How early-stage startups Sparadise, Omniaz, and Jadore are overcoming their fundraising woes through this programme
With Southeast Asia and its vibrant tech ecosystem currently enjoying its position as one of the best places in the world to rear and scale one’s startup vision, many obstacles still await startup founders running companies in their early growth stage. With 26,000 startups, 3,000 investors, 13,000 events, and 8,000 jobs in 2018 alone as listed in e27’s media platform, the region still finds itself in a precarious position as many founders deal with various fundraising woes.
Three overarching problems being dealt with by young startups in the region, particularly in the process of fundraising, are those affecting the areas of access, credibility, and efficiency.
Founders often suffer from a lack of access to active and relevant investors due to the limitations of their respective networks. This is most apparent to new and young founders who are not yet fully immersed in the startup ecosystem. As such, founders are often forced to accept funding opportunities that are not tailor-fit for their startup needs.
Startups in the region also find it difficult to establish credibility when seeking fundraising outlets because, for many new founders, there isn’t much track record to back up one’s promising startup vision. In effect, the lack of credibility with those possible investors prolongs the entire fundraising process, from outreach to courtship to due diligence being established from both ends.
Moreover, founders deal with efficiency problems due to the use of multiple service providers across fragmented processes, with each one trying to get a share of the fees. The lack of visibility and analytics over investor activity and the entire fundraising process also poses problems that render any active attempt towards startup growth completely inefficient.
How startups are overcoming these challenges
The malaysia-based startup, Sparadise, is a quality beauty treatment provider that implores the ease of technology to deliver their most talented beauty professionals to your doorsteps. With Sparadise, customers can book spa and beauty services like makeup, massage, manicure and pedicure, and more through their mobile app, and their qualified freelance therapists will go to the customer location.
The Sparadise model operates in three simple steps: viewing of packages where customers can choose services and the packages that they offer, booking of appointments where customers select a date, time, location, and payment method to secure booking services, and finally, for customers to sit back and relax as their squad of professionals arrive at your desired location for your respective appointment.
In an attempt to navigate their way through the respective challenges that startups in the region face, Sparadise connected with the e27 Fundraise Programme. Through the fundraise programme’s features, Sparadise is given access to e27’s network of investors, build rapport with the investor community through sustained engagement, and manage the entire fundraising process in a single online platform—effectively curbing the usual obstacles that hamper startup growth.
They are not alone in this. On the other side of the spectrum, Omniaz, an AR company builds immersive retail experiences by establishing Augmented Reality as a new media channel. Their BevTech solution, DRNK:AR, is set to digitise the undisrupted global alcoholic beverage industry by transforming bottle labels into dynamic and powerful marketing tools. Fueled by data and creative use of technology, their services are curated for the next generation of businesses and consumers.
Alcohol brands are constantly struggling to set themselves apart from their competitors. Advertising regulations and the limited space on a bottle to fit in all the mandatory information further limits consumer engagement. Merchants face similar challenges too as there is little they can do to push their products when there’s no distinct way to connect with buyers. Thus, customers have access to an overwhelming amount of alcohol yet lack the means to help them make the right choice. This undigitised industry also sees brands having difficulties with product traceability and a broken link between marketing effort and its direct impact on sales. We are industry-oriented and work alongside brands and retailers to create differentiation and appeal to millennials with unique and immersive content on augmented bottle labels.
Using AR as a communication channel, brands can engage with consumers like never before. Their business platform also connects the offline and online worlds by turning customer interactions and profiles into meaningful data and analytics, which can then be used to strengthen sales and marketing strategies.
With its very promising innovation that can radically change how advertising works, it is important for the company to gain access to potential investors that can contribute wholly to the startup’s growth, enabling them to help more businesses and craft more creative innovations in the future.
Joining them in this roster is Jadore, a trade market and development/operation support apps ecosystem provider based in Singapore, Vietnam, and Japan. Jadore resolves the conflicts between human activities and the environment via a technology-backed business mind.
The slew of business domains their services encompass is the following: app Ecosystem for sustainable development, where they establish an ecosystem for the entertainment industry to develop, trade, and operate the apps. Next is their offshore development consulting which provides matching service publishers with offshore software/application developers in Vietnam. And lastly, food tech business where they support sustainable activities in the food delivery business.
Initiatives such as the ones being put forward by the likes of Sparadise, Omniaz, and Jadore are ones that we find important, which is why it is imperative for companies like them to gain access to potential investors that can contribute a lot to their startup growth, thereby empowering these companies to help more people in the long run.
These three startups are great examples of that show the innovation and passion that young startups in the region have, not only to grow and scale, but also to provide a tangible and meaningful impact on the world. It also tells us how such tenacity must be nurtured by the tech community and the very innovation it purports, as a means for these budding visionaries to fully flourish.
e27 Fundraise Programme and its three-pronged approach
There are several solutions out there coming from different facets of society that all do their part in minimising these regional obstacles. What makes the e27 Fundraise Programme particularly unique, however, is its three-pronged approach to solving common problems.
In order to democratise fundraising for startup founders, the e27 Fundraise Programme has come up with three umbrella solutions that accommodate the three pressing challenges in the region’s tech ecosystem. These three umbrella solutions are increased visibility, sustained engagement, and digitalisation.
Through the programme, startups are empowered to let investors know that they exist. While most young startups find difficulty in carving a name for themselves, the programme—because of e27’s massive network of investors—effectively puts young startups within their radars making fundraising well within the realms of possibility.
The second prong is focused on establishing sustained engagement between startup founders and investors, thereby helping startups build rapport with the investor community. This is achieved by giving startups the platform to show investors their startup growth and progress over time.
Lastly, in a community whose lifeblood is digital innovation, the e27 Fundraise Programme makes use of digitalisation as a way to help startups manage the processes of their fundraising pursuits from end to end, and within a single online platform that they can keep track of over the course of their negotiations.
With this three-pronged approach, startups who sign up for the programme can guarantee better funding opportunities to come their way.
The e27 Fundraise Programme is in partnership with Wholesale Investor, Australasia’s leading venture capital and capital raising platform for sophisticated and accredited investors. For more information on the programme, you may enquire here.
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