Hello, and welcome to today's edition of Founders International, where we give you the update on startups and technology from outside of the US.

Here's what we have in store for you today:1. Revolut is zigging when others are zagging2. My name is Jeff, and I am a business in a box3. This solo GP is making waves in the Southeast Asia startup ecosystem

Read time: 2 minutes and 46 seconds

UK fintech is going against the trends

Revolut, a fintech company focusing on mobile banking, card payments, money remittance, and foreign exchange is going against the tide with a recent announcement.

What is the incoming tide, you may ask? Well... do you see any things in common in the following pictures?

Something about 5%?

Oh, see it has to be something with the number 5.

10 is a multiple of 5, nailed it.

Sike, it's layoffs. This is all just within the last week, and doesn't even encounter anywhere near the actual number of announcements from companies doing layoffs such as Amazon, Meta, Google and many more.

Revolut really said, when they zig, we are going to zag baby. They announced they are going on a shopping spree, and hiring 1,700 new people over the next few years. They currently have ~6,000 employees, which would mean a little over a 25% growth in total headcount.

The head of recruitment said "There has been a more cautious approach by British tech firms," and that other companies must have thought pandemic revenue was going to sustain, but are quickly finding out that is not the case.

This type of announcement is what you would call, no small boy stuff. Revolut said when people are cutting jobs, we hire, and we hire BIG. But, put this announcement in your back pocket because as a prolific sports announcer once said...

Company of the day

No.. that's literally the name of today's company of the day, Jeff.

Jeff is a "business-in-a-box" startup, based out of Valencia, Spain. In a nutshell, they have different day to day service companies in their brand such as a beauty brand, a laundromat brand, a fitness studio brand, and massage parlors, and they give you resources to get that up and off the ground.

What do you need to get started with them? All you need is to be renting the space that will be used, and put up a very small, minuscule, initial investment of €50k (~$53k). That is for spending on buying the right equipment and supplies using Jeff’s established supply chains and network of suppliers.

Then Jeff will charge you a SaaS fee of €400 to continue using Jeff’s brand and a range of business management tools. That includes things like a step-by-step marketing plan, partnerships guide, a customer-facing frontend app for taking bookings and consumer data insights.

For an even simpler breakdown, Jeff is a franchisor, and you would be the franchisee just like if you wanted to open a Chick-fil-a, McDonald's, or other types of businesses where you license things from someone in order to use their name and materials.

How much did they raise, and why? Jeff just raised €90m (~$96.6m) in debt and equity to continue operations, and reach profitability. They realized that the venture markets were a little murky, so that is why they decided to raise a mix of debt/equity and focus on getting to profitability.

To date, they have launched more than 2,000 businesses in 42 countries, and say a business can be up and running in 45 days.

So if you have a cool $50k laying around, you too may be able to call yourself Jeff.

Founder of the day

Today's founder of the day, is Wing Vasiksiri. But, he is not a founder of a company.

Wing, based out of Singapore and Berkley alum, is the solo GP and founded iSeed SEA that invests in startups based out of Southeast Asia. The goal of the fund is to "close the gap between the startup ecosystems of Southeast Asia, and Silicon Valley."

With his newest fund, it will bring the total AUM (assets under management) to a total of $14 million. He is backed by the people like THE Naval Ravikant, co-founder of AngelList and prolific Silicon Valley investor. Being that Wing worked for AngelList right out of college, it definitely is noticeable that this guy has something about him that is above the rest.

One might say, he is just built different.

Out of the fund, Wing usually writes checks for $100k - $500k, and companies he has invested in have raised a total of over $85 million in funding from, you know, just some nobody's such Sequoia Capital, Y Combinator, Golden Gate Ventures and MDI Ventures. Some investments he has been in on include Humble, HD, Virtual Internships, Mio, and Staffinc.

Vasiksiri focuses on Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia as his core markets, and also looks for opportunities in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand. He says he looks at what contributes to the GDP of the country, what could contribute in the future, and invests along those lines, playing to the strengths of the country.

And that's all for today, if you want to get more follow us @Founders_Intl, or respond to this email. Yes, we respond to all emails, including yours. Try us.

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💯 Freaking sick dude🤷‍♂️ Meh, do better next time😑 Bruh, I might unsubscribe after reading that