Deals of the Week: ION Mobility, Fefifo, Creative Galileo, Surer, Shoplinks

THESE early-stage deals were announced in the past week:

ION MobilityDate announced: Oct 14What it does: Smart electric motorbikesHeadquarters: SingaporeAmount raised: US$3.5 million, bringing total seed round to US$6.8 millionRound: SeedLead investors: Quest Ventures, TNB AuraOther investors: GDP Venture, Monk's Hill Ventures, SEEDS Capital, 500 South-east Asia, Alice Hung, ION's chief executive James Chan, ION's chief technology officer Calvin Cheng

More details:

• ION is preparing to unveil its smart electric motorbike later this year

• It is commissioning 1,175 sq m of EV motorbike and battery pack assembly operations at LaunchPad@one-north in Singapore by end-2021

• It plans to expand its EV motorbike assembly operations into Jakarta in 2022

• Quest Ventures managing partner James Tan and TNB Aura managing partner Charles Wong will join the board of ION

FefifoDate announced: Oct 12What it does: Co-farming. Smallholder farmers rent a space from Fefifo, with managed farm services, accommodation and other shared common facilitiesHeadquarters: SingaporeAmount raised: Over US$3.1 millionInvestors: RHL Ventures, KB Investment

More details:

• Funds will be used to double the scale of Fefifo's pilot co-farms in Perak, Malaysia over the next 6 months

• The company also wants to bring in key strategic hires for the licensing, technology and data engineering team, and take the self-operated co-farms acreage to a total area of 10 acres

• Its first batch of 2 farmers are growing chilli and muskmelon using Fefifo's proprietary technology platform DDFN. It uses digital crop models and growing protocols to standardise the seed-to-sale workflow

Creative GalileoDate announced: Oct 12What it does: Edtech for children aged 3 to 10 yearsHeadquarters: SingaporeAmount raised: US$2.5 millionRound: SeedLead investor: Kalaari CapitalOther investors: Harish Bahl (founder and chairman, Smile Group), Shashin Shah (managing partner, Think Investments), Jinesh Patel (partner, Integra Partners), Atul Nishar (founder and chairman, Hexaware Technologies), Ashwin Puri (managing director at Headspin, former managing director at Facebook) and Giridhar Malpani (investor in BrightChamps, FrontRow, Bimaplan)

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More details:

• Funds will be used for scaling, product development and enhancement, creating new engaging content, partnerships with leading animation houses, and hiring talent

• Creative Galileo said its app has bagged more than 4 million downloads and over half a million active users since its launch in 2020

SurerDate announced: Oct 14What it does: Cloud-based insurtech platformHeadquarters: SingaporeAmount raised: US$1 millionRound: SeedInvestors: Norwegian private investment firm Kistefos, insurer Markel Corporation through its insurtech investing arm Markel Digital Investments, and an angel investor

More details: 

• Surer intends to use the funds to build its core technology platform and invest in its tech team to deliver on its product roadmap

• Over S$1.2 million in gross written premiums (GWP) transacted on Surer. The startup expects to see the GWP transacted on its platform cross the S$2 million mark by the end of 2021

• Antler invested in an earlier round

ShoplinksDate announced: Oct 12What it does: FMCG precision marketingHeadquarters: SingaporeAmount raised: US$900,000Round: SeedLead investor: Cocoon Capital Other investors: Indonesian Women Empowerment Fund 

More details:

• Shoplinks will use the funds to strengthen its foothold in Indonesia before expanding into other Southeast Asian markets

• Since its launch in 2020, Shoplinks has worked with Procter and Gamble, Unilever and Johnson and Johnson, as well as supermarket chain TipTop 

• Co-founder Teresa Condicion was previously chief executive of the Indonesian consumer analytics startup Snapcart