Brief: 500 Startups’ first Myanmar investment grabs more funding

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Myanmar-based Bindez is a search technology startup with two products: Bindez Insights and Bindez Thanding. Bindez Insights is a social media monitoring tool that helps understand Myanmar’s market trends. Thanding is a news discovery app for local news.

Competitors: Zanroo, Social Bakers, Mention.com, Radian6

How it compares to competitors: Bindez claims it’s the only social media listening tool specific to the Myanmar market. It’s able to support local language and cultural nuance, with the help of machine learning.

Traction

The startup says its news aggregation app has reached a million downloads and 2 million page views per month. Its other product, Bindez Insights, launched early this year and has secured a major international brand as paying customer. Bindez last year secured funding from 500 Startups, becoming the first Myanmar-based portfolio company of the Silicon Valley VC firm.

Funding details 

Amount raised: Undisclosed, “six-digit USD round”
Funding stage: Pre-Series A
Lead investor: VIMIC Limited
Other investors in this round: N/A
Investment type: Equity
Purpose: Scaling up business to meet the growing demands in Myanmar
Total disclosed funding to date: US$500,000