Seedly to Shopback: Bye bye bye

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Movie sequels are often disappointing. See: Taken, The Hangover, the Star Wars sequel trilogy. But here’s a sequel that you might actually enjoy: The next chapter for Seedly as it leaves Shopback, its parent for the past two years, for CompareAsiaGroup, a Hong Kong-based personal finance platform.

Today we look at:

• Why Seedly is moving on from Shopback
• This startup that makes meeting thousands of people possible
• Other newsy highlights such as TikTok’s partnership with Shopify and the whopping US$34.5 billion that Ant Group is planning to raise

Why Seedly is moving on from Shopback

Two years ago, ShopBack acquired Seedly for around US$2.1 million. Now, it’s selling the Singapore-based personal finance platform targeted at millennials to Hong Kong-based CompareAsiaGroup. But why?

• It has the money and the presence: CompareAsiaGroup wants to put more money into Seedly to grow its user base, and the company has the means to do so: It previously raised US$110 million and it has a strong presence in Hong Kong and Taiwan where Seedly wants to expand into.
• ShopBack was a great ex-parent: Thanks to the cashback company, Seedly claims to have grown 3x in terms of reach and visitors to attract 1.1 million unique visitors, mainly from Singapore.

Dive deeper into the reasons: Why Seedly is moving on from ShopBack and joining CompareAsiaGroup

Disrupting old, boring, and traditional events

It’s a big day for people who miss attending and networking at events: Virtual events platform Hubilo recently raised US$4.5 million in a seed round to continue to grow and hold virtual and hybrid events.

• What does it do: Besides holding online events, Hubilo’s platform also provides features such as interactive live sessions, one-on-one meeting lounges, networking opportunities, and virtual sponsor booths.
• Led by venture capital firm Lightspeed, the fundraise also had tech angel investors such as Freshworks CEO Girish Mathrubootham, former LinkedIn India CEO Nishant Rao, and Slideshare co-founder Jonathan Boutelle participating.
• Achievements: Hubilo expects to exceed US$10 million in bookings run rate and to have hosted over 1 million participants from April until through the next few months. Some of its customers include the United Nations, Fortune, and Tech in Asia (yes, us!).

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