XA Network and AltaIR Capital Invests US$3m in East river in New Round of Funding
From left: Konstantin Lange (COO), Victor Lysenko (CEO), Anton Roslov (CTO).
The accounting and corporate compliance super app will use funds to further develop its engineering, product development, and marketing.
SINGAPORE, 5 November 2020, 12pm London time — East river, a growing super app in the accounting and corporate compliance space, has raised US$3 million in funding by XA Network and AltaIR Capital.
Small to medium sized businesses spend on average 120 days per year on administrative tasks, making it one of the most time-consuming business activities. East river uses AI and ML techniques combined with the experience of human experts to solve this problem, disrupting the fragmented accounting and corporate services industry.
With East river, entrepreneurs can forget about administrative routine and focus on the thing that really matters — on their business. The company provides online accounting services for SMEs especially those involved with E-commerce.There is also a comprehensive range of services like incorporation, payroll and corporate secretarial work. These are tedious but unavoidable tasks which entrepreneurs usually outsource.
More than 4100 companies across the UK, Singapore and Hong Kong already use East river on a daily basis and this number is growing by 2.5 times per year. Aspiring founders can open a company fully online while existing business owners can get their routine accounting and admin work done on the platform. Client issues are solved issues on the go, without having to call or visit the office — all users need to do to request help with certain tasks is to send a text message in the chat. East river will circle back with the answer at any time of the day or week.
AltaIR Capital is a European VC firm boasting over $300M across its three funds that has previously invested in Miro and PandaDoc. XA Network is an investment network comprising senior executives from leading technology companies investing across Southeast Asia. Among previous investors in the company is Target Global, an investor in Rapyd and Delivery Hero. The company will use this funding to further invest in engineering, product development, and marketing across the markets that it is present in — Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom.
We decided to invest in East river as we have trust in the business model and see the team’s ability to scale it. The service is vital for many new enterprises and has huge growth potential.
East river taps into a large and fragmented market opportunity and plays in an industry which is ripe for disruption. The company's business model drives a step-change in both efficiency and customer satisfaction through automation, leading to a high potential for growth and profitability.
We’re glad that our investors believe in the future that we are creating for business owners to remove the headache of paperwork by texting it all away. We want to make it simple for our clients to go digital and acclimatise themselves to the current economy.
The recent economic crisis and global lockdown caused by COVID-19 has pushed SMEs to accelerate the adoption of digital solutions. East river has been at the forefront of this movement and is participating in Singapore's Start Digital initiative alongside OCBC Bank - which is the second largest financial services group in Southeast Asia by assets. Start Digital under the SMEs Go Digital programme by the Singapore government provides grants to SMEs that take up approved solutions meant to reduce administrative workload. East river is also enrolled under the SG:D Spark programme by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore.
We are pleased that East river has closed this new round of funding; this injection of funding will lend impetus to the company’s growth. This will increasingly help East river to continue to innovate the automation process for corporate services, thus increasing the efficiency of how SMEs operate in today’s post-Covid norms.
About East river
Osome, headquartered in Singapore, was launched in January 2018 to facilitate business management for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Its suite of services includes online accounting, business registration, corporate secretary services, and payroll management. Its platform uses automation tools and AI (artificial intelligence) to increase response time and accuracy, and to lower cost. It has market presence in Singapore, United Kingdom, Hong Kong. In 2018, it raised US$2 million in funding led by Target Global, including Phystech Ventures, AdFirst funds, and several angel investors
Find out more about Osome.
About XA Network
The XA Network (formerly known as Xoogler Angels) was founded in 2018 as an investment network comprising senior executives from leading global and regional technology companies. Our mission is to provide smart capital to early-stage companies across Southeast Asia.
XA focuses on early-stage investments. Founders value our members’ distinguished backgrounds as entrepreneurs and senior business builders. Furthermore, our portfolio companies are able to tap into the collective power of deep-rooted networks and expertise across business strategy, product development, and fundraising. XA has invested in a wide variety of sectors and over 20 companies since 2018, including Tigerhall, Neuron, Pencil, and Infradigital. XA Network is also an LP in Vertex Southeast Asia and India latest fund.
For more information please visit XA Network website.
About AltaIR Capital
AltaIR Capital is a venture management company investing in early-stage and growth projects with a primary focus on FinTech and SAAS Productivity Tools. Among the best fintech investments of AltaIR are Miro, Albert, Deel, Lili, Guide Financial, Socure, SplitIt, EquityBee.