Singapore Tech Start-up Alpha7 Raises Additional S$3.1m
· Led by private financing, Alpha7 aims to be the CEO’s “right-hand man”
- Funding to drive product development, recruitment; plans to open Australia office
- Launches business intelligence tool, iMap
Singapore, 14 May 2015 – Alpha7, a Singapore-based technology startup helping businesses match priorities, constraints and budgets against people, processes and technology, has raised an additional S$3.1 million in funding. This takes total funding to date to S$3.6 million, including an earlier seed investment round of S$500,000. The new funds will be used to drive product development and talent acquisition. An Australia office is planned for 2H2015.
Alpha7 has also launched ‘iMap’, a proprietary business intelligence tool. iMap helps business owners generate a roadmap for growth, by analysing front and back processes, then providing recommendations to deliver productivity and growth. This is achieved through technology tools, solutions and services, based on available budgets.
The iMap tool provides business owners with solutions across a range of technology applications, spanning marketing, sales, operations, finance and human resources; apps range from Salesforce, Netsuite and Microsoft to WordPress, V-Tiger, Dollibar, Xero and Orange. Recommendations are based on existing infrastructure, priorities and budget, defining the best technology ecosystem. iMap is targeted at larger small and medium businesses (SMBs) and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), with fewer than 1,000 employees.
The funding will also go towards doubling the company’s staff to 20 over the course of the year. Alpha7 will make hires at various levels, including a CTO and CMO, as well as people in business development, business analysts and technical consultants, to support on-going go-to-market efforts.
In addition to Singapore and other Asia markets, Alpha7 will target companies from the USA, UK, and Australia, helping them to expand into key ASEAN markets, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, as well as Hong Kong. It will open an office in Sydney, Australia in H2 2015.
Lynette Seah, CEO and Founder of Alpha7 said, “Alpha7 is seeing tremendous growth in the region. Raising this additional funding is key for us to take advantage of the market opportunity, addressing the gap between a businesses’ people, processes and technology. Driven by ASEAN’s rise, we will help SMBs and SMEs from the USA, UK and Australia establish operations in Singapore and around the region.”
According to McKinsey, foreign direct investment in ASEAN is booming, with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand cumulatively attracting more foreign direct investment than China (US$128 billion versus US$117 billion) in 2013. Increased productivity through technology and labour are key for ASEAN to continue to grow, particularly around business operations.
“Our mission is to serve as the ‘right-hand man’ of CEOs, helping SMBs and SMEs scale their regional operations quickly. Key to this is filling in the COO role – one which is often vacant, necessitating the CEO and management team taking on operational tasks. Our value proposition centres on doing the COO’s job by leveraging technology,” added Lynette.
Alpha7 was established in 2014. The company is helmed by founder and CEO Lynette Seah, ex-VP of finance for Asia-Pacific at Salesforce.com. The company recently appointed ten senior advisors to its consultancy arm, Alpha7 Consultancy, helping SMBs, SMEs and growth start-ups leverage innovation and boost productivity to increase competitiveness. In January 2015, it successfully spun-out Chief Operating Officer as a Service (COOaaS). COOaaS provides COO expertise to businesses on an outsourced, part-time, retainer or project basis. It takes aim at a common pain point faced by businesses in Asia-Pacific and globally – the lack of a formally appointed Chief Operating Officer.
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