INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Sleek, a startup that is making it easier for other startups and companies to incorporate and operate in Singapore and Hong Kong, said
today it has extended its seed financing round to raise $5 million.The extended seed round for the two-year-old startup was led by private
investors Pierre Lorinet and Fabio Blom, and MI8, an Asia-focused European-backed private investment company.Sleek also counts a number of
high-profile individuals among its investors, including Martin Crawford, former Group CEO of corporate services giant Vistral; Olivier
Gerhardt, founder of Wavecell; Eric Barbier, founder of TransferTo; and Olivier Legrand, MD Asia at Linkedin.Sleek, founded by French
entrepreneurs Julien Labruyere and Adrien Barthel, today helps more than 2,000 startups and companies in Singapore and Hong Kong, an
additional market it extended to in mid-2019
Some of its clients include Yours Cosmetics (funded by Sequoia), Aspire Financials (which raised $30 million recently), Ematic Solutions,
Devialet, and oil and gas giant Total.As we wrote about them in June this year, Sleek not only helps startups and companies incorporate
themselves in Singapore (and now, Hong Kong), but also takes care of their accounting, taxes, regulatory compliance and other administrative
work.Sleek founders Julien Labruyere (right) and Adrien Barthel (left)Singapore and Hong Kong have emerged as epicenters for startups and
Hong Kong today offer a range of benefits, including government-backed startup programs to attract businesses, but setting up shops there
still requires a lot of paperwork.The traditional way of dealing with accounting and incorporation is a cumbersome task, and is the last
thing founders want to deal with, Barthel explained to TechCrunch in an interview
Starting a second year, it waives some of its fee, said Barthel
The startup also connects its partner entrepreneurs with financial institutions to help them access working capital.Barthel said before
signing up a client, Sleek does its own due diligence
Among other things, we use a number of APIs that are tied with all the major global databases to ensure that our potential clients are not
features for clients and increase its operational capacity.
