Shroom for sustainability
- Vegan, cruelty-free leather that isn’t synthetic? 500-backed startup Mycotech Lab (MYCL) has just the thing for you.
- Launched in 2016, MYCL cultivates mycelia (a type of fungus) as a substitute for animal-based leather. Currently, MYCL’s materials are used by brands to manufacture wallets, watches, and shoes.
- According to co-founder Adi Reza Nugroho, every product sold by the company has a 40–30% profit margin. He added that the startup has secured orders to keep them busy until 2027.
- Because of the heavy volume of orders, the production unit is running to its full capacity. Adi shared that the startup has plans to expand its production facilities, which will enable the team to serve more customers and bring more products to the market.
Keeping it clean
- 500-backed online marketplace Carousell announced a 67% decrease in fraud rate on its platform in 2020, the lowest-ever recorded by the startup.
- In the last quarter of 2020, the rate dipped to 0.026% — this means only about two to three in every 10,000 transactions on its marketplace were fraudulent.
- How did the startup achieve this? In addition to employing artificial intelligence and digital fingerprinting technology, Carousell doubled its content moderating team’s size to ensure manual moderation speed.
Driving healthcare equality
- 500-backed super app Grab launched a region-wide Covid-19 vaccination program aimed at increasing vaccine access and education.
- The startup will roll out policies to support convenient access to the Covid-19 vaccine, encouraging its drivers and delivery partners to get vaccinated. These policies include subsidies and medical leaves.
- It will also work closely with local governments to combat misinformation and boost public confidence in Covid-19 vaccines.
- Grab aims to reach fully-vaccinated status for all Grab employees, Grab drivers, and delivery partners by the end of 2022.
Missed out the last Daily Markup? Go here to check it out.
You can also find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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.
This post is intended solely for general informational or educational purposes only. 500 Startups Management Company, L.L.C. and its affiliates (collectively “500 Startups”) makes no representation as to the accuracy or information in this post and while reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that the information herein is accurate and up-to-date, no liability can be accepted for any error or omissions. All third party links in this post have not been independently verified by 500 Startups and the inclusion of such links should not be interpreted as an endorsement or confirmation of the content within. Information about portfolio companies’ markets, competitors, performance, and fundraising has been provided by those companies’ founders and has not been independently verified. Under no circumstances should any content in this post be construed as investment, legal, tax or accounting advice by 500 Startups, or an offer to provide any investment advisory service with regard to securities by 500 Startups. No content or information in this post should be construed as an offer to sell or solicitation of interest to purchase any securities advised by 500 Startups. Prospective investors considering an investment into any 500 Startups fund should not consider or construe this content as fund marketing material. The views expressed herein are as at the date of this post and are subject to change without notice. One or more 500 Startups fund may have a financial interest in one or more of the companies discussed.
