Fintech-for-media startup Fewcents raises US$1.6m seed funding

FEWCENTS, a Singapore-based fintech providing solutions for digital publishers and creators, has raised US$1.6 million in seed funding from venture capital funds M Venture Partners and Hustle Fund.

The round also attracted angel investors such as former DBS chairman Koh Boon Hwee, Kenneth Bishop (former managing director for South-east Asia Facebook), Francesco Alberti (former Asia-Pacific regional sales director at Bloomberg Media Distribution), Prantik Mazumdar (Managing Director, CXM Group, dentsu International Singapore) and Saurabh Mittal (chairman and founder of Mission Holdings). (see Amendment Note)

Founded by Abhishek Dadoo and Dushyant Khare, Fewcents is focused on enabling easy monetisation for publishers and creators globally. It helps digital publishers unbundle and monetise premium content, such as articles, video and podcasts, via a pay-per-content service.

Mr Dadoo previously co-founded online-to-offline attribution platform Shoffr, which was acquired by Indian tech firm Affle. He has also served in senior roles in firms such as DHL, Ericsson and PwC.

Mr Khare led partnerships for Google with publishers for 13 years, in addition to having worked with SAP Ariba and American Express.

Mr Dadoo said: "In recent times, users have been willing to pay for quality content more than ever. However, they won't subscribe everywhere, and hence, willingness to commit to monthly subscriptions hovers between 1 and 5 per cent of active users for any single publisher.

"Quality content is getting more and more fragmented and hence users seek a simpler way to micro-pay across publishers, especially in their local currency."

Amendment Note: Due to a press release error, the job title of Mr Mazumdar was inaccurately reflected.