Team Proficient
Construction project management platform Proficient secures US$240K
Investors: Falnas Capital, a strategic investment firm backed by local entrepreneur, SM Faliq SM Nasimuddin.
Plans with the money: Proficient will utilise the seed funding to further expand its footprint into local and regional markets, while accelerating its platform’s expansion to offer more innovative functions and to boost its AI capabilities.
More about Proficient: Established in 2019, Proficient is an end-to-end construction project management solution. Its software system incorporates the entire construction project management workflow with an aim to enrich all project stakeholders through features and capabilities for effective risk management and improved efficiency, hence leading to higher productivity and transparency.
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Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and a year after its launch, Proficient launched its base software in April 2020 as part of the company’s drive to transform Malaysia’s state of construction project management. Since then, Proficient has provided its construction management capabilities to some of the biggest Malaysian property developers, including Hap Seng Land and Naza TTDI.
TaniHub launches non-profit TaniFoundation
The story: Indonesia’s leading agritech group TaniHub has launched TaniFoundation with an aim to create a positive impact on society through improving the welfare of farmers and other interrelated parties in the agricultural ecosystem.
Through TaniFoundation, farmers can be trained to increase their capacity and expand their market access, supported by programmes in agritech and infrastructure, as well as financial inclusion and welfare.
Some concrete examples of the TaniFoundation programme are modern agricultural training, the application of precision farming technology, as well as financial literacy and entrepreneurship training, which can also be focused on women farmers.
Also Read: TaniHub lands US$65.5M Series B to empower Indonesia’s 40M small farmers through tech, financing
The background: TaniHub Group sees the need for long-term interventions to improve the welfare of 33.5 million more farmers in Indonesia. Although the agricultural sector is the third largest contributor to Indonesia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), farmers still experience problems in accessing various things needed to increase their capacity. A number of these obstacles are limited access to capital, information and production facilities, and the most crucial is marketing for crops.
The group believes TaniFoundation can provide education and development of skills (skills) to one million farmers in 2024. This nonprofit unit is also expected to connect farmers with a strong technological infrastructure and address climate change.
In addition, TaniFoundation is targeted to create a collaborative ecosystem with many partners, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Collaboration: In order to ensure that as many elements of society as possible can be involved in these efforts, TaniFoundation is ready to collaborate with various organizations and institutions, be it government, private, or non-profit. Currently, TaniFoundation has interacted closely with various parties and produced two pilot programs which will be launched soon.
The first programme is “1,000 Farmers Steps”, a collaboration with TaniFund, Kitabisa.com, and Unilever, for 1,000 farmers in Banten, West Java, Central Java, and East Java. Under the programme, farmers will receive support for their work in the form of 1,000 pairs of rubber boots, financial literacy training, as well as health and hygiene education.
In the second programme entitled “Olah Biogas & Biosuri”, TaniFoundation collaborates with Rumah Energi and BenihBaik.com. The Rumah Energi Foundation is a non-profit organisation that seeks to provide access to clean energy and food security to improve the community’s economic standard, alleviate poverty, reduce disaster risk, and mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.
Fave launches ‘buy now pay later’ in Singapore, Malaysia
The story: Fave, a Malaysia-based fintech platform providing QR payments and loyalty cashback to restaurant and retailers, has launched the BNPL service to provide over six million Fave users with instant access to interest-free credit to be used at over 40,000 stores as a pilot.
The service is available on the Fave app for iOS users today, followed by an Android release in July 2021.
Eligible Fave users will be able to split purchases over three equal, interest-free instalments. Repayments will be automatically drawn every month, with no fees charged for on-time payments.
Also Read: Fave acquired by Pine Labs for US$45M, to expand its consumer payments app to India
More about the service: In addition, customers will earn up to 10 per cent cashback with every purchase. FavePay Later is available at all Fave merchants in Singapore and Malaysia today, including marquee brands in popular retail verticals such Pandora, Marks & Spencer, Best Denki, Puma, GNC and more.
The launch of FavePay Later comes at a time of pent-up demand among consumers after prolonged periods of lockdowns and social restrictions, with cash-strapped consumers seeking easier access to credit and merchants seeking innovative ways to revive ailing sales.
FavePay Later is hassle-free for merchants with no additional integrations nor platforms required. Merchants will benefit from higher conversion, revenue and customer loyalty without taking any additional risk; while enabling consumers to make a purchase and pay over three interest-free instalments.
In April, Fave was acquired by Indian merchant commerce giant Pine Labs in a deal valued at over US$45 million.
East Ventures appoints Italo Gani as its new Venture Partner
The new role: Italo Gani brings expertise in managing tech startups and a vast network to realize his ambition to build Indonesia’s startup ecosystem to the East Ventures team.
Who is Gani?: Gani is a startup veteran with more than 20 years of experience. He started his entrepreneurial career in 1998 and has developed many tech startups in Indonesia since then, such as ADSKOM, InboundID, and many more. He is also involved in advising Nodeflux, a deep learning tech startup from Jakarta. ADSKOM and Nodeflux were later invested by East Ventures.
In 2019, he initiated Impactto.io, a collective startup builders platform. He serves as the managing partner at Impactto.io and has helped around 40 tech startups.
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Despite extending his support in tech startups, Gani also has actively supported many government initiatives, including NextICorn (since 2017) and Startup Studio Indonesia (since 2020) by the Ministry of Communication and Information technology. Gani contributes in accelerating startup business scale by serving as the board of curators of Startup Studio Indonesia as well as founder and board member of NextICorn Foundation.
About East Ventures: Founded in 2009, East Ventures is a sector-agnostic VC firm in Indonesia. It’s the first investor of Indonesia’s unicorn companies, namely Tokopedia and Traveloka. Other notable companies in the portfolio include Ruangguru, Warung Pintar, Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by Gojek), Tech in Asia, Xendit, IDN Media, MokaPOS (acquired by Gojek), ShopBack, Koinworks, Waresix, and Sociolla.
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Image Credit: Proficient
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