Giving farmers a sales boost
- Indian farmers are getting access to new channels which allow them to sell their high-quality produce to businesses & processors globally. 500-backed agritech startup FarMart has acqui-hired fruits and vegetables (F&V) logistics platform, Subjimandi.app to enable this.
- Its goal? In addition to optimizing its logistics, the startup plans to expand its product portfolio by entering into the F&V categories.
- This move is part of FarMart’s vision to create India’s largest food supply platform.
- V.S.Vivek, founder and head at Subjimandi.app, said, “We look forward to now doubling down and focusing on building for commodity logistics with a larger canvas and faster pace. FarMart is best positioned to build the largest food supply chain company and we are stoked to now contribute to its growth.”
- Read the full article here.
The growing billion-dollar club
- Southeast Asia is home to 35 unicorns and counting, reports FinanceAsia. Among them are several 500-backed startups, including Bukalapak, Grab, and Malaysia’s first unicorn Carsome.
- “The start-up ecosystem has come full circle. We’ve gone from an environment of young start-ups to those pushing for growth and ending up as billion-dollar companies,” said Vishal Harnal, managing partner at 500 Global, the firm with enough foresight to have established early relationships with each.
- One of 500 Southeast Asia’s investment focus is rural digitization. The team believes that much potential lies outside metropolitan cities and these areas could contribute to further regional growth.
- “We are investing more in Vietnam and the Philippines due to potential opportunity, and we continue to invest in Malaysia because we believe it is underinvested,” Vishal added.
- Read the full story here.
Building better cities with data
- Cha-Ly Koh, founder and CEO of 500-backed Malaysian startup Urbanmetry appeared on Singapore’s MoneyFM to share how data collected by the company can help with building sustainable cities.
- Urbanmetry supplies data on property supply and demand, as well as pricing to key stakeholders such as banks, the government, and property developers.
- Their work allows them to make better decisions about where to invest and how to price homes.
- The startup also launched NowCast, an AI-driven service for homebuyers. It forecasts the value of their homes based on machine learning from 90 city data variables, bringing better transparency, accuracy, and efficiency to the industry.
- Listen to the full interview here.
