Australian venture capital firm Square Peg Capital has led a US$7 million ($9.1 million) raise for Malaysia-based on-demand services startup Kaodim Group, along with Shanghai’s SIG Asia Investments.
The round brings the total raised by the startup, founded by Jeffri Cheong and Choong Fui-Yu in 2014, to US$11.5 million. With the startup operating across Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia, the fresh funding will go towards further product development, marketing, and expansion into new markets.
The platform’s core service allows users to request a service, from cleaning to photography and language lessons, with providers then able to respond with a proposal.
Cheong said, “Having seen strong development so far, our vision is to provide a faster, more dependable way of hiring a broad range of services, from cleaners to personal trainers. Square Peg Capital and SIG’s experience and expertise in investing in marketplaces around the world will help the Kaodim Group achieve this.”
Tushar Roy, partner at Square Peg Capital, said the startup’s team “executed brilliantly” to build Kaodim into a regional leader in its category.
“The business is scaling well across the region and is showing strong marketplace fundamentals,” he said.
The investment into Kaodim follows Square Peg’s leading of a US$13 million round for Singapore startup Chope, a restaurant discovery and booking service, last month. The firm’s first foray into Southeast Asian startups, however, came with its investment into property portal PropertyGuru two years ago.
Paul Bassat, cofounder of Square Peg, told DealStreetAsia last month that the firm is likely to keep looking to Southeast Asia, though unlike its tendency towards Series A-stage deals in Australia, it will skew towards Series B or later stage investments in the region.
Also looking to the region this week was Right Click Capital, which participated in a US$3.1 million Series A round for Singapore cybersecurity startup Horangi.
Founded in 2015, the startup has three core products: Scanner, which works to detect vulnerabilities in web apps, network attached systems and source code; Hunter, a breach detection platform assessing and investigating all endpoints throughout an environment; and Storyfier, which ‘illustrates’ a company’s security story so everyone can understand vulnerabilities and take action.
The startup stated it has attracted over 50 clients, with these coming from sectors including government, financial services, and retail, with the majority based in Asia-Pacific.
Image: the Kaodim team. Source: Kaodim.
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