The project aims to develop a system to make clearing and settlement in financial markets more efficient

Banks to invest around US$50M in digital cash settlement project – Reuters

A Reuters report revealed that “several of the world’s largest banks” are in the process of investing around US$50 million to create a digital cash system using blockchain to settle financial transactions.

Citing people familiar with the plans, the project was known as “utility settlement coin” and was first proposed by Swiss bank UBS Group AG and London-based tech startup Clearmatics in 2015.

It aims to develop a system to make clearing and settlement in financial markets more efficient.

The source also stated that around a dozen banks are investing in a new entity called Fnality which would run the project.

The new system could launch in 2020. The deal has not been finalised so there is a possibility that details may change.

Alibaba invests US$633M in Chinese furniture major Red Star Macalline – Deal Street Asia

Alibaba Group Holding has invested about RMB4.36 billion (US$633 million) in Chinese furniture and home improvement giant Red Star Macalline through a five-year convertible bonds acquisition, according to a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

According to a report by Deal Street Asia, the convertible bonds would give Alibaba about 10 per cent stake in Red Star Macalline. Alibaba also acquired a 3.7 per cent stake in the company through the its publicly traded shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The investment calls for Alibaba and Red Star to partner in home improvement, home furnishings, shopping malls, and other businesses.

Alibaba will provide tech support aligned with its new retail vision that integrates digital and physical channels, according to the agreement signed by the two companies.

Also Read: Payworld turns retail shops into “banks” for low-income people to remit and withdraw cash, get micro-loans

Brinc raises US$1.5M pre-seed round for China-focussed accelerator – e27

Brinc, a venture accelerator with programmes in IoT & connected hardware, drones, and robotics as well as food technology, announced that it has raised US$1.5 million pre-seed round to focus on developing and operating training programmes around China for existing and new incubator, accelerator, and investment companies.

The spinout is called Brinc Accelerator of Accelerators (Brinc AOA), and it has been piloting a project for the last 18 months.

The company noted that the goal in 2019 is to run four training programmes educating over 100 accelerator programmes.

It has already run three training programmes in combination with various Chinese government entities with The Brinc team training over 75 incubator and accelerator programmes.

Amazon leads US$575M Series G funding round for Deliveroo – Press Release

London-based delivery service Deliveroo today announced a US$575M Series G preferred shared funding round led by Amazon.

Existing investors T. Rowe Price, Fidelity Management and Research Company, and Greenoaks also participated in the funding round.

This takes the total funding Deliveroo has raised to date to US$1.53 billion.

The company plans to use the new funding to grow its engineering team in London, expand delivery reach, create new innovations in the food sector, develop new “personalised” products for customers, as well as increase support for partners and riders.

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Image Credit: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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As Echelon Asia Summit inches closer, our 8th set of exhibitors features 20 companies out to win you over

There are lots of great reasons for you to come to Echelon Asia Summit 2019! With more than 12,000 people attending from over 30 countries, the Echelon Asia Summit brings together a full-range of personalities across the field of tech: from tech enthusiasts, to up-and-coming startup founders, and even to leaders and experts! This makes Echelon Asia Summit 2019 the perfect opportunity for you to brush elbows with potential future partners, investors, colleagues, or other like-minded people who might appreciate your ideas!

More than 120 speakers will also be sharing key insights on emerging trends and disruptive technologies across four key stages, namely: Founder stage, Future stage, Capital stage, and the top 100 stage—where 100 of the most promising startups will be pitching live!

Also read: For our 7th batch of exhibitors, 16 companies will feature their exciting new products

And finally, one of the key features of Echelon Asia Summit 2019 is how it will showcase some of the most brilliant startup products in the region. With 300 exhibitors that will sprawl all over Singapore Expo, participants can witness firsthand how these companies are changing the world.

So without further ado, here is the eight set of Echelon Asia Summit 2019 exhibitors!

Untangle


Untangle AI is a company focused on Explainable AI and its applications in the real world.

Halaltrip

HalalTrip makes place discovery & trip planning easier, fun and more intuitive for Muslim Travelers. Our vision is to become the trusted trip advisor for Muslims around the globe.


HK DECOMAN TECHNOLOGY LIMITED

HKDecoman.com is a HK based startup focused on transforming the traditional home renovation industry by offering homeowners engineer-matching and consultancy services through its website.

The Penbrothers International

Penbrothers help international startups and SMEs build their team in the Philippines through providing staff augmentation and office space solutions. We provide human resource, payroll, and recruitment services, so that you can focus on growing your business.

Apigate Sdn Bhd

Apigate is a new-breed Application Programming Interface (API) platform that connects a world class ecosystem to enable businesses to transform digitally.

Chatesat

ChateSat is the freelance marketplace engaging businesses to connect with talents while designing a collaborative marketplace beyond limits.

Real Estate Doc

Real Estate Doc transforms Commercial and Retail Real Estate Leasing Businesses.

SurveySensum powered by Neurosensum

Neurosensum is a Neuroscience and AI based consumer research company with a key focus in understanding consumer’s subconscious response using cutting edge tools.

NUS Enterprise

NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of NUS, plays a pivotal role in advancing innovation and entrepreneurship at NUS and beyond.

Singapore Polytechnic

A vital resource to the students and alumni of Singapore Polytechnic and its partners around the Asia region, SPINOFF champions the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation.

AsiaIOA

The “AsiaIOA“, link with Singapore and the Southeast Asian market for mutual investment and development opportunities.

i Task Pte Ltd

i Task Pte Ltd connects businesses and people to millions of other people who are ready to help complete tasks, jobs and errands.

Safe Space

High Vibe is a Singapore-based tech social enterprise and our first product is the Safe Space app.

GLife Tech

Glife connects farmers with restaurants, ensuring that their produces moves through the supply chain as efficiently as possible. In turn ensuring quality, supply reliability & cost reduction to f&b businesses.

Ready Travel by Pecutus

ReadyTravel.io empowers adventurers to explore the world with our peer-to-peer FX swapping mobile application and kiosk network.

3drens

3drens is a B2B & IoT solution provider, focusing on the Internet of Vehicles.

SNEAK

SNEAK is a visual-based trip planner application.

Xypher Pte Ltd (DATAVLT)

DataVLT is an affordable, on-demand analytics platform secured by blockchain technology. It is designed to simplify the complexity of data science.


Astana Hub

Astana Hub is an international technopark of IT startups.


NextID Pte Ltd

NextID offers a certificate issuance service that helps you produce next-generation academic & professional certificates, that are cryptographically secure and verifiable.

Where to get tickets for Echelon Asia Summit 2019?

Catch this stunning set of companies showcase their brilliant work and more at the Echelon Asia Summit 2019! The event is happening from 23 – 24 May, at Hall 3A, Singapore Expo, 1 Expo Drive, Singapore. We don’t want you and your team to miss out on the important insights that will be shared by our speakers there, so get your Echelon Tickets today!

The post Ready to be won over by the right ideas? 20 more exhibitors will showcase at Echelon appeared first on e27.

University of Indonesia and Grab have joined forces to support the university’s development program for startups

Top Indonesian public university the University of Indonesia (UI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) through its Business Unit Management and Development Directorate for the University of Indonesia (DPPU UI) with Grab. Through its Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) program, Grab will be a strategic partner to the university’s development programme that seeks to nurture startups focussed in the technology, medical, and social fields.

The MoU was signed by UI Rector Prof. Dr. Ir. Muhammad Anis, M.Met and President of Grab Indonesia Ridzki Kramadibrata, on Thursday, May 15, at the Ruang Apung UI Kampus Depok. The signing was witnessed by the Deputy Rector of UI for HR and Cooperation Prof. Dr. Ir. Dedi Priadi, DEA; Executive Director of Grab Indonesia Ongki Kurniawan; and PPU UI Director Dr. drg. Nia Ayu Ismaniati Noerhadi, MDSc., Sp.Ort(K).

UI will proceed to provide mentorship for startups that were born from UI’s academic community incubation in UI Works Accelerator Program, partnering with Code Margonda as the organizer. The program will assist all UI’s academic community as well as the young generation outside of the UI campus who have startups that already have a prototype or a beta version of its product.

There will be three phases in the program, starting with Pre-Accelerator, continued with Accelerator, and closed with Demo Day.

In the Pre-Accelerator phase, candidates will join a selection process to find the ideal startups for the program followed by Accelerator phase, where the selected startups will join an intensive program for around four months to develop their business at a commercial level. The final phase will be the Demo Day, where the selected startups will meet with investors who are ready to mentor and grow their business.

Also Read: Agung Nugroho on Kudo’s latest innovation, and keeping tabs on financial inclusion for all

Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) will participate in the Second Phase as a mentor or guest speaker and will conduct an evaluation for selected startups who will then pass to the final phase and get the chance to be mentored further in the GVV program.

Grab and UI’s partnership will also include Engineering Talent Future Leader program, in which last year’s UI students from technical majors can join the selection program for an internship opportunity at Grab’s Indonesia or Singapore office. The registration starts from May 16, 2019.

“This partnership with Universitas Indonesia is in line with Grab’s commitment to Indonesia that is summarised in the ‘Grab 4 Indonesia’ Masterplan 2020 in which we fully support job creation as well as increase the capacity of local talents in information technology, technopreneurship, and technology innovation. Our Grab Ventures program is in line with the mission of the Ministry of Communications and Information as well as the Creative Economy Agency (BEKRAF) at finding and developing next-generation technology leaders in Southeast Asia, while also encouraging innovation and digitalisation,” said President of Grab Indonesia, Ridzki Kramadibrata.

Launched in July 2018, Grab Ventures is Grab’s venture building and venture investments arm. Through GVV, Grab Ventures offers access to its customer base, mentorship, and access to Grab’s technology assets for startups to test their services via Grab’s ecosystem.

Also Read: Brinc raises US$1.5M pre-seed round for China-focussed accelerator

Grab said it will invest an additional IDR3 trillion (US$250 million) into Indonesia in the next three years through Grab Ventures’ Velocity scale-up programme.
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The post Grab partners with Indonesian varsity to nurture medtech, social startups appeared first on e27.

Amazing Fables, started by Warren Leow, enables you to select a story, customise the name, avatar and gender, and personalise the dedication message

In this age of smartphone and internet, screen addiction for kids is a serious problem faced by parents globally (I myself am facing this issue with my two kids, aged 5 and 3, who are addicted to smartphone. As I am writing this article, both my kids are siting next to me watching some music videos on my phone).

Screen addiction for kids looks a bit like alcohol addiction for adults. To combat this, experts recommend that parents dedicate tech-free time activities, such as story telling to help their kids reinstate interest in the world beyond iPads and video games.

Malaysian startup Amazing Fables (AF) is doing just this. Co-founded by Warren Leow, a London School of Economics graduate who built MaGIC accelerator, and his two IIT graduate-friends Koushik Challa and Akash Dubey, AF publishes personalised content to inspire young kids via rich storytelling, vibrant visuals, positive values and interesting facts.

“I have always had an interest in writing and was doing quite a bit of prose and poetry at one point. It was on my bucket list to write a full book and I figured, heck, why not. I believe reading helps liberate the minds of children and can inspire curiosity within them,” CEO Leow tells e27. “It certainly sparked a vivid imagination in myself from a young age when I was reading classics such as Famous Five by Enid Blyton, Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter before I graduated to other graphic novels by writers such as Neil Gaiman and Bill Willingham.”

The journey, a fairy tale

AF’s journey started in August 2017 when Leow met the duo of Challa and Dubey during a chance encounter. All the three techies were in search of doing something in the education sector. They grouped together to start Amazing Fables. It did not take them more than a month to make their first hire. By September, the trio went into full production mode. By December 2017, the team found themselves working full steam on five books.

Also Read: Singapore-based coding school for children Saturday Kids raises US$1M seed funding round

In a nutshell, AF lets your kids wander into a world of personalised adventures and be a special hero in the stories. The user (kid or the parent) can select a story listed on the AF site, and customise the name, avatar and gender. He/she can also personalise the dedication message for the intended recipient. Once it is done, a live preview is generated, so you get to see how the final product will look like.

Once the order is placed, it is funnelled to AF’s global printing and fulfilment partners, located in Malaysia, the UK, Australia, Germany and the US. The personalised books will reach the buyer within 10 days.

Leow claims that AF’s proprietary technology, built in-house, has a dynamic personalisation engine, a robust logistics system, and a powerful translation engine. “The user experience is optimised towards a three-step process, where you choose a story, key in a name, choose an avatar, and voila, you get an instant preview. Each of our stories has been designed with different iterations of avatars to cater to different genders and ethnicities.”

As of today, the startup has a team of eight freelancing illustrators, writers and proof-readers from Argentina, Indonesia, Italy, the US, the UK, Romania, and Malaysia. The company also employs a team of translators to translate books into Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Dutch, to start with.

The team is currently working on ten books, of which five have already been launched. Since launch in early June, AF has shipped books to the UK, the US, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia. “Each of these books puts the reader at the centre of the story, where you can change the name, avatar and dedication message to create a unique book for your child,” he boasts.

The typical price point ranges from US$24.99 (softcover) to US$32.99 (hardcover). Leow claims both have high-quality full colour finishing with premium thick egg-shell paper. “I hope to inspire 100 million kids to believe in themselves by sparking their curiosity to explore and learn from a young age.”

In the next quarter, AF will translate books into 10 languages, including several Southeast Asian ones such as Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai, as the founders believe the non-English markets still remain underserved.

Sharing the challenges faced by AF while setting up the business, Leow says that for an illustrated picture book, it is difficult to prevalidate a story without complete visuals to gauge the full reaction of the reader. “Other than this, our nearest competitor sells nearly a million books a year and did more than US$35 million in 2017 alone. They were relying on a small portfolio until very recently. This is why we have started off as a portfolio play very early on, because we don’t want to be a one-trick pony.”

Printing and cross-border shipping costs also make it a bit prohibitive, but Leow claims that AF is trying to solve this by localising its fulfilment globally.

Notwithstanding this, the market response to AF has been amazing, claims Leow. ” The Malaysian market has been extremely encouraging. We now believe that once we set up our relationships with the printing and fulfilment partners in the UK, Germany, Malaysia, the US and India, we will be in a good position to target the Western and Asian markets,” he remarks.

Empirical evidences show that parents are moving back to physical content, such as printed books in order to discourage kids from spending too much time in front of the screens. Many are trying to find ways to connect closer with their young ones amidst their busy and hectic schedules as modern parents.

“By having a personalised product, the AF book becomes a visual storytelling aide where parents can conjure up little tales of their own to wow their kids,” Leow signs off.

The post In Amazing Fables’s personalised story book, your kid is the hero appeared first on e27.

Meet our Echelon app and keep up on your smartphone

On May 23-24, e27 is bringing together Asia’s tech ecosystem at Singapore EXPO. It’s just a week away, and if you’re like me, who’s not very into scheduling and not too organised -unless I really have to- I can get easily overwhelmed by the many panels and firesides I have to keep up.

Fret not, because our team had your problem sorted out. In partnership with our partner Angage, we have launched our Echelon app for Android and iOS users alike.

To navigate the event with more ease, join us via our Echelon app with these key features available:

1. Agenda, speaker, and workshop schedules
2. Bookmark and customize your own schedule
3. Search, and invite other attendees for meetings
4. Filter by country, vertical, name, group, and connect to start sending messages
5. Locate exhibitors on the floorplan to easily navigate to them
6. ‘Offline’ mode that allows you to view agenda and the floorplan even without an internet connection
7. And much more!

To download the mobile version, follow these three simple steps;

Download the EventMobi app from your devices app store to your phone

Type ECHELON2019 into the search bar and select Launch App

Finally, you will see this page. Enter the email used in your Eventbrite ticket registration and create your personal password. You’re all set!

Now, I don’t know about you, but the “invite other attendee” and “send message” features seem to be the least non-invasive way an introvert could afford in the networking situation and to still thrive, so I’m all for it! See you next week!

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The post This is the only way to keep up with everything that’s happening on Echelon appeared first on e27.