The building blocks of brands

• Kiren Tanna, co-founder and CEO of 500-backed Una Brands appeared on Biztech Asia to share why the startup decided to embark on the business model of acquiring brands and how it aims to scale the business quickly..
• The former founder of Foodpanda and ZEN Rooms explained that many local sellers in the Asia Pacific region are running successful online businesses. However, unlike the US where it is common, these sellers lack the option of liquidity by selling their businesses.
• In comes Una Brands, offering to buy up such businesses with a 100% cash offer. According to the website, the startup also offers terms such as profit share, which allows sellers to benefit even after the sale.
• Kiren believes that the startup can scale faster by leveraging the market fit that these businesses already have, instead of building a new brand from scratch with a lot of uncertainty.
• Watch the full interview on Biztech Asia here.

The call for nature

• From managing hedge funds to founding 500-backed food review platform abillion, Vikas Garg has big ambitions for the sustainability scene.
• He recalled how he started from scratch by enrolling in a three-month coding boot camp in 2017. “I was the oldest and worst student in class!” he recalled. By 2019, the startup had secured US$2 million in seed funding, which, according to The Peak, is the largest for a social impact startup in Singapore.
• Since then, abillion has branched into data research. The platform claims to have over 300,000 users from over 140 countries, from which 10,000 members review and discover plant-based items daily. Vikas added that it also helps businesses address consumer demands and trends.
• What’s next for abillion? Vikas shared that it is exploring becoming an incubator for startups and investors of changemakers in the vegan ecosystem. “We want to do for the vegan marketplace what Etsy has done for the handicraft consumer space,” he said.
• Read the full interview on The Peak here.

To a certain degree

• Co-founders of 500-backed fintech startup Curlec, Steve Kucia and Zac Liew, weighed in on a question posed by The Edge Markets: do you need a university degree to get a tech job in Malaysia?
• Steve believes that going to university forms a foundation for anyone’s career, tech or not. However, he noted that universities may need changes. “I do see a lot more collaborations between the industry and universities today,” he added.
• Over the past three years, the startup has been taking in interns to work on real-world projects. According to Steve, experiences like these complement what students learn in the classroom.
• “A degree is not the be-all and end-all. Attitude is important, especially in small companies where everyone has an impact. But whether someone has gone to a top university and whether they have good grades is an indicator of success and attitude. While it’s not everything, it’s a way to assess the person,” said Zac.
• Read the full interview on The Edge Markets here.

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500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. In Southeast Asia, 500 Startups invests through the pioneering 500 Southeast Asia family of funds. The 500 Southeast Asia funds have backed over 240 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed.

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