LiveArtX Launches $ART Token To Bring the Traditional & Digital Art Worlds Together
AppWorks
March 17, 2022
in Investments

Editor’s note: Congratulations to LiveArtX on another great milestone. AppWorks is excited to be a part of the journey to connect the art world with web3. The press release from LiveArtX is below:

・$ART will provide holders with exclusive access to the physical & digital art worlds across the entire art ecosystem.

・More than $4.5 million already committed by leading investors
including animoca brands, BNB chain fund and KuCoin.

LiveArtX, the premium NFT platform that connects the art world with Web3, is pleased to announce the launch of $ART, a token that provides utility across both the physical and digital art worlds. Holders of the $ART token, the very first of its kind, will gain entrée to the art world, including access to the best of physical and digital art, participation in exclusive art experiences and events, advance notice of drops, a role in platform curation, and membership in the LiveArt DAO. More than $4.5 million has already been committed from prominent blockchain innovators and crypto investors, led by Animoca Brands, Binance and KuCoin, followed by AppWorks, Alameda Ventures, OKX BlockDream Capital, Gate Labs, HashKey, APENFT Foundation, SNZ, Shima Capital, ArkStream Capital, Head&Shoulder Financials, Kikitrade, and Aspen Digital.

LiveArtX is a strategic partnership between LiveArt — founded by art industry leaders including former senior executives of Sotheby’s and Christie’s — to bring access, transparency, and digital solutions to the traditional art world — and Everest Ventures Group (EVG), the blockchain investor and incubator.

Boris Pevzner, Co-Founder and CEO of LiveArt, commented, “The $ART token serves as the ultimate bridge between the physical and digital art worlds. It is the cornerstone of LiveArt’s strategy of blending technology, innovation, and deep knowledge of the art market. We believe in a future art world that combines the best of the traditional art industry with the power of Web3 technology and crypto communities. And that’s why we created LiveArtX with our partners at EVG — a platform with digital and physical art, with purchases made in crypto and cash, with exhibitions in the real world and the metaverse — all underpinned by the $ART token.”

Allen Ng, CEO of EVG and Co-Founder of LiveArtX, said, “Blockchain opens up a lot of overdue possibilities for artists and collectors. But technology can’t do it alone. With the unparalleled art market know-how from the team of LiveArt and now the strong backing from the Web3 community, LiveArtX is going to bring fresh innovation to one of the oldest asset classes of mankind.”

LiveArtX serves the entire art ecosystem. Artists can mint their works in the LiveArtX Creator Hub with powerful rights management and unbreakable resale royalties. Collectors can access a curated selection of only the best artworks on the LiveArtX Marketplace. The White Label Suite enables galleries and partners to launch and manage their own NFT marketplaces, or work with the LiveArtX Studio to curate and market drops. And the LiveArtX Developer Lab empowers the most advanced coders to work with our innovative technology.

The team behind LiveArt includes seasoned art market and technology professionals led by Adam Chinn — founding partner of the international art advisory firm, Art Intelligence Global, and former Chief Operating Officer of Sotheby’s; John Auerbach — CEO of UOVO, the premier provider of fine art and collections storage and services, who previously held senior e-commerce roles at Sotheby’s and Christie’s; and digital entrepreneur Boris Pevzner — whose numerous credits include the development of Collectrium (acquired by Christie’s) and xfire (acquired by Viacom). The leadership team also includes George O’Dell, a veteran Contemporary Art specialist who spent the past 13 years at auction houses in London and New York; and Marisa Kayyem, an art historian and art advisor who was the Director of Education at Christie’s.

About LiveArtX

LiveArtX is a premium NFT platform that connects the art world with web3. Built by art industry leaders, LiveArtX brings creators, collaborators, and collectors into the metaverse. LiveArtX, together with LiveArt.io, provides the ultimate bridge between the physical and digital art worlds — blending technology, innovation, and deep knowledge of the art market.

[If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with AI, Blockchain, and NFT, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the leading founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.]

Office Hours with David Wu
David Wu
March 9, 2022
in Team

David Wu, Associate (吳戴文 / 投資經理)

David is an Associate mainly focused on investments. He previously lived in the US, but was drawn to the Greater Southeast Asia region by the growth opportunities and the wonderful people here. He spent the first five years of his career as a consultant at IBM, where he became intimately familiar with the enterprise software and services needs of Fortune 500 companies. Later, he focused on building predictive models and solving optimization problems for large companies, and gained an appreciation for the role of data and algorithms in our lives. He joined AppWorks in 2020 after receiving his MBA from Columbia Business School, and also has a B.S. in Mathematics from the Ohio State University. In his free time, he tries to stay active and is always looking for opportunities to hike or trek, often seeking the trail less traveled.

People often ask me why I committed career suicide and came to Taiwan. When I accepted my return offer after my MBA summer internship here, some of my classmates at Columbia, who I love, were surprised. Some had assumed I just wanted a summer of fun in “Thailand” before resuming a serious career. Others gave me some encouraging words and reminded me that recruiting wasn’t over and I should stay open to other opportunities. One person literally thought I was joking (to be fair, most people can’t ever tell if I’m joking or not).

The main reason I came was for personal growth. Before my MBA I spent a year in Shijiazhuang, China only learning Mandarin (there wasn’t anything else to do there). Like most people who have lived in a different country, I really grew as a person from leaving my comfort zone, experiencing new things, and talking to different people. For this reason, I literally would have sooner taken a job as a kitchen hand in Asia than a white collar position in the US. Taiwan also happens to be a really pleasant place to live where the people are truly salt of the earth. 

I’m also blessed to be a simple person from Ohio (US) and spent the first 25 years of my life there, so I don’t need much to be happy. Many “coastal elites” have lower expectations of Middle America, and we are generally misunderstood. But that’s just the way we like it. We block out the noise and worry about our own business, get down to honest work, and always end up surprising people. Maybe I also found that in Taiwan – a lot of smart, determined, overlooked people brewing up some special things. I think we’ll continue to surprise a lot of people.

In this way, I resonate with founders a lot. Many founders are viewed skeptically by society, but they don’t care, and they get down to work and end up surprising people. I will never forget enthusiastically describing to my friends a startup I encountered during my summer internship, when one friend remarked, “that’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard”. That company is now valued at close to $10 billion (not that stupid things can’t be worth $10 billion). Every day I have the privilege of believing in people, and few things are as fun as witnessing them create something from nothing.

Despite being known as “The Professor” at the office, my main job is to be a student. I work on the web3 arm at AppWorks, which brings me joy as it unites me with my college interests of math and computer science. Every day I’m uncomfortable, see new things, and talk with amazing founders. At times I feel like a college student again, stepping into a new world with humility and an open mind.

Besides working on investments and doubling as a host at Demo Day, I also run the college intern program here. Many people overlook interns as unskilled labor, but I see them as our future leaders who will surpass most of us faster than we think. I believe helping these bright young people at this juncture of their career will pay rich dividends for all of us. The intern program is just one of the many non-financial investments we make here to help better society, and I personally get a lot of fulfillment from coaching and teaching.

Lastly, I also run the MBA recruiting program. It’s a sales job, and I try to pitch MBAs on why they should come to Taiwan after they’ve just spent two years and $200K on their degree and are being wined and dined by consulting firms and big tech companies that people have actually heard of. It is a tough sell to start from the bottom. But I’ve always believed that the view from the top is more breathtaking after you’ve climbed from the bottom, arriving totally spent, after nobody thought you could. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Cyber Sierra Raises US$4.3 Million Seed to Strengthen SME Cybersecurity and Insurance Coverage
AppWorks
March 1, 2022
in Investments

Editor’s note: Congrats to Cyber Sierra for closing out their seed round, AppWorks is proud to be a part of the journey! The press release from Cyber Sierra is below:

Cyber Sierra, a technology-enabled cyber insurtech provider, announced the completion of a US$4.3 million seed round of financing led by Leo Capital, with participation from AppWorks, Credit Saison, as well as angel investors including prominent founders and leaders in the cloud and insurance sectors.

Founded in June 2021, Cyber Sierra is a technology company that offers cyber risk, compliance and insurance products backed by leading global brokers and insurers. The company delivers cybersecurity and technology insurance offerings to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with presence on the cloud. Cyber Sierra provides companies with up to US$5 million of cyber and technology insurance coverage. Starting in Singapore, the company is currently expanding to India in addition to other countries in the Southeast Asia region. 

Cyber Sierra is led by a team of seasoned technology entrepreneurs, including Pramodh Rai, who has led technical teams at Hmlet and Funding Societies; and Subhajit Mandal, an experienced fintech and insurtech expert with stints at AXA and MetLife. As a technically-driven company, Cyber Sierra is strongly focused on creating targeted security features for its end users.

Through Cyber Sierra’s platform, businesses will be able to access a number of cybersecurity tools including threat alerts, intelligence feeds, anti-phishing, vulnerability scans and governance features with bundled insurance offerings. Cyber Sierra’s customers include leading fintech companies, healthcare providers, e-procurement as well as ed-tech and e-commerce technology firms.

“Our goal is to serve every online business,” said Pramodh Rai, Co-founder, Cyber Sierra. “In current times, cloud native companies have inevitably either already experienced data and security incidents, or will soon. Cyber Sierra aspires to build the best cyber experience for SMEs, offering a full suite of technology, insurance products and solutions to help companies compliantly strengthen their security posture as well as gain access to expert response and comprehensive insurance coverage when needed.” 

“For a young, fast growing, global and digital commercial risk such as cyber, the next couple of years present a unique opportunity to create the next generational way of insuring businesses,” said Subhajit Mandal, Co-founder, Cyber Sierra. “Our platform is focused on helping customers grow their cyber security posture, with embedded insurance offerings. This helps companies to adopt a more holistic approach to managing cyber risk.”

With this round of financing, Cyber Sierra plans to launch and grow its business offerings to include more products to serve risk and compliance needs of businesses in line with apt regulatory frameworks. It will also bring on new hires across all functions, expand its network of startups, SME customers across Southeast Asia, India, and other markets.

“Covid accelerated the digitization of every business around the world. To meet the needs of online businesses new and old alike, we are excited to back Subhajit and Pramodh, supporting them in building solutions for the cyber security and cyber insurance challenges of the digital economy,“ remarked Shwetank Verma, Managing Partner, Leo Capital. 

Cyber Sierra’s team includes technology entrepreneurs and executives who have built cybersecurity and insurtech solutions for banks, government agencies, cloud providers and (re)insurers. Their combined expertise positions Cyber Sierra to help businesses solve the cyber risk challenges of today and tomorrow.

About Cyber Sierra

Cyber Sierra, a wholly owned product launched by Fort One Technologies Pte Ltd, is a cyber risk solutions suite founded by Subhajit Mandal and Pramodh Rai that combines risk compliance tools and comprehensive cyber insurance to help businesses manage and mitigate cyber risk. Backed by leading brokers and insurers, Cyber Sierra provides companies with up to US$5 million of cyber and technology insurance coverage in Singapore and India. Cyber Sierra’s platform provides alerts, threat intelligence, expert guidance and tools to help businesses grow their security posture in the face of current cyber threats. Cyber Sierra is headquartered in Singapore.

For more information about Cyber Sierra, please visit http://www.cybersierra.co or follow on LinkedIn or Twitter.

【If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with AI, Blockchain, and NFT, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the leading founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.】

NOBI Raises US$4M to Make Investing in Crypto Assets Easier for Indonesians
AppWorks
February 25, 2022
in Investments

Editor’s note: AppWorks is proud to be participating in NOBI’s seed round. We’re excited to partner with founder Lawrence Samantha to increase access to DeFi opportunities for regular Indonesians. The press release from NOBI is below:

・NOBI raises US$4 million oversubscribed seed funding round from AC Ventures, with participation from AppWorks, Skystar Capital, Cakra Ventures, Global Founders Capital (GFC), and angel investors.

・Crypto transactions have grown 1,222% from US$ 4.6 billion (IDR 65 trillion) in 2020 to US$ 61.4 billion (IDR 859 trillion) in 2021. 

・NOBI helps people to go beyond buying and selling crypto but also earn passive income with competitive interest rates.

・With the  new funding, NOBI plans to further enhance their product and expand the team. 

・NOBI aims to provide easier access to crypto investments to achieve economic equality for everyone.

NOBI, a crypto asset management application that serves the needs of casual investors by offering a variety of easy and safe crypto investments, has announced that it has received a new funding round from AC Ventures. US$4 million has been raised in a seed funding round led by AC Ventures, followed by AppWorks, Skystar Capital, Cakra Ventures, and Global Founders Capital (GFC). In addition, some angel investors also participated in this funding.

As a leading crypto asset management company, NOBI aims to help casual investors to acquire crypto assets easily and safely. Currently, NOBI provides superior products in NOBI Pro, Earn, and Trade. These three products aim to make it easier for users to manage and grow their crypto assets to the fullest with best-in-class strategies.

NOBI is dedicated to helping casual investors who want to diversify their investments into crypto assets and non-traders who don’t have the time to actively manage their assets, free of charge and in an easy way.

“NOBI to the moon! This is a huge step for us. AC Ventures and the rest of our investors bring deep unrivaled experience in financial technology (fintech), investment, and crypto. This investment round shows their trust and commitment to what we can do to make a difference as the crypto and financial space starts to merge,” said Lawrence Samantha, Co-Founder & CEO, NOBI.

Based on data from the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (BAPPEBTI), the number of crypto investors in Indonesia in 2021 has reached 11.2 million people. The transaction value reached IDR 859.4 trillion throughout 2021. In comparison to 2020, there was an increase of 1,222%. Based on this statistical data, Crypto assets have clearly become one of Indonesia’s most favored investment categories.

As a result, we believe that everyone will be able to invest in crypto assets with ease and safety. We acknowledge that with easier access to crypto-asset investments, everyone may achieve economic equality, which is in line with NOBI’s vision and mission.

This funding is also a measure of NOBI’s success as Indonesia’s best crypto asset management company. AC Ventures, AppWorks, Skystar Capital, Cakra Ventures, and Global Founders Capital (GFC) are some of the well-known investment companies that have given their support and trust to NOBI to dedicate to becoming the best crypto asset management in Indonesia.

【If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with AI, Blockchain, and NFT, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the leading founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.】

Why We Invested: James Vuong, Founder and CEO of Infina
Sophie Chiu
February 15, 2022
in Investments

Sophie Chiu, Associate (邱敬媛 / 投資經理)

Sophie is an Associate in the investment team. Before joining AppWorks in 2020, Sophie had 10 years of experience covering public equities. She was part of the portfolio management team at Neuberger Berman, focusing on emerging market opportunities. Prior to that she served as a research analyst at Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, and London-based Autonomous Research. Sophie holds a Master of Finance with distinction from Warwick Business School and BS Finance from National Taiwan University. Her passion and expertise, however, extend far beyond just researching companies and industries. She is also an author of two published poetry books and holds a keen interest in human psychology and human behavior.

With global capital markets facing macro uncertainties, Vietnam is also showing signs of an overall slowdown. Despite this, the number of stock broker accounts opened by citizens of the social republic state is still growing nonstop, almost doubling from last year. This is the beauty of emerging markets where organic demand is still way underserved. No storm can stop people from wanting more services and products amid surging GDP growth, projected to increase 6.5% in 2023. FinTech and WealthTech startups are key on-ramps for newly minted mid-and-affluent class savers and investors, bringing abundance and access to the broader mass market.

While the broader market is cooling down, only visionaries have the will to stay as committed builders aiming for longer-term success. James Vuong, the Founder and CEO of Infina, excited us with his ambition and persistence in this field. James is not only an experienced founder with a successful exit but also a master of community building. In the world today, consumers and users are becoming savvier and require strong alignment from the services and products they buy. Almost every vertical needs to build strong community elements for success. These are the reasons why we are proud to be able to be supporting James on his journey, participating in Infina’s seed round financing. 

Seemingly smooth exit built from years of pivoting for ever stronger PMF

It is easy to introduce James as an experienced repeat-founder with a successful exit: Before Infina, James successfully sold Webtretho (WTT), an IDG-backed parenting forum, to LINE in 2017. However, it is more insightful to learn how much pivoting James had attempted before this exit. That demonstrated James’ keen observation of the market coming from a veteran VC investor himself, and also his strong grit to make things work.

WTT was actually one of the projects under Lana Group where James served as a CEO during 2012 to 2018. Under Lana Group, James initiated many startup ideas and pivoted, including a very capital-intensive e-commerce project. Eventually, James felt inspired by Reddit and saw the opportunity of social networks and social commerce in Vietnam. WTT built up and had 13 million unique visitors per month at its peak time, according to Similarweb.

Multiple failures at Lana’s early days and WTT’s successful exit taught James several things: (1) Focus on building products and solutions that users really need; (2) Build teams that have leadership qualities as well as a mindset of never-ending, learning & innovation; (3) Always experiment to find what works better with customers while allowing for faster growth and capital efficiency.

A great founder-market-fit for James to tackle WealthTech through Infina

After leaving LINE in 2018, James saw the rapid growth of the Vietnamese economy and how the middle and affluent class improved their lives. James asked himself two questions: (1) How can regular people benefit from the rise of Vietnam’s economy? (2) How can they take part in these asset classes that are not accessible? He then came up with the idea to help individual investors to invest in fractional real estate. This model works in mature markets. However, it never worked well in Vietnam as it was still too early. Individual investors weren’t aware or interested in the value of real estate, let alone having only a fraction of ownership.

In 2021, James pivoted and rebranded as ‘Infina’ to launch a Robinhood in Vietnam. The goal remains the same: to help Vietnamese people gain access to financial assets and enjoy economic growth. James realized that starting with more common asset classes, such as fixed income and equity, would be more effective than property. Once again, James knew how to build, adapt, always learn with a user-centric approach, and never give up on ultimate mission. 

In only 20 months, Infina has built strong traction with six-digit active funded accounts and tens of millions of assets under management, not much behind their peers launched much earlier. On top of having a very good platform itself, this success is also built on James’ ability to partner with other relevant parties, such as e-commerce giant Tiki, leading FinTech startups, and many well-known asset providers. Meanwhile, the wealth management business could easily fall into a commodity type of competition. The success of Robinhood and the rising crypto market teaches us, the investment community has become more important for the new era. This is where we see a strong founder-market-fit for James given his experiences of successfully building WTT to a large scale.

Burgeoning affluent class and their accumulating wealth in Vietnam

According to Euromonitor, Vietnam has the fastest-growing GDP (at 10%CAGR to 2025E) and fastest-growing mid-and-affluent class (at 9%CAGR) in the Southeast Asia region. While personal wealth builds up, only <6% of the population has a broker or wealth management account. At least 30 million people are considered middle and affluent class (annual disposable income higher than US$7.5K) and remain underserved.  

However, we do see Vietnamese being much more investment savvy. At a similar gross national income (GNI) per capita at US$3.5K, Vietnam already is much more advanced than the Philippines where the penetration is only <2%. The ratio is even higher than Thailand where the GNI per capita is double the level of Vietnam’s. However, compared to a bigger economy like China or India, the overall penetration of stock trading and mutual fund investment are way lower. This leads to our expectation that Vietnam is the market that should see faster growth and opportunity for WealthTech and FinTech companies. 

While it is still early in the game so that no single dominant player exists. We believe James’ experiences and strong community building skills could help Infina standout and shape a strong moat. As AppWorks is built by founders for founders, supporting great entrepreneurs is at our core. We are proud to have this chance to back James and the Infina team. Together with our ecosystem of 400 active startups, we look forward to supporting James’ vision and Infina’s road ahead.

[If you are a founder working on a startup in SEA, or working with Web3 and AI / IoT, apply to AppWorks Accelerator to join the largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.]