MOX, AN SOSV ACCELERATOR FOR MOBILE-ONLY USERS, ANNOUNCES EIGHTH COHORT

The 10 startups are the latest additions to the MOX ecosystem, which helps startups cross-promote each other to lower customer acquisition costs and achieve profitability. 

Following SOSV’s closing of its oversubscribed fourth fund at US$277 million, MOX—an SOSV accelerator for mobile-only users, will unveil their eighth cohort with companies in govtech, publishing tech, edtech, D2C retail, and logistics later this month. 

The demo day events will take place on February 25 in Taipei and February 28 in Singapore to an invite-only audience of regional investors and the media. Both events will be live-streamed on the accelerator’s Facebook page (@mobileonlyx).

Headquartered in India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia, the startups from the MOX 8 cohort target mobile-only users who primarily use their smartphones to carry out daily tasks. The 10 startups are the latest additions to the MOX ecosystem, whose partners include smartphone brands, telecom companies, advertising networks, media conglomerates, financial institutions, and mobile content providers with a strong presence in Southeast Asia and India.

Unlike traditional accelerator models, MOX helps consumers startups from around the world cross-promote each other to lower their customer acquisition cost and drive higher lifetime value. Instead of selling equity to buy Facebook and Google ads, startups in the program focus on positive unit economics first before raising additional money. 

“Investing in mobile startups hasn’t been popular in the past few years. MOX has been focusing on building real businesses with revenue and even profit. Now that ‘growth at any cost’ is out of style, our startups are specifically positioned to excel because of the focus on positive unit economics from day 1,” said William Bao Bean, General Partner at SOSV, Managing Director at MOX. 

“MOX launched over four years ago to help consumer mobile startups in India, Indonesia, and the rest of Southeast Asia and South Asia to take advantage of the massive opportunity created by cheap internet and smartphones. We are super excited to introduce our eighth batch of ten startups, which already collectively have over 10 million users and US$1 million in revenue and founders with six prior exits,” he adds. 

MOX is operated by SOSV, a top-performing US-based venture capital firm with over US$700 million under management as of 2020. Recognized as the world’s second most active seed investor and third most active early-stage investor in 2019 by Crunchbase, SOSV backs more than 150 startups annually through its six global accelerators in hardware, biotech & life sciences, software, blockchain, and food tech & agritech.

MOX 8 BY THE NUMBERS

1. 40% of the founding teams have female co-founders
2. 50% of the companies are headquartered in South Asia, 50% in Southeast Asia
3. SOSV invests US$100K-120K in each company

THE STARTUPS
Arkademi (Indonesia): Vocational training platform helping 185 million working-age Indonesians upskill and increase monthly earnings by 20%.
Civilcops (India): Personalized communications platform bridging governments and citizens, making smart cities possible.
Eat Mubarak (Pakistan): The UberEats of Pakistan, connecting 3,500 restaurants with their 1 million users.
Giladiskon (Indonesia): Social buying club where 1.5m Indonesian members get exclusive discounts at restaurants and lifestyle retailers.
Kravve (Malaysia): The Etsy of Food. A social commerce platform powering small businesses.
Moodah (Indonesia): Helping mom-and-pop shops digitize their sales, inventory, and cash management. 
Pencil (India): Turning books and other publishing into living content using data, analytics and dynamic editing. 
Supplynote (India): Procurement management platform that cuts out the middlemen and automates purchasing for restaurants.
Verismart (India): Identity and personal data management platform leveraging blockchain to drive KYC, risk profiling and fraud management.
Yuna&Co. (Indonesia): Giving young professionals confidence through personalized clothing boxes using AI-based fashion matching.

ABOUT SOSV
SOSV is a top-performing US-based venture capital firm with over US$700 million under management as of 2020. Recognized as the world’s 2nd most active seed investor in 2019 by Crunchbase, SOSV backs more than 150 startups annually through its global accelerators. SOSV operates HAX, the world's first and most prolific hardware accelerator; Chinaccelerator, Asia’s first and only active accelerator with a unicorn graduating from its program (BitMEX Batch 8); MOX, the accelerator for mobile-first, mobile-only markets; IndieBio, the world’s largest seed accelerator for life sciences and biotech; dlab, a startup accelerator and venture studio for blockchain; and Food-X, the #1 food innovation accelerator in the world.
More at https://sosv.com/
 
ABOUT MOX
MOX (Mobile Only Accelerator) enables startups to reach the next 4 billion mobile-only users in markets including Southeast Asia, India, Eastern Europe, and South America. Through intensive support for growth, fundraising and partnership, MOX helps mobile startups from around the world acquire users for free, monetize these users, and drive higher lifetime value. MOX has backed English pronunciation coach ELSA, the first investment in Asia by Google’s AI venture arm Gradient Ventures; fintech company Achiko, which listed on the Swiss SIX Exchange; and UNL, an “Internet of Places” micro-location platform backed by HERE Technologies.
More at https://mobileonlyx.com/
 

Press contact
Lace Nguyen
lace.nguyen@sosv.com