Other major story of the day is Paytm’s ongoing talks to raise US$1.5-2B from existing investors SoftBank Vision Fund and Ant Financial

Digital tech, food security among key areas to get more R&D funding [ChannelNewsAsia]

Following a mid-term review of its five-year science and technology plan, Singapore will pump in more money to boost research and development (R&D) efforts in three key areas, namely digital technologies, cell therapy manufacturing and food security.

“Our investment in R&D is a long-term endeavor. It is not just for the short run and we must continue our investments in basic sciences,” said Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat on Wednesday.

Heng, who is also the chairman of the National Research Foundation (NRF), was speaking alongside Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing and National Development Minister Lawrence Wong at a press conference held at the end of the 11th Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC) meeting.

Paytm raising up to US$2B; Valuation may touch US$18B [The Economic Times]

Online payments services company Paytm is in the midst of raising US$1.5-2 billion from existing investors SoftBank Vision Fund and Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Financial, said people with knowledge of the development.

The latest financing round at One97 Communications, the parent of Paytm, is likely to peg the company’s valuation at US$16-18 billion, these people said, adding that new investors may join the current round.

Grab Malaysia drivers defend new cancellation fee policy [The Star]

Grab drivers are defending Grab Malaysia’s move to charge users a fee for cancelling.

Arif Asyraf, the president of the 300-strong Grab Drivers Malaysia Association, said the new policy was something that has been requested by drivers for a long time.

“We feel good about the cancellation fee. It’s something that drivers have been asking for Grab Malaysia to implement,” he said when contacted.

According to Arif, 36, the cancellation fee is meant to discipline some riders who take advantage of the services that Grab drivers provide. He said riders only get charged a fee of RM3 to RM5 if they cancel five minutes after a booking has been made.

PH payments app Mynt mimics model of its 45% stake owner Ant Financial [DealStreetAsia]

Mynt, the Philippine payments app backed by billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial, plans to roll out insurance products en route to becoming a sprawling financial services platform in its Chinese ally’s image.

The operator of GCash is now trying to become a conduit for insurance policies with the help of strategic partners that can help it expand a slate of products from banking and credit-scoring to financing and money market funds, Chief Executive Officer Anthony Thomas said in an interview.

E-sports startup GamingMonk attracts strategic investment from Japanese company GameWith [press release]

Gaming and esports platform GamingMonk has raised US$100,000 as strategic investment from Japanese gaming media GameWith.

The funding is being used for product development, team building and brand marketing. GamingMonk has grown its user base by 500% in the last six months.

The startup raised a seed round last year from Incubate Fund, Rajan Anandan, Stellaris Ventures, Smile Group, AdvantEdge Founders and Samir Khurana.

GamingMonk is a community whose mission is to build an ecosystem for gamers through prize tournaments, gaming content and many other engagement programs.

The company was founded in 2014 by Abhay Sharma and Ashwin Haryani.

Takuya Imaizumi, CEO of GameWith, said: “The gaming industry in India has strong growth potential and GamingMonk, led by a strong management team, is well-positioned to further benefit from industry trends. We are excited about the company’s growth prospects and proud to have this opportunity to support the journey.”

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The national scale competition is supported by five government ministries and agencies

Grab announced that it has partnered with five government ministries and agencies in launching Thinkubator, a startup conference and competition that the company said seeking innovation and tech talent development in Indonesia.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs Ministry, the Office of Presidential Staff [KSP], Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board [BKPM] & Agency for Creative Economy [Bekraf]) are five ministries involved in succeeding the competition.

Officiated by the Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs, Luhut B Pandjaitan, Thinkubator would be a public-private collaboration between Grab and Indonesian government in search of the next decacorn startup for Indonesia, said the company’s official statement.

Later on, Grab said it plans to bring this program to other Southeast Asia countries, to help grow the overall tech ecosystem in the region.

“There is so much innovation here, driven by a real passion to make a difference. With Thinkubator, we want to create an open and inclusive platform that will find and nurture the best ideas from Indonesia. A large part of Grab’s success is thanks to the many giants that support us. We have the opportunity to pay it forward and are excited to join hands with the Indonesian government on this search for Southeast Asia’s next big success story,” said Hooi Ling Tan, Co-founder of Grab.

Also Read: Facebook Indonesia confirms the resignation of Country Director Sri Widowati

Thinkubator was first conceived from a conversation with the country’s Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs, and has become a nation-wide competition in search of the best ideas across key categories including Logistics/Transportation, Agriculture/Environment, Education, Health and others, all focussing on diversity and inclusion.

In total, Grab said it has welcomed 1,165 startups applications for the program, with 150 shortlisted candidates to join the conference today that includes workshops and networking opportunities.

From the shortlist, six top finalists will be selected from to pitch their ideas in front of a professional panel of top business leaders that includes William Tanuwijaya, Co-Founder of Tokopedia; Friderica Widyasari Dewi, Executive Director at KSEI; and Chairul Tanjung, Chairman of CT Corp.

The finalists of Thinkubator will have a chance to receive funding from a total pool valued at Rp 3 billion, including access to Microsoft Azure to grow their business. Exposures on a national television will also be an advantage of the finalists as the final will be broadcasted live on Trans TV, tomorrow, March 29, 2019 at 8 PM.

Also Read: Insurtech Waterdrop Company closes nearing US$74M Series B funding

Grab also has Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV), Grab’s flagship scale-up program for post-seed startups that would be a follow-up to Thinkubator. It will start accepting applicants for their second batch in Indonesia, offering a platform to test and commercialise their solutions with the Grab customer base.

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Southeast Asia-based Blue Mobile is a vending machine platform

Along with Beijing-based Joy Capital as co-investor, Hangzhou-based Ant Financial invests in Blue Mobile, a vending machine platform based in Southeast Asia. The amount of the Series C funding round is undisclosed, as reported by KrAsia.

The company said it will use the funding to explore collaboration with Truemoney, Dana, Lazada, and Tokopedia for mobile payments usage possibilities.

Back in 2014, Blue Mobile was founded in Shenzhen and now has subsidiary companies in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

It has a flagship product called BluePay Wallet, which is a mobile payment platform that allows payment, transfer, with no transaction fee, said to be handling more than 300,000 transactions on a daily basis.

Also Read: Insurtech Waterdrop Company closes nearing US$74M Series B funding

The company claims that it now runs more than 6,000 smart vending machines across Indonesia and Thailand. It plans to add 30,000 units in the coming year and partner with major e-money platforms
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Photo by Laura Thonne on Unsplash

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The Tokopedia-UI AI Center of Excellence will focus on AI implementation in the various aspects of society and industry

Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia and Universitas Indonesia (UI) today announced the launch of Tokopedia-UI AI Center of Excellence, an artificial intelligence (AI) development centre at the university’s campus in Depok, West Java.

In a press statement, the institutions explained that the initiative taken to encourage academics and researchers to use technology, especially AI, in presenting real-life solutions to problems that occur in society as well as industries.

Through the collaboration, researchers from UI will develop AI-based solutions to address problems that occur in society and industry, including the e-commerce industry, such as logistics, risk management, cybersecurity, and payment.

The centre will also use super computer technology as provided as NVIDIA.

Also Read: Blockchain-based e-KYC platform claims the throne at Binar Academy and Tokopedia’s Hack of Thrones

“This facility is also expected to be able to support Faculty of Computer Science (Fasilkom UI) in producing human resources that are ready to contribute and compete globally, especially in the field of AI,” said Fasilkom UI Dean Mirna Adriani, Ph.D.

Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwijaya stated that the implementation of AI technology in the various aspects of e-commerce business, from warehousing to logistics, helps the company in its mission to democratise commerce through technology.

“At Tokopedia, we believe that technology should be an enabler that empowers the people, rather than a disruptor,” he said.

Previously, fellow Indonesian unicorn and Tokopedia competitor Bukalapak has also launched its R&D centres in Bandung and Surabaya.

Traveltech unicorn Traveloka has also opened its R&D centre in Bangalore, India.

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Image Credit: Tokopedia

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The digital gifting and loyalty platform receives an undisclosed amount of funding from VIISA and VinaCapital Ventures

Digital gifting platform based in Vietnam UrBox announced today that it has closed a seed round of funding for an undisclosed amount from VIISA and VinaCapital Ventures, two Vietnamese VCs.

In an official statement, UrBox shares that the funding it received will be used to strengthen their merchant, create synergies across companies, provide UrBox with access to top talents, as well as expand connection with global tech companies to have a presence in other countries in Southeast Asia.

“The experience in the transition of customer service from offline to online for SMEs has been painfully labored, especially with larger enterprises. We believe that UrBox’s persistence in crafting a better solution for every new business, such as Urbox’s API services, can resolve this problem for B2B clients. Through the Accelerator Program and follow-on investment, we support Urbox in their growth and working with their strategic investor, VinaCapital Ventures, who also believes in Urbox’s mission and team quality,” shared Hieu Vo, CFO at VIISA.

Furthermore, as B2B is their key focus, UrBox will leverage on VinaCapital Ventures and Dragon Capital (VIISA’s founders)’s network to reach more potential and scalable partnerships opportunities and will do so by hiring talents in technology, marketing, partnerships, and business development.

UrBox was first launched in late 2017 as a platform that helps businesses integrate their reward or loyalty program with an ever-growing network of national and international gift suppliers or merchants. UrBox also connects brands with customers through multiple digital channels.

Also Read: Smart retail startup Blue Mobile raises Series C funding from Ant Financial

Using UrBox, customers can receive the gift voucher and store it on their app/phone to redeem at both offline and online store.

Determined to change manual processes in the reward system, UrBox founders initially started out as a consulting agency to build loyalty programs by connecting merchants to big corporates in Vietnam. With its business model, businesses don’t need to deal with each gift supplier or merchant, print out the cash vouchers, pack, and send gifts to customers as it’s all done by UrBox.

To date, UrBox said that it has expanded their gifting acceptance with merchant network of hundreds of lifestyles brands and nearly 3,000 outlets across Vietnam, ranging from Dining & Drinking, Shopping, to Online.

UrBox claimed to be serving more than 30 top corporates in different sectors from banking, telco, insurance to tech companies.

e27 previously reported that VinaCapital Ventures made an investment in Wee Digital and UrBox just a week prior to this news.
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Image Credit: UrBox

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