The 200-seat co-working space is located in Blk 71 Launchpad at One-North

Innovation House Finland, which provides a soft-landing hub for Finnish startups in Asia and a gateway for Asian entrepreneurs in Finland, in partnership with Singapore-based VC firm Mercatus Capital, has opened a co-working space in the city-state.

Singapore’s is Innovation House’s third facility globally. The 200-seat co-working space is located in Blk 71 Launchpad @One-North. Membership options include the use of co-working facilities with services, such as inclusion in the local networks, social media marketing and being part of a collaborative community.

Members can also avail Eight Mercatus‘s (a startup platform launched recently by the VC firm) services such as searching for financial channels and partnerships, marketing and branding, recruitment, legal and patent affairs in the Asian market.

Innovation House was founded by Petra Erätuli-Kola and Katja Aalto. Its first facility opened in Otaniemi, Espoo in 2017, followed by another in Kallio, Helsinki in September 2018. The company hosts a community of more than 100 companies and over 600 members across all its facilities. Co-founder Erätuli-Kola said: “Innovation House’s long-term vision is to create a new culture of mutual collaboration and assistance between startups and corporations.”

Also Read: The co-working experience is not just about space but more about community

Launched in 2006, Mercatus Capital is an accelerator and incubator specialising in seed and startup investments, with the aim to enable and propel early-stage companies to grow beyond their local markets. It has funded 50 businesses in APAC.

Eight Mercatus is a startup platform that provides the key elements startups need for growth, including connectivity, funding, recruitment and crucial mentorship from well-established business leaders, and important entrepreneurship training. It also provides startups with access to an extensive network of connections and its business know-how.

Innovations House Singapore’s CEO Pete Karumo said: “The most pressing need for companies who come to Singapore are contacts and local business know-how. Innovation House, together with Eight Mercatus, is able to provide the services to help entrepreneurs get a strong start in Singapore because of Mercatus Capital’s local knowledge and strong network in Asia Pacific.”

“He further explained that because of the team’s strong entrepreneurial backgrounds, they are able to understand the issues their clients face and introduce innovative solutions to overcome them. The combination of their services, local expertise and investment backing makes their concept unique, distinguishing themselves from other established operators,” Karumo added.

Singapore has become increasingly successful at creating an environment conducive for startups to thrive, leading it to be well-known as a leading startup hub in not only Southeast Asia, but the world.

The post Innovation House Finland teams up with Mercatus Capital to open co-working space in Singapore appeared first on e27.

Saphron aims to make viable financial protection and assistance accessible by helping clients to develop technologies that transform consumer experiences

Saphron, a Philippines-based insurance technology company, has secured SGD1.35 million (US$1 million) in seed funding from Sage, a VC fund that targets fintech startups, and Talino Labs, a venture lab that supports companies engaged in digital transformation.

As per a press note, Saphron, which is incorporated in Singapore, aims to make viable financial protection and assistance accessible by helping clients to develop technologies that transform consumer experiences.

Talino Labs Venture Director Micaela Beltran, said: “There are still large parts of the Southeast Asian population that are unprepared financially — be it in terms of savings or insurance. Filling this ‘protection and financial gap’ will help the ASEAN achieve its goals for financial inclusion and mobility, as both finance and insurance play complementary roles in national and regional economies.”

Also Read: Vertex Ventures SE Asia, India led US$10M funding for insurtech startup Sunday

“There is a lot of growth potential in Southeast Asia, but for industries to leapfrog and become even more relevant to today’s consumers, it’s important to combine the latest technology with in-depth industry expertise. We are excited to have Saphron launch transformative platforms that solve real needs, by way of intelligent, cutting-edge tech in partnership with established companies in the region,” she added.

Insurance penetration in the ASEAN is just at 3.4 per cent of GDP versus the global average of 6.3 per cent. This gap means that millions of families still do not have any form of protection or financial assistance, leaving them vulnerable against life and health risks as well as natural disasters pervasive in different countries in the region.

According to one of the world’s leading reinsurers, Swiss Re, families in the ASEAN “bear 35 per cent to 75 per cent of their total medical expenses” with the exception of Brunei (6 per cent) and Thailand (12 per cent), versus families in Japan, the UK, or the US, which bear only 11 to 15 per cent of their total medical expenses.

“There is a serious need to make insurance radically accessible around the region by helping address the risks that set back millions of vulnerable families and drive them further into debt,” said Saphron Founder and CTO Francisco “Kiko” Reyes, Jr. “We built Saphron to help companies drive financial inclusion and change the current reality in the region, by using robust technology to bring to the market financial protection and assistance that’s accessible, ultra-convenient, easy to purchase, and simple to claim.”

According to Reyes, the company’s dream is to create a digital experience for the end users, from searching for a suitable cover, to convenience in payments, to simplicity in claims processing. The platform will be optimised with Artificial Intelligence and real-time data analytics for underwriting and customer service.

Also Read: Fintech startup AND Systems gets US$2.8M to grow in the Philippines, Myanmar

“It will have a multi-platform payment gateway that can accept payments from mobile payment platforms, which is now the payment method of choice in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. And we will build a blockchain-based know your consumer system with biometric identity verification for secure payments processing,” Reyes added.

The post Philippine insurtech startup Saphron raises US$1M from Sage Venture, Talino Labs appeared first on e27.

At the Echelon Asia Summit 2019, you just might find the right corporations to help your startup grow

When it comes to Asia’s startup ecosystem, VCs and CVCs are no longer the only key players helping the community grow. As we move forward, we see that corporates have an increasingly critical role to play in the growth of the ecosystem.

One of the key features of the Echelon Asia Summit 2019 that truly sets it apart is its business matching model. By purchasing a Premier ticket, you automatically qualify for the FORGE Corporate-Startup Business Matching.

In a nutshell, the FORGE Corporate-Startup Business Matching system allows emerging startups to partner with established institutions and large companies in order to achieve optimum growth.

On one end, large companies get to tap young, energetic startups who can help them innovate through digital adoption and harnessing the power of tech, while on the flip side, emerging startups can strike strategic partnership opportunities and access resources that can help them accelerate, and even scale.

This means more than a celebration of ideas, the Echelon Asia Summit 2019 is a platform that bridges startup founders with large companies—in an effort to forge partnerships that are beneficial to both parties.

As such, we are offering an exclusive deal for all interested startups out there: from 14 – 20 March, you can get your Premier ticket at 30% OFF. Simply share this article on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin with the hashtag #Echelon2019 and add a one-liner description of your company. Don’t forget to set your post to Public so we’ll be able to track your post.

The Echelon Asia Summit 2019 is happening on 23 – 24 May, at Hall 3A, Singapore Expo, Singapore. Don’t miss the chance to strike important partnerships and take your startup to greater heights!

The post Match made in (startup) heaven? We’ve got you covered appeared first on e27.

In yet another breaking story, Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall is said to be very close to scaling down its B2C consumer business in India

SoftBank, Toyota in talks to invest US$1B in Uber’s self-driving unit: sources [Reuters]

A group of investors led by SoftBank Group Corp and Toyota Motor Corp is in talks to invest $1 billion or more into Uber Technologies’s self-driving vehicle unit, which would value the unit at US$5 billion to US$10 billion, said two people familiar with the talks.

The investment would provide a cash injection for Uber’s self-driving program that is costing the money-losing startup hundreds of millions of dollars without generating revenue.

It could also help underscore Uber’s value as the ride-hailing firm prepares for a stock market debut in which its value could top US$100 billion.

Bruised by cashbacks, Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall takes a call to scale down; shifting focus on B2B [Entrackr]

It seems like cashbacks won’t be the flavour of 2019 after all. Paytm’s e-commerce play Paytm Mall powered massively by cashbacks so far, is very close to scaling down its B2C consumer business.

After a series of internal brainstorming meets and recent discussion between the board members, the company has taken a call to focus on B2B business, said three sources aware of the development.

“Paytm Mall has been failing to find volumes as well as unit economics in the consumer-facing e-commerce segment. Ultimately, its key backers, Alibaba and SoftBank have realised that cashback driven commerce is going nowhere. Now they find no merit in concentrating effort and capital on it,” said two sources on the condition of anonymity.

SC Malaysia reviews 60 proposals for US$245M pooled VC fund [DealStreetAsia]

The Securities Commission (SC) of Malaysia has reviewed about 60 proposals from local and foreign venture capital managers for the RM1 billion ($245 million) venture capital pooled fund that was allocated by state in the 2018 Budget.

“The GLICs (government-linked investment companies) are still reviewing [these proposals]. So, at this stage, we’re still not able to share how much allocation has been done,” said SC Malaysia deputy chief executive Zainal Izlan Zainal Abidin at the launch of SC’s annual report 2018 today at Kuala Lumpur.

Mswipe raises US$32M from existing investors [The Economic Times]

Mumbai-based mobile point-of-sales (PoS) company Mswipe has raised around INR 220 crore (US$32M) in a new round of funding from existing investors — US-based hedge fund Falcon Edge, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin-promoted B Capital Asia, technology investment firm Epiq Capital and DSG Consumer Partners — according to filings with the Registrar of Companies.

This round came after the company’s Series-D round of funding in 2017, when Ratan Tata promoted UC-RNT infused around INR 200 crore into the company along with participation from its existing investors. Mswipe founder Manish Patel could not be reached for comment.

As per the filing, B Capital Asia and Epiq Capital pumped in around INR 70 crore while Falcon Edge put in nearly 57 crore and DSG Consumer Partners invested Rs 21 crore. The company is in the business of deploying PoS terminals at merchant outlets and processing card transactions for all major card schemes, including Visa, Mastercard, and RuPay.

Adtech startup Scibids opens APAC headquarters in Singapore [press release]

Adtech startup Scibids has opened its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, its first international office. This follows the company’s raising of SGD 3.3 million Series A funding last September.

Rahul Vasudev, former Managing Director of MediaMath (Asia Pacific) and the APAC Head of Digital at MediaCom, will head Scibid’s APAC expansion.

Based in Paris, Scibids has developed an AI-based intelligence layer, which acts as a virtual trader on top of demand-side platforms (DSPs) such as Google’s DV360, The Trade Desk, MediaMath and AppNexus. It sorts through as many as 22 million variables such as geography, gender, site placements and third party data to automatically build thousands of highly granular buying strategies in the DSP.

With these epiphanies at hand, media agencies and marketers who have in-housed programmatic buying can improve their return on ad spend by targeting the right contexts more accurately and optimise towards their own custom business metrics.

The post Today’s top tech news, March 14: SoftBank, Toyota in talks to invest US$1B in Uber’s self-driving unit appeared first on e27.

The contributor programme is a core part of the e27 mission, and we wanted to highlight our most active users

One of the core parts of the e27 platform is our contributor programme. Over the years, we have published thought leadership pieces from government representatives, regional investors and, of course, entrepreneurs across Asia.

The team values content that is written with intellectual honesty and is meant to help educate the ecosystem. We also value opinions, learnings from your experience and insights into the Asian tech scene.

If this sounds like you, we would love to have you write fore e27! Feel free to submit an article here and we will have a look on our backend.

Now, for some motivation, let’s take a look at our 12 most well-read contributors from the first 10 weeks of 2019!

The dazzling dozen

Aytekin Tank

Aytekin Tank holds the top spot as the most well-read contributor on e27. He has published three articles that are among the top-5 most read stories this year. They are:

• What I learned about procrastination while scaling my startup to 4.2M users
• Why the world needs deep generalists, not specialists
• How Google is slowing innovation

Tank has contributed regularly in 2019, seeing 8 articles published so far this year.

Bhupendra Sharma

A long time contributor to e27, Bhupendra Sharma recently wrote an article about self-driving vehicles and whether or not they will replace the global transportation system.

Sharma wrote his first article for e27 all the back in March of 2017.

Bjorn Lee

As the Founder and CEO of MindFi, is an expert on all things mindfulness. His app helps busy professionals find the time to take a moment and reflect on the world around me.

Lee Bjorn Lee“>wrote an article about balancing work-life balance for startup Founders that has been quite well read.

Kenny Au

Also a regular contributor, Kenny Au contributes articles about blockchain. The article that landed Au on this list is an essay arguing why the industry can be hopeful in 2019, despite the terrible year in 2018.

Au has been writing about the blockchain for e27 since February 2018.

Hari

Hari is the CEO of soCash.sg, a company that allows people to withdraw cash from shops in an emergency. As a Founder, he broke down the important steps for getting your first 1,000 loyal users. This can be the hardest part for any startup and its a common question asked by young founders.

Akarsh Dhaiya

Every startup wants to grab the attention of investors but often they don’t really know how to go about doing it.

Some people use the spray-and-pray approach, others hope to build more meaningful relationships. Akarsh Dhaiya gives some less conventional tips (you’ll have to read the article) and based on our traffic numbers, it seems like people found them useful.

Jeremy Chew

iPrice Group is fairly consistent about producing informative analysis about Asia’s e-commerce industry. The company breaks down public data to paint a nice picture of the macro-ecosystem in certain markets. In this article, Jeremy Chew breaks down the situation in Malaysia, and whether or not Shopee has overtaken Lazada.

Jackie Tan Yen

Ah Telegram, everyone’s white whale that nobody has fully figured out. Its design has resulted in a product that is fantastic for group chats and community building. Unfortunately, it can also be hijacked by a few bad actors who dissuade others from participating.

Jackie Tan Yen, the Co-founder of fundMyLife, wrote an excellent piece about how he was able to pinpoint the accounts that had hijacked the Telegram channel.

Christopher Quek

There is a theme of our most read authors — they tend to have had multiple article published over a decent period of time. Christopher Quek is no exception. The Managing Director of Trive has been writing for e27 since April, 2018 and does a fantastic job of diving into the details of startup life.

In 2019, an article breaking down the deep-tech ambitions of startups in Singapore was well-read by the e27 community.

Amal Agung Cahyadi

Most articles on e27 are about people giving up their traditional jobs to pursue a life in startups. However, Amal Agung Cahyadi writes a candid piece about his journey from the tech world to wood working. Along the way, he discovered 11 life lessons about finding passion, understanding the basics and the complexity of simplicity.

It is a nice reminder about finding joy in work.

Khrisha Shah

The Co-founder of Dysco, Khrisha Shah wrote about the big challenge facing entrepreneurs across the world: Finding happiness in a tough industry. A lot of the advice boils down to be humble, and knowing what you don’t know, but when broken down into more micro-focusses it helps provide focus.

One good little tidbit? Worrying about copycats is a waste of time.

Julian Lim

AI is a major topic in tech for two reasons. First, it seems like an inevitable part of our future, and thus is important for people to understand. Second, there are legitimate concerns about the impact it will have on society. In his article, Julian Lim broke down how AI is becoming more humanised, and how we should move forward.

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The post Introducing our 12 most-read contributors so far in 2019 appeared first on e27.