Curlec wins the last semifinal round of this year’s Startup Arena Pitch Battle

This article is a collaboration between Betty Chum and Ainun Nadhifah

On October 1, Tech in Asia, in partnership with Surge, Sequoia Capital India’s rapid scale-up program, held the last semifinal round of the annual Startup Arena Pitch Battle, which has gone virtual for 2020.

The goal of this pitch battle: To shine a spotlight on the innovative startups in Southeast Asia. The competition has four semifinal rounds, each one focused on a particular market: Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the rest of the region. They all build up to a grand finale that will be held on October 21 and 22 at this year’s Tech in Asia Conference Virtual 2020, where the winner will receive a US$10,000 cash prize plus perks from Freshworks, HubSpot, and Tigerhall.

For this round, Tech in Asia invited Pieter Kemps (principal at Sequoia Capital India), Nichapat Ark (Thailand Coverage, Openspace Ventures), and Joel Neoh (Founder, Fave) to judge the pitches that were given by six startup founders from Southeast Asia.

At the end of the event, Malaysian fintech startup Curlec was announced as the regional winner, with Myanmar based Ezay as the runner-up.

Here’s an overview of the participating startups and their business models:

Curlec (Winner)

For a lot of companies, handling and collecting recurring payments are troublesome. They would rather pay with cash and checks because these are the methods most familiar to them. However, these manual processes take up manpower and time. Direct debit, on the other hand, is the most seamless mode of payment, yet it is used only by big corporations and banks because of how cumbersome it is and the amount of paperwork it involves.

Malaysian fintech startup Curlec wants to make it easier for businesses of all shapes and sizes to collect recurring payments from all major banks in Malaysia. By using Curlec’s platform, a business can use direct debit cheaply and effectively, from onboarding to payment collection.

Established in February 2018, the startup has done more than half a million transactions, processing over US$85 million in gross transaction value and over US$7.5 million on a monthly basis. Some of Curlec’s clients include insurance company AXA, consumer electronics and furniture retailer Courts, and investment startup Stashaway.

According to Curlec co-founder Zack Liew, on the bank-to-bank front, the startup charges 1% of the volume transacted by its customers every month. For its next markets in Southeast Asia, the startup is looking at neighboring countries geographically above and below Malaysia: Thailand and Singapore.

Ezay Enterprise Company Limited (Runner-up)

In Myanmar, many families run mom-and-pop stores to get by but running a small retail store is not easy. One difficulty often faced by many owners is the manual replenishment of stocks: Owners often have to go to wholesalers themselves to stock up every two to three days.

Business-to-business startup Ezay wants to solve this problem by connecting rural mom-and-pop shops with wholesalers. Through its mobile app-based platform, retail shop owners can order their stocks online and have them delivered within a shorter time.

Launched in August 2019, Ezay has already attracted more than 2300 retail shops owners from 14 townships to sign up on its platform. The startup’s current business model makes money from suppliers by taking around 1% to 19% of the sales margin as well as charging customers with delivery fees that are calculated per order or through a monthly subscription.

As the platform wants to provide a more efficient logistics solution, Ezay’s founder Kyaw Min Swe plans to offer credit financing, cashless payment, and a buy now, pay later (BNPL) option in 2021.

Boost Capital

Many people are still unbanked in Asia, which opens up a big opportunity for fintech startups that are looking to provide loan services.

Boost Capital is one such startup. It processes loan applications via smartphone, thus making the process faster.

It works by receiving inquiries and conducting preliminary interviews through a chatbot. From these conversations, a score card will be generated, which will determine the loan amount. An offer will be made via chatbot and a video call will be scheduled subsequently to interview potential customers about their applications. Boost Capital claims that its process saves clients 1.7 workdays and US$90 per loan.

Launched in mid-2019, it has received over 75,000 unique customer inquiries and disbursed more than 650 loans to date.

During the pitch, co-founder and CEO Gordon Peters disclosed that to prove the efficacy of its model, Boost Capital first funded the loan book itself for around US$250,000. Currently, the startup has disbursed around US$750,000, which means it has cycled through its loan book three times already.

Tradly Platform

Building a marketplace from scratch is not easy for many entrepreneurs and offline enterprises. There are often many things to consider as well as many problems to address, such as cost, risk, and manpower.

Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Tradly wants to help entrepreneurs launch their businesses within 10 days by offering pre-built and customizable features that reduce development cost and time.

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup has two pricing models for its customers: The first is its API solution targeted at those with development knowledge, which starts at US$49. The second is for non-tech individuals, which costs US$99 per app. Tradly also earns from integrations and add-ons, which are charged by commission.

Launched in August 2019, Tradly has been building its solutions for the past year and helped launch the businesses of two clients so far. It plans to further optimize its platform as it onboards more clients.

Its competitors include Magento and Vtex, but Tradly co-founder JK Baseer is confident in the startup’s position as more than just a B2C or B2B ecommerce platform: It aims to build a multi-sided platform that goes beyond ecommerce and enables entrepreneurs to build marketplaces like Carousell and Airbnb.

String Soul

Children are generally tech-savvy, since they’re growing up using electronics and the internet. Add to this the ongoing pandemic, and the world has seen a glimpse of how tech could further shape education for the better.

This is how Malaysia-based String Soul got its idea. The online music-learning platform offers two apps: One to help students learn how to play the piano in a fun and interactive way, and the other to help teachers demonstrate correct finger placement on instruments and upload music sheets. It also taps music teachers who have relevant experience to assist students through one-on-one live webcam sessions.

Launched in April this year, the startup has over 120 trial users and a total of 76 paying users in August. Founder Jit Koh Ng envisions developing a feature for String Soul’s app that will help teachers discern if their students are playing the correct notes and within rhythm.

NextPay

Cash is still king in the Philippines as most of the population still haven’t opened a bank account or applied for a credit card. This creates a difficult situation for 99.52% of the country’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) because a big unbanked population makes digital financial services accessible only to big enterprises that can afford them.

Financial digital service provider NextPay has created a solution to simplify the way small businesses deal with payments and payroll. The startup helps business owners collect money from customers, manage profits, and make payments to their employees and suppliers.

Since launching in March 2020, NextPay has disbursed over US$700,000 to 40 companies, helping them pay more than 900 employees. The startup makes money through transaction fees, charging US$0.30 and 3.5% of every collection made and US$0.60 for every $1000 worth of payment it facilitates.

Don’t miss the biggest pitch battle in SEA

Curlec will join other regional winners Papaya (Vietnam), Dropezy (Indonesia), and OctiFi (Singapore) at the grand finale of the Startup Arena Pitch Battle 2020, which will be held on October 21 and 22 at the Tech in Asia Conference Virtual 2020. Each regional winner wins US$2,500 and credits from Freshworks, Hubspot, and Amazon Web Services.

Catch the thrilling finale of the Startup Arena Pitch Battle 2020 at this year’s Tech in Asia Conference. You can register here to watch this ultimate showdown live.

If you’d like to gain more insights into the startup and tech scene in Southeast Asia, join us at our biggest conference Tech in Asia Conference Virtual 2020, happening on October 19 to 22. Don’t miss your chance to learn more about Asia’s Golden Age!