CrossFund, Singapore (2026)

02/10/2023

🚀 Exciting News! CrossFund Raises $1.5M in New Funding 🚀

We're thrilled to announce that CrossFund has secured an additional $1.5 million in funding, reaffirming our position as the leading investment gateway to the emerging world! 🌍

This latest investment round comes from family offices in the Middle East and Asia, along with support from BlockBase Ventures, UI Investments, Australian Gulf Capital, BXB Capital, and strategic Angels.

Founded in Singapore in 2021 by Benjamin Cardarelli and Davide Calì, CrossFund has quickly become the go-to equity financing tool for early-stage startups in Southeast Asia and Africa. With over $40 million raised across 80 investments and our first exit to a Nasdaq-listed company, we are making waves in the investment landscape.

We are also proud to be recognized as a unique solution for governments looking to attract foreign direct investment into their countries through high-tech startups.

Our vision is clear: to invest early in local founders and provide everyone with access to valuable startup equity in the economies of the future. With this fresh funding at a $47 million valuation, we are poised for exponential growth and expanding our presence in EMEA, where 40% of our 15,000 accredited investors are already based.

But that's not all! 🌟

We've made Ho Chi Minh City (HCM) our strategic base, establishing our first office there. From HCMC, we've built a strong local team and gained exclusive access to promising startups in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

CrossFund is not just an investment platform; it's the gateway to a world of opportunities. Our portfolio has grown 400% in less than two years and includes notable startups like Edugo.AI A Docebo Company, Hello Clever, Vulcan Augmetics, Lipa Later, Styched India, BeU Delivery, and Swag Kicks, many of whom are now raising Series A or B rounds backed by leading VCs and global accelerators.

Our secret sauce? The use of artificial intelligence in the vetting and fundraising process, ensuring the perfect match between investors and startups. Plus, we're trailblazers in accepting investments in crypto, launching a secondary market, and pioneering a digital "smart SAFE" on the blockchain.

CrossFund is at the forefront of transforming the fundraising industry, and we're ready for the next chapter of our journey. Join us as we lead the transition of wealth toward the emerging world, with Singapore, UAE, and Saudi Arabia as our powerful investment hubs.

Read what tech experts are saying about CrossFund in articles from various tech news websites below:

13/09/2023

Meet Debbie Gajkowski, Co-Founder of HomeSyte.com.vn!

For much of her professional life (finance), Debbie has been on the “other side,” evaluating ventures and founders for their viability and investability. When the chance arose to join the experience the other side, she jumped with both feet. HomeSyte was born: the first comprehensive proptech platform pairing a fully tech-enabled online marketplace with offline transactions to provide efficiency in a fragmented and analog market across SEAsia, starting with Vietnam.

A life spent traveling, studying, working in many countries and cultures gave Debbie a worldly vantage point and an ability to compare & contrast business models when passported to new markets. HomeSyte started with a consensus among founders on the state of play in the Vietnamese real estate market: painful stories, filled not only just with unprofessional practices, but with pitfalls and even scams ending up in distrust and monetary losses.

The founders noticed that offerings in the market were usually only one piece of the value chain. “We set out to disrupt this by offering an end-to-end offering. From search to agents to transaction to even financing and insurance options, potential buyers would be able to stay on our platform and be assured of the process. Our platform is also inclusive – it incorporates and works together with current players – agencies, developers, freelancer agents and homeowners as customers on the marketplace side and with developers and homeowners on the transactional agency side.”

Starting out, with an affinity for business and entrepreneurship that all her friends noticed, Debbie focused on finding the right team for HomeSyte, from property and tech backgrounds, through to local legal expertise. Insurtech and finance partners came next, and an AI advisory group. Together with an opportune market, many of the pieces fell quickly into place. “The hires came easily with great attitudes and a hunger perfect for a new startup,” Debbie says.

HomeSyte disrupts both traditional marketplaces and agents to create a symbiotic property network, to make money on both sides of the value chain: listings and commission revenues, as well as value add like mortgages and insurance. Homesyte has had some exciting early growth: the startup hit 70K listings (estimated at the time to be 1/3 of the market) with 6500 unique accounts, 200K unique visitors and a 9M reach organically. With investment into the sector lessening after a phase of overheating, HomeSyte is perfecting its tech and market fit strategy. Bringing a much more sophisticated solution to a still mostly analogue environment – the volatile Vietnamese housing market – being ready for the next upswing will mean HomeSyte will be at a sharp advantage when it comes.

04/09/2023

Manufacturing is on the move.

For years, cost-effectiveness and profit margins landed deal after deal in China. However, recent crises have speeded up what was a gradual disenchantment, and a new dimension is affecting things: the security of supply.

China, once considered the world's manufacturing superstar, is now viewed with caution by multinationals. A market with over 1.4 billion consumers and a huge pool of expertise in complex industrial processes is weighed down with a growing list of impediments, like rising wages, geopolitical volatility and aggressive moves against foreign business from the top have added to anxiety about cementing the country as the single source for important goods.

In the background, wars and climate shocks and Panama Canal traffic jams etc. are pushing companies to nearshore (the US and Mexico are great examples) or to move elsewhere in Asia, even if it means paying higher costs. Not yet a mass exodus from China, this is rather a careful expansion into other regions.

Overall, the countries benefiting the most from this shift are Vietnam, Thailand, Mexico, and Turkey. Companies like Apple are diversifying their supply chains to include not only China but also Vietnam and India.

India, in particular, is gaining prominence. Its large and young labor force, along with expertise in sectors like IT, engineering, and automotive, is attracting companies looking to establish or expand. As India's economy gradually opens up (take the current Free Trade agreement with post-Brexit Britain they are currently mulling over, which would be only the second serious one after similar with the UAE) it is becoming an increasingly attractive alternative.

However, experts warn that the window of opportunity for diversification and having it both ways won't remain open forever. China remains a big market – companies may soon have to begin the process of choosing which lane to commit to making and moving their goods through.

03/09/2023

Vietnamese unicorn VNG Corporation is aiming to list for an IPO on the Nasdaq in late September, looking to reach the $150 million mark and making history as the first Vietnamese tech firm to list in the U.S. A mother-brand name familiar to visitors and locals in Vietnam as the makers of Zalo, the messaging super-app, as well as countless games and Cloud and payment services, VNG is Tencent Games as a backer, among other powerhouses (Temasek state fund of Singapore). Like Tencent, the strong synergy between games, messaging and eCommerce means that VNG is in a prime position to generate more daily tech tools and super-apps in the future. Games are a major element. According to Tech in Asia: "VNG was founded in 2004 as VinaGame. Gaming still contributes about 70% to 80% of its total revenue, with the remaining from Zalo, ZaloPay and VNG CLOUD." In a time of a down market for Viet tech stocks in general, this is not just a significant milestone for VNG but also a testament to the growing appetite for Southeast Asian and emerging market stocks on Western exchanges. 📈

VNG's move follows the freak success of VinFast, the Vietnamese EV maker, whose shares soared during its recent U.S. debut, hitting a market valuation of an amazing $86 billion. While the initial public offering landscape can be unpredictable, VinFast's achievements signal a trend for Southeast Asian companies branching into the manufacturing of hot commodity classes. VNG isn't alone here; Filippino real estate company DoubleDragon Corporation has been speaking of a Nasdaq listing, further reinforcing the growing international interest in Southeast Asian startups.

Seth Farbman of New York-based stock transfer agency VStock Transfer, summed it up in a quote to Reuters: "The growing interest in international listings and the presence of notable players in the region indicate a promising landscape for Southeast Asian startups seeking to expand their reach and access global capital markets."

As VNG prepares to offer approximately 21.7 million shares, with pricing details yet to be finalized, it's clear that they are aiming high and ready to make a splash. The IPO proceeds will be directed towards various corporate objectives, including repaying outstanding debts and donations.

Citi, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Bank of America are acting as underwriters for this venture. VNG's shares on the Hanoi Stock Exchange's UPCoM have already shown an 11% surge, indicating strong investor interest. 📊

Come back to us in future for SEA triumph tales! 🌟

02/09/2023

We know about the ratio of reward to the risk laid out in very big bets in VC: but most so-called Venture Capital funding is not going around like SoftBank or showy Silicon Valley firms. A lot of VC has been steered towards relatively low-risk, small cap deals – in particular across the US, favoring segments like SaaS. In fact, the ecosystem needs to stimulate more wild ideas, and for that money needs to land that will give the adventure back into 'Venture' capital.

Recent news from Saudi Arabia showed how the government there is setting aside greater sums for tech startups. If the strongest Emerging Markets are doing that, why not the hegemonic ones?

Some encouraging news for those who follow US markets: a recent update to the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program is due to open up billions in loans to venture capital funds. An interesting spread of beneficiaries is given, including underserved communities, capital-intensive industries, and sectors vital for national security.

Why is this so important for US competitiveness? As Bailey DeVries, the U.S. Small Business Administration's Associate Administrator, and head of its Office of Investment and Innovation points out, much of the heavy VC money often goes into areas like B2B SaaS. While these sectors are important, funding needs to flow into the "hard and critical" tech that is essential for global competitiveness and national security – AI is bound to generate threats on numerous fronts, including mis- and disinformation which will make recent waves of toxic content look tame. The upcoming generation will need to populate the ecosystem with many solutions so that the sturdiest can emerge for mass application.

Check out the link-in-bio for the full post.

30/08/2023

Meet Huy Phùng Khắc of Ship60!

Many younger Vietnamese look forward while drawing strength from the past. For an example, look no further than Huy Phùng Khắc, founder & CEO of logistics firm Ship60. Says Huy, “My family has a business tradition from my grandmother. She started her career from nothing then built manufacturing companies in the F&B industry. I always heard about business in my family and how becoming a businessman will help a lot of people.”

After university (Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ - Tin học TP. HCM - HUFLIT - HCMC University of Foreign Languages & Information Technology), Huy started out as a tech engineer at TMA Solutions, an outsourcing software corporation. He gained leadership and management skills, ending up as the leader of most software initiatives. This motivated him to build a logistics technology platform to change the very fragmented logistics industry in his homeland. What was the spur?

“I had to wait for a week to receive an online order. It came with sloppy packaging. I recognized that the eCommerce market in Vietnam is still undergoing an early development process. Sellers need to reach out different logistics fragments: pickup, inventory, proceed-to-order, delivery to other provinces, etc. I founded Ship60 with the mission to accelerate the buyer experience.”

Inspired by the Chinese examples of Jack Ma, who built Alibaba Group, and Cainiao Network – a logistics firm with the vision of fulfilling consumer orders within 24 hours in China and within 72 hours anywhere else in the world – Huy believes in collecting the ‘Hero Team’ to reach lofty goals. “I believe that the founder should not try to do everything. Success is always built by many talents together.”

What’s the lay of the land? eCommerce in Vietnam is growing by 25% increase per year, from 2020, headed to a $32 billion market size in 2025. “It is expected to grow fastest in SEA, but the development of logistics has not developed in time, causing problems like high costs, long processing times, sloppy packaging, etc.” Huy kicked off Ship60 in 2018 with 2 co-founders (both ex-colleagues from his software firm). Now the eCommerce market is booming, with many sales channels and livestream commerce trends pushing the demand for fulfillment to even higher levels.

Right now, Ship60 is quickly expanding its network of fulfillment centers in Vietnamese cities to create an optimal logistics network by allocating goods closer to the buyer to shorten delivery times and reduce costs. Ship60 also supports eCommerce sellers in Vietnam to promote better sales. Says Huy, “Sustainability is our priority, while ensuring 20% growth every quarter. Ship60 has expanded to the 2 cities with the largest eCommerce markets, Ho Chi Minh City & Hanoi, and manages 400,000 products with a total value of GMV $2M, with a maximum capacity of handling 7,000 orders/day. We are approaching breakeven point in the first quarter of next year.”

28/08/2023

Europe gets a bad rap sometimes. They try to lead the way in data protection... and get blamed for filling our online world with pop-ups. Amid an AI boom and buzz, the EU steps in to draft legislation to mitigate the threats, only to be charged with handicapping the continent right at the moment it needs to pick up the pace.

Even France's slogan for investment – Choose France – carries something of a pleading tone. Come on, Europe, you can do better. Yet there are encouraging shifts and trends across the beautiful continent. One is a shifting of energy to give crowdfunding and alternative investment channels a chance to blossom. Post-Brexit, these options help to keep capital moving back and forth from London to the center, and fly above red tape when necessary.

Money is coming in from outside to energize the trend. In 2022, Republic acquired UK crowdfunding leader Seedrs for $100 million. That move into Europe inspired confidence at the right time; it followed on the enactment of the European Crowdfunding Services Providers Regulation (ECSPR 2020/1503) in 2020, which gives licences to platforms to operate through the EU. 🌱 Later, in November 2022, Oneplanetcrowd merged into Invesdor Nordics, a Finnish European securities crowdfunding platform.

All of that is good for early-stage firms. There are also some interesting commitment trends. Investors are leaning strongly into Clean Tech and renewables and similar – and not just for virtue points. They expect high returns. An in-house survey by Seedrs (see link below) found 57% of European individual investors now prioritize industries that align with their values when making decisions. 🌟 CEO Jeff Kelisky: "It's intriguing to see that industry affinity has now become as influential as the potential for substantial returns in guiding investment decisions. Our commitment to schemes like EIS and SEIS is instrumental in ensuring that visionary businesses receive the funding they deserve."

This shift in sentiment is evident, as the survey highlights a change from 2022 when 54% of surveyed individuals ranked substantial returns as their primary consideration. Clean Energy and Climate Tech sectors are gaining momentum, with 45% and 40% interest respectively (up from 31% in 2022). Conversely, Finance & Payments, F&B and Crypto have dipped YoY.

With governments across the continent aware of the need to empower tech innovation but also committing to environmental change, investor logic makes sense. Now all that's needed are the ideas. And for the graduates not to be absorbed into the Valley's FAANGs.

25/08/2023

The race to run the next unicorn over the line in the Gulf is on! The conditions are looking good for a spree, as political and cooperative conditions improve. Many startups like noon, Policybazaar, yallacompare, Careem and others operate in the UAE, Saudi, Oman, Qatar and other GCC countries – and that ecosystem extends frequently back and forth to Egypt and elsewhere.

What name and what sector is coming next? One thinks of all those aircon-equipped vehicles making the border crossings on improved motorways – of course, insurance comes next.

In Saudi, the Saudi Central Bank – SAMA is reinforcing its commitment to enhancing the insurance sector by introducing innovative regulatory measures for fintech companies.

SAMA's focus on client protection, fair competition, and operational stability underpins the regulatory changes. By fostering compliance and control, these measures aim to create a conducive environment for both Insurtech companies and their clients. Coverage in one country – for say auto – is increasingly good when you speed over the border, but the risk is also there for the insurers which needs upgraded tech to mitigate things (check out Proton for a UAE outfit that collects data from road trips anywhere in the region to build risk profiles).

In the background, recent years have witnessed remarkable growth in Saudi Arabia's insurance sector. In 2022, it surged by 26.9%, reaching an impressive SR53 billion ($14.1 billion). Health insurance, a significant contributor, grew by 26.8%. This upward trajectory highlights the sector's increasing importance in the non-oil GDP, making up 2.09% in 2022.

As Saudi Arabia continues its journey towards Vision 2030's ambitious goals, the integration of digital technology into almost every new area of the economy is unrelenting. With the number of enterprises projected to grow from 82 to 230 by 2025, and the fintech sector's anticipated contribution to the GDP expected to reach SR4.5 billion, the future holds huge promise – not just mirages.

This week at CrossFund has mostly been about Saudi Arabia harnesses the power of tech to transform its financial landscape, foster innovation, and achieve economic diversification. In fact while KSA resources are vast, it's a pattern we are seeing around the world. One way to guarantee success is to innovate cross-border investments. Our reason for being at the party. 🚀💼

24/08/2023

Indonesia has parallel earthquakes: in the construction and heavy industry world, and in the world of online and urban culture that's unleashing startups like BintanGO, the creator-supporting platform that's just landed $2.2 million in a relative down market. That shows confidence in the young people performing, buying, selling and communicating here, taking advantage of momentum coming from China's lead in e-commerce and video – and from the excitement of being the first truly connected generation in 🇮🇩.

Tech in Asia reports that BintanGO has onboarded over 75,000 creators since its launch in September 2021. In the past 12 months, these creators have been paid a total of over US$2.3 million on the platform. From short videos to live e-commerce, the role of a Bintango is to streamline the process for talent to realize itself across a growing swathe of platforms. Support and a managed landing, rather than swim or drown.

In the context of Indonesia's average monthly income, those rising figures tell a compelling story. One wonders what comes next. If the creator pool continues to grow, Bintango's 15 studios in Jakarta will metamorphosize into a rainforest. This is the country of 18000 islands remember. Where will the fuel come from for the growth spurt? One possibility is a capital spotlight from MENA. Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation, for one thing, but more importantly, it is the SEA nation showing some of the hottest potential in precisely the areas that we know have been working well. Namely: e-commerce, infrastructure and logistics (Gojek, Tokopedia), digitalization of education and health etc. Our coverage this week has been circling back to how money for early-stage startups in the Gulf and MENA has been rising. The GCC has created a good basis for scaling good ideas in that region; but capital has remained reticent about moving too far outside it – so far. The Muslim connection is merely one component. A general re-ordering of globalisation is another. Witness today's news from BRICs (see comment below for link) that no less than !6! Countries are to be invited to join:
🇦🇷 Argentina
🇪🇬 Egypt
🇪🇹 Ethiopia
🇮🇷 Iran
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates ..Good luck creating the acronym for that one!

The capacity to kickstart and scale a tech company in this Emerging World will be greatly improved. We predict a capital move from MENA to SEA as part of it.

22/08/2023

We reckon this is merely the beginning. The announcement from the office of KSA's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that a $200 million (SAR750 million) fund is confirmed for early-stage investment fits with the Crown Prince's beloved transformative Vision 2030 plan. That plan needs a complete overhaul of technology and wealth creation to work. This is not simply about putting money towards new companies, but bringing together the innovators together with the state and the established international business that already has a foothold in the kingdom into a more blended, more fertile and self-nourishing ecosystem. The announcement itself (see link below) is careful to blend together the local (including current and future concepts from the many younger Saudi founders out there) and the global, the big and the small, the institutional research and the free market. A picture of a well-balanced setting for new ideas to grow, in other words.

With CrossFund's each visit to this ecosystem, the hunger of new participants is glaringly obvious. The $200 million here and the public-private-educational cooperation it feeds is just a first step.

What about the locale? Every great national tech renewal plan needs a great technical university, and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is the focus of the innovation strategy and more experimental 'economies of the future'. Other 3rd-level institutions are predictably geared towards engineering and the like. Expect some of the money to find its way into like MedTech and EdTech, sustainable environmental technology, personal finance, energy and industrial leadership – and all the areas that are undergoing or destined for change through digitalisation. There will be likely be more such announcements in the near future, and maybe a heavier hand on the scales.

21/08/2023

Meet Jubran Alshahrani of Mod5r Company!

As a founder who has moved and lived between very different cultures, Jubran knows about the importance of open-mindedness, agility and change in life’s most important areas.

Jubran was born and raised in snowy Colorado, then moved to Khamis Mushyat in Saudi Arabia – a very different climate. Inspired by his well-known businessman grandfather, Jubran went on to work at the Saudi stock exchange, where he learned about a system that was full of wealth and potential but also in need of change.

With a starting investment fund of just $300K, Mod5r hit the ground running, targeting the incredible 60% of Saudis who do not currently invest.

Taking on stagnant money in the Kingdom is no small task: some estimates put a figure of 640 billion USD on the uninvested money there, and understanding the reasons for this inertia was the first step in moving towards a solution. Unlike Jubran’s grandfather, most Saudis are not highly financially literate – in the past, driven by a state-led economy fueled by a single revenue source, entrepreneurial and investment skills were less necessary. Now however, the government and the people are pursuing a different narrative, and change in the way private wealth is treated is coming fast. Despite a huge mass of untapped wealth in the kingdom, perhaps 26% are unbanked and financial literacy is consistently measured to be low (maybe 31%). The FSDP, meanwhile, is seeking to raise Saudi Arabia’s household savings ratio, measured at 16% back in 2018. Having a lot of ordinary households without savings is just like having a rich populace without investments – in both cases, the future risks not fully flowering. Jubran and his team therefore organized Mod5r to both provide financial awareness and give management tools to a new generation of Saudis, with open banking, direct payments to and from personal accounts and automated analysis in guiding decisions. Meanwhile, Mod5r already boasts a license from the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), making it one of the few wealth management apps with such a license.

The next generation of Saudis might well be very grateful to Mod5r for constructing a toolkit that changed how money – and money management – works in the Kingdom.

18/08/2023

Meet Laurentiu Nita of Quarks Interactive!

Laurentiu grew up in the heart of Transylvania, a small town called Miercurea Ciuc in the middle of the mountains. With an affinity for mathematics, in highschool he was always the first to finish the exams. Computers became his passion as soon as he got his hands on one. At 19 he joined Dell Technologies, then Oracle followed by IBM. In the latter, he ended up becoming the tech leader for most of the automation initiatives for IBM Europe. He ran into a problem at IBM that simply was not possible to practically solve – unless a completely new paradigm of computation should exist. And this is how he found quantum computing, the focus of Quarks Interactive, which aims to spread ‘Quantum Literacy’ through games and EdTech.

He has always had to understand everything: how does a clock work? What about a remote control? Curiosity about the physical nature of things led him to Quantum Physics. “By understanding it, we understand how everything else emerged.” Nita claims can be quite fun at afterparties, when everyone is tired. “I tend to deep dive highly philosophical, metaphysical or physics-related topics in a fun way, until their eyes spark back to life again.”

He is also practical: he had rigorous training in IBM and Oracle, including corporate leadership courses, and always loved organizing stuff in such a way that it simply works.

“I think nothing is worse than uncompleted projects.” On Quarks Interactive, he claims “Our mission is a game changer, not for technology but for humanity. Take Moore’s Law. There is an end to what transistor-based, regular computers or HPCs can achieve. Simulating a molecule of caffeine will never be achieved on a normal computer. We need quantum computers and an understanding of how to use them more than anything else fast.”

Quarks sets out to fix a basic knowledge deficit. Current methods of teaching quantum are “not fun, are costly, are tiring.” Laurentiu saw another way: Quantum Computing can be fun if thought out visually. He decided to turn knowledge into beautiful, artistic puzzle-solving activities and slap some theoretical education on top. The approach seems to spark a lot of interest! Early-stage angel investors included people who understood the importance of Quantum Computing to the world. Says Laurentiu, “We have 27 investors to date. A lot of scientists, educators and professors have brought in ideas, have given their best to guide me and the company forward to ensure everything we do is scientifically rigorous and based on the state of the art frameworks in the field of education.” Quarks has “some brilliant new hires and powerful partnerships at play. Our strategy is more solid than ever towards what the complete version of the product should be.” With the ‘Year of Quantum 2025’ coming along, Laurentiu is certain that Quarks Interactive will have the world’s most exciting “quantum product” on the market by then!

CrossFund

02/10/2023

13/09/2023

04/09/2023

03/09/2023

02/09/2023

30/08/2023

28/08/2023

25/08/2023

24/08/2023

22/08/2023

21/08/2023

18/08/2023

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category