Running a small to medium-sized company means a small staff needs to juggle a variety of tasks, like bookkeeping, tax records, and regulatory filings. Singaporean startup Lanturn streamlines their work with a mix of corporate services and an internal platform that assists automate administrative work. Lanturn announced today that it has raised a $3 million seed round led by East Ventures and CoCoon Ignite Ventures.
Spun out from Zave, a Singaporean management app (and another start-up in East Ventures’ portfolio), 2 years ago, Lanturn now has practically 400 clients. It focuses on start-ups and SMEs, acting as a “one-stop online corporate services” solution, and uses its internal tech platform to separate from other business providers.
Lanturn’s services consist of helping businesses integrate in Singapore and dealing with visa applications for new hires. It is led by CEO Velisarios Kattoulas.
Kattoulas told TechCrunch that Lanturn’s seed financing will be used for hiring and to develop its innovation.
In a statement about the financial investment, East Ventures managing partner and co-founder Batara Eto stated, “We are pleased to support options that allow agility and adaptability amongst organizations, especially in the wake of the pandemic, and Lanturn provides that by leveraging technology to streamline business services and empower organizations to make more informed data-driven choices.”
Other individuals in the round included private investors Alex Turnbull; RVP Equity managing partner Saki Georgiadis; Meiyen Tan, the head of Oon & Bazul’s restructuring and insolvency practice; White & Case Asia-Pacific partner Chris Kelly; and Next Billion Ventures endeavor partner Tiang Foo Lim.
Lanturn’s clients range in size from extremely early-stage start-ups with just one person, too little and mid-sized asset managers, SMEs, and tech firms that have more than 100 employees spread out across numerous countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic suggested there was less demand for Lanturn’s services this year than the business had actually expected, however on the other hand, “the pandemic has highlighted to customers that since Lanturn has its own cloud-based business services platform, we can serve them as well today as we could prior to the pandemic,” Kattoulas stated. “That’s assisted us preserve momentum, and it’s one factor we’ll grow more this year than almost any cloud-based or standard business services company.”