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.]

mClinica is a Singapore-headquartered health-tech company which provides data, analytics, and patient engagement tools for healthcare organisations in Southeast Asia. In 2017, mClinica closed a USD$6.3million series A financing round, with Kindrik Partners advising the company.

Founder and CEO Farouk Meralli talked to us about mClinica’s journey to date and working with Kindrik Partners.

the mClinica story

Whilst working for multinational pharmaceutical companies, Farouk identified issues in the healthcare sector in emerging markets. Pharmaceutical companies and public sector entities (NGOs and governments) lack access to consolidated data that similar companies in developed markets have. This is particularly so in Southeast Asia where pharmacies are mainly independent owner-operated businesses rather than the large branded chains that you see in established markets.

This led Farouk to start mClinica to connect pharmacies on a common mobile platform. The company launched in the Philippines in 2013, and has since expanded to Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.  By the end of 2017, mClinica had connected over 60,000 pharmacy professionals and 12,000 pharmacies on a single digital platform. This platform now addresses several challenges in healthcare including education and engagement of pharmacy professionals, pharmacy-driven patient programs, and last-mile data.

Farouk recently received the Public Health Innovator Award from Harvard University for his work with mClinica, and was the youngest ever recipient of the award.

challenges

Due to the fragmented nature of the healthcare industry in Southeast Asia, developing mClinica’s products was no easy feat. Farouk had to recruit healthcare professionals who also had expertise in mobile technology, engage with lots of government agencies and regulators, and develop products that were flexible enough to work in different health contexts. However, Farouk’s patience and vision has paid off, with its pharmacy network now reaching approximately 80 million patients per month.

The business has also been through some financing rounds and other corporate transactions along the way, which Farouk admits can be a big distraction from the day job of growing the business – like all entrepreneurs, he just wants to focus on solving real problems for end users.

raising a series A round

mClinica’s series A round was led by Silicon Valley fund, Patamar Capital (formerly Unitus Impact), and joined by UK based Global Innovation Fund, MDI Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst. Existing investors also took part in the investment round.

The cap raise was to help mClinica grow faster and enter more markets across Southeast Asia.  By 2017, mClinica had a good profile in the regional tech and healthcare scene, and was known to investors.  The company therefore had the luxury of picking investors that had knowledge of the healthcare space and would offer the best long-term strategic value.

In the end, mClinica was able to secure investment from well-known international investors, all of whom believed in the vision of transforming healthcare in Asia. A term sheet followed, and once a lead investor was committed, was agreed fairly quickly.

Farouk described an important aspect of the transaction was discussing the term sheet openly with all interested parties from the outset. This included existing seed investors who required careful management to avoid roadblocks later in the deal process.

working with Kindrik Partners

mClinica has worked with Lee Bagshaw since the incorporation of the business, including advising on seed funding deals with Kickstart Ventures, Spiral Ventures (formerly IMJ Investment Partners) and 500 Startups. Kindrik Partners has helped the company with other corporate and commercial matters, aside from the series A deal.

Farouk says: I believe mClinica was one of Lee’s first clients in Southeast Asia. Therefore to some extent we’ve been on the journey together in what is an exciting but challenging digital market. We feel like we’re in safe hands with Kindrik Partners. The team is very easy to work with and their VC transaction experience is second to none.

what’s next?

Since completing its series A financing, mClinica has continued to expand its pharmaceutical network, work on product development and grow its team. Right now, the focus is still on Southeast Asia, but mClinica’s products are also suited to many other developing countries worldwide.

As a transformative health-tech company operating in emerging economies, we’re proud to have been a part of Farouk’s journey to date.  The digital economy in Southeast Asia will play a great role in improving healthcare delivery over the next decade and mClinica is leading the way.

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

Southeast Asia’s online-to-offline (O2O) space is hot. Platforms linking online customers with offline services are now part and parcel of daily life, from the likes of well-backed Go-Jek and Grab, to Fave – one of the region’s most exciting new O2O companies.

Fave started out in 2015 as a fitness sharing platform called KFit before stepping into multi-category local commerce with the launch of Fave. The company is connecting millions of customers with thousands of local service businesses including restaurants, cafes, salons, spas, hotels, gyms and more.

Founder and CEO, Joel Neoh, talked to us about their journey and how they have found working with Kindrik Partners.

the Fave story

Fave’s founders Joel Neoh and Yeoh Chen Chow are no strangers to O2O local commerce. Joel started Groupsmore, a daily deals site that was acquired by Groupon in 2011. Joel went on to head up Groupon’s business in APAC, alongside Chen Chow, who led Groupon’s regional operations.

Spotting an opportunity to disrupt the fitness business in APAC, Joel left Groupon to start KFit, the region’s first-ever fitness sharing platform, touted as an Uber style platform for gyms and fitness studios.

After a year of tremendous growth and raising a US$12m series A financing, the company set its sights beyond the fitness space and launched its multi-category platform. It went on to acquire Groupon’s businesses in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

According to Joel, the pivot to a broader O2O platform was a natural progression for the company, as multi-category local commerce presented a much larger business opportunity. Joel observed that apps with high-frequency use cases tend to succeed in a competitive landscape. Fave was launched with a focus on the food and drink category – a major part of life in Southeast Asia.

Whilst deals businesses have been around for a while, Fave is focused on merchant-first innovation via deeper product development and data science. All with a view to enhancing the customer experience with daily deals and rewards. Joel notes that the traditional deals model only brings in new customers to offline businesses and stops there. To truly add value to local businesses, Fave wants to create an ecosystem where businesses can acquire, retain and re-target customers in the online world.

working with kindrik partners

Lee Bagshaw started working with Joel from the set-up of what was the KFit business in 2015. As well as advising Fave on its VC financing rounds, Lee and Chris Wilson have helped Fave on the three M&A deals relating to the acquisitions of Groupon’s Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean businesses.

Joel says that Kindrik Partners provided insightful and comprehensive legal advice that played a key role in helping Fave reach some major milestones. He specifically notes Kindrik Partners team’s considerable expertise in VC and tech M&A, which helped the company efficiently navigate the documentation negotiating during its funding rounds and the Groupon transactions.

The future of O2O commerce in Asia looks bright in Southeast Asia as new generation of digitally savvy consumers come online. Kindrik Partners looks forward to helping Fave continue its rapid journey to become a leading O2O player in the region.

Explore Fave.

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