RealStake announced today that it has successfully closed seed funding from 500 Startups Vietnam and various well-known angel investors.
RealStake aims to digitize and democratize consumer investment in Southeast Asia. It launched in Vietnam in 2019 by enabling retail real estate investment through fractional homeownership. The platform’s rate of selling a property has increased 200% in less than a year since its launch, and customers are generally investing much more than the US$1,000 minimum. RealStake plans to eventually offer a wide range of sophisticated investment products (e.g. ETFs, bonds, term deposits, etc.) as well as tech-driven personalized expert financial planning and portfolio optimization to diversify and maximize return for each customer’s hard-earned money.
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RealStake’s unique customer value proposition is using technology to enable easy, cheap and smart investing as well as access to previously inaccessible financial products for more diversification and better returns.
The market opportunity is vast. In their e-Conomy SEA 2019 report, Google, Bain, and Temasek projected that the digital investment will be Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing digital financial service segment, increasing from $10B in 2019 to $75B by 2025.
RealStake’s founders are experienced entrepreneurs and investors. Co-founder & CEO James Vuong is a chip-designer-turned-VC-turned-startup-CEO who launched RealStake after his prior company was acquired by LINE Corp. Co-founder & CFO Calvin Lam has been an entrepreneur and investor in startups and local businesses in the US, Singapore, and Vietnam. The team has also assembled marquee angel investors including Neil MacGregor (CEO of Savills Vietnam), Huan Anh Dinh (founder & chairman of leading retail group Seedcom), Truc Ba Ha (Vietnam country director of Qatar National Bank), Alex Huy Tran, Minh Cao, and others.
Speaking of the investment, Eddie Thai, General Partner of 500 Startups Vietnam, shared: “Financial literacy and digital financial engagement are accelerating rapidly in Vietnam and the region. The booming middle classes will seek increasingly diverse and sophisticated ways to protect and accumulate wealth. The team of operators and investors behind RealStake have a real shot at unlocking this massive potential.”
“To us, fundraising isn’t a sign of success; rather, it means it’s time to work harder because there are more people who believe in our vision and trust that our team can deliver. We are tremendously grateful to have high value-add and supportive investors joining us!”, said James Vuong, Co-founder & CEO of RealStake.
RealStake is a Singapore-incorporated fintech company with an ambition to offer a simple and low cost digital investment platform to SE Asia, with initial focus on Vietnam. We give consumers access to previously inaccessible financial products easily and affordably. RealStake was founded by 2 entrepreneurs and investors — James Vuong and Calvin Lam.
500 Startups is a venture capital fund with a mission to find and support the most talented founders in the world, helping them create successful companies at scale and build a global startup ecosystem. Since its inception in 2010, 500 Startups have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, startup accelerators, and support services to thousands of entrepreneurs in more than 74 countries. Notable companies in the portfolio of 500 Startups include Twilio (NYSE: TWLO), Credit Karma, Grab, Carousell and Wildfire (acquired by GOOG).
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Source: Vietnam Insider