Business Showcase : Acudeen

By @SimonCocking

Describe the company – the elevator pitch …

Acudeen is a platform for small-to-medium enterprises to liquidate their movable assets ahead of their maturity date to enable business mobilization. Sellers have the option to upload their invoices to the marketplace for Funders to bid on or sell directly to our Financial Institution partners at a discounted price, allowing them to turn their receivables into cash within days.

Many SMEs and MSMEs have trouble with their day to day operations due to shortages in their cash flow. With our platform, our users no longer have to wait for months at a time to liquidate their receivables. Acudeen acts as the validator that mediates transactions between sellers and buyers, and within a matter of days, these invoices are liquidated.

This 2018, we will be launching an Initial Token Sale. We are developing an inclusive ecosystem running on the Stellar protocol which enables our consumers to take matters into their own hands — a significant step up from what we are currently doing.

Acutoken (ACU) allows users to upload invoices and other movable assets onto our permissioned blockchain. All transactions will utilize ACU tokens as receipts of action – From uploading invoices, bidding on auctions, awarding invoices, scheduling execution dates and completing purchases. The token information on the blockchain also serves as credibility for user integrity. Individuals with good standing in transacting will be incentivized with more favorable rates and priority by being matched to other funders/sellers with good ratings and vice versa.

Our Token Sale is about to be launched from our Singapore-based company (Stellar XLM based). Existing International Business, thriving in the Philippines and solves a multi-billion worldwide problem. https://t.co/FkOy9Mw4zO#XLM #Stellar #SME #Receivables

— Acudeen (@TeamAcudeen) February 21, 2018

How are you different?

Receivables, amounts owed to a business, take months at a time to liquidate. With finances being the primary roadblock for MSMEs in any country, Acudeen believes that the key to growth is having immediate access to funds. Within a matter of days, we are able to turn receivables into cash, and with our token sale, we will be able to adapt to the times by utilizing cryptocurrencies as forms of payment for movable asset purchasing.

Why will you do well?

Since the company’s inception, Acudeen has gained significant traction and has partnered up with multiple enterprise corporation partners in our bid for inclusive development in the finance sector. Our team is comprised of individuals with vast experience in the industry, thus showing much promise for the future in terms of both our business direction and our technology.

Where are you based?

Acudeen’s regional headquarters is in Singapore, and has operations in Philippines and Myanmar.

When was the company launched?

The company was founded in 2016. Its initial focus during that year was the creation of the minimum viable product and market validation. In 2017, it launched its product in the Philippines, and this year, in Myanmar.

What have been your biggest wins to date? 

We’ve handled over 3 million USD worth of transactions in 2017, after less than a year of operations. During this time, our company has become an internationally recognized startup, being featured on numerous channels such as Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, and Bloomberg, and winning awards like Seedstars Global Winner in 2017 and Founder Institute’s Best Global Fintech 2017. As of today, we have successfully established remote locations in Philippines and Myanmar while holding our regional office in Singapore. We have successfully raised multiple fundraising rounds and partnered up with big financial institutions such as Dun & Bradstreet, RCBC, and UnionBank.

Who are you trying to attract to your product?

We are looking to expand our services to more SMEs in other emerging countries. Cash flow continuity is a problem that all businesses face regardless of their geographic location, and by using a specialized Blockchain platform for the financial industry, we are able to extend our reach and improve on our current technology.

What tips would you give to others looking to build their business?

1. Believe in you and in your project
2. Never give up
3. Work with talents
4. Know your Business from Ground Up
5. Execute or get executed !

Tell us about your team?

We have been able to build a complete and experienced team to support our challenging project. We have a diverse team from different industries with different skills and expertise but same purpose: bringing Acudeen’s mission and vision across the frontier and emerging markets.

We currently have over 50 employees in the Philippines, 5 in Myanmar, and 3 in Singapore.

Januario Jesus Atencio III

Chairman

Prior to being the Chairman of Acudeen, Mr. Atencio already had experience in helping finance MSMEs through Original Pitch Venture Capital Team, which he founded along with partners in 2016. The venture capital firm aims to “push start-ups with original ideas to their full growth potential,” according to its Web site. Mr. Atencio resigned from his positions in 8990 Holdings, the biggest mass housing developer in the Philippines, last January, after sitting as president and CEO for 13 years.

Mario Jordan “Magellan” Fetalino III

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Mario Jordan “Magellan” Fetalino III is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Acudeen Technologies Inc., pioneering the push for inclusive financial technology with small-to-medium enterprises in the Philippines, and more recently expanding in other parts of SEA. Magellan has successfully executed long term strategic business planning for two internationally recognized firms in the Philippines and Hong Kong. In Manila, Magellan was part of the 3rd cohort of the local branch of Founder Institute, the world’s premier idea-stage accelerator and startup launch program. Magellan’s scope of work includes ensuring the continuous, sustainable growth of his company in different aspects – one of which is to adapt to trends and utilize new technology to improve Acudeen’s services.

Mario E. Salazar

Co Founder & Chief Technology Officer

Mario co-founded Acudeen Technologies Inc. with Magellan in 2016. He has over a decade of direct and indirect work experience in the fields of remittances, acquired real estate, anti-money laundering and credit application domain. Previously, he served as an analyst at the Philippine National Bank, a Senior Software Engineer at Switch Automation and a Senior Application Consultant at National Computer System (NCS) – a firm that provides a variety of technical solutions for the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS). Coupled with his vast technical knowledge, Mario has a proven pedigree in working around various challenging aspects of the financial industry. He currently leads his engineering team at Acudeen and oversees the development of the system’s technology, developing efficient and robust solutions for their platform’s operational problems on a daily basis.

Jasper Y. Franco

Chief Information Officer

Jasper is an expert in systems administrations and is the current Regional Territory Lead in the Philippines for BeyondTrust, an internationally recognized, leading cyber security company based in Phoenix, Arizona which provides the visibility and control necessary to prevent data breaches, maintain compliance, and ensure business continuity in a lot of banks in the region. Jasper currently holds nine different forms of Cisco systems certification which is a testament to his expertise in enterprise software architecture. Prior to joining Acudeen, Jasper had a long-standing tenure as a Senior Network Engineer at Trends and Technologies Inc., a leading systems integrator and business solutions provider company in the Philippines.

Yacine Derradji

Chief Development Officer

Yacine heads the business development aspect of Acudeen Technologies. He currently holds a masters degree in the European Business School Paris and has vast experience in working with SME’s with cross functional positions related to accounting & finance, statups, risk management and private equity. In addition to being a Chartered Financial Analyst Level 1 candidate, Yacine has a stacked skillset with previous experience as a Venture Development Associate at TwinFunds in Paris and a Venture Partner at Launchgarage, the leading innovation hub in the Philippines before joining the team. His expertise in strategic financial planning allows him to make indispensable contributions to the Acudeen team.

Malaya Laraya

Chief Revenue Officer

Malaya “Aya” Laraya has been involved in some way, shape or form in various financial industries in the Philippines since 1989. As a Certified Securities representative, a Certified Investment Company representative, a realtor, and a writer with an MBA from University of Western Australia, he is the go-to-guy when it comes to managing Acudeen’s assets. He has held or is currently holding most of the available pertinent licenses and currently serves as an instructor at the Philippine Stock Exchange, Registered Financial Planner Philippines and a good number of international colleges. In 2011, he founded the Pesos and Sense television show which focuses on teaching people what to do with their money through financial literacy.

What are your plans for the future?

Our current platform facilitates very complicated processes – Acudeen acts as validators by manually approving invoices and scheduling dates on which transactions would occur. Using ACU tokens, users will be given more flexibility to choose when they want purchases to be executed. With smart contracts, the process will be much faster, much easier and worry-free as the verification for invoices is automated.

We believe that an ecosystem driven in the blockchain would provide significant improvements to our current setup. Using Stellar’s almost instant cross-border remittance feature, invoices may be auctioned across different countries in the near future with no hassle. XLM or Lumens and other cryptocurrencies will soon be used to purchase movable assets while Acudeen acts as the ‘escrow’ as transactions are validated. With this upgrade, other forms of receivables will be supported as well.

What are your favourite tech gadgets?

My Apple gadget set (Ipad, Iphone, Macbook, Pencil)

What tech gadgets do you wish you could use to help you?

Drone technology combined with Deep learning to facilitate certain procedures in our business support systems that require logistics.

Anything else you’d like to add/we should have asked?

The vision of the company:

Acudeen originated from its founders’ vision of creating a financially inclusive environment for unbanked and underbanked micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) in emerging markets. The name Acudeen stems from the Filipino words “Ako” and “Din”, which means “Me Too” in English. As one of the founders, Magellan Fetalino, fondly explains, “We want every entrepreneur to have the capability to say AKO DIN, I have the capability to grow too.”

How do people get in touch with you?

Our team can be reached via our website’s contact us form, or via email at: ([email protected])

Website: www.acudeen.com
Token Sale: tokensale.acudeen.com

Twitter: @TeamAcudeen

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Acudeen/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/acudeencommunity/

Website: www.acudeen.com or https://tokensale.acudeen.com/

Telegram:

https://t.me/ACUTokenGroup

https://t.me/Acutoken

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at [email protected] or on Twitter: @SimonCocking