Appier is Taiwan’s Most Well-funded Startup, CB Insights Says
Appier, a startup that uses AI to provide market analysis for businesses, receives the most funding from venture capitalists in Taiwan, according to CB Insights, a technology market research company.
CB Insights in a report listing the most well-funded venture-capital-backed technology startups by country in Asia said since Appier’s founding in 2012, it has raised over US$82 million.
Most of this at US$42.5 million was raised in Series B funding from companies such as FirstFloor Capital, JAFCO Asia, MediaTek Ventures and Sequoia Capital, which also contributed US$6 million to the Series A round, Appier’s website says.
Most recently in August 2017, Appier raised US$33 million in Series C funding from SoftBank Group, LINE Corporation, NAVER Corporation, EDBI and AMTD Group.
Appier’s s over 200-strong staff now serve over 1,000 global brands and agencies from offices in 14 markets across Asia, Singapore, New Delhi, and Jakarta.
An example of an Appier product is its Cross X Programmatic Platform.
The platform uses AI to analyze consumers’ online cross-screen activities for the purpose of identifying a target audience for a client company’s marketing campaign.
This technology, for example, can identify a consumer group through tracking people’s purchases of mobile game apps and their browsing of gaming information on personal computers. A gaming company can then target an advertising campaign at this group that was initially identified by Appier.
Other well-funded Asian startups on CB Insight’s list include:
Didi Chuxing
The Chinese ride-hailing service, founded in 2012 has raised US$14 billion to date. Its investors include Tencent, Alibaba and Apple.
In 2016, Didi Chuxing acquired Uber’s business in China and has become the market leader in the region.
Flipkart
Founded in 2007 by two ex-Amazon employees in India the startup has raised US$7.3 billion to date and become the biggest e-commerce platform in the country.
Like Amazon, Flipkart started selling books Its business has since expanded into fashion, electronics, video streaming and digital content.
In May 2018, US retailer Walmart announced it would acquire 75% of Flipkart’s stake for US$15 billion.
Grab
Since its 2012 commencement, the Singapore-based ride-hailing company has raised US$4.1 billion since its founding in 2012. Its investors include SoftBank Group, Didi Chuxing, Toyota and Hyundai.
Uber announced the sale of its Southeast Asia business to Grab in March 2018. Grab now claims a 95% share in the third-party taxi-hailing market and 72% in private-vehicle hailing in Southeast Asia.
Grab has also expanded its service to food delivery, bike-sharing and mobile payments.
Coupang
Founded in 2010, the South Korean startup has grown into the largest e-commerce platform in the country. It has raised US$1.4 billion to date.
Coupang is an Amazon-like service in South Korea. Half of South Korea’s 51 million people have downloaded its mobile app, and 80% of its sales comes from mobile devices. Its annual sales reached US$3 billion in 2017.
WeLab
This HK-based financial services startup provides lending services via mobile devices. Instead of visiting the bank and waiting for days for approval, users can lend small amount of money via WeLab with their mobile phones.
WeLab’s service in China targets university students. The lending amount is between 1,500 yuan (US$227) to 6,000 yuan (US$940). After students fill out personal information and upload their ID cards via phone cameras, they will receive lending approvals within 24 hours.
Founded in 2013, WeLab has raised US$425 million to date.
〔Original :Meet Startup @ TW〕https://meet.bnext.com.tw/intl/articles/view/43231