2021

DealStreetAsia

Singapore-based Glife Technologies, which helps food and beverage businesses buy fresh produce directly from farmers, has raised $8.12 million (S$11 million) in a Series A round led by Temasek’s Heliconia Capital.

Hibiscus Fund, a venture capital fund managed by Malaysia’s RHL Ventures and South Korea’s KB Investment, joined the round.

Founded in 2018 by Justin Chou, who is also the executive director of plant-based food supplier Growthwell and co-founder of vegetarian food chain Greendot, Glife runs an app and website that allows food and beverage businesses to buy, manage, and track their orders.

Glife last raised a seed round in 2019 led by Global Founders Capital and pre-seed in 2018 from Quest Ventures.

In September, Growthwell raised $22 million in a Series A round led by French private equity firm Creadev with participation from others including existing investor Temasek.

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The Ken

“Sequoia Capital’s scout programme is the most well known. In Sequoia’s case, they had Jason Calacanis (angel investor, Uber, Thumbtack) whereas many VC firms here have unknowns as their scouts,” said James Tan, co-founder and managing partner of Singapore-based Quest Ventures. Tan, who also co-founded NASDAQ-listed e-commerce company 55tuan in China, noted that the region was still too new to the concept.

“Many [VC firms] also work with students [as scouts]. I doubt the quality of their dealflow,” Tan added.

“The difference between the Sequoia Capital programme and the VC scout programmes that I see here is in the quality of scouts,” said Quest Ventures’ Tan. “While Quest Ventures also works with students, these students would have gone through either our internship programs, our courses (for example, Venture Capital Accelerated), or our Young Leaders Program before they are able to refer quality deal flow to us. Deal sourcing is a discerning skill. Quantity is not quality,” he added.

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Taiwan News

In line with World Kindness Day, social impact enterprise, Kind Citizen, officially launches its marketplace platform that provides an avenue for contributors to pay it forward with holistic and essential gifts to a broader range of beneficiaries with its wide range of merchant partners in Asia.

Built in alignment with the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17, the tech-for-good enterprise is the result of two years of development and establishing partnerships with community groups, government and merchants, integrating them into a single platform to deliver lasting social impact.

The platform is a first-of-its-kind social impact marketplace rooted in the concept of paying it forward with holistic gifts beyond the basic needs, including essential lifestyle services, for beneficiaries at a time that is most needed for the individual. The platform aims to be all-inclusive by having a broader range of beneficiaries than the usual charity, such as frontline workers, mental health support staff, caregiver supporters, special needs individuals, single parents and ex-offenders. The platform hopes to be able to comprehensively support social inclusion, and motivate people to live well again in a timely way.

Kind Citizen is supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) Our Singapore Fund for Digital Readiness, and is also affiliated with a number of notable partners, including Singapore Management University’s Business Innovations Generator, its startup incubator. In addition, Kind Citizen is backed by venture capital firm, Quest Ventures, which focuses on digital commerce in early-stage marketplaces.

Alongside the aforementioned partners, Kind Citizen has more than 100 merchants on its platform to date, including Flash Coffee, Love Bonito, Huggs Coffee and Swensens, to aid a pool of over 3000 beneficiaries.

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FinSMEs

ShipsFocus, a maritime-dedicated venture studio, and Quest Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on Asia, launched The Maritime Fund with a first close at just over SGD 10m (USD 7.5m).

Led by Mr. Chua Chye Poh, the Maritime Fund will invest in startups and technologies spanning applications in shipping & operations, maritime services, and port operations & services. These can include transiting shipping into a digital operating system, reducing shipping ESG, GHG emission and regulatory challenges, and deep-tech disruptions ranging from autonomous vehicles to increase in logistics visibility.

The vehicle makes investments at the early Series Seed and Series A stages.

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Digital News Asia

Growth stage accelerator, ScaleUp Malaysia has announced the selection of the Top 20 Companies for its Cohort 3, launched in August 2021. The team evaluated over 200 applications not just from Malaysia but from as far as the United States and Egypt while startups from Indonesia, Singapore and Japan also applied.

For Singapore-based regional firm Quest Ventures – which counts two sovereign wealth funds as investors, this will be the second year of its partnership with ScaleUp Malaysia. It has already invested in 10 Malaysia companies and will further invest in Cohort 3, demonstrating its commitment and belief in the Malaysian market. Quest Ventures has selected 15 Companies to be a part of their track.

Jeffrey Seah, Partner of Quest Ventures said that “Malaysian founders are plucky, and have never been short of financial investment options. Their perennial challenge remains to find financial investors with established go-to-market networks outside of Malaysia. Those business introductions will provide product validation and pricing models that will unlock the potential of the Scaleup companies, and guide the companies in the following stages of venture funding. Our experience with Malaysian founders and companies has been rewarding – they have unappreciated potential that can be unleashed to the Southeast Asia region with the right support.”

The companies selected for the Quest Ventures track are: Jazro Tech, MADCash, Traitily, GuruInovatif, SpareXHub, Nanka, Vireserve, Open Academy, Hav., PantangPlus, J8 Autism, Graze Market, WeGo, Wa Sushi and Biztech.Asia.

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New Straits Times

For Singapore-based regional firm Quest Ventures – who counts 2 sovereign wealth funds as investors, this will be the second year of its partnership with ScaleUp Malaysia. It has already invested in 10 Malaysia companies and will further invest in ScaleUp Malaysia Cohort 3 demonstrating its commitment and belief in the Malaysian market. Quest Ventures has selected 15 Companies to be a part of their track.

Quest Ventures’ partner, Jeffrey Seah, said that Malaysian founders are plucky, and have never been short of financial investment options. “Their perennial challenge remains to find financial investors with established go-to-market networks outside of Malaysia. Those business introductions will provide product validation and pricing models that will unlock the potential of the Scaleup companies, and guide the companies in the following stages of venture funding,” he said.

“Our experience with Malaysian founders and companies have been rewarding – they have unappreciated potential that can be unleashed to the Southeast Asia region with the right support,” he added.

The companies selected for the Quest Ventures track are: Jazro Tech, MADCash, Traitily, GuruInovatif, SpareXHub, Nanka, Vireserve, Open Academy, Hav., PantangPlus, J8 Autism, Graze Market, WeGo, Wa Sushi and Biztech.Asia.

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Hellenic Shipping News

ShipsFocus and Quest Ventures announce the launch of Maritime Fund. The first close of the fund at just over SGD 10 million (USD 7.5 million) is a significant milestone for the maritime industry. The maritime industry enables 90% of world trade. The early-stage maritime-tech market, already at USD 100 billion, is poised to triple by 2030.

Mr. Chua Chye Poh, Founder of ShipsFocus and a General Partner of the Maritime Fund said, “The Maritime Fund is a strategic part of the ShipsFocus venture studio model to invest in one of the most untapped opportunities of our lifetime. Recent technological advances enable us now to solve some of the world’s most entrenched maritime and supply chain problems in ways not possible before. The time is now!”

Mr. James Tan, Managing Partner at Quest Ventures said, “Singapore’s position in the maritime space is further strengthened with the launch of the Maritime Fund. Our Quest Ventures ficant differentiation from generic venture funds.” Quest Ventures, in partnership with ShipsFocus, is one of SEEDS Capital’s appointed co-investment partners in the maritime sector. SEEDS Capital is the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, the government agency championing enterprise development.

Ms. Tan Kaixin, General Manager of SEEDS Capital, said, “The maritime sector is a critical part of Singapore’s economy. The growth of relevant tech startups in this area will help strengthen the sector’s capabilities and address the efficiency and sustainability issues as the industry transforms. SEEDS Capital is pleased to support ShipsFocus and Quest Ventures in their debut fund to catalyse investments into deep tech startups that can provide innovative solutions in this sector.”

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AVCJ

Singapore’s Quest Ventures and ShipsFocus, a specialized start-up services studio, have achieved a first close of S$10 million ($7.5 million) on a maritime technology fund.

Quest was set up in 2011 by James Tan and Wang Yunming, co-founders of 55tuan, a Chinese discount e-commerce marketplace that listed on NASDAQ in 2015.

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TradeWinds

Latest fundraising will offer financial firepower to start-ups seeking to reshape shipping.

Capital venture firm Quest Ventures has teamed up with ShipsFocus to launch a maritime fund to help finance start-ups. The first close of the fund has raised just over SGD 10m.

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DealStreetAsia

Singapore-based early-stage venture capital firm Quest Ventures and Singapore-based maritime venture builder ShipsFocus have jointly launched a $7.5 million (S$10 million) fund to invest in early-stage maritime startups.

The fund, which raised capital from high net worth individuals and family offices, will issue cheques between S$250,000 and S$1 million in seed and Series A companies. It has invested in underwater robot maker so far, with two more in the pipeline, Quest Ventures managing partner James Tan told DealStreetAsia.

“[The sum of] $10 million is not small. It is a thematic fund, which means we are allocating 100% of it to only one sector. At the early stage that we are investing in, this provides sufficient capital for a portfolio of 20 companies,” he said.

The fund will back startups that are creating solutions for the entire shipping supply chain such as digital operating systems, products and services that reduce shipping emissions, autonomous vehicles, and drones for inspection.

SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, will invest up to $5 million alongside the fund in Singapore-based startups. The ShipsFocus-Quest Ventures fund was one of selected by SEEDS to invest in maritime startups in the country.

Tan said the new fund aims to jumpstart a fledging maritime technology sector in Singapore. Though the city-state has the world’s second-busiest container port — 25% of trade passes through Singapore every year and is expected to account for 29% by 2025 — and largest bunkering port, technology companies that serve the sector are still few, he said.

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