(Added 11th April : This is an example of much better reporting :
http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/10/zendesk-buys-zopim-will-add-its-live-chat-platform-to-its-cloud-based-helpdesk-solution/
Details given on S1 filing by zendesk to ascertain what was missing in press release. And to techinasia credit, they managed to get hold of share table and P&L for year ending Mar 2013 for zopim to put more flesh into the deal.
http://www.techinasia.com/singapores-zopim-acquired-zendesk/)
My last post on Grabtaxi was triggered because i read a techblog that stated they raised 10M for a Series A round. This number just felt wrong, because by definition Series A does not go to 10M USD. When i did some digging, this number was repeated it seems, simply because another blog said so and there is an e27 and SPH article where the founder was quoted as saying it is "8 digits". Based on acra share allotment report , it is about US$5M and about US$3M in most recent round lodged early march 2014. More importantly and the part where readers can learn from is that the funding was done mainly via family funds which is a great way to do it for 2nd gen. Below are some of the articles by popular tech blogs I refer to:
http://www.techinasia.com/grabtaxi-nets-funding-10-million-transportation-apps-sweep-asia/
(Made reference to this link below from TNW that just blindly said 10M)
http://thenextweb.com/asia/2014/04/08/grabtaxi-is-growing-a-taxi-booking-service-in-southeast-asia-using-a-unique-model/
To be fair to techinasia, they quoted and attributed to the TNW. And below is an article by e27.
http://e27.co/grabtaxi-announces-8-figure-sum-funding-singapores-vertex-venture-holdings/
Again they repeat the 8 digit funding comment and this time attribute the quote to the founder Anthony. They also claim they are sure they heard it right. Can this be right? Or was he misquoted? There is really no way for us to know. But the ACRA reports on GrabTaxi holdings say the funding is not 10M. Of course it could be in tranches which have yet to be realized or injections into other companies not mentioned.
Even SPH has quoted Anthony saying 8 digit. Maybe he meant in RM.. Either that or future tranches... Anyway the key learning here for us is the use of family funding bargaining power not so much whether 8 digit or not.
One comment for tech writers and journalists, there is a reponsibilty to readers to get our facts right and to try to think deeper into the topic. And if we are speculating, we should say so. And we should always aim to uncover the details and if possible learning. BTW, tech blogs are definitely not the only ones guilty of this. There is still a SPH story about Beeconomics being sold for 24M back in 2009!
http://business.asiaone.com/news/brothers-remain-humble-after-groupon-buys-their-start
A simple ACRA search would have told the journalist that Groupon invested in beeconomic 2.6M if i remember correctly. Then Karl and brother had 2-3 years to really grow the business to desired metric and they got paid nicely each year in the form of an earnout for doing such a great job with Groupon SG. I am sure the Groupsmore people MY had the same deal.
There probably are many more such lapses. For example :
http://e27.sg/2012/06/07/breaking-propertyguru-secures-s60million-strategic-investment-from-immobilienscout24-for-further-regional-expansions
Its not 60M injected into company for sure. If there are tech writers reading this, I hope you will do more indepth forensic work and get hold of their ACRA report for allotment of shares and p&l etc
In summary, our community needs to start getting our numbers right! Not only is there a credibility issue, equally important, we owe it to our fellow entrepreneurs and wider business community to report the right numbers so that proper decisions and expectations can happen.
Thoughts on startup scene in South East Asia. While effort is made to be accurate in terms of numbers, i may sometimes get the data wrong. My purpose is to share what i know and what i have learned over the past 23 years. Feel free to leave comments or to email me. And if you are keen to learn more about Angel Investing pls visit https://www.angelcentral.co/investors/membership
Showing posts with label grabtaxi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grabtaxi. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Comments on Grabtaxi funding so far
This story caught my attention for a few reasons. First, i have heard much about Uber and how it has taken USA by storm. When i was in USA late last year, read an article about how Uber is able to price discriminate and set prices that reflect real time demand. Economic theory put into action finally!
Second is that i read about Grabtaxi a while back. Founder is the son of Tan Chong Motor family fame.
Anthony Tan, studied in harvard and started app in 2012 in Malaysia with about 500K USD funded entirely by family. Makes a lot of sense as it leverages on both the resources and equally important the network that the family already has in malaysia. Without knowing Anthony personally, i think this is a great model for 2nd generation to follow if they are keen in technology. Leverage on family business knowhow and tech to disrupt a space. Funding is a less an issue and they can do what i advocate which is to fund out angel round themselves.
Now they just raised more money from vertex. Previous round was also funded by vertex. Now some will ask why not just fund it all themselves? I think bringing on board a VC is a smart move. It forces discipline onto the company and founder and will also lend more credibility for subsequent rounds or acquisitions. And in this case, it also helps give them a good valuation benchmark to work on for future deals.
From what i can see, the number raised is not 10M as some tech news blog has mentioned but rather, this round is a further 3M USD raised which is far more consistent to a Series A round. I really wish our reporters can get their facts right before publishing. It distorts the industry unnecessarily and the company and founder usually will not want to or cannot (due to NDA) comment and such matters.To set record straight, it seems that the company Grabtaxi Holdings pl has raised 5.281M USD to date where Anthony and Family have funded the seed round of 518K and a further 4.7M USD from investors which includes themselves. Of this 4.7M, 20% came from vertex. So to date, Vertex has invested about 1M in GrabTaxi. The rest is all family money.
Based on above, it also means GrabTaxi is being valued at US$12-13M (using latest round 15+ per share x 800K+ shares) USD based on this April round. Of course, some may argue since founders self funded 80% of this round, this valuation is not accurate. I dunno, but at least Vertex agreed to it...
My guess is that most likely, family just wants a VC for credibility and discipline and connections but is unwilling to give up too much at this early stage. This is a UHNWI family based in Malaysia so while investing US$4M sounds like a lot, it probably is something they can afford to take risk with and aim for a much later exit.
Of course, i think their revenues are probably neligible at this stage. So looks like the ball is squarely in Anthony;s court now. I am rooting for them so succeed as a local ASEAN company as opposed to Rocket or Uber!
NB: So where did that 10M investment figure come from? That is the topic of my next post. Straits times and e27 quoted Anthony as saying it is 10m. I guess if in RM it is correct. Or maybe there are more tranches coming.
NB : to be rigorous, there is a myteksi sdn bhd which is a malaysian entity which Anthony and family funded 600K RM. Logically, this entity should be owned 100% by the SG holding company which Vertex invested in. However, i am unable to verify this since malaysian ACRA is slower and share updates are shown only 1 full year later.
Second is that i read about Grabtaxi a while back. Founder is the son of Tan Chong Motor family fame.
Anthony Tan, studied in harvard and started app in 2012 in Malaysia with about 500K USD funded entirely by family. Makes a lot of sense as it leverages on both the resources and equally important the network that the family already has in malaysia. Without knowing Anthony personally, i think this is a great model for 2nd generation to follow if they are keen in technology. Leverage on family business knowhow and tech to disrupt a space. Funding is a less an issue and they can do what i advocate which is to fund out angel round themselves.
Now they just raised more money from vertex. Previous round was also funded by vertex. Now some will ask why not just fund it all themselves? I think bringing on board a VC is a smart move. It forces discipline onto the company and founder and will also lend more credibility for subsequent rounds or acquisitions. And in this case, it also helps give them a good valuation benchmark to work on for future deals.
From what i can see, the number raised is not 10M as some tech news blog has mentioned but rather, this round is a further 3M USD raised which is far more consistent to a Series A round. I really wish our reporters can get their facts right before publishing. It distorts the industry unnecessarily and the company and founder usually will not want to or cannot (due to NDA) comment and such matters.To set record straight, it seems that the company Grabtaxi Holdings pl has raised 5.281M USD to date where Anthony and Family have funded the seed round of 518K and a further 4.7M USD from investors which includes themselves. Of this 4.7M, 20% came from vertex. So to date, Vertex has invested about 1M in GrabTaxi. The rest is all family money.
Based on above, it also means GrabTaxi is being valued at US$12-13M (using latest round 15+ per share x 800K+ shares) USD based on this April round. Of course, some may argue since founders self funded 80% of this round, this valuation is not accurate. I dunno, but at least Vertex agreed to it...
My guess is that most likely, family just wants a VC for credibility and discipline and connections but is unwilling to give up too much at this early stage. This is a UHNWI family based in Malaysia so while investing US$4M sounds like a lot, it probably is something they can afford to take risk with and aim for a much later exit.
Of course, i think their revenues are probably neligible at this stage. So looks like the ball is squarely in Anthony;s court now. I am rooting for them so succeed as a local ASEAN company as opposed to Rocket or Uber!
NB: So where did that 10M investment figure come from? That is the topic of my next post. Straits times and e27 quoted Anthony as saying it is 10m. I guess if in RM it is correct. Or maybe there are more tranches coming.
NB : to be rigorous, there is a myteksi sdn bhd which is a malaysian entity which Anthony and family funded 600K RM. Logically, this entity should be owned 100% by the SG holding company which Vertex invested in. However, i am unable to verify this since malaysian ACRA is slower and share updates are shown only 1 full year later.
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