Zephyrnet Logo

Tag: Philippines

Winklevoss twins and global decacorn invest in US$29M Series A of Singapore-based fintech Volopay as it prepares APAC and MENA expansion

SINGAPORE, Mar 1, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - Volopay, a Y Combinator-backed Singapore-based corporate cards, and payable management startup has successfully raised US$29 million in its Series A round through a mix of equity and debt. The investment round included participation from JAM Fund, Winklevoss Capital Management, Rapyd Ventures, Accial Capital, fintech veteran and angel investor Jeffrey Cruttenden - CEO of Acorns along with Access Ventures, Antler Global, and VentureSouq.


The strategic investment from leading blue-chip investors will fuel Volopay's foray into the APAC and MENA markets to tackle two of the most pressing problems that SMEs and startups face - high Forex (FX) charges incurred for international payments and the lack of a uniform platform to access all spend data. Volopay provides companies with multi-currency wallets to hold money in their base currency and any major currency - USD, SGD, EUR, GBP - and subsequently use it for payouts, eliminating exorbitant amounts of FX charges levied on international payments.

Since its seed funding, Volopay has grown exponentially to better alleviate its clients' pain points. With a 150+ member team spread all over major business centres in the Asia Pacific region, such as Singapore, Australia, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, Volopay has amassed an impressive clientele with the likes of Funding Societies, Zipmex, Moneysmart, Smartkarma, and Austrionova among others.

Volopay is disrupting traditional business banking and aims to be adopted as the single and only solution growing, global businesses need for their cards, invoice automation, and bill payments along with the added bonus of a multi-currency business account without the hassle and limitations of a traditional bank. To achieve this, Volopay has embarked on the ambitious objective of building its own infrastructure and applying for financial licences in its markets, something no other company has done regionally. Through constructing their own infrastructure, Volopay will enable their global clients to eliminate the need for integration with multiple third-party financial services platforms, delivering a consistent and delightful customer experience regardless of the region they are operating in.

Rajith Shaji, cofounder and CEO of Volopay shared, "Volopay is an ambitious project. To build an alternative to Volopay, you would have to launch five different startups. We are building the control centre for modern companies for all their financial management needs. Our platform is as easy and seamless to use for a five-person company, as it is for a 500-person company. We want to take our vision of a unified spend management platform to all companies across the world after our initial markets of APAC and MENA."

"With APAC & MENA making a big wave on the global stage by churning out several unicorn level enterprises every year, accelerating their growth requires an efficient expense management tool that is simple yet scalable, something that Volopay has always aimed for," said Rajesh Raikwar, cofounder and CTO of Volopay.

Justin Mateen, founder of Tinder and JAM Fund who led the round, said in a statement, "I've worked closely with Volopay's amazing team since my original investment at the pre-seed stage. Given the accelerating growth of the business, and the team's ability to innovate quickly on the product side with a single-stack and scalable platform across multiple jurisdictions, it was only natural to triple down and lead the Series A round. I am proud to partner with a leader in this space and to help support Volopay to scale to greater heights."

Michael Shum, Chief Investment Officer at Accial Capital said, "Accial Capital views the B2B corporate spend vertical as a way to support entrepreneurs and SMEs with liquidity and close the credit gap. Volopay has a great ambitious team focused on redlining the finance workflows with its robust technology. We are proud to partner with a leader in this space to help scale."

Part of Volopay's Series A funds will be put towards their forthcoming market launches, building and innovating new technologies to complement their existing product, in addition to enhancing integrations with leading enterprise software and project management applications. The company is also hiring aggressively for key positions in each of its markets.

About Volopay

Volopay is a Singapore-based company on a mission to build a financial control centre for modern businesses. Volopay combines business accounts, corporate cards, bill payments, expense reimbursements, credit, cashback, and accounting automation into one single platform. Since launching in Singapore and Australia the startup has been on a strong growth trajectory and is now stepping into India, Indonesia, and the Philippines with MENA expansion on the horizon. https://www.volopay.com/sg/

For media enquiries, please contact:
PRecious Communications for Volopay
volopay@preciouscomms.com

Copyright 2022 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. www.acnnewswire.comVolopay, a Y Combinator-backed Singapore-based corporate cards, and payable management startup has successfully raised US$29 million in its Series A round through a mix of equity and debt. The investment round included participation from JAM Fund, Winklevoss Capital Management, Rapyd Ventures, Accial Capital, fintech veteran and angel investor Jeffrey Cruttenden - CEO of Acorns along with Access Ventures, Antler Global, and VentureSouq.

The underdog uprising continues

After a strong start to the Mobile Legends Professional League Season 9 in the Philippines, the underdog teams continue to shine in Week 2.

Click here to read the full article.

Six Proven Tips to Build Successful NFT Communities in the Philippines

Here are six tips for Filipinos who wish to create their own NFT communities.

The post Six Proven Tips to Build Successful NFT Communities in the Philippines appeared first on BitPinas.

Apex Legends Mobile’s Regional Launch Delayed Due To “Current World Events”

Respawn Entertainment is delaying the launch of Apex Legends' mobile version until next week due to ongoing "current world events," which is most likely a reference to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The launch was supposed to take place today, February 28.

In a blog post, Respawn said the plan is to now launch Apex Legends Mobile on March 7 in select participating countries. These countries include Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and Colombia.

During the limited launch, the following Legends will be available: Bloodhound, Gibraltar, Lifeline, Wraith, Bangalore, Octane, Mirage, Pathfinder, and Caustic.

As for when Apex Legends Mobile will launch in more places, Respawn hasn't said yet. The studio will announce support for other regions after the testing phase in its initial markets.

You can help Ukrainians in need by donating to charity. We also have a roundup of how game developers are supporting the crisis in Ukraine.

VCT 2021: South Built Esports wins the Philippines Stage 1 Challengers

They beat NAOS Esports in a string of back-to-back wins.

Click here to read the full article.

Artworks of Two National Artists Become NFTs, Collections to Drop Next Month

Unfinished works of the late national artists Abdulmari Imao and Jose Joya are set to launch NFT collections on the newly established ScarletBox.io.

The post Artworks of Two National Artists Become NFTs, Collections to Drop Next Month appeared first on BitPinas.

Society Pass (SoPa) Adds Vietnam’s Handycart To Its Next-Generation Digital Ecosystem and Loyalty Platform

SINGAPORE, Feb 28, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - Society Pass Incorporated (SoPa) (Nasdaq: "SOPA"), a leading Southeast Asian data-driven loyalty platform today, announced that it has acquired Dream Space Trading Company Limited ("Dream Space"), the operator of Handycart, a leading online grocery delivery service based in Hanoi, Vietnam. The newly acquired company will be integrated into SoPa's F&B delivery vertical with SoPa's existing merchant software platform #HOTTAB. Handycart founder and CEO, Seo Jun Ho, has been named Head of the new Business Unit managing both Handycart and #HOTTAB in Vietnam.

Founded in 2019, Handycart is an online grocery delivery app with its own fleet of delivery vehicles that focuses on servicing the Korean restaurant market and F&B sector in Hanoi. Korean food and pop-culture have taken Vietnam by storm, driven by the growing "Korean Wave", a recent survey by market research firm Q&Me found that 58 percent of Vietnamese favor Korean cuisine.

Commenting on this strategic step, Ngo Thi Cham, SoPa Vietnam Country General Manager, said, "We are excited to welcome Handycart to our larger SoPa ecosystem which will enable it to harness our integrated marketing and technology proposition while also strengthening our collective senior management resources. We endeavour to combine the robust technology and operational efficiency of a specialty ecommerce brand like Handycart with our brand building experience. SoPa has witnessed, with our runaway success of Leflair, in Vietnam, that this move will lead to immediate returns in terms of cost optimisation and increased revenue generation. We are determined to increase merchant coverage to 500 restaurants in Hanoi by the end of 2022 and look to expand to HCMC in 3Q 2022."

Leveraging on SoPa's integrated technology platform to drive operational efficiencies and business performance Handycart will focus on dramatically increasing on-demand grocery shopping services to more consumers in the country, while empowering specialty F&B restaurants to transform business models and further tap into online markets.

Seo Jun Ho, CEO of Handycart said, "Handycart was established in 2019 with a mission of connecting Korean patrons seeking a taste of home through its established network of authentic Korean restaurants right here in Vietnam. Providing businesses with speedy access to authentic Korean products has helped us gather a loyal user base of over 3000 with more than 26,000 orders in 2021 alone. SoPa will now be able to accelerate Handycart's growth given our well-established positioning as a go-to online grocery delivery service. Partnership with Society Pass will enable us to unlock growth opportunities within the industry and I am glad that Handycart can now avail itself of SoPa's synergistic ecosystem."

Vietnam has been one of the fastest-growing economies within SEA over the past two decades. The country's e-commerce is growing tremendously, valued at 13.2 billion USD, it is expected to grow steadily from 2021 until 2025.

Focused on growing its operations in the VIP (Vietnam, Indonesia, and Philippines) markets, SoPa is an acquisition focused ecommerce holding company operating across 5 interconnected verticals (lifestyle, F&B, travel, merchant software and loyalty) with 6 unique business units connecting millions of consumers and thousands of merchants in Southeast Asia. Handycart is the group's third acquisition in Vietnam following its acquisition of ecommerce marketplace Leflair and merchant POS and business app #HOTTAB.

About Society Pass

Society Pass is a loyalty and data marketing ecosystem that operates multiple e-commerce and lifestyle platforms across its key markets. Its business model focuses on collecting user data through the expected circulation of its universal loyalty points. It seamlessly connects consumers and merchants across multiple product and service categories fostering organic loyalty.

Since its inception, SoPa has amassed over 1.6 million registered consumers and over 3,500 registered merchants/brands on its platform. It has since invested 2+ years building proprietary IT architecture with cutting edge components to effectively scale and support its Platform's consumers, merchants, and acquisitions.

Society Pass provides merchants with #HOTTAB Biz - a convenient order management app for business partners on SoPa.asia, and #HOTTAB POS - a specialized POS technology solution, a comprehensive system for payment, loyal customer management, user's profile analytics, and convenient financial support packages for small and medium-sized enterprises. All tools offered above will allow businesses to attract and retain customers through personalized interaction based on analytics with a high profit margin.

In addition, SoPa operates Leflair.com, Vietnam's leading lifestyle e-commerce platform, and Pushkart.ph, a popular grocery delivery company in Philippines. For more information, please check out: http://thesocietypass.com/

Media contact
PRecious Communications for SoPa
sopa@preciouscomms.com

Copyright 2022 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. www.acnnewswire.comSociety Pass Incorporated (SoPa) (Nasdaq: "SOPA"), a leading Southeast Asian data-driven loyalty platform today, announced that it has acquired Dream Space Trading Company Limited ("Dream Space"), the operator of Handycart, a leading online grocery delivery service based in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Cryptoday 072 – Ang Epekto ng Digmaan

Tinalakay ni Luis ang mga kaganapan sa Ukraine at ang epekto nito sa crypto markets.

The post Cryptoday 072 – Ang Epekto ng Digmaan appeared first on BitPinas.

Apex Legends Mobile COUNTDOWN: Release Date, Time and More

Not long now until release!

Team SMG withdraw from BTS Pro Series 10

Team SMG withdraw from participating in BTS Pro Series 10 citing multiple issues.

Click here to read the full article.

I Worked for ESL Companies with Lousy Curriculums. Here’s What I Learned — And What You Should Look For.

In my first-ever job, I sat in front of a computer teaching English over the internet to a group of students in South Korea. I would introduce the ...

Riot Games opens new offices in Asia; expands publishing efforts

Game developer and publisher Riot Games has announced plans to reorganise its business in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. This includes expanding its publishing reach in Japan and India. The company will open new offices in the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Thailand. Riot Games will also increase its publishing efforts in the region, as well […]

Latest Intelligence

spot_img
spot_img