InVent eyes early stage startups Invests 40 million in Choco Card Enterprise

InVent of InTouch Group plans to invest more in early stage startups to capitalise deep tech and invest some 40 million in Choco Card.

Narongpon Boonsongpaisan, head of InVent said the company will invest in startups in the early stage seed fund, from US$300,000 (10 million baht) to be able to attract more emerging technologies, especially the deep tech. It also
focuses on those Series A and B who want to expand the market at the investment budget of 70 million baht.

“We invest around 200 million baht a year including digital, lifestyle, tourism, artificial intelligence (AI), big data and blockchain, and by the end of October we will invest in blockchain as our first startup and there will be around 100 million baht in another four companies by the end of this year,” he said.

The past three quarters, the company has invested some 30 million baht in digital marketing and the latest 40 million baht in Chocco Card Enterprise, a customer relationship management (CRM) solution provider and POS digital platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

At present, Thailand has more than 3 million SMEs, or 99% of total business and this is a high potential market to use service of Choco Card Enterprise.

InVent expects that by 2020, a startup in its portfolio, Wongnai Media, a restaurant review application, will place for initial public offering on the Market for Alternative Investment. InVent has invested in 16 startup companies and already exited four companies with a return of 25%.

Sirasit Suriyapattanapong, CEO of Choco Card Enterprise Co, said Mini CRM is the QR code system that the company offers to small businesses who want to access to customers in shops. Customers scan QR code for privilege or discount from retail brands who in return can also receive customer data.

The company is now working on a pilot project of Reward as a Service (RaaS) of the Government Saving Bank for customers who use MyMo application for collecting points.

Choco Card today has more than 1,300 SMEs and it targets to reach 5,000 in three years by providing its CRM to restaurants, barbershops, car cares, and others in major cities such as Bangkok, Chon Buri, Chiang Mai, and Phuket
before growing its business nationwide.