Daily Markup #461: FarMart acqui-hires Subjimandi.app to help farmers sell more; Growth of the Southeast Asian billion-dollar club; Urbanmetry uses data & AI to build sustainable cities

Credit: Melissa Viiron on Unsplash

Giving farmers a sales boost

  • Indian farmers are getting access to new channels which allow them to sell their high-quality produce to businesses & processors globally. 500-backed agritech startup FarMart has acqui-hired fruits and vegetables (F&V) logistics platform, Subjimandi.app to enable this. 
  • Its goal? In addition to optimizing its logistics, the startup plans to expand its product portfolio by entering into the F&V categories.
  • This move is part of FarMart’s vision to create India’s largest food supply platform.
  • V.S.Vivek, founder and head at Subjimandi.app, said, “We look forward to now doubling down and focusing on building for commodity logistics with a larger canvas and faster pace. FarMart is best positioned to build the largest food supply chain company and we are stoked to now contribute to its growth.”
  • Read the full article here.

Credit: FinanceAsia

The growing billion-dollar club

  • Southeast Asia is home to 35 unicorns and counting, reports FinanceAsia. Among them are several 500-backed startups, including Bukalapak, Grab, and Malaysia’s first unicorn Carsome. 
  •  “The start-up ecosystem has come full circle. We’ve gone from an environment of young start-ups to those pushing for growth and ending up as billion-dollar companies,” said Vishal Harnal, managing partner at 500 Global, the firm with enough foresight to have established early relationships with each.
  • One of 500 Southeast Asia’s investment focus is rural digitization. The team believes that much potential lies outside metropolitan cities and these areas could contribute to further regional growth.
  • “We are investing more in Vietnam and the Philippines due to potential opportunity, and we continue to invest in Malaysia because we believe it is underinvested,” Vishal added.
  • Read the full story here.

Credit: Womenpreneur Asia

Building better cities with data

  • Cha-Ly Koh, founder and CEO of 500-backed Malaysian startup Urbanmetry appeared on Singapore’s MoneyFM to share how data collected by the company can help with building sustainable cities.
  • Urbanmetry supplies data on property supply and demand, as well as pricing to key stakeholders such as banks, the government, and property developers.
  • Their work allows them to make better decisions about where to invest and how to price homes.
  •  The startup also launched NowCast, an AI-driven service for homebuyers. It forecasts the value of their homes based on machine learning from 90 city data variables, bringing better transparency, accuracy, and efficiency to the industry.
  • Listen to the full interview here.
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