Start@SG

Refash secures $400k seed round

Refash, a resale and hybrid retail platform for buying and selling second-hand clothing, has raised a $400,000 seed round led by Tri5 Ventures.

Other investors in this round are Malaysian-based Tinkbig Ventures and an undisclosed angel investor.

The funds will be used to enhance both the website and back-end inventory system.

Refash also plans to build on its network of resellers to facilitate quicker movement of the clothing it receives for both internal and regional consumption. The company plans to launch in Malaysia by the end of the year.

Refash has sold more than 30,000 items, recording close to $400,000 sales in the last eight months. The platform was launched in January. The company is also a graduate of the SPH Plug and Play accelerator programme.


Latize gets $2m to scale up globally

Singapore-based linked data analytics firm Latize has closed a $2 million funding round.

The new round of investment from Tembusu ICT Fund 1, ACP and Spring Seeds Capital will be used to scale up the company's business globally.

Latize is the developer and global distributor of Latize Ulysses, a data management software suite. It opened its first overseas office in Sydney in April to target the growing global demand for data management and analytics.

"We will be releasing a host of exciting new features in the coming months to increase our product's capabilities to discover and extract meaningful insights," said chief executive officer Vikram Mengi.


Greyloft realty portal launched

Greyloft, Singapore's first full-service technology-enabled property agency, has officially been launched with a seed funding of $1.5 million from DSG Consumer Partners, Wavemaker Partners, Cub Capital, Tigris Capital and JFDI.

The company offers a series of tools, including neighbourhood guides, a property discovery platform and price-trends comparison data, as well as its own in-house real estate agents who help home seekers with paperwork and support after they move in.

While there are many property listings portals in the market, renters or buyers have to rely on multiple agents for the rest of the process, said co-founder and chief executive Siddhesh Narayanan. Property portals also have no control over these agents, he noted.

As a result, buyers and renters often go-through a disjointed end-to-end experience, which Greyloft aims to address.


EDBI takes part in Druva funding

EDBI, the investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board, has taken part in a US$51 million (S$69 million) funding round in Druva, a cloud data protection and information management company.

The round is led by existing investor Sequoia India. Blue Cloud Ventures and Hercules Capital are also taking part.

The firm's software allows for back-up, archiving and recovery of critical enterprise data through the cloud, regardless of where the data is stored. Druva was founded in 2008 in India and reincorporated in Singapore in 2012.

The capital will be used to accelerate both product innovation and adoption, as well as continue the company's global expansion.

"The risk of business-data loss increases as workforce mobility becomes ubiquitous. Druva's superior solution to safeguard critical data through their unified cloud-native platform mitigates such risks whilst enhancing IT productivity and cost savings," said Ms Chu Swee Yeok, the chief executive officer and president of EDBI.

"EDBI looks forward to supporting Druva as it expands into new markets in the region through Singapore."

Chia Yan Min

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 29, 2016, with the headline Start@SG. Subscribe