The Venture Codex

Led · Series A · Oct 2022

Globish operates an online platform offering one-on-one foreign language lessons in English and Chinese for students and professionals. The company runs lessons in Thailand and Vietnam and delivers more than 300,000 lessons annually. It employs 400 teachers and plans to hire an additional 600 instructors. Globish expects to have taught 500,000 lessons by the end of the year and projects $35 million in sales by 2025. The business says the majority of its clients are workers seeking career advancement, with the remainder being students. It intends to use the new funding to expand into new markets including Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Participated · Series A · Nov 2017

Giztix is a Thai logistics startup operating in the logistics sector. The company has raised $10 million in a Series B funding round. The round was co-led by WHA Group and Bualuang Ventures. WHA Group is a logistics and industrial facilities firm. Bualuang Ventures is the corporate VC arm of Bangkok Bank. GIZTIX operates as a logistics marketplace. The company is positioned to grow its revenue and scale operations. It closed a $1.65 million Series A funding round to support that expansion. Investors in the round include AddVentures, Wavemaker and 500 Tuktuks. AddVentures is the venture capital arm of Thai industrial conglomerate SCG.

Participated · Equity · May 2016

T2P is a Bangkok-based fintech firm. The company has raised $1.1 million in a funding round. Investors named in the article are global venture capital firm 500 Startups, its Thai micro-fund 500 TukTuks, and Benchachinda Holding. Benchachinda Holding is owned by the founding family of mobile operator DTAC. The article does not disclose the financing instrument, round type, product details, operating metrics, or future plans.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2016

STYLHUNT operates a platform focused on trust and discovery for social media-driven shopping. The company is based in Thailand. It raised close to $500,000 in a Pre-Series A round. The round was led by CyberAgent Ventures. Other participants included 500TukTuks, Expara Ventures, Singapore Angel Network, and Paul Pattarapon Sinlapajan. The article did not disclose revenue, user metrics, valuation, or specific use of proceeds.

Participated · Series A · May 2015

Omise operates a core payments business that serves Southeast Asia and Japan and is developing a next-generation decentralized payment network called Omise Go (OMG). Earlier this year the company ran a $25M ICO for its OMG division and the token appreciated to beyond a $1 billion market cap, leaving the company with significant digital funds. Omise has also raised over $20 million in venture capital to date. The company plans to release an initial OMG product before the end of this year, with more developed solutions for retailers, banks and other enterprises coming next year. Management said it will leverage new partners and capital to build the OMG platform and scale operations across the Asia Pacific region. Omise has been active on M&A, acquiring online payment business Paysbuy from DTAC to bolster its core payments unit and support OMG development. Omise is a fintech company that enables online payments similar to Stripe, operating in Thailand, Japan and Indonesia. It is developing Omise Go, a decentralized payments platform intended to let users share funds peer-to-peer without bank accounts, fees, or cross-border costs. Omise plans to sign up retail partners and open the system to other payment players to extend its utility for purchases. Omise Go will be powered by OMG, an ERC20 token sold in the ICO, and token holders can participate in helping to run the network. Omise Go remains under development with a full launch expected late next year and initial services slated for Q4 2017. Omise previously raised over $20 million from traditional venture investors and has strong ties to the Ethereum community, including advisors Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Poon. Omise operates a Stripe-like payment gateway that allows retailers to accept online credit card payments, currently available in Thailand and Japan. The company is focused on expanding across Southeast Asia, with imminent plans for Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia and later moves into Vietnam, the Philippines and Mekong countries. Omise emphasizes digital (cash-less) payments and aims to automate payouts to merchants, targeting next-day and eventual instant payouts. It charges 3.65% on transactions and a $1 fee for withdrawals up to 60,000 (1 million THB), with flexible packages for larger customers. The startup targets enterprise customers such as airlines, insurance companies, mobile network operators and other subscription services as well as e-retail and e-government. Omise was founded in 2014 and its team expects the company can reach profitability within the next year, according to its COO. Omise operates a payment-processing service currently live in Thailand that supports cards, internet banking, direct debit, and over-the-counter payments. The company serves large merchants, SMEs and startups seeking gateway options and aims to be a one-stop service for big merchants entering Southeast Asia. Omise plans immediate geographic expansion to Indonesia and a beta launch in Japan in December, followed by markets including Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Hong Kong over the next year. The team is preparing to white-label its service with a bank in Malaysia and is exploring blockchain technology for remittance payments. Financially, Omise raised a $2.3 million Series A earlier in the year and has now pulled in an undisclosed seven‑digit investment from Golden Gate Ventures to support expansion. The company sees Stripe as a major rival but highlights broader local payment-method coverage as a competitive advantage. Omise provides a payment gateway and developer-facing APIs that let merchants accept online payments quickly, with onboarding possible within 24 hours. The company is PCI 3.0 compliant in Thailand and tokenizes cards to enable one-click payments and recurring subscriptions. It charges 3.65% per transaction and a $1 fee for withdrawals up to 60,000 THB, and says it serves large corporates as well as startups and SMEs. Omise began as an e-commerce platform before focusing on the payment system it built for itself. The two-year-old company has a 20-plus person team in Thailand, is hiring in both Thailand and Japan, and is opening a Tokyo office. Planned expansion targets include Japan and Indonesia, and the company may move into offline point-of-sale payments, which could require a fresh funding round in early 2016.