Malaysian point of sale (POS) startup StoreHub is on a mission to help businesses execute better, through innovative technology and great design.

Wai Hong Fong, StoreHub CEO and co-founder, recently talked to us about his company and how he has found working with Kindrik Partners on their Series A capital raise.

the storehub story

Wai Hong refers to himself as an accidental entrepreneur. Most of his family are professionals and he says that it was a combination of kind of stumbling into opportunities plus being frustrated with a problem and wanting to solve it, which led him to where he is today.

After completing his BA in arts, media and philosophy at the University of Melbourne, he co-founded and became Managing Director at OZHut a lifestyle online retailer, where he did everything from writing code, web development and design, search engine optimization and even running the packing tables at the warehouse.

After 5 years at OzHut, he moved to China to study Mandarin and met a friend running a small retail store who asked him to look at his POS given Wai Hong’s e-Commerce background. He realised how terrible it was and not only wanted to help his friend fix this but other small to medium businesses that required offline and online sales support.

Wai Hong knew that the iPad POS was taking off in the US but there were no alternatives in Asia. With the belief that it was time for technology to revolutionise the traditional POS industry in Asia, and to help build better businesses, he co-founded StoreHub in 2013, along with current Chief Technology Officer, Congyu Li.

In the first 12 months of development, they bootstrapped the company then received a small investment from an angel investor, as well as a grant from Malaysia’s Cradle Fund. Wai Hong says that this initial funding allowed them to grow their product quickly and we’ve been cashflow positive and profitable since late 2015.

StoreHub is now a cloud-based iPad POS with inventory management, reporting and CRM, accessed via a mobile responsive backend, with over 850 retail stores paying a monthly subscription and customers in Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

In addition to the POS product offering, StoreHub supports its product with exceptional customer service based on the business to consumer experience which is not commonly offered by the industry.

In 2016, StoreHub announced a partnership with Malaysia-listed payments giant GHL Systems to deliver a fully integrated mobile point of sale (mPOS) credit card terminal and iPad POS solution. They also secured USD$850k in their Series A capital raising round from 500 Startups, as well as investors in China, Singapore and Malaysia.

Wai Hong says that StoreHub now plans to grow at least another 5 times its current size in the next year, add complementary products to their core offering and also enter new South East Asian markets, such as Thailand and Philippines.

challenges

Wai Hong notes that the biggest challenge for StoreHub is hiring and managing people, especially on a shoestring budget, talent acquisition and management is key.

The POS market is also highly competitive however StoreHub manages to differentiate because of their broad offering and leveraging their customer service focus which is generally seen as an afterthought in the industry. Being product and tech obsessed has also helped them stay ahead of the pack.

working with Kindrik Partners

Wai Hong primarily dealt with lawyers for the angel investment which involved local lawyers but it unfortunately turned out to be a painful and expensive experience.

He was then introduced to Kindrik Partners partner Lee Bagshaw through former Kindrik Partners lawyer, now investment analyst at tech VC Monks Hill, Lucy Luo. Lee supported StoreHub through the Series A capital raising, including drafting all of the documents which is unique for a deal like this, as investors usually provide the first round of documents.

Wai Hong says that it was our first serious cap raise and it was a refreshing experience given the angel investment round, knowing if I had an issue I would be getting sound advice. It made a huge difference that Lee thoroughly understood the South East Asian venture capital landscape, particularly as they had to negotiate with the investors.

Given Lee really understood StoreHub’s business, Wai Hong would work with him again on further corporate governance work like an Employee Share Options Scheme. He has also recommended both Kindrik Partners and Lee to a whole bunch of startups.

He says not only was Lee fast at delivering the work which helped StoreHub maintain their professionalism with investors, but he gets the space, market standards and provides valuable industry insights. Wai Hong thought Lee’s wealth of experience showed specifically when he advised on the all important term sheet, his advice and guidance was spot on.

Wai Hong also thinks that the Kindrik Partners Templates are also pretty cool, providing good information and learning points, and are a good starting point for legal work.

summing up

StoreHub’s growth is a testament to the company’s commitment to building a product and providing outstanding customer service. Kindrik Partners can’t wait to see what Wai Hong and the team have planned for their ambitious next steps.

Explore StoreHub.

[Note: The firm’s name was changed to Kindrik Partners in July 2020 and references to the firm’s previous name have been updated.]

Bambu is a Singapore-based robo-advisory startup. We talked to the company about working with Kindrik Partners through their successful Series A and B rounds.

bambu

Bambu is a B2B robo-advisor platform provider to banks and other financial institutions. Their digital platform allows these financial institutions to offer automated and technology-augmented investment services to their customers. The company started up in August 2016, and now has 70 staff with clients in America, Europe, the Middle East, and across Asia.

Bambu raised US$10m in their series B round which closed in June 2019. We spoke to their CEO and co-founder Ned Phillips about the fundraising process.

getting introduced to Kindrik Partners

Ned first heard about Kindrik Partners through an early investor and advisor to Bambu. When it came time to do their Series A round, Bambu had secured its first strategic investor, Franklin Templeton Investments, as well as its first venture capital investor, Wavemaker Partners. Since it was their first equity round, Ned knew it was time to bring in professional legal advisors.

As part of their search, Ned said that he met with a few of the bigger law firms, but none of them quite fit.

“You meet the partner”, he said, “but you know you’re not going to get the partner – the actual work always gets handed off to someone else in the firm.”

Kindrik Partners was transparent and honest when presenting their team. “What I liked about Kindrik Partners was that when I met Chris [Wilson] and Sarah [Yen], they said ‘this is us, you’re going to be working with us’, which was nice.“

“That made a big difference.”, says Ned. “It was important for us to know who we were dealing with, and it was very clear that it was them – that this was my team.”

raising the series a, then the series b

The series A round was very different from the seed round for Bambu. “The series A was the first time we were introduced to equity documents”, recalls Ned. “In our seed round we had used a SAFE convertible note, so there were no equity investors at that point.”

It was a big learning curve, particularly as a first-time founder. “My clearest memory about the Series A was the amount I learned about things I never knew about”, says Ned.

“There were a lot of things about equity documents that I wasn’t familiar with – tag-alongs, drag-alongs, founder vesting, liquidity preferences, warranties.”

(Unfamiliar with these terms? Click through to our startup glossary to learn more.)

When it came time for the series B round, Ned thinks that they were fortunate with how things went, and that it felt easier, attributing it to understanding more of the process and jargon.

“We had Franklin as a returning investor who was also willing to lead the round for us. We ended up with two investors filling the round – but it turned out that as soon as our round was full, everyone else wanted to come in, which was a nice problem to have.”

For other startups looking to raise money, Ned advises perseverance. “It’s not that it’s a numbers game, but it does take persistence. We reached out to so many investors. Many people give up at 10, or 20, 30, 40 people telling them no. But don’t be deterred – be polite, say thank you, and move on.”

working with Kindrik Partners

Ned describes the team as super helpful. “When we were first introduced, the fundraising process was new to me – the combination of Chris and Sarah on board to help was invaluable.”

Ned highlights Chris as an incredibly founder-friendly lawyer. “As a founder, you want to keep good investor relations, since it’s going to be a long-term relationship.”

“Chris could be the bad cop when he felt it was in the company’s best interests. He was also great at explaining what was important and what we could let go. He was strong, but fair.”

Ned also emphasises the complexity in negotiating a series A round. “Raising money isn’t just a negotiation on value (that part is done fairly quickly). There are all of these other things to decide in terms of what to hold onto and what to let go of.”

Ned recommends the law firm to other startup founders doing who are looking to raise funds for their company. “The team at Kindrik Partners really focuses on raising funds, and it’s so valuable to be talking directly with the people who are holding the pen on the documents, rather than just being a part of the sausage mill.”

“Put it this way – when it came time to do our series B, we didn’t spend one second thinking about using someone else. It was like, OK, we’re doing our round. Let’s get in touch with Kindrik Partners and get started.”

what’s next for bambu

It’s an exciting time for Bambu. The startup has lots of plans from the proceeds of their series B, including new products set for release and building their London presence. But Singapore remains home for the time being.

“Singapore is really helping fintech”, says Ned. “Honestly, it’s amazing – the Fintech Festival alone had 40,000 people attending last year. We’re selling to the world, but there’s no better place to do that from than Singapore.”

explore bambu

[Note: The firm’s name was changed to Kindrik Partners in July 2020 and references to the firm’s previous name have been updated.]

Singapore based property startup 99.co likes a challenge. Dominated by well funded regional players, there would be easier sectors to disrupt than online property. However 99.co is fighting hard with a unique proposition. The company has raised two rounds of funding since incorporation and is backed by high-profile investors including Sequoia Capital and Facebook co-founder, Eduardo Saverin.

Founder and CEO, Darius Cheung, talked to us about the company’s progress, its most recent capital raising transaction in 2015, and how they have found working with Kindrik Partners.

the 99.co story

Darius is one of Singapore’s celebrated young tech entrepreneurs having sold mobile security startup tenCube to McAfee in 2010. This was a decent sized exit for a Singapore tech startup at the time. With the current hot funding environment and massive interest in mobile disruptive technologies in Southeast Asia, Darius is now looking to build a company for an even larger exit.

Not surprisingly, given the city state’s rapid growth, Singaporeans have always had a real interest in property. So 99.co is playing in a compelling space. Singapore has over 30,000 property agents many of which use online real estate platforms such as 99.co. The company recently set up an Indonesian website and plan to get going in Malaysia and Thailand further down the line.

99.co differentiates itself from larger competitors by promising a more intuitive search experience, where the rankings for listings are influenced by the quality of the published content. The site, for example, could favour listings with more photos or with value add information such as commute times or local amenities. This contrasts with the traditional model where the level of fees paid typically pushes classifieds higher. Darius believes that users will increasingly seek this kind of consumer friendly experience.

99.co charges agents a basic subscription fee to list their properties. The company has, however, recently launched a new product called 99PRO – a subscription model where agents can unlock additional features like interactive map searches and new data.

challenges

Darius agrees that the competition is tough to crack in Singapore and the region, given the dominant players. Content is king – the number of listings is fundamental to the success of the business. Bridging the gap, and chasing the platforms that have the majority market share, requires innovative offerings. Plus it’s a crowded market. Aside from other startups trying to challenge those established players, print media still retains a surprisingly sizeable chunk of the market.

The nature of 99.co’s subscription model means the company will need to add alternative revenue streams over time.

Finally, talent acquisition in Singapore and building the 99.co team has been difficult given the number of other startups also hiring sought-after developers.

working with kindrik partners

Lee Bagshaw was introduced to Darius by one of 99.co’s investors. Lee has helped the company through each of its financing transactions. Most recently in 2015, Lee, supported by Chris Wilson, advised on the company’s series B transaction led by Sequoia and Saverin.

Darius’ previous view on lawyers had been that they were expensive and it was not always easy to see their value. He describes working with Lee as a breath of fresh air. Whether by email, on the phone, by WhatsApp or even in the passenger seat of Darius’ car, Lee’s advice was always simple to understand, but with real value add.

Darius was impressed with Kindrik Partners’s knowledge of VC financing deals in Southeast Asia. He says Lee and the team were also very fast, generally turning documents around in under 24 hours. Darius believes that, by working for a tech focussed firm, the Kindrik Partners lawyers have a greater connection with startup founders, combined with unique experience. Throughout the negotiations, Darius found that even if the company could not secure the best outcome on all points, Lee and Chris ensured that he understood clearly the implications, so he could quickly move on.

summing up

99.co are operating in an exciting space in Southeast Asia. Real estate tech companies globally have grown rapidly, achieving some astonishing valuations.

Sequoia’s and Saverin’s backing shows that notable investors are looking carefully at this space in Southeast Asia, particularly for platforms that are distinguishable from the others.

Kindrik Partners will be closely watching 99.co continue its growth to become a significant online property player in Southeast Asia.

Explore 99.co.

[Note: The firm’s name was changed to Kindrik Partners in July 2020 and references to the firm’s previous name have been updated.]