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Tech Collective

As climate change issues become increasingly evident, bringing about threatening natural disasters and economic devastation, there has been an uptick in companies focusing on sustainable business models and carbon footprint reduction. Climate tech in Southeast Asia is gaining greater attention than it has in other countries, especially as the region is most likely to bear the brunt of an ecological disaster.

With the United Nations pushing its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the climate tech startups Southeast Asia adopting  these ideals as well. Investment in the climate tech sector is also on the rise, as venture capitalists, angel investors, and government-backed environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) programmes evaluate sustainability and eco-credentials when considering funding.

While more businesses realise the importance of environmental awareness and the future of the human race, Quest Ventures is already ahead of the game. This venture capital fund, which was founded in 2009, has focused on startups that take an ESG approach to business since 2018.

The company has always recognised the importance of investing in digital innovations, and has refined its criteria to include ESG principles. Quest Ventures, located in Singapore, has made 93 investments and contributed to three funds in APAC, including recent investments in Filipino company Kraver’s Canteen, Malaysia-based Howuku and Indonesian startup GuruInovatif.

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Manila Bulletin

Filipinos spend almost 30 per cent of their income on food alone. This gives any food-related business massive potential for growth. It’s quite appropriate that the Philippines impending tech revolution could be kickstarted by its food industry.

The food and beverage (F&B) business used to be a daunting one, particularly for those new to it. A budding restaurant wouldn’t just need a great chef, but lots of capital, some business acumen, and a great location as well.

As far as cloud kitchens go, Kraver’s Canteen is one of leading in the country. Founded by food industry veteran, Eric Thomas Dee, e-commerce authority, Victor Lim, and finance specialist, Victor Mapua, Kraver’s currently has 11 kitchens that cater to online customers across Metro Manila.

Besides simply offering a kitchen, Kraver’s is hoping to go beyond and serve as a partner for growth and making it easy to scale up a food business.

In the 2022 Series A, in addition to welcoming a heavy-weight regional investor in Quest Ventures, Kraver’s strengthened its Philippines stronghold by securing local partners Oak Drive Ventures, Martin Cu, Francis Wee, Anthony Oundjian and Rohit Gulati.

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Eco-Business

A social forestry project has won the 2022 edition of the Liveability Challenge, a yearly search for ways to tackle the most difficult sustainability challenges faced in Southeast Asia.

Fairventures Social Forestry, a team from Germany, emerged ahead of five other finalists to clinch the grand prize of S$1 million (US$728,000) in funding from Temasek Foundation, the sponsor of the Liveability Challenge and philanthropic arm of Temasek, Singapore’s state-investment company.

The Fairventures project aims to sustainably manage forests and improve livelihoods in Jambi, Indonesia, using a scalable social forestry model that incorporates blended finance.

The winner was chosen from a field of finalists that included an initiative to curb the energy consumption of data centre through artificial intelligence and digital twin technology by a team from Singapore called Red Dot Analytics, and a large-scale carbon sequestration project by British team CQUESTR8.

Also among the finalists were GAIT, a team from Singapore and New Zealand that measures carbon, and Wasna, a team from Belgium and Singapore that makes low-cost cultivated meat using a universal serum.

The sixth finalist was ImpacFat, a Japan-Singapore team that produces alternative meat products using cell-based fish fat.

Additional prizes of S$50,000 from Quest Ventures went to Fairventures and ImpacFat, S$100,000 from Purpose Venture Capital was awarded to Red Dot Analytics, and S$100,000 from Amasia went to GAIT.

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e27

It is crucial for startups, enablers, and venture capitalists to be plugged into a community that allows them to thrive in the long run. This was why JTC, a government agency in charge of Singapore’s industrial development, started LaunchPad.

Located at one-north and Jurong Innovation District, LaunchPad offers a total of 60,000sqm of modular units of varying sizes to suit the requirements of startups. This includes those from industries like advanced manufacturing and engineering, agri-food technology, biomedical sciences, infocomm technology and media, and urban solutions.

Besides reliable infrastructure, LaunchPad seeks to foster an atmosphere of vibrancy and community. There are multiple opportunities for partnerships, programming support through learning and networking events both offline and online, and various shared facilities.

Prolific names such as Carousell, a leading second-hand goods marketplace, and ShopBack, a shopping and rewards platform, are some of the startups that got their start at LaunchPad.

But there’s space for more. “LaunchPad has the potential to house a wider variety of industries and ecosystem stakeholders going forward. Bigger VCs and startups may want to land in LaunchPad. This will promote more deal flows and better ideas with stronger collaborations between the relevant parties,” said James Tan, Chairman of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE), a trade association advocating startups’ interests and bridging communications between startups and the Singapore government.

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VulcanPost

At the Asia Tech x Singapore 2022 event held yesterday (June 1), one particular keynote discussed the regional investment trends and what that means for startups in this landscape.

Michael Lints, a partner at Golden Gate Ventures, observed that investors are being more cautious, and that the narratives and mindsets for venture capital firms have changed from one of “growth at all costs” to one of finding the “path to profitability”.

Michelle Ng, head of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) at Quest Ventures, concurred with Michael, suggesting that during this stage, startups cannot expect valuations to be as generous as they were before.

She also advised founders to be prudent with spending, and to cut down on operational costs as much as possible.

The Business Times

WITH inflationary pressures on the rise following the stock market meltdown and the Russia-Ukraine war, the startup ecosystem is not as bullish this year as it was last year, though startups can still tap the dry powder still readily available in South-east Asia, a panel of investors said at InnovFest x Elevating Founders, the official start-up event of Asia Tech x Singapore (ATxSG), this week.

Michael Lints, a partner at venture capital firm Golden Gate Ventures who took part in the discussion, said that the worldwide crisis has affected the way investors look at investing in early- and late-stage companies.

He noted that 2021 had been a bullish year for the ecosystem, with companies raising funds at high valuations and quickly as well.

This year, the sentiment has changed, he said.

However, Lints said he believes that startups in the region can still expect exciting times; several venture capitalists have raised fresh capital that they need to deploy this year, with Jungle Ventures’ recent US$600 million fund-raising as an example.

In agreement with Lints, Michelle Ng, head of environmental, social and governance at Quest Ventures, also a venture capital firm, said she sees a lot of dry powder among venture capitalists, especially those in South-east Asia.

Ng noted that the bulk of funds in South-east Asia are in Singapore and Indonesia, but that Vietnam also held “tremendous opportunity”.

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JTC Corp

Quest Ventures James Tan, in his capacity as Chairman of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE Singapore), lauds LaunchPad as a space that spurs innovation and collaborations.

“You can’t grow start-ups without strong support from a tight-knit community. We work closely with our Institutes of Higher Learning, corporates, venture capitalists and the public sector. LaunchPad is that space that gathers everyone in this diverse and vibrant ecosystem,” said James Tan.

“The value really is in that intersection of ideas. You see corporates engaging with start-ups seated at Timbre+. You can get a $1 coffee and still have a quality conversation with a CEO of some MNC. You cannot get this anywhere else,” he continues.

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TechNode Global

BILLZ announced that it has raised a new round of funding from international institutional investors. The round was led by venture capital firm Quest Ventures and included participation from Sturgeon Capital, a London-based VC fund that invests in emerging markets.

BILLZ is a retail management software powered with POS, inventory management, CRM, e-commerce and analytics for small and medium-sized businesses. It helps to save time on daily retail operations and sell more by using marketing tools and analytics. Additionally, it helps to integrate the products with marketplaces, Facebook & Instagram shops to sell their products online.

BILLZ is already used by more than 800 retail locations in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and, Tajikistan. The team is planning to continue satisfying its customers by developing new products and features.

“BILLZ is a great example of how digitalization and automation in retail can be improved at scale. It empowers employees to focus on more value-added functions, increases efficiency, and uplifts employability,” said Mr James Tan, Managing Partner of Quest Ventures, who will join the board of directors of BILLZ.

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Forbes

Money FM 89.3

Money FM 89.3 interviews Quest Ventures to find out more about the Sustainable Impact Accelerator.

On the Soul of Business, social enterprises have proven to be resilient and innovative in the face of Covid-19, but more support is needed to develop the sector here. Melissa Hyak speaks to James Tan, Managing Partner of Quest Ventures and Alfie Othman, Chief Executive Officer of raiSE about Asia’s first venture capital-backed accelerator programme to help with their growth.

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