Editor’s note: AppWorks is proud to be participating in Pace’s Series A. Together with our founder community with more than 400 startups, we’d be helping team Pace paving their way to enter Taiwan market. The press release from Pace as below:

・Series A investors include Japan’s Marubeni Ventures, South Korea’s Atinum Partners, Taiwan’s AppWorks, Indonesia’s Alpha JWC, and Singapore’s UOB Venture Management, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia, and Genesis Alternative Ventures

・Funding from local investors supports and strengthens Pace to forge ahead with its expansionary plans to Japan, Korea, and Taiwan

・Pace took only a year to grow into a Pan-Asian BNPL provider and is on track to hit Gross Merchandise Value run rate of USD1 billion in 2022

Pace, a Singapore-based fintech solution company that allows customers to ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ (BNPL), today announced that it has raised USD40 million in its Series A investment round. Investors that joined the round include UOB Venture Management (Singapore), Marubeni Ventures (Japan), Atinum Partners (SouthKorea), AppWorks (Taiwan), and a series of family offices from Japan and Indonesia. Previous investors, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia, Alpha JWC, and Genesis Alternative Ventures also participated.

Turochas ‘T’ Fuad, Founder and CEO of Pace, said: “This investment from some of the most successful and established investors signals confidence that Pace is a leading BNPL player in Asia. The region is expected to become the world’s fastest-growing BNPL market, and this funding supports Pace in achieving its mission of democratizing financial services for all, by helping us pave our expansion into Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.”

“We are impressed by Pace and the founder’s clear vision, rapid growth, and experience not only in BNPL payments but in its progress in creating financial inclusion, and remain confident in their ability to revolutionize financial services. With this funding, we are excited to join them on their journey forward,” said Paul Ng, Executive Director at UOB Venture Management.

Joon Oh, Executive Director, Atinum Partners Co., Ltd, commented: “The financial services industry in Asia is shifting dynamically, but Pace has managed to establish primacy in markets by tapping into local consumer curves to establish itself as a dominant player with its clear vision. Through this funding, we hope for Pace to continue empowering more people across Asia with innovative fintech services.”

Following this investment round, Pace is now the fastest growing multi-territory BNPL player from Singapore. The new funding will go towards expanding technology, operations, and business development, to hit a Gross Merchandise Value run rate of USD1 billion in 2022 and grow its user base by 25X over the next 12 months.

To date, Pace has more than 3,000 points-of-sale across the region, driven by Pace’s ability to increase overall sales up to 25% by leveraging local customer insights, while driving repeat purchases from Pace’s fast-growing base of users.

Chua Joo Hock, Managing Partner of Vertex Ventures SEA and India, added: “Since leading its seed round, we have seen Pace grow by leaps and bounds. It has demonstrated excellence in expanding its users and merchants significantly to become a leading regional BNPL player. BNPL will become more prevalent in Asia, and our continuing funding in Pace reaffirms our belief in the strong execution capability of T and his team, and the hyper- growth prospects of the Company.”

Launched in 2021 by Turochas ‘T’ Fuad, Pace has successfully grown its overseas operations by working closely with regulators and adapting ultra-local approaches, such as integrating frequently used in-market payment methods to build resonance with merchants and shoppers. It will continue to replicate a hyperlocal framework as it goes live in new countries.

Currently, Pace allows consumers to split their purchase bills into three equal interest-free payments over 60 days, through an omnichannel experience that helps consumers spend sustainably.

Pace aims to create financial inclusion for consumers in the region, by helping them take control and shop on their terms, while helping merchants meet the increasing consumer demand and scale sales efficiencies.

About Pace

Pace is a fast-growing multi-territory fintech solutions company from Singapore with a mission to democratize financial services across Asia. It aims to build a banking engine that can operate across countries easily to help merchants create sales efficiencies and provide consumers with an option to spend sustainably. Its “Buy Now Pay Later” (BNPL) solution for offline and online merchants matches customers with appropriate spend limits and allows them to split their purchases over three equal interest-free payments. Pace currently operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Thailand. For more information about Pace and how it sets out to achieve its vision to become Asia’s future digital banking engine, visit https://pacenow.co/.

【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.】

Editor’s note: Congratulations Tiki on closing their latest round of financing, we are thrilled to back Tiki. Looking forward to collaborating with the team in the future. The press release from Tiki as below:

Tiki, the all-in-one e-commerce and supply chain has announced the completion of $258 million investment into Vietnam with its 5th funding round.

Led by AIA Company Limited, this investment also had the participation of a global, diversified set of experienced investors in e-commerce and digital economies such as Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, Taiwan Mobile, AppWorks, Yuanta Fund, and STIC Investments – one of the largest investment firms in South Korea, also Tiki’s current shareholder.

Despite global market uncertainties, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic in the last 2 years, Tiki has consistently achieved double-digit growth. In Q3 2021, significant sales increases were recognized within most of the marketplace’s products and services. The fresh grocery delivery service TikiNGON set a new record with an exceptional year-over-year growth of 2,000%. TikiNOW 2H, the super fast delivery subscription service, tripled its active user base. TikiPRO, the scheduled delivery, and installation service also enjoyed a 150% increase in gross merchandise volume y.o.y.

During the pandemic, users appreciate Tiki’s continuous effort to double its selection and triple its product categories, particularly in TikiNGON’s menu, a timely response to customers’ urgent need of fresh/grocery delivery. For merchants and businesses, the e-commerce platform also ramped up its TikiNOW express delivery offerings, logistics capabilities, a competitive listing fee as well as other value-added services. Tiki is also known as the pioneer in adopting innovations like automation and robotics, which helped double its fulfillment capabilities.

Tiki dedicates the $258 million investment to logistics and “Make in Vietnam” technologies – which are two cornerstones in its value propositions as a leading digital platform. The investment not only emphasizes Tiki’s vision of being an integrated infrastructure of choice for all customer and business needs but also reaffirms the commitment of Tiki to grow Vietnam’s digital economy.

On the digital services front, Tiki collaborates with AIA to develop an insurtech platform offering a wide portfolio of insurance products and financial services, aiming to help customers save significant time and effort in a 10-year comprehensive exclusive agreement. The project will be officially kicked off upon the launch of AIA’s health insurance products on Tiki, tentatively by the end of this December. With this solution in place, customers will be able to consult insurance offers as well as make insurance claims directly right on the platform.

“We always have a unfazed conviction and passion about the potential and growth of Vietnam’s e-commerce and digital economy. The $258 million investment dedicated only to Vietnam proves Tiki’s long-term commitment to building world-class infrastructure, whether they are technologies, supply chain capabilities, talents development, and jobs creation… to turn potential into reality, hence creating sustainable values for Vietnamese users and businesses. We are humbled and greatly appreciate our investors who share the same vision, and the trust they place in Tiki’s members, Vietnam market, and talents” – said Tran Ngoc Thai Son, Founder, CEO of Tiki.

“This unique and first-to-market partnership starts a new era of personal life insurance in Vietnam. Together, united by a shared vision to deliver seamless health and protection to Vietnamese families, we will focus on three distinct areas: Lifestyle benefits and innovative distribution; distinctive digital health & wellness offerings, and other financial & e-commerce propositions. We believe with Tiki’s existing assets and market leadership, we can bring an accessible and enhanced customer service proposition to make a positive difference in the lives of the people of Việt Nam. We are very excited to extend AIA’s Vietnam’s market leadership and work together with our partner, Tiki.” – said Wayne Besant, Chief Executive Officer of AIA Vietnam.

“We have a very positive outlook for Vietnam’s economy, digital transformation, and e-commerce growth. In particular, as a leading local e-commerce company in Vietnam, Tiki is providing differentiated and valuable services to Vietnamese consumers. Tiki has been improving the credibility and convenience of Vietnam’s e-commerce market through its high-quality products offering and fast and accurate delivery. Today, we are witnessing the rapid advancement of technology-led disruption of the consumer sector and we see Tiki as one of the companies that can lead this wave and growth in the area. Further to Tiki, Mirae Asset and Naver plan to more aggressively expand its investment in Vietnam’s advanced tech companies in the future.” – said Jikwang Chung, Managing Director, Mirae Asset Capital, the strategic investment arm of Mirae Asset.

“We are extremely excited to be part of Tiki’s growth journey. We look forward to the partnership between Taiwan Mobile/Momo(*) and Tiki, and aim to provide the best products and services to our customers.” – Tim Lee, Vice President, Taiwan Mobile.

“STIC Investment first invested in Tiki since Series C in 2018 and keeps supporting them by an additional investment each year. Tiki’s customer loyalty, high-quality product, and delivery, as well as proven operational performance, gave us strong confidence for this round. We are always willing to have a long-term partnership with companies in Vietnam with the strong management team, sustainable competitive advantages, and high growth potential.” – said Hongjin Kim, Managing Director, STIC Investments.

“AppWorks are proud to support Tiki on their journey going forward. Tiki has been a long-term infrastructure builder for 11 years in order to provide better service to its customers. With the rapid growth of Vietnam’s eCommerce, customer satisfaction is the foundation of competitiveness. We believe Tiki will nail it with their innovation and execution.” – said Jessica Liu, Partner at AppWorks.

Founded in 2010, with 11 years of establishment and development, Tiki has become the leading e-commerce Vietnamese platform with up to 4.000 employees and 20 million registered customers. Tiki ecosystem includes the e-commerce marketplace Tiki with up to 30 diverse categories, Tiki Trading – a retail subsidiary with millions of authentic products, and TikiNOW Smart Logistics – an integrated supply chain platform owning 20 Fulfillment Centers and Warehouses with a total area of nearly 80.000 m2.

With a strong commitment to delivering authentic products at competitive prices, together with fast delivery, Tiki has achieved remarkable milestones with numerous awards, including The most trusted e-commerce marketplace (Nielsen, 2019), Top 10 Best Brands in Vietnam (YouGov, 2020), and Top 1 E-commerce Brand with best customer experience (KPMG, 2020).

 (*) Momo mentioned is the leading e-commerce platform in Taiwan.

About Tiki:

Tiki is a leading all-in-one commerce platform in Vietnam, including the trusted e-commerce marketplace, TikiNOW Smart Logistics – an integrated supply chain platform, and Tiki Trading – a retail subsidiary.

Tiki stands for “Tim Kiem” (Searching) and “Tiet Kiem” (Saving), which is also the vision and mission for the business: becoming a destination where customers can search for anything they want, save their time and budget.

【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 largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.】

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.

Last month we at AppWorks proudly announced our investment in Jimmy’s Petreus’s iSeller, a SaaS provider in Indonesia. Coming on the heels of that deal, we closed another investment in an Indonesian AgriTech startup called Eden Farm, co-leading its $19M Series A alongside existing backer AC Ventures.

David Gunawan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Eden Farm, who joined up with Ramavito Mountaino (CFO) and Febrianto Gamal (COO) to change the way food is distributed in Indonesia. The trio had been together for several years since their previous startup, SAFE Logistics, which eventually folded but taught them numerous valuable lessons and made them better founders. In Team Eden Farm, we recognize very rare but crucial co-founder dynamics and bonding, resulting in a balanced and powerful leadership combo. On the macro side, considering Indonesia offers the most fertile land in Southeast Asia for AgriTech startups to thrive, we decided to back David, Ramavito, and Febrianto in sowing the seeds for Eden Farm’s future growth.

Tight-knit bonds forged by a bumpy founder journey

Coming from a humble background, David inherited the entrepreneurial bug from his family, instilling in him a desire to one day start his own business. He persuaded his MBA classmate Ramavito to quit an assistant portfolio manager job at Manulife to start SAFE Logistics, an on-demand logistics service. At the same time, another MBA classmate Febrianto advised on financial matters while working full-time at EY. SAFE Logistics had a rough path and eventually failed. At one point, David and Ramavito were surrounded by hundreds of angry drivers asking for payment. It was eventually resolved and this unique experience and the whole startup journey taught them hardknock lessons, helping them gain a greater understanding and appreciation for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. 

While SAFE Logistics failed, the experience working with several AgriTech startups in Indonesia led David to realize the vast opportunities in this field. Although there seemed to be many incumbents along the entire value chain, David was determined to build an ultimate consolidator in the upstream segment of fresh produce. Ramavito, as a solid financial projector behind David’s ambition, also agreed on the enormous hidden (or lost) value lurking within the highly fragmented and long agricultural supply chain. In need of capital, the pair turned to their old pal Febrianto, who promptly quit his job and committed startup capital into the company. Being the most rigorous, Febrianto became the ideal person to wear a COO hat and focus strictly on operation and execution, giving birth to the “big three” for what would become Eden Farm.

Methodical go-to-market strategy with grassroots wisdom

The trio established Eden Farm in June 2017, with an ambition to become the ultimate upstream consolidator and drive their vision of “Feeding the Nation.” Consolidating Indonesia’s agriculture supply chain is not an easy task—requiring intensive operational involvement and engagement with several layers of industry stakeholders. 

To address Indonesia’s complex and fragmented agriculture landscape, Eden Farm developed a multi-layered go-to-market strategy, building up supply in phases alongside demand. Eden Farm does not remove layers of suppliers just for the sake of it. It’s a methodical approach designed to help manage capital efficiently while testing each new market. For each layer of distribution down to the production level, Eden Farm works tirelessly to communicate with stakeholders from their own perspectives and build communities, all in an effort to foster a grassroots sense of trust and collaboration. 

Eden Farm focuses on product diversification. Instead of relying on a small handful of GMV-driven items, Eden Farm’s SKU spread is much more balanced. This has created a  healthy foundation for the company, demonstrating the team’s long-term vision of sustainable growth over short-term quick gains. The company’s client portfolio is also well-diversified, including warungs, individual and chain restaurants, wholesalers, and e-grocery startups. 

As a result, Eden Farm helped increase farmers’ income by two fold and reduced food costs by at least 30%. The company now serves more than 53,000 customers by working with over 2,000 farmers across Java, equipped with five fulfillment centers. As of September 2021, Eden Farm is supported by 400 key partners to ensure reliable product supply. 

Strong founder-market fit in the AgriTech industry

Agriculture represents one of the main pillars of Indonesia’s economy, contributing 14% of the GDP while occupying 30% of the land and 12% of the workforce. The industry however suffers from fragmented distribution and operational inefficiencies, leading to  reduced margins and poor transparency. With so many challenges to address, Indonesia’s agriculture sector may be the most fertile soil for startups to experiment with innovative business models and technology. It is also so massive—with US$140 billion in production—that it can allow startups to focus solely on key segments instead of the whole value chain. However, AgriTech isn’t exactly considered a sexy business in the VC world because the operational complexity ultimately involves a high degree of integration with the physical economy.  

Having briefly worked as farmers themselves, David, Ramavito, and Febri possess immense local wisdom and diligence in working with stakeholders across the agricultural value chain, effectively bringing a new business model to an old industry. 

While consumer e-grocery models tend to receive better attention, we see the potential in Eden Farm becoming a powerful enabler behind them in the long run. We admire the three co-founders’ foresight, impressive level of strategic thinking, and relentless execution.  AppWorks is built by founders, for founders—we are all about supporting great entrepreneurs as they solve big problems and elevate the community they serve. We see great things ahead for the Eden Farm “big three” and are incredibly excited to help support them make this great impact.

【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 largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.】

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.

Today, we’re proud to officially announce our investment in Jimmy Petrus, the founder/CEO of iSeller, and play a role in helping him digitalize Indonesian MSMEs through technology. When we first met Jimmy earlier this year, we were particularly enamored by his longstanding and obsessive passion for software products, clearly setting him apart in the market with superb founder-market-fit for the business SaaS world where relentless product iteration is critical. 

Opportunities to build technical companies have long been overlooked in Indonesia. With nearly 60% of economic growth powered by private consumption, catering to individual consumers is understandably the lower-hanging fruit—evidently, five out of the country’s seven unicorns are consumer tech companies. The pendulum however is swinging as the ecosystem matures. 

iSeller is a rapidly growing technical startup that has been leading the charge. Its current form is a product of a key pivot that took place four years ago. Before that, iSeller was a decade-old software development house known as Intersoft Solutions, trusted by global names such as Citi, Intel, Philips, NASDAQ, Boeing, Microsoft, and others. Accumulating experience catering to top-tier international clients bestowed iSeller with a strong foundation and talent pool to capture much bigger growth opportunities. With engineering talent always at a premium in Indonesia, iSeller’s global product development experience makes the company a gem.

An engineer by trade, builder at heart

Jimmy’s dream is to make iSeller a household name just like Microsoft for PC—an ambition planted long ago when he was a computer science student at INTI College in Malaysia. Jimmy started to take on projects and build products for other college students, discovering the beauty in craftsmanship and that software development can be a powerful tool to decode and solve problems. After school, Jimmy gained experience as a software engineer in his hometown Medan. At age 25, Jimmy built his first company, Intersoft Solutions, in 2003. 

At Intersoft Solutions, Jimmy built numerous products for enterprises from around the world. This hands-on experience equipped Jimmy with the ability to deliver high-quality software. The company bootstrapped until 2015 when Jimmy realized they could do more. Witnessing the success of Square and Shopify in the West (IPO in 2015), Jimmy saw an opportunity to bring similar solutions to Indonesia. iSeller was born the next year, becoming a first mover in the omnichannel SaaS space for retail and F&B merchants. More importantly, the entire Intersoft Solution team followed Jimmy, validating his leadership and buy-in of his vision.

As a product-obsessed founder, Jimmy has executed iterations at an unparalleled velocity, no doubt owing to his relentless focus on understanding and meeting user needs. Earnest feedback from customers has helped him prioritize key features and design future road maps at a nimble pace. Although Square and Shopify may have provided blueprints for success, Jimmy is designing his own playbook to cater to the unique needs of Indonesian customers. 

A holistic solution for omnichannel demand 

Unlike in the West, digital transformation in Asia doesn’t happen gradually but suddenly. This is why iSeller, since day one, has prioritized the seamless synchronization between their online sales toolkits and offline POS system, with payments serving as a basic utility. In 2021, iSeller launched a new feature that integrates all of Indonesia’s major marketplaces, such as Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, GrabFood, and GrabExpress. Merchants can manage and operate their offline and online businesses at the same time on one single platform. The upcoming new product, iSeller Go, brings ease to social sellers, integrating major social media platforms such as Google, Facebook, and Instagram. These product developments originate from having a product-obsessive founder who constantly observes user behavior and market demand with first-hand data. Jimmy is essentially proposing a holistic solution to all businesses in Indonesia, aiming to become a super app to empower merchants.

iSeller’s obsession for customer satisfaction is reflected in the company’s traction—seeing an increase of more than 300% year-on-year (YoY) in the number of merchant acquisitions and annual revenue in the past 12 months. The iSeller platform is trusted by more than 60,000 business owners in Indonesia, including several well-established brands such as SOGO, OMNILUXE, MOI, Damn! I love Indonesia, IT Gallery, United Bike, Asuransi Sinarmas, MOVI, HMNS, ASHTA, Lemonilo, and Peripera. iSeller achieved this remarkable traction with a fraction of the engineer headcount of their major peers, demonstrating iSeller’s strong R&D capabilities.

Enabling Indonesia’s next stage of e-commerce growth

According to Euromonitor, Indonesia boasts the highest e-commerce penetration rate in Southeast Asia at 18%, a rate often twice as high as other countries in the region. However, the majority of volume is generated by e-commerce giants such as GoTo, Shopee, and others. We see this as a signal of immense untapped potential in Indonesia’s e-commerce industry. The next wave of growth is coming from the digitization of merchants. Indonesian merchants are highly internet-savvy and want to directly interact with and own their client base—helping improve customer service and business outcomes. We expect more independent merchants and sellers to embrace omnichannel solutions, setting up their own sales channels on top of leveraging network effects created by e-commerce platforms. 

These tailwinds have given rise to many upstarts in Indonesia’s SaaS and POS space over the past 36 months. iSeller is an early mover and the ultimate team we expect to best capture the overall market opportunity. Jimmy’s experience, execution, and ambition are crucial factors for us in building such conviction. As AppWorks is also built by founders, supporting great entrepreneurs is our core investment thesis. We are proud to have this chance to back Jimmy and the iSeller team. Together with our ecosystem of 400 active startups, as well as our AppWorks School for engineers, we look forward to supporting Jimmy’s vision and iSeller’s road ahead.

【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 largest founder community in Greater Southeast Asia.】