Gojek has officially introduced GoCar, its four-wheel ride-hailing service, in Ho Chi Minh City while Quadrant Private Equity has acquired Australian women’s sleepwear brand Papinelle. Meanwhile, Singapore-based foodtech startup Shandi has raised more than $700,000 in a second seed funding round led by Tolaram Group.
Gojek launches GoCar in Vietnam
Indonesian tech giant Gojek has officially introduced GoCar, its four-wheel ride-hailing service, in Ho Chi Minh City.
The service will be available exclusively to frontline healthcare workers for now before it is expanded to serve the general public later this year.
“We have made all the necessary preparations to launch GoCar this year. When the pandemic escalated in HCMC and social distancing regulations were put in place, we pivoted quickly, adjusting the service to focus on supporting healthcare workers. We have since been working closely with the local government to get driver-partners on the road to smoothen the city’s supply chain and support the transportation needs of healthcare professionals,” said Gojek Vietnam General Manager Duc Phung.
GoCar is the latest addition to Gojek’s line-up of offerings for the Vietnam market, which include on-demand services for motorbike-hailing (GoRide), parcel delivery (GoSend) and online food delivery (GoFood).
Gojek currently serves customers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with over 200,000 driver-partners and tens of thousands of merchants.
SG’s foodtech Shandi raises $700k
Singapore-based foodtech startup Shandi has raised more than $700,000 in a second seed funding round led by Tolaram Group, one of Africa’s largest packaged food conglomerates, according to an announcement.
Other investors in this round include Australia-based food-tech accelerator SparkLabs Cultiv8, and former CEO-India for Louis Dreyfus and prominent angel investor Simmarpal Singh.
The fresh funding will be used to set up a manufacturing facility in Singapore to commercialise and scale Shandi’s proprietary plant-based chicken products, including expanding partnerships in the food sector.
While Shandi has successfully produced chicken analogues in various formats such as pieces, shreds, strips and drumsticks, part of the proceeds would be allocated to further product innovation and development on new textures, formats, and other meat analogues.
Shandi was founded in 2019 by food industry expert, research veteran and lifelong vegetarian Dr Reena Sharma. The food-tech company uses a unique process to develop and manufacture their plant-based chicken, which is made only with natural, non-GMO ingredients such as pea protein, chickpeas, quinoa, flax seeds, brown rice, and coconut oil, and is free from artificial flavouring and other additives.
This round of funding also represents Tolaram’s first investment in the alternative protein category.
Quadrant acquires women’s sleepwear brand Papinelle
Quadrant Private Equity, one of Australia’s busiest buyout firms, has acquired Australian women’s sleepwear brand Papinelle, according to a report in Financial Review.
The deal was conducted through Quadrant Growth Fund.
Quadrant Growth Fund raised A$400 million ($289 million) in 2019 and writes checks of A$30-50 million for minority and control positions in lower middle-market companies.
In June, Sydney-based buyout firm Quadrant Private Equity was acquiring Affinity Education, one of the largest child care operators in Australia, for around $650 million.