Findicate: April 2024 Updates

Dear Findicate angels,

Just like that, we’ve entered a new quarter! The past 3 months have been brimming with activity, and we plan to carry forward Q2 with the same momentum. Get the scoop about our exciting new deal, members-only workshop, and other exciting updates below. 👇🏼

Hot Deals

Five Beauty

Five Beauty is the Philippines' pioneering hybrid beauty brand that witnessed an impressive skyrocket in sales in just its first month in. Five embeds skincare ingredients and promotes functionality (ready in five minutes!). The founding team has strong direct-to-consumer (D2C) experience with a seasoned founder who built a successful eyelash brand and a Filipino mega influencer with 10M+ followers. The company uses cutting-edge Virtual-Tryon (VTO) innovation and data analytics to enhance product development, representing an exciting investment opportunity alongside a top Filipino VC firm, Kaya Founders.

Why we like this deal:

• Strong traction: In its debut month, Five surpassed its initial sales targets by an impressive 177%, achieving approximately $33K in gross revenue with the launch of its inaugural product–the hybrid color stick. The brand's rapid market momentum can be credited to its strong resonance with customers, both in branding and product uniqueness.

• Large market opportunity: Five aims to acquire a sizable share in the Philippine beauty market, a country whose cosmetic industry boasts of a $1.5B market with a growth of +10% per year, driven by a rapidly growing middle class and increasing urbanization.

• Founder expertise: The founding team has been at the forefront of local and international D2C beauty brands alike. From managing world-class companies (ie. Estee Lauder, Clinique, Jo Malone London, Burberry Beauty), to scaling a startup cosmetic brand from $0 to $1M GMV, the team has an in-depth understanding of the beauty space and the winning strategies required to effectively capture the market.

• Round detail: Raising a $300K pre-seed round with a $2M cap.

  Deck | Deal Intro

Interested? Send in your questions and get insider updates here

Deals Closing Soon

UX Army

UX Army is an automated user insights platform based on user testing for the Asian market, offering a comprehensive suite of UX research products that do not require its users to have UX/Market research skills. They already have 40+ enterprise product teams in Asia as paying customers with 80% repeat rate. Digital platforms using UX Army said they were able to conduct UX research 40% faster and 26% cheaper outcomes for the Asian Market, a segment in which businesses lose an estimated $260B per year due to lack of UX data. UX Army plans to launch in the US in 2024 and implement AI-driven research in 2025 to 10x revenue.

Why we like this deal:

• Strong traction: UX Army’s clients include over 40 paying enterprise customers, more than half of which have signed up and paid for an annual contract reaching >$1.2M in booked revenue. LTV:CAC is >10x and should further increase as the company builds scale.

• Untapped market opportunity. UX Army is targeting the Asian market for UX Research (UXR), a market which is currently fragmented and underserved by expensive Western UXR companies that lack the local context and cost advantage. UX Army provides a holistic UXR solution that capitalizes on local market expertise, cost of development arbitrage, and the growing Asian consumer base. Their product can scale to more companies in the region that may not be able to afford the existing UXR tools at the prevailing price point.

• Founder expertise: The UX Army founders are experts in the field and have demonstrated commitment through bootstrapping operations since founding in 2015 when the business focused more on bespoke solutions. They have adapted to the changing business environment by platformizing their model and seeking scale.

• Round detail: Raising a $600K seed round at a valuation of $4.8M post-money valuation. >$500K has already been secured, including by a large strategic investor.

  Deck | Recording| Deal Memo

Interested? Make your commitment 👉🏽 here! 

Fresh off the Press

Community Updates

• Welcomed our new Advisor Abby Ho, an Investment Manager at a leading SEA VC fund– M-Venture Partners, who will lend us her expertise and insights on investment opportunities in her areas of fintech, consumer, and healthcare.

  

• Welcoming our new Intern Aubrey Tan from May to August. Aubrey is a sophomore at NUS Business School in Singapore. She is passionate about finance and sustainability and has founded multiple sustainability-focused start-ups. We are thrilled to have Aubrey join Findicate this summer as an intern.

  

Portfolio Updates

• TANGGapp: Recently featured in Vogue Philippines and now raising pre-series A round of $3M. Please get in touch if you can help them with investor intros!

• Pylot Health (fka Docosan): Pivoted to AI healthcare for the US market earlier this year. Please get in touch if you can help them with investor intros!

• Buscaro: Hit $742K GMV across cities in Pakistan in Q1’24. Growing B2B vertical with 25 annual contract renewals (exp. $2M ARR) and 13 new contracts (exp. $1M ARR).

• Salt: Focus on personal financial management part of business for 120K Passbook users in light of Indian regulator’s increase of capital requirments for transactional licenses.

Events

• Founders Mixer in Manila hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Endeavor, Kickstart Ventures, and Monk's Hill Ventures. Findicate joined as a community partner along iwth Founders Launchpad and Kaya Founders.

• Community Happy Hour under the Singaporean moonlight and enjoyed lively conversations with familiar faces + new friends of Findicate. Thank you to Integra Partners for sponsoring the event.

Partnerships and Perks

We heard you! Many of our Findicate members who are new to angel investing said they wanted more educational content. As a starter, join us on May 21 at 7 pm SGT for a special Angel Investing 101 course with long-time angel investor, Findicate supporter, and founder of Angel School, Jed Ng. This will be a one-hour intro session with the option to join more in-depth sessions through Angel School. Keep your eyes peeled for more information!

Book your spot before it’s full here.

Help Spread The Word

Refer angel investor friends
Having a bigger community enables us to write a bigger check size, provides more meaningful impact to women founders, and reduces legal fees for all investing angels. We welcome both men and women allies! Share Findicate Site and ask them sign up here: Findicate Sign Up Form

Refer deals 

Think of us when you see a deal you want to invest in. Bringing in the community can help increase your investment size and make a more meaningful impact on the founder you care about. We can also discuss sharing carry if we end up investing.

About Findicate

At Findicate, we invest in women-led startups and let the traction speak for itself. We are a community that provides resources in early funding, collective know-how, and regional network to help founders build impactful businesses that empower and enable the lives of women. 

Cheers,
Findicate Team (Nat, Amrita, Jean, Juliana)