🌍💻 Cheaper Tech While Saving The Earth? Count Me In

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Here’s what we got for you:

• 🌊 The SEA - Reebelo - The pre-owned tech marketplace that is saving the earth from e-waste

• ⛵ SEAppets

• 💰 SEA Deals

• 🖼️ AI Image of the day

• 🐣 Tweet of the day

Markets 📈

The SEA 🌊

Ok I can’t believe I just found out about this site.

Pre-owned tech site. Could have saved me a ton of money on Valentine’s gift.

I’m talking about Reebelo.

🤷‍♂️ Who is Transcelestial?

• Co-founded in 2019 by Philip Franta and Rastouil Fabien, Reeblo is a Singapore-based marketplace for affordable and sustainable consumer electronics

• With a strong passion for lowering e-waste, the marketplace that sells refurbished devices at a lower cost

• There’s a difference between “refurbished” and “second-hand”

  • The former has gone through cleaning and testing to ensure that they are functioning and free of defects

  • The latter, not so much

📱How it works?

• The marketplace has devices, such as laptops, tablets, smartwatches, mobile phones and gaming systems, that can are available for purchase for up to 70% discounts

• The business offers one-year warranties, certified sellers and 30-day free reimbursements

• Along with Singapore, Reebelo caters to customers in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and South Korea.

🌍 Building a circular economy

• Reebelo claimed to have 5 tons of e-waste so far

• It boasts over 200,000 customers and experienced an expansion of 12 times in GMV in the past two years

• Global deals also tripled last year, with the U.S. achieving 25% of aggregate deals

💰 Funding

• In 2020, Reebelo raised a seed round of USD $1.25 million led by June fund, with participation from Antler

• In 2022, the company raised USD $20 million Series A funding round backed by Cathay Innovation, June Fund, FJ Labs, KREAM, Moore Strategic Ventures, French Partners, Gandel Invest, Antler, Maximilian Bittner and Michael Cassau

• Now the company is back with an additional USD $29 million in Series A extension dollars and a new US headquarters

• The funding will be used to grow its US presence up to 50 staff and set up a second location, as well as invest in existing markets, like Singapore, and grow into Canada later in the year

SEAppets ⛵

1. Suranaree University of Technology, OSMEP, Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Administrative Organization and 13 private organizations are joining forces to establish the Korat Startup City. This project will create an infrastructure and startup ecosystem to attract investors and support entrepreneurs, community enterprises, farmers and the general public. They are offering a Startup Boot Camp to help develop sustainable startup ideas and the Mayor of Nakhon Ratchasima emphasized the importance of building a robust economy for the Korat people. OSMEP has an action plan to promote SMEs and Suranaree University of Technology is committed to promoting and developing entrepreneurship for students. The goal is to turn Korat into a global startup hub and create a strong startup ecosystem.

2. The Indonesian Investment Authority and the US International Development Finance Corporation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to identify investment opportunities in Indonesia. The MoU aims to promote economic development and the DFC has committed to high standards and community involvement. As of 2022 end, INA has secured investment commitments worth USD $27 billion and is targeting investments of USD $1 billion this year.

3. MoMo, a Vietnamese digital payment firm and Western Union, an American multinational financial services company have announced a collaboration that enables customers to receive Western Union money transfers on the MoMo app. This is the first time a money transfer operator’s services have been integrated into a super app in Vietnam. The service is meant to bridge the gap between Vietnamese overseas and their families in Vietnam and is supported by the World Bank, which reported that in 2022, Vietnam was the 10th largest remittance-receiving country in the world.

4. Sea Group achieved a profitable quarter for the first time since going public and CEO Forrest Li attributed this success to making difficult decisions such as freezing salary increases and cutting down on bonuses. He also plans to travel to meet staff and hold town halls to address their concerns.

SEA Deals 💰

1. PT Etana Biotechnologies Indonesia, an Indonesian biopharmaceutical company has secured investment from DEG, Yunfeng Capital, HighLight Capital, and East Ventures to expand their portfolio and pipeline in Oncology, vaccines and other life-threatening diseases, while also building production capacity for mammalian cell monoclonal antibodies. Their Covid-19 vaccine has received emergency authorization and they are working to develop an adenovirus platform for vaccine production.

AI Image of The Day 🖼️

The Founding Doggfather

Tweet of The Day 🐣

If you think you have bad luck, take a look at this guy.

That’s a wrap for today. See you all tomorrow! 👋

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