Participated · Series A · Feb 2021

Raena, founded in 2019 and based in Singapore, operates a social-commerce platform focused on skincare and beauty that lets resellers choose items from a catalog of mostly Japanese and Korean brands. The company uses a drop-shipping model: resellers list products on social channels and marketplaces, then order from Raena only after a customer purchase so Raena ships directly to the buyer. Raena pivoted to serve resellers after discovering customers were regularly buying and reselling its products; its reseller base is primarily women aged 18–34 in Indonesia and Malaysia. The startup reports it grew revenue 50x between January and December 2020, has more than 1,500 resellers, a 60% seller retention rate after six months, and that 90% of sales are skincare (top sellers: serums, toners, essences). Planned product and operational investments include hiring a tech team to build order-management tools and striking direct deals with manufacturers to improve margins. The company intends to scale headcount from 15 to over 100 in the next three months and expand into additional Southeast Asian markets, targeting opportunities such as Indonesia, which it estimates as a $20 billion market. Raena is an Indonesian startup that partners with social media influencers to develop, brand and distribute consumer products, initially focusing on women’s beauty. The company launched two months prior to the article and has partnered with seven influencers with a combined following of about 12 million. Raena sources and develops products (starting with Japanese and Korean beauty brands), runs consumer research with influencer partners, and uses internal data tools to measure engagement and suitability for product launches. Its first branded launch, Moonella and Family with influencer babymoonella, targeted childcare and all-purpose balm demand and moved from concept to market in five weeks. Raena standardizes product development and logistics for influencers, shares sales revenue with partners (terms undisclosed), and sells through marketplaces like Shopee and Lalabee.co to address regional distribution differences. The team includes alumni from Google, Amazon, Alibaba, Zalora and other consumer and tech companies and plans to scale across Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2018

Sendo is described in the article as a Vietnam-based e-commerce firm and marketplace. The company has closed a $61 million Series C funding round. The round included participation from existing shareholders as well as new investors. Named new investors include Indonesia’s EV Growth and Thailand’s Kasikornbank. The article does not provide operating metrics, use-of-proceeds details, or further product or roadmap information. Sen Do Technology operates the Sendo C2C marketplace, offering more than 10 million products on its platform. The company combines its marketplace with logistics providers and banks to provide customers a full package of guaranteed transactions. It serves more than 300,000 sellers and millions of buyers across all 63 provinces in Vietnam, with a focus on Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Tier 2 cities where 70 million people live. Sendo’s fintech subsidiary FPT Wallet (SenPay) received an e‑payment license from the State Bank of Vietnam in 2016. The company intends to use the funds to expand the C2C Sendo platform, launch the B2C marketplace SenMall, and accelerate the reach of SenPay in Vietnam.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2017

HackerEarth positions itself around bringing "hacker culture" into corporate companies and is associated with hackathons. TechCrunch reported the company raised $4.5M on April 12, 2017. The reported funding is intended to help the company advance its effort to embed hacker culture within enterprises. The provided article does not specify the financing instrument or identify participating investors. No operating metrics, past rounds, founding year, or location are mentioned in the supplied article. HackerEarth provides technical recruiting solutions that combine a community of developer candidates with proprietary learning algorithms to identify and match programmers to opportunities. The company focuses on talent sourcing and skill assessment for technology employers. It leverages its community and algorithmic assessments to improve hiring quality and fit. HackerEarth was founded by Sachin Gupta and Vivek Prakash in late 2012 and is based in Bangalore, India. The company announced a $500K funding round and intends to use the proceeds to scale the team. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2016

Zilingo began as a consumer-facing e-commerce site that brought small fashion vendors online and has shifted into a business-to-business platform offering manufacturing, logistics, payments, financing, sourcing, procurement and trend tools like a ‘style hunter’. It provides sellers inventory management and sales-tracking tools and commercialized its internal tech and services — likened to an “AWS for the fashion supply chain” — for third parties. The company operates Zilingo.com in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and is expanding to the Philippines and Australia while selling B2B services to retailers in Europe and the U.S. Revenue grew fourfold over the past year, with B2B responsible for 75% of that growth; CEO Ankiti Bose said net income is in “the hundreds of millions” of U.S. dollars, though the company is not yet profitable. Zilingo has over 400 staff and is focusing on deeper factory integration, machine learning and data-science products to modernize outdated factory tech and increase capacity utilization. Its goal is to offer an end-to-end solution enabling merchants and brands to source, manufacture and launch private-label products using Zilingo’s network. Zilingo operates a fashion marketplace and a merchant-focused platform that provides seller management, inventory and order tools, product sourcing, content/photography services, and third-party financial products. The company serves consumers in Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore and ships to four additional countries, while its tech team is based in India and it maintains supply bases across Asia. It has expanded beyond consumer sales into B2B, offering higher-margin services to professional sellers, SMEs, brands and international buyers. Zilingo recently launched ZilingoAsiaMall.com to enable U.S. and European retailers to source fashion from Southeast Asian suppliers at lower minimum order quantities. Operating metrics disclosed include revenue growth of “over 10X” year-over-year, more than 10,000 sellers and roughly two million products on the platform, and B2C now accounting for about 40% of revenue. The company plans to add more tech services to its merchant ecosystem and expand Zilingo.com deeper into Southeast Asia (notably the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia) while scaling international B2B efforts. Zilingo is a Southeast Asia–based fashion marketplace that helps independent fashion sellers and boutique stores expand their businesses online. Founded less than two years ago by Ankiti Bose (CEO) and Dhruv Kapoor (CTO), it operates seller hubs and five company offices across the region. The company ships to eight countries and reported over tenfold revenue growth and the addition of 5,000 merchants in the past twelve months. Zilingo has expanded into Indonesia—where the CEO relocated—and reports monthly growth of about 85% in that market. It has also launched a B2B network to allow U.S. and European fashion sellers to purchase directly for local resale. The company plans to use new funding to grow its presence in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia. Zilingo operates a marketplace and seller-management platform for small and long-tail fashion and beauty retailers across Southeast Asia, currently serving over 2,000 sellers. The company provides free seller software with inventory management, logistics APIs, bank integration and plans to add working-capital loans. It takes a 10–15% cut of sales, which today yields positive unit economics and roughly 1–2% take-home margin per sale, with potential to reach 4–5% as GMV and user growth increase. Over 80% of sales occur within Southeast Asia; the user base skews 23–40 years old and the app now emphasizes video to boost engagement. Founders Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor built the business after moving to the region and emphasize sustainable, unit-economics-driven growth over burn; Bose plans to relocate to Jakarta as the company expands into Indonesia.

Participated · Series B · Jun 2016

Droom operates an AI-powered online marketplace and suite of products and services for buying and selling used and new vehicles, including two-wheelers, with financing offered through partner banks and NBFCs. The company claims India’s largest selection of autos, listing over 250,000 vehicles across 1,174 cities. Its primary revenue streams are buyer commissions, vendor subscriptions, and advertising fees. Droom emphasizes trust, selection, and pricing solutions for consumers and is positioning the brand toward millennials and Generation Z through a strategic partnership with entertainer Badshah. The firm was founded by Sandeep Aggarwal in 2014 and is backed by marquee investors such as Lightbox, Digital Garage, Toyota Group, Recruit, Beenext, Beenos, 57 Stars, and multiple multibillion‑dollar family offices in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. In FY23 the India subsidiary narrowed its net loss by 55% to INR 62.1 crore, while operating revenue declined 34% to INR 253.2 crore from INR 384.6 crore the prior year. Droom operates an online marketplace and broader ecosystem for used automobiles, including a consumer and dealer lending arm (Droom Credit). The company has pursued inorganic growth, acquiring AR startup Visiolab Ideas and NBFC Xeraphin Finvest to enhance customer experience and lending. Droom projects online penetration of automobile buying and selling to rise to 7% by 2025 (from 0.7% at present) and expects rapid post-pandemic migration online. Its current annual run-rate is $1.7 billion GMV and $54 million net revenue, and it says it is nearing profitability. The company expects to reach a GMV of $2 billion and net revenue over $65 million in 2021. Sandeep Aggarwal, who co-founded ShopClues, founded Droom in 2014. Droom is an India-based online marketplace for used vehicles that uses data science to generate vehicle-history alternatives and offers on-demand inspections. The platform automatically rates individual listings on a 1–10 scale based on information, documentation, and photos, and operates an inspection service called ECO. Droom reports roughly 3,500 transactions per month and about $160 million in annualized gross merchandise volume. The company plans to expand into Southeast Asia, targeting Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand by the end of the year. Droom positions itself against classifieds and local used-car platforms such as OLX, CarTrade, and CarDekho, differentiating via its data-driven listing ratings and inspection services. The business was founded and is led by Sandeep Aggarwal, who previously founded ShopClues. Droom operates an online automobile classifieds marketplace with web and Android/iOS apps, listing vehicles from two-wheelers to luxury cars. The platform has processed over 3,000 successful transactions since becoming operational in January of the same year. It is led by founder and majority stakeholder Sandeep Aggarwal. With the new funding, Droom plans to add 20 automobile and 12 service categories and host over 50,000 sellers and 200,000 listings within 18–24 months. The company also plans to expand into Southeast Asia by early 2016. The fundraising is framed against a large Indian automobile market (reported at $125B) and growing used-car volumes cited by Frost & Sullivan.