Cocotel, a Philippine-based proptech startup, is among the 10 Southeast Asian startups that received investments from Singapore-based early-stage venture capital investor Accelerating Asia.
Accelerating Asia, which runs an accelerator program for startups in the region, is investing in Cocotel and nine other new companies under its Cohort 7 program.
The new 10 investments take Accelerating Asia’s portfolio to 60 startups that have raised a total of over $55 million, with Cohort 7 having raised $5.2 million prior to joining the accelerator program.
The Cohort 7 startups have a market presence in nine countries across Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and South Korea.
The ten new startups also include 60% female co-founded startups. Easy Rice, Shoplinks, Kooky, BizB, Healthpro.id, and SafeTruck all have at least one female co-founder.
In the Philippines, Cocotel is a one-stop solution for hotel reservation needs. It helps independent hotels and resorts with technology, property management, and digital marketing.
The startup started out as an idea back in December 2018 by the founders, Rafael Jouwena and Reginald Go, when they read about a business disruption in the budget hotel industry. The company signed its first five hotel clients in Boracay in 2019.
Accelerating Asia general partner Amra Naidoo said the latest cohort has some of the most mature startups to date.
“The ten startups we invested in have even more significant milestones in revenue, user acquisition, and other metrics than you would typically associate with early-stage startups. We believe this is a positive sign for not only Accelerating Asia, but the ecosystem in Asia Pacific as a whole,” Naidoo said.
Here are the brief profiles of each cohort 7 startup:
Cocotel (Philippines): A one-stop solution for hotel reservation needs. The proptech company helps independent hotels and resorts with technology, property management, and digital marketing.
Hishabee (Bangladesh): A full-stack business solution that helps over 100,000 Bangladeshi small businesses save time and increase their revenue by selling online and everything else they need to run efficiently.
K-link (Myanmar and Thailand): An omnichannel cloud contact centre platform provider that supplies hundreds of global brands with high-end telecommunication services without expensive hardware and complex telecom infrastructure.
Kooky.io (Korea): An entertainment platform where superfans meet K-pop artists by turning their passion into active support that helps to grow their favourite artists.
Safe Truck (Malaysia): An internet of things (IoT) fleet management system that tracks and collects telematics data, analyzes with an AI-powered application, and helps transporters get lower rates in end-to-end fleet procurement.
Shoplinks (Singapore): It helps supermarkets in Southeast Asia monetise their transaction and loyalty data by delivering personalised promotions to shoppers through chat or apps for consumer brands, tripling their ROI.
Easy Rice Digital Technology (Thailand): An agritech company that digitises and enhances quality assessment (QA) of staple food to make its delivery from farm to fork quicker, cheaper and healthier.
HealthPro (Indonesia): A platform to help healthcare facilities get their on-demand healthcare workers effortlessly.
BizB (Pakistan): It is a re-commerce marketplace for buying and selling preloved apparel and accessories, helping women earn money, save money and contribute to making fashion sustainable again!
Ulisse (Singapore): An IoT hardware and software platform that helps business decision-makers save costs with commercial places that perform better with data.
Accelerating Asia is an accelerator VC that runs programs for early-stage startups and investors. Licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Accelerating Asia’s early-stage VC fund focuses on pre-Series A startups with untapped potential that are 6-18 months away from institutional funding.
Accelerating Asia invests up to $250,000 in pre-Series A startups, and the current portfolio covers over ten countries in Southeast and South Asia.