2022

TechNode Global

The Kraver’s Group has secured $3 million in Series A funding. Best known for its cloud kitchen startup Kraver’s Canteen which runs 11 cloud kitchens in the Philippines. The two-year-old startup’s Series A funding round was led by Quest Ventures Asia Fund II as its first investment in the Philippines.

Kraver’s Canteen is Quest Ventures’ third cloud kitchen investment in the region, having previously invested in Indonesian cloud kitchen operator Yummy Corp.

Founded in 2020, Kraver’s Canteen is led by its Head of Tech and Operations Victor Lim along with Head of Food and Product, Eric Dee, as well as Victor Mapua, Head of Infrastructure and Finance. Kraver’s Canteen raised $1.5 million in April 2021 during its Seed funding round.

Kraver’s technology provides high-end meal experiences for its customers by allowing them to heat food without using a microwave. Moreover, Kraver has a metaverse experience – Kra-Verse Food Hall – to make the ordering experience fun for their customers. An online brand known as Krave is featured on the Kra-verse Food Hall, allowing it to address food trends quickly due to its ability to add and remove items rapidly as a cloud kitchen. Kraver plans to incorporate this technology into many different brands.

“The three Kraver’s founders have demonstrated a granular-level understanding of the cloud kitchen business and its ancillary domains; their unique backgrounds and experiences have added management bench diversity, making them even stronger when they come together.” Said Jeffrey Seah, Partner of Quest Ventures Asia Fund II.

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The Business Times

THE Kraver’s Group, a Philippine cloud kitchen operator backed by Lance Gokongwei and Christopher Po, has gotten a funding boost out of Singapore.

The 2-year-old startup has raised US$3 million in Series A funding led by Singapore’s Quest Ventures, an early-stage investor that has also backed Indonesian cloud kitchen operator Yummy Corp.

The startup also previously bagged US$1.5 million in pre-Series A funding. Investors included Foodee and several corporate titans – Gokongwei, who is chairman at Robinsons Group and chief executive of Philippine conglomerate JG Summit; Po, chairman of canned food giant Century Pacific; and George Pua, president of F&B operator Meat Concepts.

Other early investors include Philippine venture builder Kaya Founders; early-stage venture firm Foxmont Capital; Brian Cu, who set up the Philippine units of Grab and Zalora; and Paulo Campos III, who also set up Zalora Philippines.

Both Cu and Campos, alongside Gokongwei and Po, are on the board of Kraver’s. With the latest round, Jeffrey Seah, partner at Quest Ventures, is also joining the board.

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Singapore Economic Development Board

As the tech talent war intensifies and more companies chuck large sums of money to poach talents, it is no doubt why 65 per cent of those looking out indicated salary as the primary reason. After all, senior software engineers at the 90 percentile earn US$11,500, according to the Tech Talent Compensation 2021/2022 Report by NodeFlair and Quest Ventures.

However, not all companies are fortunate enough to be armed with a massive war chest to compete with the tech giants like Bytedance, Foodpanda and FAANG. After all, these companies pay at least 25 per cent above the market median on average.

So, how can you survive the talent war against these tech behemoths?

Besides salary, non-compensation benefits play a deciding factor when choosing which company to join.

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The Business Times

BENJAMIN Wong was 27 years old when he decided to take things into his own hands and become his own boss.

Together with his friend Hafiz Kasman, the two Singapore Management University (SMU) graduates founded their own business in 2020. The company, Kinobi, is a career guidance service platform that aims to help graduates in Singapore and Indonesia accelerate their careers.

Entrepreneurship is driving its reach out to the younger crowd, enticing university students and fresh graduates to jump on the bandwagon and seek startup success.

Entrepreneurial education has also contributed to a growth of interest in the field of study, said Ng.

He cited the NUS Overseas College’s internship programme as one that has played a role in shaping students’ inclination towards entrepreneurship.

Aside from NUS, other universities such as Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University and Singapore Institute of Management provide courses in entrepreneurship as well, allowing students to pursue second majors or minors in the field of study.

Entering into these programmes in university helps them to crystallise their passion right before they go out to work, and they are presented with the opportunity to found their own startups, said James Tan, founder of Quest Ventures and chairman of ACE (Action Community for Entrepreneurship).

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Singapore Business Review

In an era where mobile phones have replaced wallets, where online commerce has slowly taken over physical retail, and where transactions have become borderless, it is no surprise that fintech startups dominated the eleventh edition of Singapore Business Review’s 20 Hottest Startups, taking over eight of the 20 spots in the list.

Leading the pack in terms of latest funding is Spenmo which has already raised $45.70m, followed by Syfe ($40.33m), Volopay ($39.59m), Endowus ($35m), CyberHash ($26.96m), Xen Capital ($10.08m), Jenfi ($6.3m), and STACS ($4.85m).

What makes these startups—and fintech, in general—attractive to investors is that they are pandemic resilient, and they are taking part in the strengthening of the digital commerce ecosystem, according to Quest Ventures’ head of Environmental, Social & Governance and director of Sustainable Impact Accelerator, Michelle Ng.

Quest Ventures’ Ng urged founders who are just starting to raise funds for their startup to “focus on solving real-world problems and value creation for your users and stakeholders.”

Ng, for her part, said Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) must be on top of startups’ strategy and operations, as VCs also look into this aspect.

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TechNode Global

Quest Ventures and the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) said Tuesday they have launched Asia’s first venture capital-backed accelerator programme to provide financial and non-financial support to seed-stage start-ups in the sustainable impact sector, aimed at improving competencies and providing access to regional and global markets.

Both parties said in a statement that the Sustainable Impact Accelerator will select 30 socially impactful enterprises for funding, disbursing a total amount of SGD1.5 million ($1 million).

Under this programme, socially impactful enterprises can leverage private investors’ capital and resources to supercharge their growth and impact beyond existing markets.

Singapore’s Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for Social Policies Tharman Shanmugaratnam highlighted the accelerator as a key initiative that will establish stronger capabilities in the social enterprise ecosystem in Singapore.

“Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and impact investing are not new concepts in Singapore and the region, but there is still plenty of room for growth. With the growing appetite for sustainable investments, the accelerator programme will benefit both investors and start-ups in tackling important social issues and gaps,” said James Tan, Managing Partner of Quest Ventures.

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DealStreetAsia

Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures and the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) have launched an accelerator targeting startups in the social impact space.

The accelerator programme, which will run from June to August this year, will offer funding of up to $40,000, mentorship, and network access to seed-stage startups to help them to scale and access markets overseas. Applicants must already be generating revenue, have a user base, and demonstrate potential for double-digit year-on-year growth within the next five years.

“ESG and impact investing are not new concepts in Singapore and the region, but there is still plenty of room for growth. With the growing appetite for sustainable investments, the accelerator programme will benefit both investors and start-ups in tackling important social issues and gaps,” James Tan, the managing partner of Quest Ventures said in a press release.

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Tech In Asia

Quest Ventures and Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE) have launched the Sustainable Impact Accelerator (SIA), a program targeting seed-stage startups in the sustainability sector that are eyeing funding within the next 12 months.

The accelerator, which runs from June to August, will provide participants up to US$40,000 in funding on top of access to mentorship and networking opportunities. They will also get “family benefits,” which give access to startup-focused services.

“With the growing appetite for sustainable investments, the accelerator program will benefit both investors and startups in tackling important social issues and gaps,” said James Tan, managing partner of Quest Ventures.

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e27

As the tech talent war intensifies and more companies chuck large sums of money to poach talents, it is no doubt why 65 per cent of those looking out indicated salary as the primary reason. After all, senior software engineers at the 90 percentile earn US$11,500, according to the Tech Talent Compensation 2021/2022 Report by NodeFlair and Quest Ventures.

However, not all companies are fortunate enough to be armed with a massive war chest to compete with the tech giants like Bytedance, Foodpanda and FAANG. After all, these companies pay at least 25 per cent above the market median on average.

So, how can you survive the talent war against these tech behemoths?

Besides salary, non-compensation benefits play a deciding factor when choosing which company to join.

More

e27

Fairmart has just closed a US$1.5M seed round co-led by Quest Ventures and Entrepreneur First, with participation from SOSV, Vectr Ventures and Hustle Fund.

Jan Gasparic and Daniil Moskovtsov met in 2020 at an Entrepreneur First programme in Singapore, where they began to discuss various problems in the market. At one point, a specific question crossed their minds: how hard it is to find whether or not a retail store carried a particular product?

Started in November 2020 and headquartered in Singapore, Fairmart helps SME retailers automatically digitise their products so that shoppers can find them online. It essentially solves the problems that prevent local retailers from leveraging the benefits of digitisation, starting with the most labour-intensive task of managing online inventory.

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