GrabMart to airasia fresh: How well do these online grocery platforms in S’pore ‘deliver’?
When Covid-19 first began to engulf Singapore, some rushed to the supermarkets to stockpile on groceries and essentials, while others hit the keyboards.
As orders surged, online grocers started opening up more slots and ramped up manpower. Businesses in other verticals, such as transportation and logistics, also started taking advantage of this demand and have made forays into the grocery delivery space.
Malaysian airline AirAsia is one such example. The pandemic has been turbulent to the company’s travel business, as leisure travel comes to a screeching halt.
This is why the company has been accelerating its digital transformation from a low-cost airline to a lifestyle platform that offers an online marketplace. Its grocery delivery arm airasia fresh, is just one of its many new businesses to bolster its super app ambition.
It made its debut in home market Malaysia first, before launching in Singapore in July this year. This is part of its continued expansion in Singapore after having successfully launched its food delivery platform, airasia food, in March.
However, with so many contenders here, it would not be easy for it to get a sizeable slice of the online grocery delivery pie. That said, how does airasia fresh stack up against the key players in this space?
A look at what airasia fresh has to offer
airasia fresh promises good value, convenience and on-time delivery. It works together with local and organic farmers, frozen seafood and meat distributors, as well as small businesses to supply customers with the best products.
Its online grocery marketplace offers five different categories: fresh produce, meat and seafood, frozen food, dairy and eggs, and pantry.
airasia fresh also offers Fresh Grocery Packs, which offers the flexibility of selecting fresh groceries such as vegetables, seafood, meat and fruit of your choice for a fixed price. These will be delivered at a time slot of your choice at no additional cost.
You can select the type and size that you prefer for the various Fresh Packs. You can curate your produce from the various categories in each pack, and opt to pick multiple items of one item, or multiple items until the category limit is reached.
airasia fresh works with Teleport, airasia’s logistics arm, to deliver the groceries.
Teleport also delivers for airasia food in Singapore and as of April 2021, it has over 1,350 registered riders and drivers. Teleport will continually hire more to expand the team as AirAsia strives to better meet the growing delivery demands in Singapore.
“The airasia super app is now offering consumers in Singapore a new, exciting alternative to order their groceries at better value, while at the same time, providing support to merchants — especially small businesses in digitising their operations and diversifying their revenue stream,” said Lim Ben Jie, head of e-commerce for airasia super app in a media statement.
“We are committed to delivering the highest standard of customer service including offering same-day delivery for all orders made before 12.00pm and ensuring our customers only get the best quality products all year round. We look forward to serving everyone in Singapore as we continue to grow in this market.”
1. RedMart
- Product range temporarily reduced to prioritise daily essentials including rice, flour, and eggs.
- Delivers islandwide every day.
- Delivery hours from 7am to 11pm. Delivery slots are currently assigned based on availability for your location.
- Free delivery for orders of S$40 and above for LiveUp Members, S$60 and above for non-LiveUp Members. Otherwise, delivery fee of S$3.99 or S$5.99 applies for saver or scheduled deliveries respectively.
2. Amazon Fresh
- To shop at Amazon Fresh, you need to first be an Amazon Prime member.
- Amazon Prime members get to enjoy streamable movies and TV shows for S$2.99/month.
- Free two-hour same-day delivery for orders above S$60. Otherwise, a S$5.99 fee applies.
3. NTUC FairPrice
- Delivers islandwide every day.
- Offers a ‘click & collect’ option for you to pick up your order at the nearest outlet
- Offers same-day delivery. Delivery slots range from two hours to seven working days from checkout (subject to availability).
- Free delivery for orders of S$59 and above. S$3 delivery fee for orders between S$59 and S$79, and S$5 delivery under S$59.
- If you join their FairPrice Digital Club for S$9.99 per month, you’ll enjoy waived service fees on orders over S$100 along with many other member perks.
4. Cold Storage
- Delivers islandwide every day.
- Offers next-day delivery between 9am and 9pm. However, delivery slots are currently assigned based on availability for your location.
- Free delivery for orders of S$59 and above, or S$7 delivery fee for orders under $59.
5. Giant
- Delivers islandwide every day.
- Offers next-day delivery between 9am and 9pm. However, delivery slots are currently assigned based on availability for your location.
- Free delivery for orders of S$59 and above, or S$7 delivery fee for orders under S$59.
6. Sheng Siong
- Delivers to most areas in Singapore every day.
- Offers same-day delivery for orders placed before 4pm. However, delivery slots are currently assigned based on availability for your location.
- Free delivery for orders of S$100 and above, or S$6 delivery fee for orders under S$100.
7. GrabMart / GrabSupermarket
- Stores like FairPrice Xpress and Cheers are available on GrabMart, depending on what’s around your location. Do note that these are convenience stores, which may not carry produce like rice, meat and vegetables.
- Minimum order depends on merchant.
- Service fees apply, which includes a delivery fee between S$3 and $5 based on dynamic pricing and a platform fee.
- GrabSupermarket on the other hand, is part of a strategic expansion of GrabMart, in partnership with HAO mart.
- GrabSupermarket offers over 10,000 products with next-day delivery (for orders placed before 6pm).
- Free delivery for orders worth S$50 and above. Flat delivery fee of S$4.99 per order applies, with a minimum basket value of S$20.
8. pandamart and pandanow
- Offers on-demand delivery in an average delivery time of 25 minutes.
- Convenience stores like Cheers, FairPrice Xpress and Hao mart are available on pandamart.
- Free delivery and no minimum order value.
- pandanow offers 24-hour on-demand delivery within 20 minutes or less, with a ready stock of groceries that can be dispatched immediately.
- Minimum order depends on the merchant.
- When you sign up as a pandapro subscriber at S$7.99 a month, you’ll enjoy free deliveries for orders above S$15.
9. Deliveroo
- Deliveroo is the only app that delivers from big supermarkets like Giant and Cold Storage
- It also delivers from a few other small grocery outfits like Marks & Spencer and Kuriya Japanese Market
- Delivery fees range between S$5 and S$10
- Delivery lead time is about 25 to 60 minutes for most places
10. Shopee Supermarket
- Shopee launched its grocery arm in April 2021
- It has over 36,000 product offerings that range from curry paste to beer
- Free delivery for orders over S$40. Otherwise, a delivery fee of S$3.99 applies.
- Can use ShopeePay as payment method and earn Shopee Coins
Will airasia fresh conquer the online grocery market?
The above list is clearly not exhaustive, and there are way more players in this market. It’s clear that this space is very competitive and as a relatively new player, airasia fresh needs to do more in order to stand out from others.
It’s not winning in terms of price and speed, and the BIG Points feature is simply not a huge enough incentive to attract users to jump onboard.
If users are reward-oriented, they would probably turn to Grab instead to stack up their GrabReward points. Grab has established itself as a leading super app in Southeast Asia, and many use Grab in their everyday lives — from ordering food, to booking a ride.
While BIG Points can be used to redeem travel (AirAsia activities, RocketMiles, Kaligo, Tune Hotel) or lifestyle (AirAsia Deals, AirAsia food, AirAsia Grocer etc) products, many Singaporeans don’t use AirAsia enough to truly benefit from this ecosystem of offerings.
Another key factor for it to last long in this space is for it to ramp up its marketing efforts. It has been dismal so far (many of my colleagues actually did not even know airasia fresh has launched in Singapore), considering that it has a huge financial war chest to rely on.
The company said it plans to raise up to one billion ringgit (US$238.7 million) through a rights issue, to support its working capital needs as it grows its digital business units.
The digital arm of the low-cost carrier is also reportedly considering listing in the US via a special-purpose acquisition company or SPAC to raise at least US$300 million.
Featured Image Credit: airasia fresh / foodpanda / FairPrice / RedMart
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Impossible Foods to launch plant-based pork in S’pore this Nov
As one of the kingpins in the plant-based industry, Impossible Foods has never disappointed us with its launches. From plant-based beef, sausage to chicken nuggets, we now have Impossible Pork Made From Plants.
This new addition to the Impossible Foods lineup will be available in Hong Kong from October 4, and will make its New York debut at the famous Momofuku Ssäm Bar at Pier 17, helmed by Chef David Chang.
In Singapore, Impossible Pork will land in November at restaurants including Prive, PS. Cafe, Da Paolo and Moonbow Dempsey.
A more sustainable world
If you’ve been keeping up with the news lately, you’ll know the environment is in trouble, and one of the best ways to help is to incorporate more plant-based products into your diet.
Pork from pigs happens to be one of the most consumed proteins globally, and Impossible Pork is designed to be more delicious and far more sustainable while satisfying every culture and cuisine.
Impossible Pork is vastly more sustainable than ground pork from pigs, using 81 to 85 per cent less water, 66 to 82 per cent less land, and generating 73 to 77 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions based on an ISO conforming Life Cycle Assessment.
As someone who loves her bacon and xiao long baos, those are some big shoes (or should I say trotters) to fill.
Better than real pork
As with all new-fangled food that enters the market, the best way to judge them is through a taste test, which is exactly what Impossible Foods did.
In a blind taste test of more than 200 consumers in Hong Kong, Impossible Pork Made From Plants was preferred.
54 per cent of the participants liked Impossible Pork over ground pork from pigs. It also scored higher on all attributes tested, including overall liking, appearance liking, flavour liking, texture liking, and purchase intent.
Like meat from pigs, Impossible Pork features a mild savoury flavour and balanced umami richness without being gamey or overpowering. Impossible Pork is certified gluten-free and contains no nitrates.
It can be served in any ground meat dish, including spring rolls, meatballs, dumplings, xiao long bao, shumai or tacos, and can be cooked in a steamer, oven, charbroiler, flat-top grill or saute pan.
Given how minced pork is central to many classic Chinese dishes, debuting Impossible Pork in Hong Kong makes the most sense. Chef May Chow of Little Bao will be serving a Taiwanese “LuRou” Scotch Egg and Happy Paradise, which will serve Impossible™ Dan Dan Noodles.
Minced pork is central to so many classic Chinese recipes from dumplings to spring rolls to dan dan noodles. I’m thrilled we now have a more sustainable alternative that does not compromise on the original diversity, deliciousness, and depth of everyone’s favourite recipes
Chef May Chow of Little Bao
A romp around Hong Kong is not complete with a trip to Tim Ho Wan, and you’d be pleased to know that Impossible Pork will also be available there along with Chinese fast-food chain MX and more than 100 restaurants in Hong Kong.
More to come from Impossible Foods
It’s clear that Impossible Foods is on a roll and not stopping any time soon.
“Earlier this month, we beat the animal with the launch of Impossible Chicken Nuggets,” said Dennis Woodside, president of Impossible Foods.
“With Impossible Pork, we’re beating the animal again while satisfying even more types of cuisine — another important step towards making the global food system much more sustainable.”
The launch of Impossible Pork is a clear signal that plant-based options are here to stay. Given its inclusivity and sustainability, I’m all for it.
Featured Image Credit: Impossible Foods
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S’pore is turning COVID-19 into gold, attracting global businesses with pandemic policies
While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is a worldwide problem, it certainly does not affect all countries equally.
Remarkably, one of the places most dependent on international travel, trade and business — Singapore — not only appears to be among the least negatively impacted, but it is literally turning the crisis into gold (or at least money and golden business opportunities).
In the past few months, I have highlighted how the city-state has actually gotten richer, thanks to rapid appreciation of assets its vast reserves are invested in — yielding a net gain (even accounting for over S$50 billion in various pandemic relief packages) of a few hundred billion dollars.
But stock market inflation, triggered by loose fiscal and monetary policies around the world, is not the only positive outcome the virus has brought to Singapore.
As it turns out, Singapore’s carefully managed response to the pandemic — neither too strict nor too loose — is winning it even more favours with the international community.
Singapore’s pragmatism deals another blow to Hong Kong
In a CNN report published yesterday, contrasting city-state’s policies with those enacted in Hong Kong — which is still pursuing a strict zero-COVID strategy — representatives of foreign companies present in the Chinese city warned that the status quo is untenable and is already driving many away to greener pastures in Singapore.
Strict border closures, freeze on movement of people, high vaccine hesitancy (only 66 per cent of people in Hong Kong have been vaccinated, with the oldest groups lagging badly behind the rest — only 14 per cent of people over 80, and 39 per cent between 70 and 79 have received their jab), lengthy three weeks of quarantine for returning residents and, most of all, the uncertainty about how long this situation is going to last are simply unacceptable for businesses that want to return to normalcy, or at least see a roadmap to it.
These frustrations are only adding to the political problems mounting over the past two years, as Beijing is tightening its grip on the former British colony, prompting flight of both people and money.
Given that China remains staunchly dedicated to stamping COVID-19 out rather than “living with it”, it doesn’t seem that Hong Kong has a chance of becoming an exception to this policy.
Interviewed by CNN, Frederik Gollob, chairman of the Hong Kong’s European Chamber of Commerce, argued that Singapore is gaining an edge on Hong Kong because of “its willingness to signal an end to burdensome pandemic restrictions, even if progress has stalled.”
“This is happening as we speak.” Gollob said he knew of “many examples” of companies where C-suite executives were deliberating whether to shift some operations out of Hong Kong, or which were waiting for “office leases to expire.” He declined to name those firms, citing sensitivity concerns.
With Singapore’s attempt to move forward, “those companies now have an alternative, not because they were actively looking for it, but because of this situation [in Hong Kong], where everything is in limbo and you can’t plan ahead,” he added.
“This moving or non-existing goalpost is exactly the problem … businesses hate nothing more than insecurity.”
CNN, 22 September 2021
From the start, Singapore’s pragmatic approach has been oriented on doing whatever could practically be done, and then living with the outcomes in the absence of better alternatives to near total vaccination of the population, which it has very nearly achieved (with inoculation rates of 80 to 90 per cent across eligible age groups).
Instead of pursuing a utopian ideal of returning to the status quo ante 2020, the Singapore government chose a calibrated reset, erecting whatever protections it could around its population and then gradually reopening domestic economy and, now, its borders to travelers from the safest destinations first.
While it is still far from ‘business as usual’, it shows commitment to getting back to it as soon as possible, instead of keeping businesses in limbo forever.
American executives prioritise Singapore for investment in ASEAN
On the other side of the Pacific, senior business executives in US companies dealing with Southeast Asia, have expressed their preference for Singapore as a destination for future investment in ASEAN, in the latest survey conducted by Standard Chartered, Borderless Business: ASEAN trade corridors.
More than half (58 per cent) of them rated Singapore as one of the top markets for expansion into ASEAN, with 45 per cent picking Indonesia, and 43 per cent picking Thailand.
More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed weaknesses in global supply networks – driving a push towards footprint realignment. ASEAN seems well positioned to tap into the opportunities created by these trends. Besides lower production costs in many ASEAN markets, governments across the bloc have also been offering multiple investment and tax incentives to attract global players. Manufacturing capabilities in the region have also matured significantly, making ASEAN a major participant in global supply chains at present. Many companies are further looking to shift their supply chains closer to large end markets such as ASEAN – to improve supply reliability and offer more relevant products to consumers, at greater competitive price points.
Borderless Business: ASEAN trade corridors by Standard Chartered
For decades, Singapore has naturally been considered as the best place to conduct business in Southeast Asia — and a preferred gateway to other countries in the region — but both the successful pandemic response, as well as unpredictable political situation elsewhere, are making it even more attractive today.
It’s so good, in fact, that in the latest Global Innovation Index, released annually by World Intellectual Property Organization, the city-state has received near perfect marks — and best in the world — for its political and legal environment:
Speaking of the index, Singapore has retained a high eighth ranking globally among the most innovative economies, though it handed the Asian crown to South Korea this year, slipping from the top in the continent to second.
That said, as far as foreign investors are concerned, Singapore is even stronger than before — and certainly the safest bet in Southeast Asia, particularly during the pandemic-induced uncertainties that may keep plaguing the world for a few years more.
Pressure makes diamonds
General George S. Patton used to say that stress and pressure is necessary to turn coal into diamonds, and it seems Singapore makes one such fine example.
It’s a country born out of a crisis, which has spent its entire existence dealing with more or less severe crises. A tiny city-state surrounded by much larger, much more populous countries, devoid of resources of its own, and forever jealously competed against.
And yet, it has succeeded far more than those seemingly better endowed by nature.
It is, perhaps, no surprise then that yet another crisis (that the COVID-19 pandemic surely is) not only hasn’t hurt it badly but thanks to long experience and careful, reasonable response, has been turned into a success boosting its position to new heights, while everybody else is suffering.
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images
Also Read: How Grab took advantage of COVID-19 to launch new services & achieved record-breaking revenue
Secretlab to ShopBack: LinkedIn unveils top 15 S’pore startups to look out for in 2021
The last year and a half can’t have been easy for anyone. With the global pandemic still raging on, we celebrate the small wins whenever we can. This is why LinkedIn’s list of Top Startups 2021 serves as a source of encouragement and hope.
To put together this year’s rankings, LinkedIn accessed their data across four pillars: employee growth, jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies List.
In order to be eligible, companies must be seven years old or younger, have at least 50 employees, be privately held and be headquartered in Singapore.
Here’s a look at the 15 startups in Singapore that have seen tremendous growth this year:
1. Advance Intelligence Group
Founded in 2016 and now with 1,500 employees, Advance Intelligence Group is the one to watch.
Advance Intelligence Group uses artificial intelligence to power its range of brands, including Advance.AI, which helps finance and retail companies stop fraud, automate processes, and buy now, pay later platform Atome.
The Singapore-headquartered company has recently received USD400M+ Series D round financing from an investor consortium led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2* and Warburg Pincus.
Other key investors include Northstar, Vision Plus Capital, Gaorong Capital and Singapore-based global investor EDBI. With a valuation of over USD 2 billion, Advance Intelligence Group is now one of the largest independent technology startups based in Singapore.
This Series D-backed company now has a presence across 12 markets: Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mainland China, India, Thailand, Taiwan, Mexico and Pakistan.
2. Endowus
If you’ve ever thought about investing, chances are you’ve come across Endowus. CPF investing is often overlooked by many Singaporeans, or it’s simply treated as a backup “war chest” to buy stocks or funds cheap when the market is undergoing a deep discount.
Set up in 2017, this digital wealth advisor helps people in Singapore reach retirement goals and become more financially literate by offering various investing options for cash, Central Provident Fund (CPF) and Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) funds.
Endowus has raised over S$23 million in funding in a Series A round and plans to use to funds to rapidly scale up its funding and expand into other key Asia wealth hubs, starting with Hong Kong.
3. Homage
Many changes accompany the pandemic, and one of them is the face of health care. Homage combines curated and trained care professionals with smart technology that’s targeted at seniors.
This way, seniors in need of care services can be matched with nurses, physiotherapists and other health professionals on Homage’s app, which operates in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia.
The eldertech startup has also recently raised US$30 million (S$40 million) funding in a Series C round led by Sheares Healthcare Group, a wholly-owned healthcare enterprise of global investment firm Temasek.
New investors that joined the round include DG Daiwa Ventures and Sagana Capital and existing investors East Ventures (Growth), HealthXCapital, SeedPlus, Trihill Capital, and Alternate Ventures.
4. Secretlab
You don’t have to be a gamer to want one of Secretlab’s premium gaming chairs. The company has sold the gaming chairs to more than 60 countries, and with the recent work from home boom, orders for their chairs have surged.
Most notably, Secretlab has made waves with its massive hiring exercise. They are looking to fill more than 100 jobs after experiencing incredible growth in recent years.
The company’s co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Alaric Choo said that Secretlab is hiring around 80 engineers and designers and new hires for marketing, public relations, and global operational roles.
As one of the biggest homegrown startups, Secretlab and some of the entrants on this list were mentioned in this year’s National Day Rally. A proud moment for the folks at Secretlab, indeed.
5. Aspire
An app that’s absolutely essential if you plan to venture into the startup arena, Aspire is great for business owners.
They have a suite of financial tools for small businesses, including invoicing and money transfers. They aspire to become a “one-stop-shop” for entrepreneurs who want to scale up their businesses in Southeast Asia.
Its flagship product, AspireAccount, offers cash flow management and business-to-business payment acceptance services to digital merchants in Southeast Asia.
To date, the company has raised US$40 million from various investors, including its latest financing round led by MassMutual Ventures.
6. StashAway
Founded in 2016, StashAway was a solution for CEO Michele Ferrario to combat the over-priced products and low-quality, biased, one-size fits-no-one advice that is often peddled by banks.
He set out to build the investment products he wanted to also offer them across the region.
StashAway offers global growth-oriented investment portfolios targeting different levels of risk, a yield-focused Income Portfolio, and StashAway Simple, a straightforward cash management solution.
StashAway has recently expanded into Thailand, making it the fourth overseas market since its founding in 2016.
StashAway also has operations in Hong Kong, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.
It currently manages more than US$1 billion in assets and has raised US$61.4 million in six funding rounds. The company is backed by leading venture capital firms, including Sequoia Capital India, Eight Roads Ventures and Square Peg.
7. Doctor Anywhere
The new normal of the pandemic has sparked the rise of telemedicine. Doctor Anywhere is a startup that thrived at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
Its founder, chief executive officer and chairman Wai Mun Lim, who was previously an investment manager, was inspired by the successes of telehealth startups Teladoc and MDLive in the United States.
Doctor Anywhere is headquartered in Singapore, with offices across Southeast Asia and in India.
Doctor Anywhere recently raised S$88 million in a round of Series C funding. The round was led by Asia Partners, with participation from Novo Holdings, Philips and OSK-SBI Partners. It also included returning investors EDBI, Square Peg, IHH Healthcare, Kamet Capital and Pavilion Capital.
8. ShopBack
If you’ve ever shopped online, chances are you would have used ShopBack to get more bang for your buck. It was founded in 2014 by Henry Chan, Joel Leong, and Shanru Lai.
In December last year, it raised US$75 million in an extended funding round led by Temasek, with participation from existing investors like Rakuten and EDBI. Total publicly known funding is at US$113 million since its inception.
The pandemic has not stopped ShopBack from a 150 per cent revenue growth. The startup bills itself as the largest rewards and discovery platform in the Asia Pacific and has a presence in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia, Vietnam, and South Korea.
9. CARRO
CARRO is Southeast Asia’s largest AI-driven car marketplace providing shoppers with transparency and quality assurance when buying, selling and financing a car. Ever since it completed a US $360 million (S$477.62 million) funding round that boosted its valuation to US$1 billion, CARRO has officially entered the unicorn club.
With CARRO becoming a unicorn in June, the online platform for buying and selling used cars in Southeast Asia has even bigger aspirations to become a “decacorn” in “the next few years”, according to CEO Aaron Tan.
CEO and co-founder Aaron Tan is already aiming for an 11-figure valuation. Not to mention, Carro also has its sights set on an IPO; exciting things are in the works for Carro indeed.
If you’ve paid close attention to this year’s National Day’s Rally, you’ll remember Carro also had the honour of being mentioned as one of Singapore’s homegrown companies.
10. Nium
Another unicorn in our midst, fintech company Nium recently secured US$200 million in funding. Nium was born out of a mission to simplify the payments experience for consumers and businesses worldwide.
Specialising in cross-border payments, the startup is now making a serious play into the travel sector and expansion into the US market. Now, Nium aims to expand into the U.S. market, where it already has a team in San Francisco.
It seems like Singapore has no shortage of unicorns; Nium is also a proud member of the club. Nium falls under the category of Temasek backed startups that have galloped their way into shiny unicorns.
Temasek had injected about US$15.8 million in capital into Nium, and Temasek unit Ossa Investments now owns a 27 per cent stake in Nium.
11. Validus
Validus is Southeast Asia’s largest SME financing platform for small businesses, individual and institutional investors. Validus aims to drive inclusive growth for SMEs and economies in the ASEAN region by using data analytics and AI to avail growth to underserved SMEs.
Validus has a presence in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand and uses data analytics and A.I. to drive inclusive growth for SMEs in the region.
12. MiRXES
MiRXES is a Singapore-headquartered biotechnology company that translates research discoveries to deliver world-leading multi-cancer early detection. They have research, development, manufacturing, and clinical diagnostic operations in Singapore, USA, Japan, and China. We have sales and distribution networks worldwide.
MiRxes has recently raised US$77 million in a Series C round in June to speed research into cancer detection tests.
13. Zenyum
Zenyum is a Singapore startup that offers a line of affordable cosmetic dental treatments that’s a fraction of the cost of traditional invisible braces.
Their mix of teledentistry – or remote dental care – and orthodontist visits are especially important during Covid-19, where face-to-face consultations are reduced.
With self-care on the rise, Zenyum makes the process of achieving your ideal smile easier than ever.
If we are talking about smiles, Zenyum probably has the widest one. The company has recently raised US$40 million in a round of Series B funding.
This includes US$25 million from L Catterton; a private equity firm focused on consumer brands. The round’s other participants were Sequoia Capital India, RTP Global, Partech, TNB Aura, Seeds Capital and FEBE Ventures.
14. 99.Co
Online property search tech firm 99.co is a platform that allows you to easily find the latest resale properties at your fingertips.
The startup has raised US$33.1 million of funding in total. The most recent was in 2019, where it gained US$8 million in investment from REA Group through the acquisition of the group’s consumer brands iProperty in Singapore and Rumah123 in Indonesia.
Despite the pandemic, 99. co achieved a 62 per cent jump in revenue in 2020 due to cost-cutting measures, tech innovations and a changed business model.
15. Ninja Van
With all our online shopping, it’s no wonder why Ninja Van has made it to the list for the second time. Interestingly, the logistics and package delivery company is eyeing an initial public offering next year.
Founded in 2014, the logistics startup Ninja Van is headquartered in Singapore and has operations in five other regional markets: Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Data platform VentureCap Insights shows that the Series C round had valued Ninja Van at US$779.8 million.
Featured image credit: Carro, Ninja Van, Stash Away, Secretlab
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