Monk's Hill, Kickstart invest in Philippines-based ZipMatch
Monk's Hill Ventures and Kickstart Ventures, a unit of Philippines telecommunications company Globe Telecom, have invested in Manila-based real estate marketplace ZipMatch.
The deal represents ZipMatch's "Series A-1" round, co-founder Chow Paredes told Tech in Asia. The size of the funding round has not been disclosed; it follows a $2.5 million Series A round from Monk's Hill and 500 Startups in 2015.
ZipMatch is currently working on developing products for real estate brokers, including customer management software and virtual reality home tours. The new capital will be used to support these efforts in order to increase the company's profile in the home buying industry, in addition to improving its internal efficiency.
Founded in 2012, ZipMatch provides users with a curated approach to home listings, aiming beyond a traditional property marketplace model. The company aims to collect comprehensive information about real estate projects in major cities in the Philippines, including condominiums, houses and lots, in order to give customers the best possible understanding of a property before they buy.
ZipMatch is also backed by IMJ Investment Partners; AVCJ Research has a record of 2014 investment by IMJ and 500 Startups for $500,000.
Kickstart was founded in 2012 and is currently investing out of its second fund, which closed last year at $50 million. It seeks early-stage investments in start-ups in the information technology, financial services, media, healthcare and utilities sectors. Investees can be domiciled in any country but must have some of their operations in the Philippines.
Monk's Hill recently closed its first Southeast Asia-focused fund above the $80 million target, with commitments from investors including Cisco Investments, Telstra Ventures and Temasek Holdings. The vehicle targets early-stage investments in technology start-ups across Southeast Asia, along with start-ups from outside the region that want to expand into Southeast Asia.
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