Revving up for a new era
- According to research, the global used car market is seeing a faster recovery rate from the pandemic compared to new cars. The increased demand has been fuelled by avoidance of public transportation due to hygiene concerns and tighter consumer budgets.
- This shift has also been noted by 500-backed Carsome, which recently completed its Series D fundraising. The startup closed US$30 million — “one of the largest all-equity financings to-date in Southeast Asia’s online automotive industry”.
- “Over the past six months, we have doubled our monthly revenue compared to pre-pandemic levels, a dramatic acceleration due to the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on consumer behavior across our region,” Eric Cheng, co-founder and group CEO said, “Consumers across our core markets of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore are increasingly purchasing cars to keep their families safe and adapt their businesses.”
- What’s next for the startup? Strengthening its regional leadership team in the consumer-to-business (C2B) segment and ramping up its business-to-consumer (B2C) segment.
- Founded in Malaysia in 2015, Carsome has since grown into a 1,000-strong workforce operating across Southeast Asia. According to a press statement, the platform sees 70,000 cars totaling US$600 million in transacted value annually. Just last month, it announced its 100,000th car sold through its platform.
- In Q3 2020, Carsome recorded its highest revenue quarter since inception, a number doubled from the pre-pandemic period.
- The startup also claims to have achieved operational profitability as of October, “ahead of earlier projections”.
- Juliet Zhu, Carsome Group Chief Financial Officer added, “Our Series D round will further support potential merger and acquisition opportunities in acquiring ancillary capabilities and consolidating our supply chain.”
- Congratulations to the Carsome team!
Curbing disease digitally
- Thanks to its strong response to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic, Cambodia has successfully reduced the annual number of new infections from 21,000 in 1995 to under 1,000 cases in 2019.
- In its latest efforts to manage the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the Cambodian Ministry of Health partnered with 500-backed digital healthcare platform mClinica, among other organizations, to increase access to HIV prevention, testing, and treatment, as well as HIV education using the startup’s digital pharmacy platform SwipeRx.
- According to the startup, there are 170,000 pharmacy operators on the app across Southeast Asia and currently connects more than half of all pharmacy professionals in Cambodia.
- Earlier this year, SwipeRx was approved by the Pharmacy Council of Cambodia to become the country’s first digital provider of continuing professional development in the industry. For the first time, pharmacy professionals were able to update their skills and knowledge via online learning, free of charge.
- Its analytics engine was also leveraged to conduct a survey digitally to understand the barriers and opportunities pharmacies faced in helping stop the spread of HIV and other STIs.
- Insights obtained from the survey led to the development of training content to address the gaps identified among the country’s pharmacy professionals. Via the app, an awareness campaign and additional learning content were deployed to educate on the importance of their roles.
- In the first seven weeks of the campaign, more than 76,000 points of exposure to HIV-related content were made available on the app and SwipeRx’s social media channels. This was followed by an assessment accredited by the Pharmacy Council of Cambodia.
- In 2019, SwipeRx was also accredited by the Malaysian Academy of Pharmacy for the continued education of the country’s pharmacists.
A model in molecular work
- Founder and CEO Dr. Mohammad H. D. A. Farahani of 500-backed SEPPURE was recently recognized as Innovator of the Year in the Singapore Business Review (SBR) Management Excellence Awards 2020.
- Every year, the publication awards outstanding firms, leaders, and teams in the country. In its sixth year, SBR also honored those who continued to excel in the midst of the pandemic.
- SEPPURE is a chemical technology startup that develops sustainable nano-filters that are able to separate chemical mixtures using minimal energy.
- Nanofiltration is often employed in the food and dairy sector and in the pulp and paper industry, but it is most commonly used in the treatment of fresh, process and waste waters.
- The startup’s invention eliminates the use of heat in the process, which accounts for 15% of the world’s energy consumption.
- According to its website, SEPPURE’s sustainable alternative can “conserve billions of gallons of water, millions of tonnes in volatile organic compound emissions and billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere every single year.”
- Founded in 2018, Dr. Farahani started working on this technology in his PhD days at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
- This year, he was also honored by MIT Technology Review’s Innovators under 35 and Tatler Asia for reducing environmental waste through his innovations.
- Congratulations Dr. Farahani and SEPPURE!
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500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. In Southeast Asia, 500 Startups invests through the pioneering 500 Southeast Asia family of funds. The 500 Southeast Asia funds have backed over 240 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed.
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