A win for food security

• Remember foodtech startup Glife Technologies’ successful US$8M Series A last year? The 500-backed company has now raised a further US$2.88M in a Series A extension round led by Temasek subsidiary Heliconia Capital.
• Founded in 2018 by Justin Chou – who is also the executive director of plant-based food supplier Growthwell and co-founder of vegetarian food chain Greendot – Glife runs an app and website that enable F&B businesses to buy, manage, and track their orders.
• Glife also recently announced plans to expand to Malaysia and Indonesia, which it successfully accomplished with the acquisition of PanenID, a farm-to-table startup in Bali, and Yolek, a plant-based food distributor to hotels, restaurants, and catering companies in Malaysia.
• Its latest growth milestone was an investment in Vietnamese agritech supply chain startup Koina.
• Congratulations to the Glife team!
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Shop & sell safely

• Worried about online shopping scammers? Users on Carousell can breathe easier — the 500-backed company’s collaboration with online payment processing firm Stripe aims to protect the tens of millions of monthly active users across Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
• Partnering with Stripe has helped build trust among users while also removing those peddling fake merchandise from the platform.
• “Carousell Protection (a feature that withholds payments to sellers until buyers have received the items) is a great example of the innovation we offer our sellers and buyers to give them peace of mind as they transact easily and safely in our marketplace,” said Lucas Ngoo, co-founder of Carousell.
• “We believe we can create an inversion in commerce by 2030, where first-hand eCommerce will supplement re-commerce as consumers buy something new only when necessary, or after they have sold something,” he added. “It will ultimately be good for society, and for the planet, when second-hand becomes the first choice.”
• Read the full story here.

Grocery in a jiffy

• The demand for e-grocery services is on the rise; however, the industry is facing labor shortages and hiring challenges. Against this backdrop, 500-backed HappyFresh continues to aim to make grocery shopping more convenient with deliveries in as little as one hour.
• “Creating a more productive and efficient order fulfillment strategy has become an increasingly important focus for us, especially with one-hour delivery demands,” said Mesut Keleş, Senior Vice President Supply Chain.
• How is 500-backed HappyFresh meeting consumers’ needs? In addition to rolling out dark stores, the company revamped its warehouse operations. This has enabled HappyFresh to proactively adapt to customer preferences and increase its focus on social sustainability.
• Get the full article here.