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Tag: Golden Gate Ventures

Carousell raises $35m for expansion

Singapore-based online marketplace Carousell has raised US$35 million in a funding round led by Rakuten Ventures.

Other investors in the Series B funding round included Golden Gate Ventures, Sequoia India and 500 Startups.

Founded in 2012, the Carousell app lets people buy and sell a variety of items including beauty products, fashion, lifestyle gadgets, furniture and home appliances. Sellers upload photos of items they wish to sell while buyers use the chat function to buy.

Carousell will use the new funds to speed its growth into new markets, strengthen its product and engineering capabilities and build a “world-class” team, says co-founder/CEO Quek Siu Rui. The company has just hired former AirBNB Southeast Asia MD Chai Jia Jih to oversee its international expansion.

So far Carousell has raised about $41.8 million, and is available in 13 major Asian cities including Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Taipei and, most recently, Hong Kong.

Its marketplace had more than 35 million listings globally as of the second quarter this year, with Quek claiming it has gathers 70 listings a minute.

To stand out from its competition, Carousell puts emphasis on speed. Quek says it takes as little as 30 seconds to post a listing on the marketplace, and users can communicate within the app, eliminating the need for messaging apps or emails.

August 9, 2016
Another $3.5m funding for Grana
Hong Kong-based online clothing retailer Grana has secured an extra US$3.5 million in seed funding.

This brings total funding to date to $6 million, with an additional Series A funding pending. The lead investor is Golden Gate Ventures, with MindWorks Ventures and Bluebell Group also involved.

Grana has just launched in the US market, and the extra funding will help the brand continue its international growth. The company offers clothing made from international fabrics including Chinese cotton twill and silk, French poplin, Irish linen, Italian merino wool, Japanese chambray and denim, Mongolian cashmere and Peruvian cotton. Designing in-house, Grana works directly with fabric mills to ensure the best possible prices.

In its beta launch in March last year it sold 2000 Peruvian Pima cotton T-shirts in three weeks, shipping to eight countries. Month-over-month sales have been increasing by 40 per cent since the company launched in October 2014.

As well as helping Grana ship to new markets, the new funding will support its entry to the China and US markets. The funds will also be critical to new product category launches such as leather goods, undergarments and activewear.

“The support is critical to our US expansion, a priority market that already represents 20 per cent of our global sales,” says CEO and co-founder Luke Grana, an Australian based in Hong Kong.

Grana opened a “fitting room” in San Francisco in December, and has also introduced the concept in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney. These outlets are designed as showrooms rather than retail shops, offering interaction with Grana Cheetahs (customer service representatives) and the chance to explore the website.

“In a world where startups are disrupting established industries, Grana is disrupting how to build a global brand with bottom-up marketing from their biggest fans, city by city,” says Golden Gate Ventures managing partner Vinnie Lauria.

Grana will also use the new funding to build its global team. It now has more than 40 employees in Hong Kong, and has just added team members in San Francisco.
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February 22, 2016
How DBS Is Fronting And Doubling Down On The Push For Entrepreneurship In Singapore

We’ve all heard of DBS — after all, it’s the largest bank in Singapore and Southeast Asia. And, it has 280 branches all over the rest of Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and Indonesia. Other than its extensive coverage, the bank recently launched a set of new initiatives to support entrepreneurs and the startup community here in Singapore.

DBS Bay Area Series

Venture Capitalist and DBS Advisor Ernestine Fu. Photo Credit: DBS.

DBS kicked off their initiatives in late 2014 with a visit from Ernestine Fu, a venture capitalist and partner at Alsop Louie Partners in Silicon Valley. She has advised DBS on venture debt and their entrepreneurship programs. With her presence, DBS launched its inaugural entrepreneurship event and kicked off its prestigious “Bay Area Series” event.

For those unfamiliar with Ernestine, she has been heralded as Silicon Valley’s youngest venture capitalist. She joined VC firm Alsop Louie Partners as a 20-year-old associate in March 2011 and has been making waves as a young VC in the bay area since.

Third-Generation Venture Capitalist Tim Draper. Photo Credit: DBS.

Tim Draper, founder and managing director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), joined the Bay Area Series in January of 2015. Tim Draper is a third-generation venture capitalist, and is well known for being one of the early investors in Skype, Baidu, Tesla, Theranos, Hotmail, Twitch.tv hundred of others. His grandfather co-founded one of the first venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. He shared with local entrepreneurs his visions and insights on venture investing when he was in Singapore too.

The Bay Area Series provide an excellent opportunity for local investors and entrepreneurs to hear and learn from successful individuals from Silicon Valley.

Disrupt @ The Bay Series

Food & Beverage Event for Disrupt @ The Bay. Photo Credit: DBS.

DBS also launched a series of events called “Disrupt @ The Bay” in 2015. The goal of these events is to foster relationships and synergies among local entrepreneurs and investors. We need to re-think how we “disrupt” current industry norms, and create exponential growth through new technologies and business ideas. Some of the events organized last year include the F&B Disrupt @ The Bay, Future of Retail Disrupt @ The Bay, as well as Future of Automotive Disrupt @ The Bay.

Future of Retail Event for Disrupt @ The Bay. Photo Credit: DBS.

Future of Automotive Event for Disrupt @ The Bay. Photo Credit: DBS.

The Disrupt @ The Bay events have attracted multiple large corporations, small businesses and startups, and venture capital firms. These organizations include: StarHub, StoreHub, Golden Gate Ventures, iChef, The French Cellar, Reimagine Food, The Oddle Company, Mobikon Technologies Pte Ltd, and Robofusion Asia Pte Ltd.

The Disrupt @ The Bay Series is a good platform for like-minded business owners, investors, and entrepreneurs to connect. They can share information, exchange ideas, and form new partnerships.

DBS Venture Debt

DBS and Venture Debt. Image Credit: DBS.

As part of these initiatives, DBS also introduced venture debt financing and is the first bank is Southeast Asia to do so. Venture debt is a way for the bank to financial support tech startups in the growth stage.

Currently, venture debt applicants need to be Singapore-based, with primary operations in Singapore. The startup should have also raised at minimum of $1 million SGD in Series A funding.

Image credit: Kauffman Fellows

This initiative provides a unique later stage funding option to encourage the growth of technology startups in Singapore.

DBS Mobile App

Image Credit: DBS.

DBS also launched a mobile app called “DBS BusinessClass” to provide a networking platform for local entrepreneurs, investors, and advisors in Asia. Available on both iOS and Android, members can post questions, gain advice on their businesses, and join online discussions on startups topics.

Since launching a year ago, the app grew to over 15,000 members and over 300 discussion topics.

Overall, these new initiatives by DBS show great promise. The bank received the Asian Banker’s Best Social Media Engagement Project Award, along with multiple other awards. DBS has taken a comprehensive approach to positively impacting the local entrepreneurship ecosystem in Singapore.

We are optimistic that DBS has a strong platform to expand and connect entrepreneurs and investors across the rest of Asia.

February 16, 2016