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BRCM

Leflair raises $7mn from GS Shop and Belt Road Capital

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Vietnamese premium outlet online platform Leflair announced on January 12 its latest series-B funding round from GS Shop and Belt Road Capital Management of $7 million, bringing the company’s total financing to date to close to $12 million. The last series-A funding round of the company was $3 million and took place in January last year.

Following the flash-sales model that has proven successful in Europe (Vente-privee.com) and China (vip.com), Leflair offers a wide range of worldwide branded merchandise, from fashion and beauty to home, to Vietnamese consumers at attractive prices. Since its launch in December 2015, the company has grown on average more than 100 percent every year in gross merchandise value and is currently selling merchandise from more than 1,500 brands.

This funding round had the participation of two investors and also marks GS Shop’s first direct investment in Vietnam’s startup scene. “We are going to use this capital first to leverage the strategic partnership with GS as much as possible and increase our flow of merchandise from South Korea,” said Mr. Loic Gautier, Co-founder, and CEO of Leflair. “This means investing in hiring teams that will make this partnership a success and deploying resources in the areas of fulfillment, delivery, and technology.”

As demand for branded products continues to grow rapidly among Vietnamese consumers, Leflair will continue to invest in their cross-border operations and bring in more international brands, in particular from Asia’s largest shopping hubs to Vietnam.

“Since the launch of our international hubs in Singapore and Hong Kong last year, we have made hundreds of other brands accessible to Vietnamese consumers for the first time,” said Mr. Gautier. “International sales have been doubling every quarter. We believe cross-border is the future of e-commerce in Southeast Asia and with this additional funding our customers will soon be able to purchase even more brands from international hubs, in particular, South Korea and Japan while enjoying the same delivery experience as domestic deliveries.”

Growing its international operations is part of a bigger plan for Leflair to replicate its success in Vietnam in other Southeast Asian markets. “We started Leflair in Vietnam knowing that other markets with similar demographics are facing the same supply challenges,” he added. “2019 will be the year of our regional expansion as we progress towards our mission of making the world’s best brands accessible to more consumers in Southeast Asia.”

Leflair has closed a total of three rounds of investment from world-class angel investors and venture capital firms from the US, France, Italy, Singapore, Hong Kong and now from South Korea and Cambodia. The company was founded by Loic Gautier and Pierre-Antoine Brun, two French entrepreneurs currently living in Vietnam. Leflair is operating in Ho Chi Minh City and has offices and fulfillment centers in Vietnam, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Source: Vietnam Economic Times

Belt Road seeks to promote local SMEs

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Alex Odom Chief Investment Officer of Belt Road Capital Management (BRCM) spoke to The Post’s Cheng Sokhorng and gave an overview of the current investment in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Cambodia as well as its purpose. BRCM recently acquired a 40 per cent stake in Cambodian digital publishing and entertainment group Sabay Digital Corporation, while earlier this year, it also invested with Realestate.com.kh.

When was Belt Road established? Where is the capital coming from?

The company was founded in the middle of last year. The primary business objective is to provide professional financial management services for those seeking investment opportunities in the Mekong Region. Our investors are high net-worth individuals in the Asia Pacific.

How does Belt Road cooperate or help to promote local SMEs?

Our first fund is targeted at SMEs. We partner with promising SMEs in the Mekong region, including Cambodia, to support the achievement of strategic goals, facilitate sustainable growth and expand access to new markets for these companies.

In Cambodia, BRCM first invested in Digital Classifieds Group, the online firm behind Cambodia’s leading real estate website Realestate.com.kh. The capital was used to further grow operations in Cambodia as well as expand business in other regional markets.

More recently, BRCM invested in one of Cambodia’s most renowned tech companies, Sabay Digital Corporation (Sabay). The investment was to further enhance internal game development through their gaming studio arm, Sabay Osja, as well as to bring in more international gaming titles to the Kingdom of Cambodia.

What kind of potential business are you focusing on and why?

We see a lot of value in tech-enabled and platform-based businesses for the moment. Our current investment portfolio obviously reflects that investment strategy. However, that being said, we are sector agnostic and have been looking at opportunities from healthcare to logistics and education.

Regarding the quality of potential investee companies, we look for those with strong leadership teams and two years or more of operating history. They should have viable and strong growth plans, typically operating in sectors with proven and tested business models.

How do you view the development of SMEs in Cambodia?

There has been an overall increase in the number of SMEs in the region, including Cambodia, which is a positive sign of economic development.

In Cambodia, we are seeing more SMEs seeking investment capital. Often these businesses are locally owned and managed. The companies range across a wide variety of sectors.

How much funding have you pumped into SMEs so far?

To date, we have deployed around $20 million in investment capital in the region, with deals ranging from $2 million to $7 million. Like the two Cambodia-based businesses that we have invested in – Sabay and Realesate.com.kh – we hope to see more investments of this type in Cambodia and are actively searching.

Do you have any other plans?

Next year, we plan to raise a second investment vehicle with a similar focus on private equity investments in the Mekong region. We are also exploring larger investment activities in the real estate and infrastructure sectors.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Source: Phnom Penh Post 

Belt Road Capital invests $3m in Vietnamese P2P lending startup Tima

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Mekong-focused venture capital firm Belt Road Capital Management (BRCM) has injected $3 million in a Series B funding round of Tima, a Vietnamese P2P lending platform incepted in 2015.

The latest investment values the company at $20 million. Tima raised a series A round in 2016 from Dunearn Singapore Fund and G Capital.

This is the first investment by the Cambodia-headquartered fund manager in Vietnam.
Proceeds from the Series B round will be used for national expansion, technology enhancement and talent acquisition, Tima said in a statement.

Under the agreements of the transaction, Witt Gatchell, senior investment manager of BRCM, will join Tima’s board of directors.

“While the sector is new to Vietnam, it is well developed in other markets. We believe that Tima’s strong management team has implemented the necessary internal and financial controls that will allow the company to successfully manage risk and expand across Vietnam,” Gatchell commented.

“We received higher demand from top financial investors and strategic investors in this round. We may have a pre-series C funding round right after this Series B, our Board is considering this proposal from several big funds and open to investors who can add value to the company for our growth and expansion,” Tima co-founder and Board member Cong Tran said.

The company says it has 23,775 lenders and over 2 million borrowers on its platform. In order to soothe the concern over P2P lending risks, Tima has partnered with Vietnam’s second largest bank’s insurance arm Vietinbank Insurance Corporation to secure the transactions.

While marking its foray in Vietnam, BRCM has funded a spate of companies in the sub-Mekong region, including recent deals in mobility solution startup Unnitel and Sabay Digital.

“We are seeing strong growth in tech-enabled businesses across the Mekong region. Many business models that have proven successful in larger markets have yet to be implemented in the region. We believe that strong, locally driven teams can be successful at taking proven tech-enabled business model and localizing them,” said Gatchell.

BRCM’s debut fund has a corpus of $50 million and has a pipeline to invest in 10 companies, the firm told DEALSTREETASIA in an earlier interaction. Its typical investment preference is in the Series A or Series B round with minority stake holding.

Source: Deal Street Asia 

BRCM’s latest investment to bolster local gaming industry

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Cambodia-based private equity firm Belt Road Capital Management (BRCM) announced the acquisition of a 40 percent stake in locally-owned Sabay Digital Corporation (Sabay).

The investment will strengthen Sabay’s capacity to develop innovative and profitable video games for the Cambodian market, according to the press release, which added that BRCM is aiming to build an e-sports ecosystem in the country.

Sabay is one of Cambodia’s most renowned tech companies. Through the gaming studio Sabay Osja, it publishes desktop and mobile games for the Cambodian market.

The capital will be used to bring in more international gaming titles to the Kingdom, the company said.

Chy Sila, Sabay’s CEO, said the new funds will help his company develop more products to serve and entertain people.

“We are excited to cooperate with BRCM as a strategic partner to help accelerate our current projects and to strengthen market entry in unexplored business areas,” said Mr Sila.

Alex Odom, Chief Investment Officer at BRCM, said with their latest investment they are contributing to the development of the country’s gaming industry.

“With Sabay’s dominant position in the gaming industry in Cambodia and the management team’s expertise in publishing and distributing content, we are confident in the Company’s future growth in the gaming market,” he said.

BRCM is a private equity investment manager based in Phnom Penh that focuses on the Greater Mekong Sub-Region.

In January 2018, BRCM partnered with and invested $1.8 million into Digital Classifieds Group (DCG), the parent company behind Realestate.com.kh, Cambodia’s leading property portal and marketing agency.

Source: Khmer Times

BRCM puts down $4M for telecoms

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Phnom Penh-based private equity investment manager Belt Road Capital Management (BRCM) announced a $4 million investment in the regional telecommunications industry, a statement released on Thursday said.

“The telecommunications industry, heavily dependent on legacy carriers, has by and large been able to resist the advances of challengers and innovators. But that’s about to change,” it said.

Recognising the opportunity to disrupt a $4 billion roaming market, BRCM made a strategic investment in Unnitel, a next-generation data and mobility solution provider that has already gained traction in the market with its WeRocket brand.

“This is BRCM’s first investment into the telecommunications space. We are very excited to work with experienced telecommunications operators,” said Alex Odom, BRCM chief investment officer.

“We see huge potential in this sector as demand for data continues to soar in Southeast Asia,” he said.

David Milroy, the executive chairman of Unnitel, said it will be a learning experience and they are very excited to partner with BRCM.

“BCRM is quick to understand how we are taking ground-breaking technology and turning it into a range of products and services that reimagines the possibilities of global connectivity and mobility for the frequent traveller,” he said.

In future, Unnitel will look to actively sell its devices directly to Cambodian customers and will be looking to partner leading local telecoms companies.

In January, BRCM partnered with and invested $1.8 million into Digital Classifieds Group, the company behind realestate.com.kh, the Kingdom’s leading property portal.

Source: Phnom Penh Post 

Oway Group receives private equity to expand in competitive taxi market

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Oway Group last week received $7 million in fresh funds from Mekong-focused private equity firm Belt Road Capital Management (BRCM), which is headquartered in Cambodia.

The online travel service provider, which is founded by local entrepreneur Nay Aung, operates the mobile taxi-hailing service Oway Ride as well as oway.com.mm, Myanmar’s largest online travel portal.

The deal, BRCM’s second investment in the region, is part of a $14.7 million funding round which included Japanese multinational business conglomerate Daiwa and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

It also comes after the mobile ride hailing app Grab bought a 27.5 percent stake in rival Uber, giving the lion’s share of the Yangon market.

Asked about Oway’s concerns over the rising competition, Alex Odom, Chief Investment Officer of BRCM said: “Oway has a great management team, a leading market position in the online travel space and unique accessibility to the local transport scene.”

He added that “on top of unique local knowledge, we believe new regulations will give a comparative advantage to locally-run and operated companies, more so than foreign counterparts.”

Oway Group last raised a $10 million round in 2016 from investors including Northstar Group, Emerging Markets Investment Advisers Pte Ltd (EMIA) and the IFC.

BRCM partners with promising small and medium enterprises to facilitate sustainable growth and expand access to new markets.

The firm’s first Mekong-focused investment took place in January, when it injected A$2.25 million in Digital Classifieds Group (DCG), an Australia-based online classifieds business which has launched online portals in Cambodia and Laos.

“Myanmar is undoubtedly an exciting market to settle our second deal. We are glad at the opportunity to invest in Oway and given its leading market position in the online travel space and unique accessibility to the local transport scene, we are confident in the Company‘s future” said Mr Odom.

“Rapid internet penetration is an obvious advantage, however one of the main challenges remains in digital payment solutions. Myanmar is so far as one of the least developed financial systems in Southeast Asia and needs to continue to develop its financial infrastructure in order to maximise full potential,” Mr Odom added.

Source: Myanmar Times