The Venture Codex

Participated · Series C · Feb 2019

ViSenze is a Singapore-based image-recognition startup founded in 2012 that offers a “personal shopping concierge” platform for retailers. Its core product combines visual search, automatic photo tagging and recommendation algorithms that surface products based on images and browsing history. The company serves clients including Rakuten, ASOS, Urban Outfitters, Zalora and Uniqlo across verticals such as fashion, jewelry, furniture and intellectual property. ViSenze reports an annual revenue growth rate of more than 200 percent and maintains offices in Asia, Europe and the United States. The company says it will use the new funding to further develop its software through partnerships with smartphone makers including Samsung, LG and Huawei. Other startups in the same space include Syte.ai, Slyce, Clarifai and Imagga. ViSenze develops artificial-intelligence products for e-commerce, beginning with a visual search feature that lets shoppers find products from images. The company is rolling out two new products: contextual video advertising that inserts relevant ads into or around video content, and an image-to-text capability to enable more customizable searches from uploaded images. Customers and partners mentioned include Myntra and Zalora, and global video site Viki (owned by Rakuten) is cited as a partner. ViSenze was spun out of the National University of Singapore more than three years ago and currently has a headcount of 40, which the company expects to easily double before year-end. The startup plans to use recent funding to hire, double down on R&D, accelerate its go-to-market strategy, reinvest in its technology, and expand business-development offices. ViSenze develops image-recognition products for visual search, including a cloud-based tool called ViSearch. The company is positioned to enable visual shopping features for e-commerce sites and apps, particularly in fashion. Seven months before this raise it began collaborating with Rakuten Taiwan to launch visual fashion search and recognition tools. ViSenze is a spin-off of the National University of Singapore and is headquartered in Singapore. The company announced a $3.5M Series A led by Rakuten Ventures as its current financing event. No revenue or user metrics were disclosed in the article.

Led · Series A · Aug 2017

UangTeman provides short-term unsecured microloans of up to US$350 with maximum tenors of 30 days to underbanked customers across more than 14 Indonesian cities, including Bali, Bandung, Jambi and Surabaya. Launched in April 2015 by Aidil Zulkifli and Soon Chern Chua (who departed in April 2016), the company focuses on safe and transparent lending to consumers. It recently obtained official registration from Indonesia’s financial services regulator (OJK) under regulation 77/2016. The company plans to scale customer acquisition across Indonesia and invest further in research and development. As part of its product and analytics push, UangTeman is planning to open a Data Science & Analytics Centre in Singapore and India to advance lending analytics. The fundraise and debt facilities announced will support both lending capital needs and growth/R&D plans.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2016

Bouqs operates a direct-to-consumer floral delivery model that ships flowers direct from farms around the world through a vertically integrated supply chain driven by proprietary data and technology. The company runs a growing e-commerce business and a robust subscription service that ships hundreds of thousands of orders annually, and also serves weddings, events, and corporate customers. Bouqs has begun expanding into physical retail, opening a flagship store on Robertson Boulevard, pop-up shops and same-day delivery in multiple U.S. cities, and three shop-in-shops inside Whole Foods Market in California. To support this retail expansion and other initiatives, Bouqs secured more than $23 million in combined debt and equity. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Marina del Rey, California. The Bouqs is an online flower delivery company built on a farm‑direct supply chain that cuts out middlemen to deliver longer‑lasting bouquets. Its core offerings include direct online sales and a growing subscription product that the company says expands revenue and profitability. The new financing will accelerate expansion into international markets, beginning with Japan, and support development of brick‑and‑mortar stores and an entry into the wedding business. Founder and CEO John Tabis credits the company’s unique sourcing and proprietary supply‑chain technology as the foundation of the brand. The Bouqs faces incumbents like 1‑800‑Flowers and FTD in the U.S. and local players such as Ayoma Flower Market and FloraJapan in Japan. The company has now raised $74 million in total funding to date, the most among its flower‑delivery startup peers according to Crunchbase. The Bouqs operates an on-demand flower delivery service that sources inventory directly from farms to reduce middlemen and improve bouquet longevity. The company delivers Pinterest-worthy arrangements via its digital platform and competes in the $18 billion U.S. flower retail market. Leadership says the business achieved profitability in Q4 of last year, though the focus remains on rapid growth rather than sustained positive cash flow today. The Bouqs plans to scale aggressively, pursue international expansion, and build predictive analytics on the backend to optimize flower sales. Management intends to grow the team from about 40 employees to roughly 75 by year-end and secure new headquarters in Venice Beach, California. The Bouqs operates a DTC flower delivery service that sources blooms directly from eco-friendly farms in California, Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica to ship fresher flowers to customers. The company sells bouquets through an app and local artisan florists, offering next-day shipping and same-day delivery via its florist network. The Bouqs says its farm-direct model lowers cost and yields flowers that can last up to 10 days longer. It has shipped flowers nationwide since 2012 and grew its artisan florist network to 130 markets in under six months. The startup received a $12 million Series B and reports the new funding brings its total to just under $20 million in the bank. The company plans to use the capital to expand its farm-direct supply chain and florist networks, hire additional team members, and launch a new native app. The Bouqs Company operates an online flower delivery service that sources eco-friendly flowers direct from an international network of top-tier farms and sells curated bouquets to consumers and small businesses. The service is available via iOS and Android apps and on TheBouqs.com. Customers choose from over 100 curated Bouqs; offerings include roses, lilies, hydrangea, ranunculus, and sunflowers, with specific flat-rate shipping options for different farm sources. The company highlights farm-direct sourcing (including shipments from a South American volcano and partner farms along the California coast) and free overnight delivery options for certain SKUs. Financially, the company closed a $6M Series A to accelerate growth and scale operations. Planned uses of the funding include expanding staff, offering delivery outside the U.S., scaling technology and infrastructure, and sourcing from new farms and nurseries globally.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2015

ReplyBuy provides a backend platform that lets teams, clubs and venues connect in real time with fans and execute mobile ticket purchases through a single reply text message. The company offers fan engagement options and serves premier clients including the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers, Brooklyn Nets, Detroit Pistons, Washington Capitals, San Francisco 49ers, Auburn University, UCLA and LSU. ReplyBuy plans to use new capital to continue development of the user experience and to introduce new client capabilities and value-added services. The company is actively hiring across engineering, marketing and sales to support growth. Led by founder and CEO Josh Manley, ReplyBuy is focused on expanding its product and client offerings while scaling operations.

Participated · Series B · Jul 2015

Tripping.com operates a metasearch platform that aggregates vacation-home and short-term rental listings from partners such as HomeAway, VRBO, TripAdvisor and Booking.com. The site aggregates over 10 million property listings across 150,000 destinations and says it will generate over $500 million in gross bookings in the current year, a 600% increase over 2015. The company says its back-end technology and onsite booking capabilities have reduced average booking time from nine days to under nine minutes. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in San Francisco, Tripping.com focuses on making it easy for travelers to search, compare and book rentals worldwide. Management plans to expand aggressively to build the brand in the U.S. and internationally, with a particular emphasis on growing presence in Asia with support from new investors. Tripping.com aggregates listings from vacation rental sites to serve as a one-stop search engine for longer stays, with an average trip just over a week. The platform indexes more than 5 million property listings across 100,000 destinations worldwide by pulling inventory from partners like VRBO, HomeAway and Booking.com. Launched in 2011 and led by founder and CEO Jen O'Neal, the company has seen a recent spike in revenue — it earned more revenue in the first seven weeks of 2015 than in all of the prior year. Tripping is on track to do over $150 million in gross bookings this year. The company plans to use its new funding to expand aggressively into international markets, specifically Asia, and to integrate listings from a queue of more than a hundred partners. The product aims to streamline long-term vacation rental booking that historically required contacting hosts directly. Tripping is a platform for vacation homes and short-term rentals led by CEO Jen O’Neal. The site aggregates and curates listings from over a dozen travel rental sites and offers more than 1 million properties across 50,000 cities worldwide. Its inventory includes listings sourced from HomeAway, Booking.com, Wimdu, Interhome, HouseTrip, Flipkey and others. The company raised a Series A round of financing (amount undisclosed) to support growth. Tripping intends to use the funds to expand into new markets and to innovate its technology. The business is based in San Francisco, CA. Tripping.com is a social travel and hospitality platform that connects travelers with local hosts for experiences ranging from language exchanges and coffee meetups to home stays. The site exited beta concurrent with the funding and plans to expand membership more aggressively, using the new capital to fuel global growth and marketing. Tripping launched in 2010 and is available in more than 130 countries, and has already attracted thousands of users. Much of the company's growth has been viral, with over 45 percent of new members saying they found out about the site through a friend. Tripping also reports partnerships with more than 30 organizations forming communities on the site, the largest of which has 18 million members. The company closed an initial tranche of funding to support expansion.