The incubation program is supported by Singapore government agency Enterprise Singapore

LongHash, the global-scale blockchain incubator, will launch an incubation program tha focuses on getting behind early-stage blockchain startups. The program will be centered in the product development, go-to market strategy, and fundraising, all done through maximising the incubator’s network and blockchain experience.

For the initial cohort that will run from this month to March this year, five startups have been selected. LongHash has shared that it plans to incubate up to 30 projects for the next two years with the goal to help these projects eventually set up regional offices in Singapore.

Also Read: Malaysia’s dropshipping platform Kumoten secures pre-Series A funding from Cradle Fund

“Singapore is a key strategic location for LongHash for three reasons 1) friendly regulatory environment and generous government support, such as Enterprise Singapore’s backing of LongHash; 2) vibrant South East Asia blockchain community with Singapore at the center of it; 3) vast amount of potential use cases for the use of distributed technology. We expect to see Singapore playing a pivotal role in shaping global blockchain technology landscape,” said Emma Cui, CEO of LongHash Singapore.

LongHash’s mission with their base in Singapore is to accelerate the development and understanding of blockchain technology.

Aside from partnering with Enterprise Singapore, LongHash also has global partners that include blockchain venture capital firm Fenbushi as well as Chinese conglomerate Wanxiang Group.

“Blockchain is an emerging technology that can potentially benefit many industries with its application. We hope that LongHash can nurture more successful blockchain startups in Singapore through its network of experts and mentors,” said Yeo Meow Ling, Director of New Industries at Enterprise Singapore on welcoming more global incubators.

Also Read: Thailand’s official tech center to include blockchain-based voting

LongHash’s current global network includes offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Berlin, and Zug.
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Also, China defreezes video game licensing, and Bill Gates’ nuclear energy venture is forced to abandon China’s deal

Gojek extends ride-hailing service covering entire Singapore starting from today [Press Release]

In an official statement shared yesterday, Gojek has announced that it will extend its ride-hailing service covering the whole area of Singapore effective today, January 2, 2019. Users now can ride with Gojek anywhere in the country.

Gojek said that the island-wide rollout is the continuation of the app’s beta phase in partnership with DBS/POSB Bank customers, who were prioritised users of the app.

Reported by The Strait Times, Gojek allows dynamic pricing on its apps just before new year’s eve, letting the price for its service increase or decrease based on demand – for its ride-hailing services in the country.

In Singapore, the moniker of the iconic green company has omitted its dash between the word “Go” and “Jek”, becomes known for Gojek.

China finally stops the freeze on video game licensing [Bloomberg]

Nearing the new year’s eve, China finally lifts the ban on video game licensing, approving 80 new video game titles for the first batch of granted licenses. The licenses were granted by the media regulator, putting a stop at the nine-month-long freeze.

However, the list showed mostly local video-game publishers and doesn’t include names of giants like Tencent Holdings Ltd. or Netease Inc. The approvals notice was posted by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television online.

Also Read: Indonesian startup Helmad turns your two-wheeler helmet into a moving billboard

The move by the country in 2018 to freeze approval process for new games significantly threw big names like Tencent off of its profit scoring. It is said to experience loss for about US$200 billion off its market value.

Singapore prepares for cyber attacks with a bug bounty program [Tech Barrista]

Singapore’s agency for public sector digital transformation, GovTech, and Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) have agreed to work alongside HackerOne in developing a second strategic bug bounty program.

Bug Bounties offer experts in the field a chance at monetary rewards (the ‘bounty’) for reporting valid vulnerabilities to GovTech. This results in a wider testing field, so to speak, with the aim towards strengthening cyber defences.

The bug bounty will be run over a period of three weeks from December 2018 to January 2019 with the goal of finding security flaws in five public-facing government systems and websites.

The initiative is part of the government’s movement towards building a secure and resilient Smart Nation.

Bill Gates’ nuclear energy venture is forced to abandon China’s deal [Reuters]

TerraPower LLC, Bill Gates’ nuclear energy venture, is forced to look for a new partner for its early-stage technology trials. This happened after the new U.S. rules that keeps with a broader plan by the Trump administration to limit China’s ability to access U.S-made technologies back in October.

Initially, TerraPower reached an agreement with state-owned China National Nuclear Corp in 2017 to build an experimental nuclear reactor in south of Beijing. Not long after that, Gates published an essay late last week that TerraPower is unlikely to follow through on its plans because the company has found it too restrictive to allow the reactor prototype to be built domestically.

Also Read: Mobile-focussed recruitment platform GrabJobs raises US$930K

The trials of its technology is designed to use depleted uranium as fuel for nuclear reactors in a bid to improve safety and costs.
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Its product reads data such as battery life, coolant temperature and fault codes from the vehicle’s engine control unit to prompt owners on its current health

Carmen​ ​Automotive, a​ Big Data analytics company in Singapore that serves automotive insurers and servicing centres,​ ​has raised ​S$1 million (US$730,000)​ in pre-Series A round of funding, led by local investment firm Silicon Solution Ventures (SSV), with participation from SEEDS Capital.

Carmen will use the money to increase the deployment of its products across Southeast Asia, starting with Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. It has sights set on the regional market of over 100 million cars.

The firm’s customers include fleet operators, motor insurance providers, auto dealers and auto garage Servicing retail channels.​ ​Data is used to increase their sales and allow them to know when to engage customers at the right time.

Founded in 2014, Carmen Automotive’s predictive technology reads real-time data (including battery life, fault codes, fuel efficiency, mileage) via its proprietary On-Board Diagnostics II (OBD II) hardware. Continuous analytics is automatically performed on the data that is pushed to the cloud backend through the Bluetooth connection to the driver’s smartphone. Both the driver and the repair centre are alerted to potential problems before they occur, allowing service centres to engage customers timely to prevent unexpected vehicle breakdowns.

Also Read: This startup can convert your diesel/petrol car into a hybrid electric for less than US$1,500

The company’s current customers include fleet operators, automotive insurers, auto dealers and garage servicing channels.

“Carmen has managed to come this far thanks to the staff that has stuck with us over the years, as well as our investors’ support. We have accumulated much feedback from our early adopters and will continually work towards optimising our products to increase user satisfaction,” said Sem Chong, CEO and Founder of Carmen Automotive.

Carmen Automotive has previously raised a seed round from ​TRIVE​.

The firm is looking to raise its Series A within the next 12 months.

SSV is an investment fund set up in Singapore and is one of the Seeds Capital appointed partner and is managed by Silicon Solution Partners.

As the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, SEEDS Capital supports the growth of promising Singapore-based startups. It focuses on startups in nascent and strategic industries such as advanced manufacturing & engineering (AME), health & biomedical sciences (HBMS), and urban sustainability & solutions (USS). It also looks at other emerging technologies such as fintech, Artificial Intelligence, and agritech.

Currently, SEEDS work with more than 500 deeptech startups, and over 40 incubators, accelerators and VC firms.

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Just as you set up an infrastructure for capturing client leads, you must also build the right channels to attract investors

There are thousands of resources that give advice to entrepreneurs on how to successfully pitch to investors. This breadth of material, encompassing everything from Medium blogs to thousand-dollar conferences, reflects one of the most deeply-held beliefs in the startup community that ‘entrepreneurs should pursue investors’.

The idea that entrepreneurs can get investors to approach them is still so foreign that most founders look at me in disbelief when I tell them that it is possible, but it is indeed true: you can have investors  — even the top ones — lining up on your proverbial doorstep, eager for a meeting.

In much the same way that tech startups can generate inbound leads for clients, so, too, can they achieve the same with investors. Just as you set up an infrastructure for capturing client leads, such as by pairing an SEO-optimised blog with an inquiry form, you must also build the right channels to attract investors. Developing these channels will ensure that your startup has a steady pipeline of investors interested in joining your next round.

1- Speaking engagements

Many founders tend to ignore invitations to speaking engagements, assuming they are a distraction from the overall business. Committing to these, after all, would require many hours of preparation for what may be a fifteen or thirty minute talk at the most. But a talk is never just a talk.

For every reputable speaking engagement, there are marketing collaterals made to promote the guest speakers on social media. There are also journalists who will cover the event and will likely quote and refer to the presentations. There will most likely be a recording of your talk captured for YouTube, too.

Also Read: 6 ways to grow a thriving Telegram group

All of these will add up to what you are trying to build: a digital footprint. You want investors to not only be able to find you online, but to also like what the narrative they see: your startup is gaining traction as a market leader in this particular space. You should thus strive to make your presentation stand out from your peers: An effective strategy is to check what they’ll be presenting in advance, so you can ensure the content of your talk captivates.

Speaking engagements are also useful for the in-person connections you’ll make. On occasions, some investors will approach you after your talk. Use this opportunity to set up a time to chat in greater depth, hopefully this time with their entire investment committee.

2- Thought leadership

Too many founders rely on traditional media relations to get the word out about their company. This approach leaves them at the mercy of journalists — if no writer is interested in featuring their startup, then they will not get any coverage. This fate is a corporate death: no one will know your company exists.

A far more sustainable media strategy is thought leadership: rather than praying that journalists are captivated by your company, you as the founder will actively contribute your thoughts on the business landscape, your space, and even entrepreneurship in general to top tech and business publications.

Some founders are wary of writing from their own perspective, but they must realise they are in good company. Nearly all of the top tech founders in the world, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who just released a book called Hit Refresh, have a thought leadership strategy. This channel is even more important for smaller companies, who can use it as a means of getting into the publications that investors read.

According to a LinkedIn report about thought leadership, over 75 per cent of buyers short-listed a brand for a contract due to their thought leadership. If business leaders are influenced by thought leadership for enterprise purchases, just imagine how important it becomes as a reference point when investors are thinking of putting money into your company. You must strive to do what you’ve always done: make an impression.  

3- Data providers

When announcing their fundraising, some founders choose not to disclose exactly how much they raised. While I understand where they are coming from — most are paranoid about tipping their hat to the company’s valuation, even though no reader would ever know how much equity was given in exchange for the capital — this approach is misguided.

Founders should strive for transparency, particularly with data providers like Crunchbase Insights, PitchBook, or DealRoom. Since your startup’s key performance indicators — such as number of users, revenue — will be private, investors must use a proxy for gauging whether you are gaining traction.

So if investors search your company online and find that you have already raised money from other top venture capitalists, tripled or quadrupled your headcount over the last year, and earned positive reviews from customers, they’ll correctly surmise that your company is doing well and reach out to you. That’s why it’s important for every founder to develop these positive signals that excite investors.

And the investors are there in droves. Over 1.5 million visitors come to Crunchbase alone per month, many of whom are the venture capitalists and angel investors that every entrepreneur would be eager to pitch to. If you maintain an active, attractive profile on these sites, in other words, the investors will come calling.

The impact of building a digital footprint

As a founder, you do not have the luxury of choosing to be behind-the-scenes. You must sing your company’s praises at events, in the press, and on data providers. While creating and maintaining this kind of visibility can be tiring, the results will be well worth it.

I’ve seen many founders in the Asia Pacific who managed to attract a ton of investor interest in large part because of how aggressive they were in pursuing publicity, making it easier to fundraise and giving them a selection of their preferred venture capitalists. From this view, the term ‘digital footprint’ may be especially appropriate: You’ve shown that you’ve already come a long way, and that together you can scale to even greater heights.

—

The author Akarsh Dhaiya is a venture capitalist who works with VentureBuilders.nl and serves as Managing Partner at Rocket Equities, an M&A advisory firm based in the Philippines.

e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Photo by Melissa Walker Horn on Unsplash

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The ride-hailing startup is said to be the first ridesharing startup from Vietnam to expand to other country

As a part of Southeast Asia expansion plan, Vietnam-based ride-hailing startup FastGo has officially started operation in Myanmar since December 28, 2018, as reported by VN Express. The expansion is also a result of the company’s joint venture with Burmese conglomerate Asia Sun Group.

“Myanmar is a promising market with the e-commerce, travel, and retail sectors in the country growing rapidly. We target the population of 50 million people in Myanmar with the on-demand transport model,” said CEO Nguyen Huu Tuat.

Also Read: Mobile-focussed recruitment platform GrabJobs raises US$930K

Currently, FastGo focusses on major cities and provinces. Bringing the same business model it has applied in Vietnam, the company expects to hit two million users sign up and 100,000 drivers.

For Myanmar, FastGo claims to only take a fixed service cost from drivers and not commissions on each ride and guarantee them higher fares during rush hour and bad weather.

Also Read: Carmen Automotive’s predictive tech prevents unexpected vehicle breakdowns; raises US$730K

FastGo was launched in Vietnam last June and it hopes to make its service available in 20 cities in Vietnam and five other Southeast Asian markets, including the Philippines, Cambodia and Thailand, by the end of 2019.
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Image Credit: FastGo

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On a fine day, a large number of your Telegram group members found themselves added to another group without their consent, what should you do?

When a ‘Hi, Jack’ becomes a ‘hijack’

Managing a Telegram group sure is tough. While my team and I have the basics down to handle the largest Telegram meme group in Singapore, we are nonetheless constantly plagued by trouble. More specifically, external parties were messing with members of my group.

Over a period of time, a large percentage of the 13,500 members in my group found themselves added – without their consent – into another Telegram group called sgDoctors. Yours truly, along with the other members of the admin team (lovingly named Admemes), were added in as well.

This practice is not uncommon. On a related note, blockchain companies often hire people to — for a lack of a better verb — hijack members of other blockchain communities to quickly build up their own communities. It is a cheap, quick, and readily doable solution, if you know how to. It also helps that the interests align, i.e. making a buck out of a company’s ICO.

This practice is still ethically grey, and apart from the minor annoyances it creates, it is effective as people stay due to inertia. I often found myself added in randomly to groups; sometimes I stayed out of curiosity and sometimes I clicked ‘Report Spam and Leave’.

Also Read: 6 ways to grow a thriving Telegram group

Typically, the hijacker has to be a part of a group (Group A) first to obtain the list of usernames in that group so that he/she can add them into another group (Group B). If you can figure out who the hijacker is, you can ban him/her to plug the leakage of usernames.

How intuition helps

However, before I tell you about how I used analytics to perform figurative surgery on my group to remove the cancerous hijacker, I must start with a little context. In the recent months, I found myself being added to various groups that not only had the same descriptions in the bio, but also the same set of recurring active members.

From my personal correspondence with these forcibly added members, they also experienced the same repeated cycles as well. These members come from a variety of places, from my own meme group to a defunct Telegram group, which we will call SDSA. The groups my community members were added in were very similar.

Check out the copy in their descriptions.

A coincidence or a severe lack of creativity? I’ll leave you to be the judge of that. sgDoctors had the same modus operandi of adding people in randomly, which made me think:

What if I could use data analytics to ferret out the person hijacking my own group and adding them to other groups?

The challenge

Looking for the individual or individuals was the proverbial search for a needle in the haystack. After all, there were over 30,000 users in total to look through and there was no way to pinpoint who it is. The hijacker, or hijackers could just be lurkers.

However, solving this challenge is simpler than you’d think. In fact, you would have learned about this concept in secondary school!

The solution

Introducing…the Venn diagram!

You might be wondering – how does drawing two circles help in catching a culprit? Venn diagrams are figures that chart groups of objects. A circle represents one group of objects, and in the area where two circles overlap are objects that both groups share.

Remember what we mentioned about hijackers needing to be in groups in order to obtain a list of usernames to add into other groups? If we’re able to obtain the intersection between these different groups, we’d be able to finally pinpoint individuals that are suspiciously in all the groups.

If we expanded the Venn diagram to involve five Telegram groups, this is what we’re expecting:

A total of five Telegram groups were chosen for analysis. Group (A) was the meme group ‘Memes n Dreams’. Out of the four groups with similar modus operandi, I picked three (B, C, D) for analysis and left 1 to check my hypothesis after pinpointing a possible suspect. The last group was the one whose members I see in other groups, i.e. A-D.

The individuals of interest will be located in ABCDE, the area where all of the circles overlap. I will spare you the nerdy stuff and share that out of a total of over 30,000 usernames, I identified 11 usernames in ABCDE.

Bingo!

In the final list of 11 suspects, one was myself and the another one a popular and friendly individual who participates in numerous groups. Of the nine, we narrowed further the list by cross-referencing the last Telegram group out of the four which adopted the same modus operandi and a suspiciously similar bio. Then again, you – the reader – should be the judge of that.

The only individuals who spanned across the same group of Telegram groups which adopted the same modus operandi were myself and another account. Upon checking the number of common groups, I found that not only were we in the same group of Telegram groups, we were also in the same blockchain group.

With this, the member of my group was swiftly removed.

Conclusion

In less than an hour, I was able to sift through over a total of 32,500 people and figure out the culprit involved. Since the removal, members of my group were no longer added randomly to any other groups. I won’t reveal who the culprit is, of course.

So, what’s next? Unless a new law similar to PDPA appears to take hijackers to task, we will continue seeing such acts being perpetrated.

Undoubtedly, it won’t be the last time someone hijacks members of our group – the only way to ensure that my group members are protected is through constant vigilance. With the power of data analytics, I strongly believe that it is a possibility.

—

The author Jackie Tan Yen is Co-founder of MnD Analytics.

e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Photo by Renee Fisher on Unsplash

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Early applicants are eligible for a variety of scholarships, including the Female Founder Fellowship, which is offered to the best overall female applicant

The Founder Institute has announced the launch of the advanced version of its pre-seed accelerator programme for its Kuala Lumpur 2019 cohort.

The Kuala Lumpur 2019 cohort will include the Founder Institute’s newest company-building programme, which it claims is suitable to address the needs of advanced founders in MVP (minimum viable product) stage, as well as aspiring new entrepreneurs at the idea stage. This is a project that has just been launched in 2018 in collaboration with hundreds of startup leaders across the globe.

The Kuala Lumpur Chapter will be led by local startup leaders Heislyc Loh (Founder & CEO, Devs Asia), SaiKit Ng (Chief Executive, Captii Ventures), and Navin Danapal (SOSV SEA Director). They will be partnering with both regional and local ecosystem players such as MOX, Captii Ventures, Cradle, MaGIC, as well as the Malaysian Government’s Digital Hub co-working locations like Co. Bangsar to promote the programme.

Aspiring entrepreneurs or teams interested in building a company with some of Kuala Lumpur’s top startup mentors are invited to apply to the Kuala Lumpur 2019 Founder Institute, or attend a free startup event hosted by the Kuala Lumpur Founder Institute.

Also Read: Empowering the community: A look back on what e27 has been up to in 2018

Applicants who submit by the early application deadline (2019-02-24) are eligible for a variety of scholarships, including the Female Founder Fellowship, which is offered to the best overall female applicant.

Mentors who have expressed interest in helping Kuala Lumpur Founder Institute participants include Ashwin Jeyapalasingam, Co-founder and COO, CatchThatBus; Benson Chang, Founder, TableApp; Chen Chow Yeoh, Co-Founder, Fave; Cheng Leong Foong, Owner, Foong Cheng Leong & Co; Dash Dhakshinamoorthy, Founder of StartupMalaysia.org: Douglas Khoo, Co-founder, Qunar.com; Edwin Wang, Founder, SignatureSnack.com; Feng Lim, Co-founder, At20s; Ganesh Kumar Bangah, Founder & Executive Chairman, Commerce.Asia; Henry Ng, Director, Mansec; Ian Chua, Co-founder & CEO, Hermo; Jasmine Hor, Founder & Creative Director, LogoDesignCreation.com; Jeffrey Paine, Founding Partner, Golden Gate Ventures; Johnson Goh, Partner, Cause Effect; Juliana Jan, Chief Investment Officer, Cradle Fund; Kar Khoon Khoo, Board member, Media Chinese International; Khailee Ng, Managing Partner, 500 Startups; Kwee Bee Chok, Managing Partner, Teak Capital; Luqman Adris, Co-founder, Avana; Nadhir Ashafiq, Co-founder & Executive Director, TheLorry; Peter Yoong, Co-founder of CtrlShift, Pulsifi and InvolveAsia; Ron Ramanan, Founder & CEO, GoQuo; Roy Ng, CTO, Director, iSentric; Sasha Tan, Founder & CEO, Favful; Thomas Yip, Founder & CEO, Radica Software; Tzu Ming Chu, Founder & CEO, Persuasion Technologies; Victor Chua, Managing Partner, Vynn Capital; Wai Hong Fong, Co founder, StoreHub; and Zhen Hui Low, Associate Director, Captii Ventures.

The Founder Institute was founded in 2009 by Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 150 cities and 60 countries, the Founder Institute’s mission is to ‘globalise Silicon Valley’ and empower talented and motivated entrepreneurs to build companies that will create one million new jobs.

Leaders of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used the Founder Institute to raise funding, get into seed accelerators, generate traction, recruit teams, build products, transition from employee to entrepreneur, and more. Founder Institute graduate companies include fast-rising startups across six continents like Udemy, Realty Mogul, Travelcar, goplaceit, and Appota.

Since its launch in Kuala Lumpur in 2013, and subsequently Penang (2016-2017) and Johor Bahru (2018), a total of 54 technology companies  — like Poladrone, Royal Tenant, SimplrHub, and Cidekick — have graduated within Malaysia from Founder Institute programme.

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