Category: Startup

Chinese honeymoon-themed hotel Shilili secures US$14 million round led by Matrix Partners China

Shilili Hotel, a romance-themed chain hotel operator in China has today secured a RMB100 million (about US$14 million) Series A round led by Matrix Partners China.

This investment round follows a RMB30 million (about US$2 million) Pre-A funding round from Li Chi, a renowned Chinese individual venture investor, and his capital management firm – Co-Power Capital Management Co., Ltd. in July 2016.

Founded in 2013, Shilili targets millennials, referencing to young adults born in the 80s and 90s. More specifically, its prospects include young women or couples who are romantics, providing them a hotel concept, product design, and service experience surrounding a luxurious romantic ideal.

“The hotel industry is witnessing a change in taste whereby a unique personalised accommodation is in trend, accompanied by an increase in consumer’s expenditure,” said Xu Xinming, the founder of Shilili. “Traditional hotels now lacks these qualities, and Shilili is set up to target new millennial consumers, with love and beauty as the core concept of the hotel.”

Shilili offers three different themes, that is the Honeymoon Inn, in addition to the Art Hotel and Love Utopia which will be introduced in 2017. The Art Hotel will create a range of aesthetic elements in the exhibition hall, while Love Utopia will feature romantic scenic villages.

In terms of pricing, the Honeymoon Inn rooms are priced between RMB1000 to RMB1500 (about US$145 to US$218) while the Art Hotel is priced at RMB2000 (about US$291) and above.

At present, Shilili operates seven hotels, with a total number of 200 rooms and an average occupancy rate of 90 percent. Six hotels are located in the Yunnan province while one can be found in the Guangxi province. The current management team has about 20 people, which are mostly born in the 80s and 90s.

With the latest proceedings, Shilili will use the capital to upgrade their products as well as to obtain new customers. Shilili also plans to establish an additional 40 to 50 hotels this year, including three Art Hotels and three Love Utopia-themed hotels across the country.

The company targets its annual revenue to reach RMB200 million (about US$28 million) in 2017.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

SportsPlay acquires Jogo to bring Malaysian sport fans a better platform

SportsPlay, a sport-matching app that helps discover sports partners in a wide range of sports has recently announced the acquisition of Jogo to bring forth a singular sporting app to provide a better platform experience than before.

With their services ranged around similar premises, Jogo is considered a competitor as well as a suitable partner to SportsPlay in support of providing local sports fans with a smoother platform to enhance their playing experience.

Details of the transaction were not disclosed but assets acquired by SportsPlay includes Jogo’s smart booking system, league management system, sports facilities management system and its current users base.

Pro-acquisition, these Jogo-related assets and businesses will also be rebranded and merged into SportsPlay as one business entity and SportsPlay will also reach an undisclosed 7-figure valuation.

“We are delighted with this merger as it will boost up our business scaling and acquisition of great experienced talents into the company management,” said SportsPlay’s CEO Jin Tan. “Grassroot sports development is an important part of why we do what we do, and this deal will supercharge our efforts to build a stronger, more robust community of sports enthusiasts and sports industry. It’sti a win-win deal.”

Both startups were founded around the same time back in June 2016 and share the same mission of providing a solid solution for current sports businesses which still faces a lot of offline challenges.

SportsPlay is a mobile app that connects users interested in a variety of sports, working through matching users with other individuals who are on the lookout for players to join in on a match in addition to the function of finding sports venues within nearby vicinity.

The app currently has over 10,000 users signed up with more than 30 facilities partners on board nationwide and received initial funding from TinkBig Venture. In addtion to individual users, SportsPlay also aids sports facilities in addressing off-peak hours where court utilization can prove to be a challenge.

On the other hand, Jogo allowed users to book sports courts through its mobile app and gave court operators the opportunity to manage their sports venue through an easy-to-use dashboard. The platform was involved in several local leagues in Klang Valley and helped to manage them through their league management system.

“Both companies wanted to solve problems in sports but our solutions came from different directions and different angles. We noticed that we needed some extra solutions to grow stronger, bigger and faster. So SportsPlay decided to acquire Jogo to put everything under one roof and come out as a more solid solution,” said Jin.

Since Jogo will be rebranded as SportsPlay, their existing users will be directed to that app instantly. Those already using SportsPlay will see no drastic change but the platform will have more features alongside more new members.

Speaking on the merger, Vimal Kumar, the Co-founder and COO of Jogo said, “Jogo has technological expertise in high end management system, providing online solutions for sports leagues and competitions in the Klang Valley, while SportsPlay boasts an extensive user base and exposure to other sports. Pairing the two will allow both parties realise incredible synergies for the benefit of sports lovers all across Malaysia.”

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Indonesian Moka raises US$2 million round led by Mandiri Capital

Moka, a Jakarta-based point-of-sale app operator has just received US$2 million in a funding round led by Mandiri Capital, with participation from existing investors Convergence Ventures, East Ventures, Fenox VC, and Northstar Group.

“We believe that Bank Mandiri’s vast network of small and medium enterprise (SME) merchants will benefit from our POS and payment solution. We look forward to working with Mandiri Capital to empower local businesses in Indonesia,” said Moka’s CEO and Co-founder Haryanto Tanjo.

This investment round comes in less than a year following a US$1.9 million, East Ventures-led Series A round secured by Moka in June last year which also saw participation from Convergence Ventures, Fenox VC, Northstar Group, and Wavemaker Partners.

Moka plans to use the fresh funding to speed up product development, as well as to attract “the best talents” to help the process, in addition to offering new vertical-specific features for F&B, retail, and service industries.

Founded in July 2014, Moka provides an end-to-end POS and payment solution that caters to small and medium businesses in Indonesia. The service consists of an Android/iOS app used by store cashiers and a web back-office that enables SMEs to access data such as sales reports, inventory, and customer feedback in real-time.

“We acquire merchants through a mix of online and offline marketing. We have a strong sales team that gives product demo to merchants and a support or implementation team that brings merchants onboard,” Tanjo explains.

At present, the startup’s SME clients are spread across F&B, retail, and services industries. More than half of them are based in Jakarta, with the rest operating in Bandung, Bali, Surabaya, and smaller Indonesian cities.

“One of the difficulties that we see in SME’s is to track sales and many business owners are still doing it manually. We think that Moka is the right partner and the best startup available to provide such ability to SME,” Eddie Danusaputro, the CEO of Mandiri Capital said.

The company has seen rapid growth in 2016, claiming to have over 2,500 monthly paying merchants to date, and it plans to grow even more aggressively this year. Additionally, Moka had also just launched a sales office in Jogjakarta this month.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Chinese gay dating app Blued raises eight-digit RMB funding from The Beijing News

Blued, a popular gay dating app in China, has raised another strategic investment amounting to an eight-digit RMB funding from China’s state-run media – The Beijing News.

Specifically, the investor was Shan Shui Cong Rong Media Investment Co., an investment arm sponsored and founded by the mainstream Chinese newspaper, The Beijing News, and its president Dai Zigeng who cocurrently serves as the chairman of the media investment arm.

This also makes the Chinese gay social app’s third fundraising within 12 months and its sixth fundraising since its inception, following a previous round of US$30 million in 2015 which has valued Blued at US$300 million.

“The current financing round is more of strategic meaning given that the company is booking profits now,” said Geng Le, the CEO of Blued.

Founded in August 2010, Blued specializes in gay social media related businesses. According to Geng Le, the company had posted hundreds of millions of yuan of operating income from live streaming and mobile marketing operations in 2016, driving its domestic businesses into the black.

Besides, its male members have reached 27 million, of which 7 million log in daily, exceeding the number of daily logins in Grindr, its counterpart from the West which is banned by China’s censors.

Additionally, the gay dating app also supports 13 languages, having offices based in Vietnam, Thailand, and U.K. The firm also plans to extend into the Latin American and North American lucrative gay market in the future.

Having signed a strategic cooperation agreement last December with Hornet, Blued will also have access to Hornet’s 15 million users and three million monthly active users all around the globe.

“A further increase in operating income is expected for the live streaming business in 2017, and value-added membership services, games, and healthcare services will be further developed as a new revenue growth drivers,” Geng further adds.

Born out of LGBT NGO Danlan.org, Chinese for “light blue”, Blued has been active in improving the living status of the LGBT group.

“In the past, people wouldn’t even talk about homosexuality because they thought it was dirty, it was filthy,” Geng said. “The internet can help support gay lifestyles, to make people know they are not alone and that their feelings are genuine.”

“Moreover, the homosexual minority is still a highly controversial group, we need a proper channel to talk with the government and the public, letting them know what we are doing and what problems we can solve for society,” he further adds.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Thai B2B fresh food e-marketplace Freshket raises 6-digit dollar funding from 500 TukTuks and local VC fund

Freshket, a workflow-integrated marketplace for fresh food suppliers and restaurant, has recently raised its seed funding round, which is worth a six-digit sum in dollars from 500 TukTuks and an undisclosed corporate venture capital fund, which is said to be one of the leading agricultural firms in Thailand.

Launched in August 2016, Freshket’s concept is to create an e-marketplace to connect fresh food suppliers and restaurants, providing a workflow system that facilitates dealings between the two, making it easier and more efficient.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Freshket, Ponglada Paniangwet was also previously a fresh food supplier, spending four hours every night to fill out order forms from only ten customers. “In such a way, I realized that it was difficult to grow the business,” she said.

A vague idea to solve the suppliers’ problem was formed, later leading her to join and win DTAC Accelerate Programme last year as well as receiving funding from two investors.

Before launching the platform, Paniangwet also tested the market by introducing Freshket on Facebook which ended with the registration of 500 restaurants and 100 suppliers within 48 hours.

With the latest proceeding, the business-to-business (B2B) online marketplace plans to develop the platform which was soft launched in January.

As of January 10, Freshket had 20 suppliers with 2,000 items and 50 restaurants on the platform. By year-end, it targets to have around 800 restaurants and 250 suppliers.

“We will focus on expanding the market in Bangkok and big cities in Thailand this year. Then, if everything is on track, we may foray into Vietnam and Indonesia as the next destinations,” she said.

She further added that the site, over the next six months, plans to partner with third-party logistics provider to facilitate small-sized suppliers who do not have their own logistics.

By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media

Scroll to top