Beacon VC leads seed funding in Horganice

Beacon Venture Capital (Beacon VC), the corporate venture capital arm of Kasikornbank PLC. (SET: KBANK), announced its investment into a seed financing round of Horganice, a leading rental properties management platform in Thailand. The funding will enable Horganice to accelerate customer acquisition as well as adding new services to digitize rental properties, propelling Thailand into a digital era.

Mr. Thanapong Na Ranong, Managing Director of Beacon VC, announced that “Beacon VC has invested into a seed financing round into Horganice, a startup that provides rental properties management technology for apartments, dormitories, and markets, for an undisclosed amount. Beacon VC’s investment is not only an opportunity for Horganice to build technical capability, but also an opportunity to collaborate with KBank in order to acquire new customers and leverage innovative financial services, such as payment systems, to provide fast, efficient, and convenient product offerings to Horganice’s customers, especially those outside of Bangkok which are Horganice’s target market.”

Horganice represents the seventh direct investment and the first seed round investment by Beacon VC. Its most recent investments include Thailand-based wealthtech company Jitta, Southeast Asia’s leading cross-border payment company InstaReM, and ride-hailing and financial services unicorn Grab.

Mr. Tanawit Tonekunya, CEO and Co-founder of Horganice, said, “We have already built a great rapport and been enjoying a number of productive collaborations with KBank. Our mission is to bring property management in Thailand into the new digital era and enable a carefree life for both owners and tenants alike. Today’s investment from Beacon VC will help us deliver that promise and move one big step closer to our mission”

The partnership with KBANK will enable Horganice to offer seamless financial services to tenants, property managers, and property owners, leveraging KBank’s leadership in digital banking. Collaboration initiatives which have already gone live this past year include online bill payments and new loan offerings. KBANK and Horganice have also been closely working together to bring knowledge on smart property management in the digital era to small and medium businesses (SMBs) across Thailand.

Horganice has had great reception from the market and is now serving around 3,000 properties, covering more than 130,000 rooms across almost every province in Thailand.  The company was founded by a group of aspiring young entrepreneurs and has received many national awards from notable organizations, such as the Winner Award of Startup Thailand Pitching Challenge Chiang Mai in 2017.  The company initially started out providing management software to university dorm owners before extending their product offerings to include cloud-based internet of things (IoT) hardware solutions and expanding coverage to wider customer segments, including hospital dorms and markets.

Established in 2015, Horganice offers both smart property management software and hardware-based automation products that reduce management costs and allow dorm owners to run their business easily and efficiently.