Antler will showcase their first batch of companies after 5-months under their leadership on Jan 10, 2019 at the Google campus, hosted by the Google Cloud Startup in Singapore during Demo Day SG1.

On Episode 12 of The Story of You, we had Magnus Grimeland, CEO of Antler, a startup generator and an early stage VC.

Antler is unlike a regular accelerator because it helps connect founders to mentors and potential co-founders in the very early stages of building a company. It leverages a rigorous selection process and funding — only 3 per cent  of applicants are accepted into their programme — to find the best candidates.

Magnus leads a global team to develop the next generation of companies, while creating a pipeline for top talent to pursue a career in entrepreneurship and innovation.

62 founders from 22 countries have founded 29 companies. Antler has invested in 13 from their first cohort in 2018. The companies created are from a wide range of industries including real estate, e-sports, hiring, robotics and automation, and e-commerce.

Here are some highlights from our conversation with Magnus.

How is Antler distinctly different from other accelerators, especially in its approach to building companies?

We focus on talent first. We really believe that all great businesses are created by amazing co-founding teams and while other accelerators and VCs invest in companies and help them make it better, we bring in great talent from around the globe in specific teams and build companies. We then invest in the companies. That is very unique.

What makes a great entrepreneur?

There are 3 factors that make an amazing entrepreneur- this is what we are looking for.

• People who have a spike- this can be different for each person. It can be a
  personality trait or that you are deeply entrenched in a particular industry—everyone
  can have a spike or strength and if you know it, you can utilise it to make something
  amazing.
• Inner engine —  the drive that enables you to execute that comes from passion.
• Tenacity — on paper everything looks amazing but in real life, all these things are
  really hard. Everyone will hit walls, but the ones who succeed in something big are
  usually the ones who never give up achieving their dreams.

What’s are the biggest takeaways after the first batch of companies?

The first major learning is that it really works—that if you put a group of passionate people in a room committed to solving a problem, it will work.

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We learned a lot about forming teams- some organically, some with input from our side. How you go deep on a business model and iterate that was another.

The only way to create a great product is to get something out there quickly for the customers to use.

What have you learned about Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem?

The digitalisation of Southeast Asia is happening faster than almost anywhere else in the world—there are massive customer bases to reach in the region. We have seen giants like Go-Jek, Traveloka, Grab, Lazada emerge over the last few years.

The ecosystem has developed a lot and right now we are at this inflexion point where you have some great companies that have been built, the regulatory environment has really picked up. It has never been a better time to build something in this region. Now is the time.

What did you notice about this cohort and the way they approached building
companies?

We focus on building companies that solve problems, not follow trends. The issue with trends is people will build companies for the sake of technology. For example, when you saw the Blockchain trend, you saw a lot people trying to build businesses based on blockchain technology.

This is really the wrong way to build a business. For us, we ensure we tell the founders the way to do it is to find a real problem that needs to be solved and make people’s lives better. Then we help them get the right team to execute it and then it’s going to be an amazing business. Start with the problem.

What are the expansions plans globally?

We are a global company who want to build companies so we can support companies who want to expand globally. That’s why a global platform is better than a localised one. We will be able to execute out of Singapore. You have be international and bring in people who can add something to the company who are either stronger or have different spikes.

Also Read: The Story of You with Smartkarma CEO Raghav Kapoor

We are not creating a franchise, we are building a global partnership and all the partners coming in now as we expand into the US, Europe, Australia and Africa add amazing talent to support our companies.

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The Indonesia-based online investment app completed a US$2.1-million seed funding round co-led by SoftBank Ventures and few others notable investors

SoftBank, Y Combinator, Alpha JWC, Insignia Ventures Partners, and an undisclosed former Sequoia partner joined together to invest a total of US$2.1 million in Ajaib, a smart online investment application based in Indonesia, as reported by Deal Street Asia.

The funding is said to be used for product and engineering team improvements.

Ajaib just launched this month and was a product of Y Combinator (YC) startup incubator. It works by providing access to personal investment services for the country’s middle-class users.

Also Read: KinerjaPay signs agreement to receive US$200M investment from Wahana Group

“Our plan is to become the “Ant Financial of wealth management in Indonesia” by democratising access to personal investment services,” said Ajaib CEO and co-founder Anderson Sumarli.

The company has already obtained a license from the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) to run legally.

Ajaib will compete head-to-head with existing players in the online investment space like Bareksa that offers financial data, online tool, news, and analysis on investment and market.

With this latest investment coming from the country, Ajaib is added to the long list of startups backed by SoftBank Ventures which include the unicorn Tokopedia.

Also Read: Carput shifts roadside assistance into top gear with its on-demand service

Bearing its new name, SoftBank Ventures Asia said it is looking to expand its presence beyond Seoul, Beijing, San Francisco, and Tel Aviv by hiring investment professionals in Singapore and Shanghai.
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Image Credit: Ajaib

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The Vietnam-based startup raises funding led by CyberAgent Capital

Lifestyle tech startup from Vietnam WeFit announces that it’s just closed a pre-series A funding for US$1 million from CyberAgent Capital.

Joining the round is some other regional VCs, all done in this early January 2019.

Khoi Nguyen, the founder and CEO of WeFit shared that the investment will push the next phase of WeFit’s product development and also expand to a new market.

“We’re extremely excited to have cooperated with overseas venture capital firms. We believe this partnership will dramatically shorten the process of exploring the market and widening the accessibility of our services,” said Nguyen.

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Previously in 2017, the company also raised a seed round from ESP Capital and VIISA.

WeFit has been around since 2016 and claimed to be the pioneer in mobile-based user subscription packages for both fitness and beauty services across Vietnam’s two busiest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. To date, the company said it has been available for booking over 1,000 locations.

WeFit works by allowing users to search and book for fitness and beauty sessions located nearby the users. WeFit partners with fitness centers and beauty spas to help them optimize operational costs and increase profit with WeFit’s traffic.

“According to a data provided by WHO, Vietnam is currently on the top rank of country with the lowest body mobilization over the world due to the lack of convenience and diversity of the solution for everybody. WeFit aims to solve this issue, we seek to bring people more benefits and less time-consuming services, as well as added value for commercial entities,” said the company’s official statement.

Currently, WeFit said that it serves more than 150,000 bookings every month.

“We believe WeFit will formulate a completely different behavior of beauty and health care in the near future,” Nguyen Manh Dung, Head of CyberAgent Capital in Vietnam and Thailand on its investment.

Also Read: KinerjaPay signs agreement to receive US$200M investment from Wahana Group

WeFit projects a million users in 2019 and plans to move forward with its Series A funding within 2019.
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Image Credit: WeFit

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Moving forward, CEO Toby Hoenisch will be the driving force behind the TenX company direction

Dr. Julian Hosp, the Co-Founder, President and public face of TenX, has left the company, as confirmed to e27. TenX said this was a mutual decision made by the executive team.

In an emotional video posted on YouTube, Hosp wished the team the best for the future.

“While we were planning [for] 2019 and beyond, it became clear to us as Founders that the only way forward is to mutually part ways. And that means, that I will be stepping down as the President of TenX. It was one of the hardest decisions of my life,” he said.

Hosp said he will be taking a few weeks off to move forward.

“I want to thank you all for the support, for having been there during good, during hard times; on this journey. There is definitely more to come,” he concluded.

Also Read: Fitness and beauty tech startup WeFit secures US$1M pre-Series A funding

As of today, TenX CEO Toby Hoenisch will be taking charge of the business direction.

“We have received a tremendous amount of community support under Julian’s leadership and want to thank him for paving the way towards further success for TenX in the years to come,” he said in a statement.

During his time, Hosp was positioned as the public face of TenX — taking press interviews, offering commentary and promoting the company to the general public.

However, he has recently come under scrutiny from the crypto blogosphere for his previous affiliation with Lyoness, an Austrian pyramid company.

TenX took to Reddit to acknowledge the past relationship, support Hosp and make the case that it had no bearing on TenX.

Also Read: Online investment startup Ajaib secures US$2.1M from SoftBank

TenX was founded in 2015 with the goal of building a credit/debit card which can be used offline and across various cryptocurrencies. In June of 2017, the Singapore-based startup raised US$80 million in a token sale to build the card. As of publishing, it has not been released.

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Southeast Asia-based e-scooter service officially operates in Cyberjaya, Malaysia

Neuron Mobility, an e-scooter sharing service based in Southeast Asia, announced today that it officially started operations in Malaysia. It is a part of the company’s regional expansion plans.

The launch comes just after a partnership with Thailand’s Sansiri Public Company Limited, and follows a recent S$5 million raise to expand their last mile connectivity services — particularly to Asia-Pacific’s biggest and most congested cities.

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In Malaysia, Neuron Mobility will deploy the e-scooter fleet at key commercial spots in Cyberjaya as part of a pilot programme. The company said that it’s to ensure feasibility and demand in the Multimedia Super Corridor of Malaysia.

“Cyberjaya is on its way to becoming Malaysia’s smartest city, and we are glad to be able to contribute towards this goal by solving the issues of last mile mobility,” said Zachary Wang, CEO of Neuron Mobility.

Neuron Mobility uses real-time telematics and geospatial simulation models for predictive analytics and network optimisation. First-time riders are required to go through an instructional series on safety before they start using the service.

The launch in Cyberjaya makes it the fourth major Southeast Asian city to offer Neuron’s personal mobility service, after Singapore, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai.

To date, Neuron Mobility claims to own and operate the largest e-scooter sharing fleet in Singapore and Thailand.

“Smart transportation is not just an alternative, to some it may soon become the de-facto choice for urban commutes. It is our vision to build reliable technologies to answer the need for personal mobility in these populated zones,” added Zachary.

Also Read: A refugee in Germany in the 80’s, this entrepreneur is now back in Southeast Asia to achieve his dreams

Neuron Mobility has shared that its core focus now is to drive growth in smart city initiatives by further funding the development of technologies. Eventually, it will lead the company to launch its own commercial grade e-scooter that would be a world first.

The plan is to produce scooter that enhances robustness and rider safety while complying with PMD laws across Southeast Asia.
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Image Credit: Neuron Mobility

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