May 30, 2016
– dtac accelerate celebrates its latest success with 7 startups
receiving a combined seed funding of over 70 million Baht from top
local and international VCs, led by 500 TukTuks, Golden Gate Venture, KK
Fund, Galaxy Venture, Ookbee, and Tao Kae Noi, bringing the cumulative
value of dtac accelerate startups to over 400
million Baht. 7 out of 11 dtac accelerate startups have landed
investment, which equals to a success rate of 70%. Impressively, 2 out
of the 11 are from batch 4 and have received seed funding within the
first month of the bootcamp. The 7 funding recipients
include 2 startups from FinTech (Piggipo and Finnomena), 2 from
Logistic Tech (Skootar and Giztix), 1 from Travel Tech (Take Me Tour), 1
from Market Place (Fastwork), and 1 from Social Tech (Storylog).
Detail of this round’s funding:
1) Piggipo – a leading Thai FinTech startup with credit card management
application received seed fudning from Golden Gate Venture and 500 startup
2) Storylog – the fastest-growing online community for writers and readers
received funding and acquired by Ookbee South East Asia leading ebook
platform.
3) Skootar – a messenger service delivering documents, invoices, and collecting
cheques for SMEs, restaurants, and e-commerce businesses has grown 12
times within 8 months after completing the dtac accelerate bootcamp.
Skootar received funding from 500 startup and Galaxy Venture.
4) Take Me Tour – an online marketplace for one-day trips, provided by local
tour expert, is very popular among tourists. Take Me Tour received funding
from 500 startup and seaweed billionaire the owner of Tao Kae Noi.
5) Giztix – a marketplace for transportation and logistics services has expanded
to 8 countries and received awards from Echelon Thailand Summit 2016 and
Asia’s Tech Conference in Singapore. Giztix has received funding lead by
KKFund and 500 startup since March.
6) Finnomena – a rising-star FinTech startup, founded by a group of fund
managers to help Thai investors, piloted a new feature called “NTER” and had
customers investing over 150 million Baht through the feature within 2 hours
after launch. Finnomena received funding from 500
startup.
7) Fastwork – a fast-growing online marketplace for freelancers received seed
funding from 500 startup within 9 weeks after launch.
Mr. Sompoat Chansomboon,
Head of Business Innovation, Total Access Communication
PLC or dtac said, “This round of investments indicates new trends that
VCs look out for. FinTech will revolutionize online financial services
at a wider scale. TravelTech helps modernize the Thai tourism industry
by providing convenience and local tour, which
expects to welcome over 33 million tourists this year, doubling the
number from last year. Logistic Tech is now essential for all businesses
to improve efficiency, reduce cost, and reach consumers quickly. Market
Place helps connect demand and supply in the
business world.”
Mr. Ruangroj “Krating” Poonpol, Fund Manager of 500 TukTuks said, “We have invested in this round in 7 startups from dtac accelerate because all of them have a feasible product, strong team with business knowledge and experience, growing user base, and popularity in the market. All of these are the success formula for startups. Seed funding is an early stage investment required to support a business during the first 12-18 months until they grow and raise Series A to Series C-level funding or even get publicly listed in the stock exchange. 500 TukTuks has already invested over 70 million Baht in more than 20 Thai startups and is looking to invest in 10 more startups within this year.”