rooftop solar power to homes and businesses ☀️. With $40M raised, they’re making sustainable energy accessible to everyone! 🌍 💰 Key Investors: Lightspeed, Elevation Capital 6️⃣ Pixxel – A space-tech marvel that captures the world like never before 🌌. With hyperspectral imaging satellites, they’re solving problems in climate, agriculture, and mining. Backed by $24M, Pixxel is shaping our future from above! 🚀 💰 Key Investors: Google, Radical Ventures ✨ These startups are proof that resilience + innovation = impact. Whether it’s reshaping how we dine, drive, decorate, or save the planet, these ventures inspire us to think big. 💡 Which startup’s journey inspires you the most? Comment below and share your thoughts! Let’s celebrate the entrepreneurs driving tomorrow’s world. 🙌 #Startups #Innovation #Sustainability #Ecell #Entrepreneurship #FutureForward

#BuzzingDealsOfTheWeek ➤ Portcast: US$6.5 million Portcast enables logistics companies to improve profitability through dynamic demand forecasting and real-time vessel and container tracking.  •⁠  Stage:  Series A  •⁠  ⁠Industry: Logistics / Singapore •⁠  ⁠Investor: Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital, Hearst Ventures, Signal Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, TMV, and Innoport ➤ NoneAway: US$1 million NoneAway operates a platform that connects verified property owners, seekers, and licensed brokers, ensuring secure and efficient transactions with two-factor authentication.  •⁠  Stage: Pre-seed •⁠  ⁠Industry: Prop-tech, Real estate / The Philippines •⁠  ⁠Investor: Kaya Founders, Wavemaker Partners, Forge Ventures, Vulpes Ventures, Jani Rautiainen, co-founder of PropertyGuru, and ER Rollan, co-founder of GrowSari ➤ DF Automation & Robotics: US$1.85 million DF Auto specializes in designing and manufacturing autonomous mobile robots. •⁠  Stage: Venture round, Series unknown •⁠  ⁠Industry: Robotics/ Malaysia •⁠  ⁠Investor: Vynn Capital, Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) and Leave a Nest Capital ➤ Locad: US$9 million Locad is the logistics engine enabling e-commerce brands to store, pack, ship, and track orders across Asia-Pacific, GCC, and the USA. It syncs inventory across online channels and organizes end-to-end order fulfillment. •⁠  Stage: Pre-series B •⁠  ⁠Industry: Logistics / Singapore •⁠  ⁠Investor:  Global Ventures, ReefKNoT Investments, Sumitomo Equity Ventures, Antler, FEBE Ventures, and JG Summit ➤ Oneteam: US$2.6 million Oneteam aims to transform succession planning for small and medium-sized enterprises through employee ownership. It acquires businesses from retiring owners and transitions them into employee-owned entities.   •⁠  Stage: Seed •⁠  ⁠Industry: Succession Planning / Singapore  •⁠  ⁠Investor: Wavemaker Partners ➤ Atome: US$200 million Atome Financial offers shoppers flexible payment solutions at popular online and offline retailers and is popular for its buy now, pay later services.  •⁠  Stage: Debt  •⁠  ⁠Industry: Fintech / Singapore •⁠  ⁠Investor: HSBC’s ASEAN Growth Fund ➤ 株式会社 SECAI MARCHE:  US$1.6 million Secai Marche is a B2B online platform for farmers and chefs for trading and food distribution services. •⁠  Stage: Series A (extended) •⁠  ⁠Industry: B2B e-commerce, Supply chain/ Japan, Malaysia •⁠  ⁠Investor: Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, The Shizuoka Bank, and The Hokkoku Bank, Ltd. ➡ Stay updated on the Southeast Asia startup and VC scene by hitting the "Follow" button for more news like this! ➡ To get weekly updates on what’s buzzing in the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, subscribe to our newsletter #ICYMI here: https://lnkd.in/gkBmXzZd #startupfunding #SEA #venturecapital #investments

The Indonesia Venture Capital Report 2023 by AC Ventures and Bain & Company highlights a significant shift in investment trends and expectations within the local tech and venture capital landscape. Industry stakeholders note a maturation of the ecosystem, particularly in investment strategies, with VCs and LPs now prioritizing companies demonstrating strong unit economics and clear paths to profitability over aggressive growth. Investors are increasingly seeking rational business models and sound corporate governance, reflecting an appetite for sustainable financial performance markets like Indonesia. Consequently, tech-enabled businesses face pressure not only to innovate but also to sustain profit. In light of these challenges, several local startups from ACV’s portfolio have surpassed growth targets and achieved profitability over the past year. 💡 Discover more in the article here: https://lnkd.in/gddgbBKQ #Startups #InvestmentTrends #SoutheastAsia #TechStartups #Profitability

[OPEN INNOVATION] “Open innovation is not another way of doing R&D, but another way of doing business” - Graham Cross PhD, Director of Commercial Acceleration and Commercial Alliances at Unilever. Open innovation enables companies to tap into a vast pool of external resources, including: #startups, #entrepreneurs, new business models and cutting-edge technologies.   These partnerships are helping corporates across industries overcome uncertainty, meet emerging customer shifts, operate more sustainably and boost longevity (just to name a few of the potential benefits). Companies like AstraZeneca, Walmart, Google and Toyota Motor Corporation have taken the strategy further by building their own CORPORATE ACCELERATORS - with Paulo Emediato and Thiago Silva: https://lnkd.in/dG-Be-gR

Meet the Team: Kireyna Rahmah, Business Development & Project Lead in Innovation Factory Kireyna Rahmah, better known as Kirei, is our ecosystem’s innovation fuel in leading projects and strategizing business growth. 📈🙋🏻♀️ Exposed to the startup ecosystem early in her career, her starting line projects showed how crucial collaboration and innovation are to bridge stakeholders and convey impactful ideas. 🤝🏻 Holding the power of collaboration In juggling her roles, she learned how valuable collaborating is in appreciating diverse perspectives and space for others to contribute. “Like no one has really the right answers and the best ideas come from working together,” she added. Kirei believes that effective cooperation leads to shared success in Innovation Factory's team while executing project coordination with multiple stakeholders. For example, as we worked with the largest startup hub in Taiwan, Kirei fulfilled all checklists of aligning the internal and external stakeholders, reaching the desired timeline, and swiftly addressing any roadblocks for us to successfully finish the project. 🏁✅ Then how do the success rate is measured? 💬 “We measure success by the impact that we create, both in innovation and the partners satisfaction. We consider how our projects can contribute to the growth of digital talent and the startup ecosystem by creating industry events, innovation challenges, and providing platforms to synergize together.” Kirei’s most recent project in Innovation Factory was a program that scale-up business through innovation challenges, partnering with one of Indonesia's state-owned enterprises, as a key example of achieving our mission to empower, foster, and bridge players for impactful innovation. 👀🦾 The balance in keeping up with technological advancements and stakeholders relationships is a challenge we face everyday. To stand out in a crowded landscape we offer unique values, staying agile to trends, and building an inclusive ecosystem. Kirei gave a little advice to businesses looking to leverage their digital innovation strategies: Foster a culture of innovation through shaping innovation culture which encourages experimentation and collaborate with innovation hubs for a vast network to stay competitive Connect with kireyna rahmah and explore more collaborations now! 🙌🏻✨ -- #InnovationFactoryIndonesia #InnovatewithUs #TeamProfile #Startup #InnovationTeam

Indonesia’s tech unicorns lost for direction amid funding drought, unclear exits: Jakarta Post Indonesian unicorns, once thriving start-ups valued at over US$1 billion, seem to have lost their direction over the past few years with funding becoming increasingly difficult to find, while some have seen their market capitalization plummet years after going public. Follow-up funding for tech companies has become less and less frequent, for late-stage or early-stage companies, with additional venture rounds for existing unicorns taking place at lower valuations. For the full story: https://lnkd.in/gJqjR8AQ

How Southeast Asia’s venture market today is redefining the first-time founder: A Look at Our Recent Investments We take a look at a new set of companies: 💪 Fluid, a platform offering flexible payment options for B2B companies 🌏 Finmo, a next generation treasury operation system for global businesses 🐓 And BroilerX, a provider of poultry farming inputs, outputs, and productivity solutions in Indonesia What ties these companies together despite being in different industries is the quality of the founding and management teams that came together to start these companies in the past four years: 1️⃣ Founders able to translate their breadth and/or depth of experience into competitive advantages, with proven growth execution in prior leadership roles. Fluid co-founders Trasy, Steven, and Ruoyun take their combined experiences in BNPL, e-commerce, and lending to redefine the B2B payments journey for businesses, starting with buyer payments. Finmo’s founding team of seasoned payments and fintech executives led by CEO David put them in a position of insight when it comes to digitizing treasury management and building trust with customers and regulators for a solution that involves a significant amount of money movement across borders. 2️⃣ These founders may not the young upstart common in popular narratives, but they are still constantly learning. While BroilerX initially started with providing IoT and ERP solutions to poultry farmers, they continued to evolve their business to drive farmer productivity in other ways, like owned input sales and flexible payments on outputs. This expansion across the value chain has allowed them to better position their company to sustainable tackle the US$45B poultry market 3️⃣ These founders are likely to have reduced bias from the hype cycle, and able to grow from more stable footing (i.e., realistic expectations on growth). In partnering with these founders we have seen how they have taken a more pragmatic approach to prioritizing resource allocation around what new products or business lines to open up. Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/g-CgMACq 📸 L-R: Finmo CEO and co-founder David Hanna at Bangkok Fintech Festival in 2023. Catch them this year at the Singapore FinTech Festival https://lnkd.in/gz8PTcAa They are also hiring a rockstar people leader: https://lnkd.in/grZymgrr Fluid CEO and co-founder Trasy Lou Walsh at our 7th Annual Summit, Fluid was recently in this year’s Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) Slingshot Top 50: https://lnkd.in/gimFM2Dn and Trasy is in this year’s 100 Women Founders to Watch by Founders Forum Group! BroilerX CEO and co-founder Prastyo Ruandhito at our visit to the BroilerX partner farms in Yogyakarta. BroilerX is hiring: https://lnkd.in/gMB56YMB

An interesting report from Lightspeed on South-east Asia, debunking some myths and resetting expectations, with one of the writers being Kevin Aluwi, who should know given his experience with @gojek. Useful for #nextgeneration startups wanting to tackle the South-east Asian market. You can also listen to the report, if you prefer an audio version. #techinvestments #southeastasia #ecommerce #nextgeneration https://lnkd.in/gsaDj23B

This Monday, we're diving into the consumer products industry! 🟣 Meet the top ten most active investors in the past 12 months! ⤵️ 1️⃣ Unilever Ventures Based in the UK and founded in 2002, Unilever Ventures is involved in venture capital investments. ➡️ # rounds: 9 2️⃣ 500 Global Based in the US and founded in 2010 by Christine Tsai and Dave McClure, 500 Global invests globally across a diverse range of technology sectors, including internet, software, mobile platforms, and business and information services. ➡️ # rounds: 9 3️⃣ Fireside Ventures Based in India and founded in 2017 by Kanwaljit Singh, Fireside Ventures focuses on pre-Series A and Series A investments. ➡️ # rounds: 8 4️⃣ DSG Consumer Partners Based in Singapore and founded in 2012 by Deepak Shahdadpuri, DSG Consumer Partners targets early-stage investments in India and opportunistically considers investments in ASEAN. ➡️ # rounds: 7 5️⃣ SOSV Based in the US and founded in 1995 by Sean O'Sullivan, SOSV invests in four key verticals: life sciences, hardware, cross-border internet/mobile in China/Asia, and food. ➡️ # rounds: 6 6️⃣ L Catterton Based in the US and founded in 1989 by Michael Chu and William E. Simon, L Catterton invests in all major consumer segments specializing in the acquisition, development, repositioning, and management of real estate assets and private real estate funds. ➡️ # rounds: 5 7️⃣ Venture Catalysts++ | India's 1st Multi-Stage VC Based in India and founded in 2016 by Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anil Jai, Anuj Golecha and Gaurav Jain, Venture Catalysts invests in Indian early-stage startups focusing on IoT, augmented reality, consumer tech, e-commerce, FMCG, fintech, AD & marketing tech, healthcare, SaaS and AI sectors. ➡️ # rounds: 5 8️⃣ Sauce.vc Based in India and founded in 2019 by Manu Chandra, Sauce.vc focuses on early-stage investments at seed stages and invests up to series-A rounds. ➡️ # rounds: 5 9️⃣ Goodwater Capital Based in the US and founded in 2014 Chi-Hua Chien and Eric J. Kim, Goodwater Capital invests in consumer technology startup sectors and focuses on entrepreneurial products and services that target the consumer market globally. ➡️ # rounds: 5 🔟 Global Brain Corporation Based in Japan and founded in 1998 by Yasuhiko Yurimoto, Global Brain typically invests in series A round and after, primarily in Japan, the US, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Israel, India, and Europe ➡️ # rounds: 5 🟣Subscribe to our newsletter for an in-depth breakdown of key deal drivers. Also, we regularly showcase the latest deals shaping private markets. Be the first to know what’s driving the industry!🏎️ 🟣Need deeper insights into #privatemarkets? Request a demo today to see how #DealPotential - a data sourcing and investment intelligence SaaS solution - can help you to efficiently discover, evaluate, and analyze #investment opportunities.

🌦️ In Singapore, we have a lot of rainy days. On weekends, the traffic is very bad. 📲 To prepare for these mishaps, we sometimes ask customers who order in advance (since we do long distance delivery), 'Do you think you can wait for more than an hour?' If they say they can't, we don't take the delivery. 🙋 Of course, we've heard of other competitors saying, 'It'll only take 20 minutes!' But we don't believe in making false promises to customers, because it can negatively impact the customer experience. - Deliver.sg CEO : Krishnamani Kannan 👇 Read the full interview article to discover the real business insights from the experience of the startup founder in Singapore! #AsiaTomorrow