Big names place early bets on this Singapore D2C firm

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Evo has piqued interest despite raising a relatively less head-turning sum of US$600,000 in its seed round. Wondering how? The health and wellness direct-to-consumer startup has bagged a stellar list of early backers, including the founders of used-car marketplace giant Carro, rewards platform ShopBack, and fintech firm Spenmo.

While it is common practice for founders of other major firms to diversify their wealth, it is less common for a startup to unveil three big names from the ecosystem as investors so early in the game.

It is tempting to place a greater significance to a founders’ investment in another startup, given that they’ve already been there and done that. However, giving the benefit of the doubt to founders is, at times, misplaced. VC firms can also point to their other successful investments as a sign they have a keen eye for what businesses make money and what don’t.

For instance, East Ventures, the lead investor in Evo’s seed round, was also an early backer in Southeast Asian unicorns GoTo Group, Traveloka, and Carro.

Nonetheless, with a batch of heavyweight investors, these remain promising times for Evo. In today’s premium story, we explore what the seed funding means for the Singapore-based startup and what it plans to do with the new capital.

Today we look at:

• Evo’s seed funding round
• Zipmex opening up altcoin withdrawals
• Other newsy highlights such as the beginning of the end to SoftBank’s famed Alibaba investment and ShopBack entering Hong Kong.

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Image credit: Timmy Loen

We’ve already detailed how D2C in the beauty space is booming (and only getting bigger) in Southeast Asia. Now, as Evo’s stunning 700% growth in the last five months suggests, it appears that the health and wellness sector has also caught the D2C bug.

• Current state of affairs: Evo, which operates in 10 markets globally, hit break-even in June and is looking to hit an eight-figure annualized revenue by the end of the year. Proceeds from its seed round will go toward expanding its offerings and doubling down on its R&D efforts for new product categories.
• It’s all about being better: Roy Ang, Evo’s CEO, attributed the Covid-19 pandemic as a pivotal moment for ecommerce growth globally. He also discussed his vision for Evo, saying that it aims to be “the new age, digital-native brand that serves customers within the health and wellness category, with better branding, better product content, and more affordable pricing by removing the middleman in the mix.”
• Don’t forget about us: While we’ve already discussed some of Evo’s key backers, they’re not the only ones that invested in the startup. Jonathan Tan, founder and managing director of Prism+, also joined the seed round. Evo also has institutional investors such as Bonjour Holding, SparkLab Ventures, Paragon Capital, and Farquhar Ventures.

Read more: Exclusive: East Ventures leads $600k seed round of Singapore D2C firm

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