Home is where the heart is

• 500-backed Ringkas, a digital mortgage platform aiming to solve the housing problem, raised US$2.3M in pre-seed funding. It targets to bring together a community of millions of home seekers, 12,000+ developers, and 1,200+ banks and financial institutions in Indonesia.
• How? “The secret sauce to unlocking this opportunity is to leverage technology to connect all the players in the industry in a simple, fast, and customer-obsessed way,” said Co-founder Ilya Kravtsov.
• Khailee Ng, Managing Partner at 500 Global, commented, “Shelter is a basic physiological need that every person should have access to. It unlocks the pursuit of entrepreneurship, career ambition, family, education, and more. Homeownership has been a building block for the advancement of economies, and this is why we believe Ringkas’ application of financial technology to homeownership has the potential to be a multi-billion dollar journey with massive social impact.”
• Ringkas will use the fresh funds to launch its platform in collaboration with Ciputra Group, the largest property developer in Indonesia. Over the next 6-12 months, the company plans to onboard 10,000 home seekers.
• Congratulations to the Ringkas team!
• Read the full story on e27.

Riding the preloved trend

• The states of Penang, Johor, and Kelantan in Malaysia are seeing an uptick in the buying and selling of motorbikes online. 500-backed iMotorbike is riding the trend and plans to open 10 inspection centers in these states over the next 12 months.
• At these centers, motorbikes will undergo 170 inspection points to ensure that pre-loved motorcycles are roadworthy.
• “We also want to give more job opportunities with the availability of these service centers as we need more mechanics and inspection officers,” said Co-founder & CMO Sharmeen Looi.
• Recently, the company saw a 70x month-to-month growth in transactions. “In 3 years, we expect to see a 20% growth in preloved motorbike sales via our platform. Overall in Malaysia, we expect to see 8% annual growth,” Sharmeen commented.
• Watch the full interview on TV3.

Press start to play

• It’s time for fun, games, and big prizes! 500-backed Esports Players League (ESPL) launched Malaysia Infinity Nationals 2022 in collaboration with Yield Guild Games Southeast Asia (YGG SEA).
• Targeting over 500 participants, the two companies said that the Axie Infinity tournament will be a stepping stone for the Play-2-Earn (P2E) community to expand into cryptocurrency.
• The event also aims to bring forth a new era of competitive gaming in the Malaysian e-sports ecosystem and P2E community.
• In addition to providing a platform to foster new connections, ESPL and YGG SEA said the tournament will allow everyone to create more value for the investments made through in-game activities, and gain rewards like additional cryptocurrency or Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
• Read the full article here.