ShowNearby Receives S$3.5 Million In Funding

ShowNearby, one of Singapore’s location-based service providers, is to receive S$3.5 million in funding from Global Yellow Pages Limited (GYP), the largest local publisher of telephone directories and provider of classified directory advertising.

This investment gives GYP a 53.13% interest in ShowNearby as well as an 80% interest in Companedia, a one-stop web agency for local SME’s. Both companies will become subsidaries of GYP upon completion of the transaction.

ShowNearby’s partnership with GYP will greatly aid the company in acheiving its objective of being a one-stop shop, providing people with information of “what’s nearby”, as additional funding goes towards improving their Research and Development and sales capabilities. Moreover, this partnership makes it easier for ShowNearby to approach potential advertisers for their site as most of them, like F&B outlets, are already customers of GYP.

GYP with their 3 recent acquisitions (Australian based mobile payment systems company, QPay was also acquired) seem eager to beef up their online offerings as they probably expect to see a spike in demand from SME’s, their core clientele, in the near future.

This is because launching a cyber arm remains a key challenge for many SMEs in Asia as they lack the capability and appropriate sources of information to do so. This is despite encouraging signs showing that more SMEs (especially retailers) are adapting their business strategies to suit the latest technological developments.

As such, GYP is hoping that their investments pay them back handsomely as they position themselves to cater to this growing market.