- Malaysian startup TAG La have announced their success in receiving RM755,000 in equity crowdfunding through Crowdplus.Asia.
- The funding comes after a period of bootstrapping that resulted in TAG La selling over 10,000 Bluetooth tracker units in their first year of operations.
Just last week, Malaysian startup TAG La announced their success in acquiring over RM750,000 in equity crowdfunding from over 10 investors through Crowdplus.Asia, with the funding led by Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd and TBV Capital.
The influx of funds marks Crowdplus.asia’s 10th successful funding campaign, and comes two years after co-founders Edison Lim and Max Chua began selling their tracker devices—little tags that could help people locate misplaced belongings via the power of Bluetooth.
“Simple as it may sound, it addresses the everyday need of the masses, which is tracking our most important items such wallets and keys,” said Juliana Jan, CIO of Cradle of TAG La’s trackers. “Their product roadmap also explores other features that I’m excited about.”
“And most important, we really believe in the two founders, Edison and Max. Their grit, intuition and hard work are simply impressive.”
With the new injection of funds, TAG La will focus improving their current product line and their understanding of their current user base via data analytics, AI, and data science.
“At this stage, we are focusing on increasing our community base, so users get to help each other to retrieve their lost items in the shortest time,” said CEO Edison Lim. “Also, we plan to use the funding on expanding the team and on research and development for new products which we plan to release in November.”
“We’re also constantly looking for talents, especially in tech development, so if you love challenges and building crazy stuff, make sure you get in touch with us!”
Proving That They Can
Speaking on his company’s funding success; Edison said that it was thanks to strong market validation that TAG La managed to convince its investors to take a punt on their venture.
“It was all traction, traction, and traction—it’s hard to convince investors when you have no traction,” Edison said.
“Fortunately, we were able to validate the market and show them what we’ve achieved over the past two years.”
Since starting out in 2016, TAG La have managed to sell over 40,000 units of its Bluetooth tracker, and are now experiencing a month-to-month growth rate three times faster in 2018 compared to 2017. This all comes as encouragement to the TAG La team, a sign of sorts that they’re on the right path after choosing to do it the hard way and bootstrap their business in the beginning.
“We still remember two years ago when there were just the two of us,” Edison said. “Now it’s a team of 10, with each one of us equipped with different skills.”
“We’ve never regretted bootstrapping as we’ve learned a lot from it,” he added “From building a company with very minimal knowledge and experience to now seeing improvements with things becoming more structured.”
“Knowing what we know now, we’d still have done things the same, but perhaps in a more effective way—processes are very important, it makes you build a strong foundation.”
Adding a final thought to all of that, Edison noted the importance of identifying the right business model from the outset.
“To find a great business model that is sustainable is crucial—some models are good for the short term, but might not work for the long-term,” he said. “The simplest way to find it is through trial and error and fine-tuning, all while remembering the core values of your company.”
- You can find out more about TAG La and their products on their website.
Feature Image Credit: TAG La