Not just fun and games

• 500-backed startup Esports Players League (ESPL), an e-sports tournament organizer, announced it has closed a seven-digit pre-Series A funding round.
• The Singapore-headquartered startup will use the capital for product enhancement and to further grow its platform.
• ESPL offers an integrated tournament model of both online and on-ground tournaments for the grassroots gamer community. It intends to act as a platform for aspiring e-sports enthusiasts to participate and be given a chance to be a world champion.
• According to the startup, to date, it has organized more than 312 tournaments across 16 countries in Asia, Europe, and America, viewed by close to 11.6 million e-sports enthusiasts.
• Read the full story on e27 here.

Going for gold

• 500-backed fintech startup HelloGold recently appeared in a talk titled ‘Fintech: The Growing Digital Momentum’. The session revealed that fintech platforms have enabled investors to diversify their assets.
• HelloGold allows users to invest in gold for as low as ~US$0.24. According to co-founder Ridwan Abdullah, the savings platform experienced growth during the pandemic.
• He added that in the last 12 months, HelloGold has onboarded between 20,000 to 30,000 new customers.
• What’s next for HelloGold this year? Ridwan said the startup is looking to integrate its services with ewallet providers and hopes to announce partnerships.
• Read the full article on Digital News Asia here.

Healthcare at your fingertips

• 500-backed healthcare superapp Alodokter has more than 28 million monthly active users, and over 40,000 certified doctors on the platform. However, it found that many users were uninstalling the app almost immediately after installation.
• So, Alodokter sought to improve engagement rates, increase active users, and improve conversion and click-through rates.
• To achieve this, it engaged with a partner to leverage its machine-learning technology and A/B testing mechanism.
• Through the campaign, Alodokter was able to customize user flow on the app based on multiple variables such as location and preferences. It also personalized calls-to-action based on the stage of the customer journey.
• Overall, the startup saw the following results:

1. Up to 16% improvement in activating users who had signed up on the app
2. Up to 10% improvement in turning free-chat users to premium-chat users
3. A 60% increase in monthly active users in eight months

• Get more details on Campaign Asia 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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