The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Nov 2023

Fr8Labs builds a SaaS operating system that supports a freight forwarder’s entire workflow, including quotation, booking confirmations, shipment confirmation, job accounting and an accounting backend. The platform links departments like sales and operations, integrates with email and chat, and includes modules such as a Warehouse Management System that can interface with clients’ ERP. Its tools automate manual tasks—for example, uploading a PDF of a shipping order can auto-generate shipment bookings and required customs forms. The company currently serves more than 50 customers across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Australia and is expanding into the rest of Asia. Fr8Labs plans to add FX trade, financing, cargo insurance, rates management and a marketplace, and aims to become an open ecosystem accessible via APIs. The team emphasizes leveraging existing freight forwarder networks and relationships to address fragmentation and localization challenges in Asian logistics markets.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2022

BintanGo offers tools and services for digital content creators, including productivity and monetization features and financial assistance to creators. The company says it has onboarded more than 75,000 creators since launching in September 2021. Over the past 12 months those creators received more than US $2.3 million in platform payments. With its latest funding, BintanGo intends to expand its services to live commerce platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Shopee, and YouTube. The company highlights a local live-commerce ecosystem, noting Central Jakarta hosts 15 live commerce studios. Its product roadmap centers on enabling creators and studios to conduct live commerce and capture monetization opportunities on major social and e-commerce platforms. BintanGO offers creators a suite of monetization tools including CreatorSpace for managing brand collaborations, a marketplace for verified creators, and a video shout-out app similar to Cameo. The platform also provides invoicing, business-management tools and invoice-financing/early-payment solutions to address long payment cycles. CEO Jason Lee co-founded the company with Oktorika Mandasari and says BintanGO aims to help creators consolidate income streams and access financing normally unavailable to informal workers. The company monetizes via platform fees ranging from 1% to 5% depending on the service. BintanGO reported onboarding about 10,000 creators in the past month, with creators earning almost $150,000 over the previous three months. Its stated goal is to solve invoicing, payment timing and financing challenges for Indonesian creators.