Product Management Confabulation
What Product Managers are talking about.
Pomelo, a startup that combines international money transfer with credit, has raised $35 million in a Series A round led by Dubai venture firm Vy Capital, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. Additionally, the company is announcing a $75 million expansion of its warehouse facility. Founders Fund and A* Capital also participated in the financing, along with […]
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Shoppable Business Chris Blanquera, Sam Blanquera and Carlo Silva
Shoppable Business wants to make it easier for businesses in the Philippines to source and procure branded products and other inventory, with an emphasis on making sure products are authentic. The B2B e-commerce marketplace announced it has closed what it says was an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round of $1.15 million.
The round was co-led by Foxmont Capital Partners and Seedstars International Ventures, along with angel investors. Shoppable Business previously got backing from AHG Lab.
Shoppable Business was founded in 2022 by a team including Carlo Silva, who previously started and exited e-commerce business process outsourcing company 2ndOffice. The founders also include Sam Blanquera and Chris Blanquera, who co-founded and existed Openovate Labs and Galleon.ph.
Silva told TechCrunch that after working at startups and conglomerates in the Philippines since 2013, Shoppable Business’ founding team noticed that there was a huge gap in the marketplace for a efficient digital procurement process. “The traditional methods were slow, opaque and painstakingly manual and it was hard to find trusted suppliers,” he said.
One problem that businesses face when procuring online is not knowing if goods are authentic. While there have been a lot of e-commerce innovations in the Philippines, like social commerce, a lot of them are targeted toward consumers. But businesses often have to rely on Facebook Marketplace and classified ads for procurement, which means processing orders is a time consuming business.
Silva said that in the Philippines, the traditional procurement process is manual, with orders usually processed through messaging apps, email or in person. Questions are sent through word documents or spreadsheets. “It’s also difficult to search for authentic products online, and to compare quotations as they are funneled through messenger apps and email, making it an inefficient process,” he said.
Shoppable Business is aimed at businesses that want to procure goods quickly and more cheaply, but don’t have a dedicated procurement team. It also works with companies that manufacture their own brands and distributors. The platform specializes in branded products and services for resellers.
Shoppable Business helps them by operating as a horizontal B2B marketplace for products and services from multiple categories. In addition to using the platform to find products, businesses can also access services like marketing, sales support, procurement outsourcing, logistics, financing and payment infrastructure. Shoppable Business also issues official BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue)-certified sales invoices and receipts, which companies need in the Philippines to claim the full purchase. To ensure authentic products, Shoppable Business is a marketplace partner of GS! Philippines (GSI is the standard for barcodes and product identification in 116 countries, and has 2 million member companies).
In terms of convincing sellers and businesses to move off Facebook Marketplace and the other platforms they are currently using, Shoppable Business makes the process easier by providing a single product listing catalog feature, which means if a product is already in its catalog, sellers don’t need to recreate the product listing. Instead, they can start selling it with a few clicks, by inputting their selling price, stock and any bulk discounts they would like to offer.
Sellers also get their own store on Shoppable Business that enables them to accept payments from different options like Gcash, Maya, credit cards, bank transfers and even check or manual bank deposits. Shopppable Business also does away with the hassle of shipping by arranging deliveries through third-party logistic partners.
To make it easier for sellers to move their current customer base to Shoppable Business, the platform offers a program called Shoppable Direct which enables them to refer existing customers to become buyers. Shoppable will tag seller’s customers as their direct customers if they buy something from the seller that referred them. It also waives marketplace fees for the buyer.
Silva said the wide array of services Shoppable Business offers sellers and buyers, like sales support, procurement outsourcing and logistics, helps it compete with other B2B marketplaces. In addition, it guarantees the issurance of BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue)-certified sales invoices and receipts for every transaction, and also protects product authenticity through its partnership with GS1 Philippines.
The funding will be used to hire for Shoppable Business’ business development team, product and feature development and expanding into new markets in Southeast Asia. Silva said the startup will target new markets by the first half of 2024.
In a statement about the investment, Foxmont Capital Partners managing partner Franco Varona said, “Sourcing and procurement have traditionally been a very manual and a very challenging experience in the Philippines. The lack of transparency in pricing and difficulty in finding goods at scale and quickly is something Filipino companies have had to deal with for too long. Shoppable Business helps to directly solve that problem, and we believe Carlo and his team are exactly the right team to do it.”
Philippines startup Shoppable Business smooths bumps in the business procurement process by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch
The Philippines’ startup ecosystem is poised for strong growth, thanks to the country’s rising GDP, fast adoption of online services and a new generation of founders. Launched by tech and investment veterans, Kaya Founders wants to back the most promising startups from the very beginning. The venture firm announced today that it has closed $12 million in funding across two new funds, bringing its total committed capital to $16.5 million, with a target of $25 million. The new funding was led by the Gokongwei family.
Kaya (which means “can do” in Tagalog) was founded in 2021 by former Zalora Philippines CEO Paulo Campos, Summit Media president Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng and Locad CEO Constantin Robertz. Both Gokongwei-Cheng and Robertz are prolific angel investors, and have backed startups like Good Glamm Group, Kumu, Dali and Edamama.
The firm now has 32 companies in its portfolio, including e-commerce enabler Etaily, on-demand wage startup Advance, online clinic Kindred and MSME point-of-sale app Peddlr. Kaya’s Zero to One fund focuses on pre-seed companies, sometimes before they have gone to market. Its One to Ten Fund invests in more mature companies, from seed to Series A, that have already found product-market fit and are on their way to profitability.
Zero to One will invest $$150,000 to $250,000 checks into 20 to 30 pre-seed companies, while One to Ten’s checks will range from $250,000 to $500,000 and go toward 30 to 40 startups.
Kaya’s investment thesis centers around the Philippines’ young population, economic growth (the country’s GDP is expected to double to $6,500 by 2030) and high adoption of online services.
Its founders point to a report by Foxmont Capital, another venture firm focused on early-stage Philippines startups, that show funding in the country grew to $1.03 billion in 2021 and $1.1 billion in 2022, despite the global slowdown in deal activity. Based on Kaya’s calculations, $4 billion in capital has been closed by local and regional funds over the past two years, which means Kaya’s portfolio companies have plenty of opportunities for follow-on funding.
A lot of funding in the Philippines comes from corporate venture capital, but new players are emerging, says Campos. These include regional and global investors who are investing for the first time in the Philippines, like Sequoia Surge in Locad; KKR in GrowSari; A16z in Yield Guild Games; Tiger Global in PDAX; and Cecano and SoftBank in Sprout Solutions, plus local funds like Kaya, Foxmont Capital and Core Capital.
Kaya Founders’ team
Campos compared the growth of the Philippines’ startup ecosystem to India in the 2000s and Indonesia over the past decade. One of the main reasons is founders who have experience working at large tech companies like Grab, Lazada and Zalora, as well as Filipinos who were educated abroad returning to start companies in their home country. Campos told TechCrunch that Kaya has seen four founder archetypes emerge thanks to a confluence of the Philippines’ economic, business and cultural development.
The first is “second generation tech talent,” or former employees of large tech companies that “had their eyes opened to how quickly a unicorn can be born when you hit product-market fit,” said Campos. The second is corporate executives who left their jobs to start companies and bring domain expertise to their new roles. Peddlr founder Nel Laygo is one example—he worked at Unilever and Proctor and Gamble before launching the company to provide a POS system for sari-sari, or corner stores.
The third segment are founders who have experience working abroad, including Filipino expats and members of the Filipino diaspora, and the fourth are non-Filipinos who decided to start companies in the Philippines, taking advantage of the fact that English is the main language of business (Kaya’s portfolio includes founders from countries like Germany, the U.S., Singapore and India).
An example of the third segment is Kindred founder Jessica de Mesa, who was chief commercial officer at Zalora and spent half a decade working at its parent company, Global Fashion Group, in Singapore and London. De Mesa returned to the Philippines to lead Zalora Philippines’ commercial team, but wanted to return to healthcare (de Mesa is a registered nurse). Kaya had previously developed Kindred as a concept under its healthcare-focused joint venture, Pulse-63, and backed de Mesa as a “institutional co-founder” from its beginning.
“We are really seeing an acceleration of the flywheel of startups seeing customer traction and adoption, attracting investors both locally and internationally, and those success stories and fundraising round announcements inspiring a new breed of founders to throw their hat in the ring as well,” said Campos. “We see this as being very similar to what has emerged in Indonesia the past six to seven years, with the Philippines being at the cusp of the inflection point, just before the rocket takes off.”
Some challenges the Philippines’ startup ecosystem still have to deal with include a fairly nascent venture ecosystem, dominated by local CVCs, and problems sourcing tech talent and finding strategic partners with experience in go-to-market strategies, Campos said. Kaya was founded to help bridge the gap, giving founders access to people like former Lazada Philippines CEO Ray Alimurung, who was recently appointed as general partner of the Zero to One Fund, and Gokongwei-Cheng, for mentoring and strategizing.
Other support founders can get from Kaya include recruitment, legal services, educational material, office space and product development support, and a network of downstream investors, strategic partners, beta testers and pilot customers.
“We feel strongly that from now until the end of the decade, we will be living through the ‘golden age’ of startups in the Philippines,” Campos said. “That opportunity is also not just for local homegrown ventures, but also regional SEA or global startups that target the Philippines as a growth market.”
Kaya Founders backs Philippines startups from “Day 0” by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch
The Philippines’ startup ecosystem is poised for strong growth, thanks to the country’s rising GDP, fast adoption of online services and a new generation of founders. Launched by tech and investment veterans, Kaya Founders wants to back the most promising startups from the very beginning. The venture firm announced today that it has closed $12 million in funding across two new funds, bringing its total committed capital to $16.5 million, with a target of $25 million. The new funding was led by the Gokongwei family.
Kaya (which means “can do” in Tagalog) was founded in 2021 by former Zalora Philippines CEO Paulo Campos, Summit Media president Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng and Locad CEO Constantin Robertz. Both Gokongwei-Cheng and Robertz are prolific angel investors, and have backed startups like Good Glamm Group, Kumu, Dali and Edamama.
The firm now has 32 companies in its portfolio, including e-commerce enabler Etaily, on-demand wage startup Advance, online clinic Kindred and MSME point-of-sale app Peddlr. Kaya’s Zero to One fund focuses on pre-seed companies, sometimes before they have gone to market. Its One to Ten Fund invests in more mature companies, from seed to Series A, that have already found product-market fit and are on their way to profitability.
Zero to One will invest $$150,000 to $250,000 checks into 20 to 30 pre-seed companies, while One to Ten’s checks will range from $250,000 to $500,000 and go toward 30 to 40 startups.
Kaya’s investment thesis centers around the Philippines’ young population, economic growth (the country’s GDP is expected to double to $6,500 by 2030) and high adoption of online services.
Its founders point to a report by Foxmont Capital, another venture firm focused on early-stage Philippines startups, that show funding in the country grew to $1.03 billion in 2021 and $1.1 billion in 2022, despite the global slowdown in deal activity. Based on Kaya’s calculations, $4 billion in capital has been closed by local and regional funds over the past two years, which means Kaya’s portfolio companies have plenty of opportunities for follow-on funding.
A lot of funding in the Philippines comes from corporate venture capital, but new players are emerging, says Campos. These include regional and global investors who are investing for the first time in the Philippines, like Sequoia Surge in Locad; KKR in GrowSari; A16z in Yield Guild Games; Tiger Global in PDAX; and Cecano and SoftBank in Sprout Solutions, plus local funds like Kaya, Foxmont Capital and Core Capital.
Kaya Founders’ team
Campos compared the growth of the Philippines’ startup ecosystem to India in the 2000s and Indonesia over the past decade. One of the main reasons is founders who have experience working at large tech companies like Grab, Lazada and Zalora, as well as Filipinos who were educated abroad returning to start companies in their home country. Campos told TechCrunch that Kaya has seen four founder archetypes emerge thanks to a confluence of the Philippines’ economic, business and cultural development.
The first is “second generation tech talent,” or former employees of large tech companies that “had their eyes opened to how quickly a unicorn can be born when you hit product-market fit,” said Campos. The second is corporate executives who left their jobs to start companies and bring domain expertise to their new roles. Peddlr founder Nel Laygo is one example—he worked at Unilever and Proctor and Gamble before launching the company to provide a POS system for sari-sari, or corner stores.
The third segment are founders who have experience working abroad, including Filipino expats and members of the Filipino diaspora, and the fourth are non-Filipinos who decided to start companies in the Philippines, taking advantage of the fact that English is the main language of business (Kaya’s portfolio includes founders from countries like Germany, the U.S., Singapore and India).
An example of the third segment is Kindred founder Jessica de Mesa, who was chief commercial officer at Zalora and spent half a decade working at its parent company, Global Fashion Group, in Singapore and London. De Mesa returned to the Philippines to lead Zalora Philippines’ commercial team, but wanted to return to healthcare (de Mesa is a registered nurse). Kaya had previously developed Kindred as a concept under its healthcare-focused joint venture, Pulse-63, and backed de Mesa as a “institutional co-founder” from its beginning.
“We are really seeing an acceleration of the flywheel of startups seeing customer traction and adoption, attracting investors both locally and internationally, and those success stories and fundraising round announcements inspiring a new breed of founders to throw their hat in the ring as well,” said Campos. “We see this as being very similar to what has emerged in Indonesia the past six to seven years, with the Philippines being at the cusp of the inflection point, just before the rocket takes off.”
Some challenges the Philippines’ startup ecosystem still have to deal with include a fairly nascent venture ecosystem, dominated by local CVCs, and problems sourcing tech talent and finding strategic partners with experience in go-to-market strategies, Campos said. Kaya was founded to help bridge the gap, giving founders access to people like former Lazada Philippines CEO Ray Alimurung, who was recently appointed as general partner of the Zero to One Fund, and Gokongwei-Cheng, for mentoring and strategizing.
Other support founders can get from Kaya include recruitment, legal services, educational material, office space and product development support, and a network of downstream investors, strategic partners, beta testers and pilot customers.
“We feel strongly that from now until the end of the decade, we will be living through the ‘golden age’ of startups in the Philippines,” Campos said. “That opportunity is also not just for local homegrown ventures, but also regional SEA or global startups that target the Philippines as a growth market.”
Kaya Founders backs Philippines startups from “Day 0” by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch
Excess inventory, including returned items, from e-commerce, logistics and retail companies often ends up being disposed. Manila-based Humble Sustainability is a circular economy startup that wants to keep it out of the Philippines’ landfills. Since its launch, it has processed more than 150,000 items like clothing, consumer electronics and household appliances that are either resold through Thrift, its Shopee storefront, or passed onto B2B recyclers and resellers.
The company announced today it has raised $750,000 in an oversubscribed seed round led by Seedstars International Ventures, with participation from iSeed Ventures and angel investors including Ula co-founder Alan Wong, Sagar Achanta (who has held product leadership roles at Amazon), Booking.com and Disney+, and investors Paco Sandejas and Richard Eldridge.
Humble will use the funding to expand its network of partners and buyers, and grow its team, including hiring department heads. The company also plans to bring its tech development fully in-house and start work on long-term initiatives like a carbon footprint tracker.
Humble Sustainability founders Niña Opida and Josef Werker. Image Credits: Humble Sustainability
Humble was founded in 2021 by CEO Josef Werker and COO Niña Opida. Werker told TechCrunch that the two met five years ago, after holding leadership positions at different startups, and wanted to see how tech innovation could be applied to the planet. The first version of Humble was a circular trading solution for children’s clothing, before it expanded into other items.
“Neither of us are environmental scientists or sustainability experts at all,” Werker said. “We simply had a love for the earth and spotted an opportunity to apply our little experience of building businesses towards it.”
Humble has worked with 20 companies so far. The process of getting items starts by receiving inventory for assessment, so Humble can see what condition they are in and figure out their value (as the company grows, it will automate parts of the quality control process). Then it decides whether to list items on Thrift, or sell them in bulk to its B2B network. Once their plans are approved, they sign an agreement with clients, who can monitor the status of their items and receive money from their sales. Humble plans to launch a live dashboard on its B2B platform so clients can track revenue, inventory and environmental impact in real time.
Werker says without Humble, unwanted inventory would either go to a traditional liquidator (for higher-value items) or end up in a landfill. There are other solutions like internal employee sales, but those only account for a small percentage.
“With Humble, it’s full consolidated,” he said. “We will take everything, ensuring that nothing ends up in a landfill. The good-quality items are on Thrift and high value is extracted, everything else is properly brought back into circularity through our B2B network and we will extract value that can be passed back to the client.”
All of the investors in Humble’s seed round are actively involved in the business. For example, Seedstars introduced Humble to people its international network that the company has closed deals with, said Werker. Humble is also participating in Seedstars’ three-month growth track program. Wong and Achanta have worked together at different companies, including Amazon, Booking.com and Ula and are guiding Humble with advice on its tech development and long-term roadmap.
In a statement, Seedstars partner Patricia Sosrodjojo said, “We are delighted to support Humble in the journey to reduce waste and promote circular living. Humble is a great fit to Seedstars’ thesis of supporting early-stage companies that can create meaningful impact with an attractive business model.”
Humble keeps excess inventory out of the Philippines’ landfills by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch
Here’s another edition of “Dear Sophie,” the advice column that answers immigration-related questions about working at technology companies.
“Your questions are vital to the spread of knowledge that allows people all over the world to rise above borders and pursue their dreams,” says Sophie Alcorn, a Silicon Valley immigration attorney. “Whether you’re in people ops, a founder or seeking a job in Silicon Valley, I would love to answer your questions in my next column.”
TechCrunch+ members receive access to weekly “Dear Sophie” columns; use promo code ALCORN to purchase a one- or two-year subscription for 50% off.
Dear Sophie,
I’m a Fulbright scholar on a J-1 visa. I’ve been told that after my J-1 ends, I’m required to return to my country for two years.
Is there a way I can stay in the U.S.? Can I apply for an O-1A or green card even if I have to go back to my country?
— Seeking to Stay
Dear Seeking,
Congrats on joining the ranks of the Fulbright scholars! This is a great accomplishment that will likely bolster an eventual green card application!
However, being a Fulbright scholar also comes with a cost: I have never seen a Fulbright Scholar get a 212(e) waiver for the J-1 two-year foreign residency requirement. (If you are a Fulbright scholar who got the waiver approved, please message me!)
I recently spoke with Anthony Pawelski, the senior international advisor at Mass General Brigham, which consists of 16 institutions including Harvard- and Tufts-affiliated teaching hospitals. In that role, Pawelski prepares thousands of J-1 and other non-immigrant visa applications each year, but he says he has only seen waivers granted to Fulbright scholars a few times. Even waiver requests for Fulbright scholars that were filed by NASA and the National Science Foundation have been denied.
Pawelski also notes that India will not support J-1 waivers for medical doctors educated in India, and that Thailand and the Philippines are very strict about supporting waivers.
Before I share more about your visa and green card options to work in the U.S. after your exchange visit ends, here’s a primer on the J-1 two-year home residency requirement, and the process to seek a waiver for those who are eligible. A word of caution: the J-1 is a non-immigrant intent visa, so people who intend to seek a green card or live permanently in the U.S. are denied J-1 visas.
Image Credits: Joanna Buniak / Sophie Alcorn (opens in a new window)
As you probably know, the J-1 educational and cultural exchange visa has several benefits, such as being open to individuals in a range of fields, and allowing a J-1 visa holder’s spouse to apply for a work permit. While its benefits can far outweigh the drawbacks, the biggest limitation of the J-1 is the one you’re facing: the two-year home residency requirement.
Dear Sophie: Is there a way to keep working in the US after my J-1 visa expires? by Ram Iyer originally published on TechCrunch
U.S.-based online university platform Nexford University has raised $8 million in a Series A round co-led by New Markets Venture Partners and Learn Capital, two prominent edtech venture capital firms in the U.S. that have invested in Pathstream, Udemy and Coursera. New Markets Venture Partners general partner Jason Palmer and Learn Capital managing partner Greg Mauro will join Nexford’s board.
The tech-enabled startup, launched by Fadl Al Tarzi in 2019, is filling affordability and relevance gaps in education. As the traditional university experience hasn’t changed in many years, edtechs like Nexford are pioneering a paradigm shift in higher education that puts learners first, giving them the skills to succeed in the present and future.
Nexford University provides learners with a fully online education and lets them study at their own pace. Once learners apply and get admitted into either a degree or a course program, they choose how fast or slow they want the program to be. Nexford’s most significant markets are traditionally underserved English-speaking communities like Nigeria. The West African country is the only market where the U.S.-based edtech has learning community spaces that helps learners circumvent infrastructural problems like internet and transportation. The company plans to launch such centers in markets like Kenya and the Philippines.
Nexford University offers the same programs as last year. Bachelor degrees include courses in business administration, AI and automation, business analytics and product management; business administration, advanced AI, e-commerce, hyperconnectivity, sustainability and world business courses are programs for graduate degrees. In a recent interview with TechCrunch, CEO Al Tarzi said his company plans to add more programs, such as software engineering, data science, clean energy, business analytics, digital marketing and project management in the coming six to twelve months based on the demand from learners.
The chief executive also mentioned that Nexford intends to launch several pathway programs — six-month programs designed to equip learners with the skills they need to get specific jobs across five vertical areas, including the aforementioned new courses — to complement its degree programs.
“The pathway programs are also going to stack into our degree programs,” he said. “So what that means is, when you complete the pathway program, if you want to continue and earn a master’s or a bachelor’s degree, you’ll be able to do that,” he said. “But if you’ve got a job and want to come back a few months later, you’d also be able to do that. So the pathway will give you the skills you need and a certain percentage towards a formal college degree.”
CEO Fadl Al Tarzi
This stackability factor is one of the several ways Nexford differs from traditional institutions, Al Tarzi said. He also lauds the platform’s daily academic support and affordability, adding that conventional universities in the U.S. can charge as much as thrice or quadruple Nexford’s price for the pathway programs. For instance, Nexford’s accredited degrees cost between $3,000 to $4,000 (which are paid in monthly installments), but the average annual tuition for a master’s degree in the U.S. is about $36,000.
Regardless of cost and unique selling propositions, edtech platforms should prioritize outcomes. And in the three years of Nexford’s existence, measuring outcomes has changed. Many traditional and new edtech upstarts measure learning outcomes by placements. For Nexford, it’s just one of three, including getting a promotion and increased salary and real-life application of courses in growing a business as an entrepreneur.
“I think one of the most fundamental developments we have had is that we have a lot more learner data now and outcomes data that gives us higher confidence that our alumni are succeeding post-graduation,” the CEO said. “In our latest survey, we saw that about 92% achieved that.”
Inwardly, the edtech platform also wants to improve operations by becoming profitable. Al Tarzi said Nexford operates positive margins coming off the back of a 2x revenue in 2021 compared to the previous year, and enrollments increasing from 70 countries to 90+ this year.
Last June, the three-year-old startup announced a $10.8 million pre-Series A round. It appears to be a down round; however, Al Tarzi disagrees, saying the company’s Series A valuation is relatively higher than its last raise and cites the drop in funding size to a “significantly oversubscribed and extended” pre-Series A.
Participating investors in its Series A round include the Learn’s Emerging Markets Fund anchored by International Finance Corporation (IFC), Bisk Ventures, Global Ventures, Future Africa, the U.K.-based investment firm AMK Investments and the Future of Learning Fund.
Nexford, in a statement, said proceeds will take it into new markets, broaden the company’s academic offerings, including career pathway programs, and enhance its technology infrastructure. “We will continue to invest in product and geographical expansion and technology. The latter enables us to operate as efficiently as we do, so we won’t need to increase our tuition fees,” the CEO said. “Last year, we decreased customer retention costs by almost 50% and that’s directly due to operational efficiencies enabled by technology. So we’ll keep investing in technology to increase efficiency and keep learner’s tuition fees now.”
Online university Nexford will use $8M to plug affordability and relevance gaps in education by Tage Kene-Okafor originally published on TechCrunch
The Philippines’ e-commerce market now has a gross merchandise volume of $12 billion, a 132% increase from 2020, and is expected to reach $26 billion in GMV by 2025. This obviously good news for online sellers, but it also means more shipping headaches, especially for smaller sellers that need to drop off packages at couriers’ warehouses.
Shipmates wants to save them time and money by consolidating several couriers into one platform. Online sellers can book couriers through its app, who then come to their location and pick up packages. The startup, a Y Combinator and Iterative alum, announced today it has raised $2.2 million in seed funding. The round included Cathexis Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, Taurus Ventures, Capital X and Sketchnote Partners.
Shipmates founders David Marquez and Josh Supan
Founded in July 2021 by CEO Josh Supan and CTO David Marquez, Shipmates’ goal is to become the go-to shipping tool for online merchants in Philippines, while bolstering the country’s shipping infrastructure. Its platform allows online sellers to compare rates between different couriers and book standard or multiple orders.
The platform is currently integrated with 9 courier companies, and the founders say its the only aggregator in the Philippines that has both on-demand and standard couriers.
Supan and Marquez are childhood friends who started an e-commerce enabler in 2017. Supan told TechCrunch they “pivoted from that when we saw that the problem of the merchants wasn’t getting online, it was shipping their online orders.”
Shipmates’ target customers are small- to mid-sized online sellers whose typical basket sizes range from $20 to $50. Supan explained that the shipping process in the Philippines is still manual because couriers aren’t connected to e-commerce platforms, and rely on business owners to physically drop off packages at a hub or warehouse.
As a result, many online sellers need a day to send out orders. Shipmates, however, reduces that process to less than 10 minutes, Supan said. The platform also automates waybills and address validations.
Shipmates monetizes by charging 30 cents for every order booked through its platform. Supan says its revenue has been growing 30% month-over-month since launching its platform last December.
Shipmates makes order fulfillment less tedious for the Philippines’ online sellers by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch
Amazon Prime Video today launched localized versions of its streaming service in Southeast Asia’s biggest markets — Indonesia, Thailand, and The Philippines. The company is attempting to boost its subscriber base in the three markets by increasing its investment in local production, releasing original slates for each territory, and giving customers special offers like seven-day free trials and discounts.
“We’re delighted to be increasing our investment in Prime Video for customers in Southeast Asia, making it a truly localized experience—from local content specifically sourced for our customers to a localized user experience and the first full-scale local marketing campaign,” Josh McIvor, director of International Expansion, Prime Video, said in an official statement. “Our support of local production companies in Southeast Asia is a significant step towards our broader international expansion plans and our ambition to become the most local of global streaming services.”
Prime Video has been available in Southeast Asia since 2016, but until now it had never featured original content offerings, nor did it feature the local-language interfaces and subtitling that are typical in more developed markets.
To promote the new offerings, Amazon Prime Video is introducing free one-week trials and promotional subscription prices that last until December 2023 as part of its relaunch efforts in Indonesia, Thailand, and The Philippines. The discounted subscriptions will cost 59,000 Indonesian rupiah ($3.98), 149 Thai baht ($4.10), and 149 Philippine pesos ($2.69).
“Southeast Asia is a tapestry of cultures, languages, and histories, and there has truly never been a better time to be a content creator or a content consumer in this part of the world,” said Erika North, head of Asia-Pacific Originals, Prime Video. “We are committed to the local TV and film industry and believe in working with the most innovative creative talent in the region to bring the very best, most authentic, and local storytelling to life for our customers not only in the region but also Prime Video members around the world. This is just the start.”
Originals coming to the platform include three versions of a new situational comedy improv show”Comedy Island.” The new local originals “Comedy Island: Indonesia,” “Comedy Island: Thailand,” and “Comedy Island: Philippines” will each have eight comedians and celebrities taking part in comedic challenges and games. All three versions will be launching on Prime Video in over 240 countries and territories across the globe in 2023.
Indonesian content offerings include two films, “Siege At Thorn High” and “4 Seasons In Java,” plus other Indonesian titles like a local version of the Italian hit “Perfect Strangers,” “Ashiap Man,” and horror film “Kuntilanak 3.”
Thai titles coming to the local service include “Three Idiots and a Ghost,” “Metal Casket,” “The 100,” “The Up Rank,” “My True Friends: The Beginning,” and “How To Fake It In Bangkok.”
Filipino content ranges from comedy-drama “Big Night” to romance “How To Love Mr. Heartless” and “Whether The Weather Is Fine.”
Viewers will also get access to Korean offerings like “Nothing Serious,” “Toy Soldiers: Fake Men 2 The Complete,” along with popular anime titles “Demon Slayer” and “Jujutsu Kaisen 0.”
There are going to be other global titles such as the newly released film “Thirteen Lives,” starring Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen, the Hollywood blockbuster “No Time to Die,” global Amazon Originals like “The Boys,” “The Terminal List,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” and licensed U.S. series “The Good Doctor.”
U.S.-based streaming services such as Paramount+ and Disney+ have recently expanded into more countries and territories and also invested in international content to diversify their offerings and boost subscriptions.
In June, Paramount+ launched in South Korea in a partnership with TVING. The streamer plans for 150 international originals by 2025. Disney+ had its MENA launch (the Middle East and North Africa) two months ago, and aims to expand to 160+ countries by its fiscal 2023.