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Daily Markup #236: The Happy5 pill for performing people; How Wallex grew to over US$1.7b in transactions; Haulio on uplifting Singapore truckers

500 Southeast Asia Team

Published

19.04.21

In this issue of Daily Markup, we shine a spotlight on 500-backed founders. Read on for our roundup of interviews with Doni Priliandi of Happy5, Hiro Kiga of Wallex, and Alvin Ea of Haulio.

Credit: WeTalk

Happiness at work

  • Founder and CEO of 500-backed employee management platform Happy5 Doni Priliandi was featured in a WeTalk podcast about the startup’s journey so far from its inception in 2014.
  • Happy5 was named after the startup’s goal of creating a happy 5-day work week for employees. It does this via two mobile apps — Happy5 Culture, a social media-inspired communication platform, and Happy5 Performance, a performance management platform.
  • According to Doni, without spending anything on sales or marketing, the startup saw a growth of 4x in 2020 because of the pandemic. He believes more companies are acknowledging that employee happiness is not a once-a-year or one-off initiative.
  • Listen to the full episode on WeTalk here.
Credit: ContentGrip

A simple way to success

  • Hiro Kiga, co-founder and COO of 500-backed fintech startup Wallex shared his growth hacks that have led to over US$1.7 billion in transactions from more than 19,000 customers.
  • Wallex currently operates in four Asian countries. Its priority before entering a new market? Securing all required regulatory licences. “There needs to be a certain level of trust when we want to handle people’s money,” Hiro explained.
  • He also relied on his tech venture capital network as a way to get introduced to new clients. “After seeing new investment rounds, I would reach out to the investors and congratulate them. Then, I would ask if they could introduce me to the startup because I have a way to help them save costs on foreign exchange.”
  • Read the full interview on ContentGrip here.
Credit: The Asian Entrepreneur

An industry overhaul

  • Alvin Ea, co-founder & CEO of 500-backed logistics startup Haulio appeared on Money FM 89.3, a business radio station in Singapore.
  • Haulio’s mission is to uplift the lives of millions of drivers in logistics. Technology can help businesses know where their trucks are, deploy their fleet efficiently, and so on.
  • Alvin shared that while the industry at large is having conversations around “Trucking 4.0”, many industry players in Singapore are still operating in an archaic manner and Haulio’s goal is to bring them to Trucking 2.0 in the first place, by eliminating pen and paper and introducing companies to tools that can bring them online.
  • Listen to the full interview on Money FM 89.3 here.

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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.

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.

500 Southeast Asia Team