SiamCarDeal works with official dealers in the country, who cars available for sale and willing to give a discount to customers

SiamCarDeal, an online car listing platform in Thailand, has received US$300,000 in seed funding led by 500 TukTuks, with participation from unnamed angel investors.

SiamCarDeal works with official dealers in the country, who have cars available for sale and willing to give a discount to customers. Once booked, the user can go to the show room with SiamCarDeal’s offer to get the discounts.

The service is free to use for consumers.

“We currently partner with over 100 car dealers across the country and provide more than 1,500 offers for consumers. When a potential buyer shows interest in the deal on our website, we will qualify the inquiry and send it in real-time to the showroom with our in-house developed software called LMS (Lead Management System). With this system, our partner showrooms can conveniently manage their database of prospects, and their salespeople can follow up more efficiently, resulting in an increased sales closing ratio. Now our LMS system is extensively used by our customers in Thailand and across CLMV,” said Damien Kerneis, Co-founder of SiamCarDeal.

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In 2018, SiamCarDeal supported its nationwide partners to sell over 3,000 cars, it said in a press release.

“When launching siamcardeal.com in 2016, we aimed to be a platform for those who wanted to buy a new car and search for the best deals. We received a lot of positive feedback from both consumers and dealers: consumers got their new car at a great price while dealers increased their sales with this new channel. As we went along, we saw opportunities to go deeper in the value chain and developed more products and services to support car dealers.”

Krating Poonpol, Venture Partner (Thailand) of 500 TukTuks said: “We believe that SiamCarDeal’s LMS software offers a forward-looking perspective for the industry since it can be used by all automotive businesses. With this end-to-end solution SiamCarDeal has developed, we see big market opportunities for them domestically and abroad where SiamcarDeal can further expand to the regional level.”

“In 2019, SiamcarDeal will embark on the journey of digital transformation for automotive businesses by expanding more services which will help the showrooms to improve their overall efficiency and increase their sales volume. In addition, we also have plans to bring technology to help support the used car market,” added Kerneis.

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The company said it plans to use the funding to connect home sellers to top agents with AI-based commissions

Singapore-based property agent referral platform UrbanAgents announced that it has raised S$2 million (US$1.5 million) seed funding from FarSight Capital, APAC Realty and angel investors.

The company said that the investment it receives will be directed to maximise the use of AI to set commission guide for home sellers connecting to top agents in Singapore, making it fair for the home sellers to have a choice for performance-based commissions.

UrbanAgents.com describes itself as a referral platform that connects home sellers to a curated list of agents from various real estate agencies. In general, UrbanAgents only enroll licensed agents deemed to be within the top 5 per cent cohort based on past transaction and listing history data.

“Home sellers want one thing – sell their homes at a good price. However, in the traditional model, agents taking a fixed commission rate have little incentive to ‘go the distance’ in order to achieve a higher price for the home seller.” explains Michael Cho, CEO & Founder of UrbanZoom and UrbanAgents.

He continued, “Our machine learning team at UrbanZoom have built an auto valuation called Zoom Value, which is now being used in various capacities by banks such as OCBC, DBS, as well as other startups like MoneySmart, Ohmyhome, SoReal, etc. We decided to leverage on this and tie it to agents’ commissions.”

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This service is currently available for HDB and Condo homeowners. It allows “Target Price” to be pegged to the home’s Zoom Value, which is calculated based on an AI model with inputs such as recent transactions, relevant listings, and features specific to the unit as provided by the home seller.

“The idea here is that we peg the agent’s fees to his performance. If he only managed to sell at a price significantly below the target price, he’ll receive only a nominal commission of $1,888. Conversely, if he can help the client achieve a price significantly higher than the target price, he should receive higher commissions for his efforts, up to a maximum of 2.5 per cent,” Cho added.

UrbanAgents claims that its analysis also shows that the top 5 per cent agents in Singapore alone represent more than half of all home seller clients, at least in the HDB market. The company then use that as criteria for agents who wish to join the program, and in turn, giving end consumers assurance that they’re dealing with an experienced professional.
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Singapore-based on-demand caregiving service Homage plans to scale up and build community with the new appointments

On-demand home caregiving services platform Homage announced today that it has appointed Melissa Chan as Head of Community and Outreach, and Honey Mittal as Chief Product Officer.

With the new additions to the team, Homage said it will focus on increasing partnerships with
ecosystem stakeholders and improving more features to Homage’s product to enhance the
delivery and standard of care for its customers.

As a Head of Community and Outreach, Chan will be responsible for forming collaborations with stakeholders in the care delivery sector, with the key aim to reach out to more community segments that can benefit from Homage’s solution by working with public and private sector partners in Singapore and Malaysia. This includes cooperating with voluntary organisations to support lower-income segments, as well as exploring partnerships with insurance and corporate HR departments to cater to middle-income groups.

On the other hand, Mittal’s appointment as Chief Product Officer is deemed timely as Homage is emphasising the scaling up of its proprietary platform to provide a more user-friendly, end-to-end care management experience for families as well as its community and enterprise customers. He is responsible for further developing and scaling Homage’s product delivery – overseeing matters including product strategy and road mapping, product engineering and automation, management advisory and market expansion.

“Since launching our platform three years ago, we’ve been working closely with families and
aged care stakeholders in Singapore and Malaysia to see how we can improve our solutions to deliver better quality care for seniors,” said Gillian Tee, the CEO, and co-founder of Homage, as she further detailed a plan to reach more underserved segments of aged care.

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Prior to joining Homage, Chan’s experiences included areas of social innovation, community growth, and building brand strategies for the hospitality, travel, technology and finance sectors.

Chan is also the acting Founder and CEO of Project We Forgot – a community for caregivers to persons with dementia that provides locally-relevant support, knowledge, and access to services, and also a Steering Group member of the World Young Leaders in Dementia (WLYD), a global network of professionals that works across disciplines to develop and innovate dementia solutions.

Meanwhile, Mittal has held similar roles with numerous Southeast Asian startups, where he has helped to build a global travel marketplace and various fintech products.

In Q2 2019, Homage underwent beta testing of its Singapore-focussed e-commerce marketplace that is integrated into Homage’s app. The marketplace has essentials needed by caregivers; such as wheelchairs, walking aids, hospital beds, and adult diapers.

Next, the marketplace will be expanded to include more products in Q3 2019 and launches in Malaysia in Q4 of this year. The firm also has long-term plans to expand its services in more markets across Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Thai car listing platform SiamCarDeal raises US$300K led by 500 TukTuks

Launched in 2016, Homage was founded by Gillian Tee and Lily Phang when they saw that
seniors require more personalised and holistic care that allows them to age with grace, control, and dignity.

Homage seeks to do so via its matching engine that pairs seniors with the best care professionals for their needs. By using the Homage app, family members can schedule, manage, and monitor care visits from anywhere, stay connected with the care professional, and get real-time information on the care their senior is receiving.
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The undisclosed amount of funding comes from members of an Asian royal family

Legacy planning startup based in Brunei Darussalam Memori has raised a further seed round investment from members of an Asian royal family, the company said.

Memori said that the investment will be used to grow the business in Brunei, Singapore, and Malaysia, where it is estimated up to 33.08 million adults miss out on having a will.

Memori was established just in August last year with the purpose of simplifying the process of preparing end of life and demystifying a topic that’s traditionally considered taboo in Southeast Asia. Memori’s mission is to “enable everyone to have a head start on leaving a legacy behind for their loved ones”.

Memori’s digital platform offers affordable and simplified will writing services, as well as digital asset storage (including social media and email account passwords). The site is being built using blockchain technology to ensure security.

The Memori platform will also be able to provide access to the digital asset storage to the user’s pre-selected beneficiaries when the user passes on, and eventually allow people to book bereavement services and buy insurance policies online.

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“It is estimated at least 80 per cent of Southeast Asia’s population do not have wills, because it is a social taboo to talk about end of life and the misconception about the complexity and cost of the process. With Memori’s technology, these issues can be addressed. The new social media era has increasingly made the ability to control your digital footprint important too,” said Queenie Chong, CEO and Co-founder of Memori.

Memori was one of the finalists for Echelon APAC TOP100, and most recently chosen as Crowd Favorite and Top 10 for Techsauce Global Summit Startup Pitch Championship.
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Exciting days are ahead, and here is what you can expect

Dear e27 Community,

You may recognise me as the face of e27‘s presence in Indonesia; the person you reached out to when you want to forward leads about a funding round or when you have questions about our annual Echelon Asia Summit event. You may have also seen me manning the Editor’s Note section of our Daily Digest.

But today I am writing to inform you that I have been appointed to the role of Editor at e27, your beloved online resource platform for Southeast Asian tech startups.

My journey at the company began in 2015. As a Junior Writer, my responsibility was to cover the Indonesian startup ecosystem from Jakarta. Following a promotion to Senior Writer position a year later, I have produced features, covered news, moderated panel discussions, and interacted with readers through various channels for the last three years.

Throughout this journey, I have witnessed firsthand how the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem evolved from being a promising rookie, to producing some of the most powerful giants you may ever heard.

But as changes continue to happen, new challenges also continue to arise.

Stakeholders have begun to call for better ways to understand the ecosystem. They want to be able to recognise trends before it happens, and to have an accountable way to answer the question, “Who’s the next big thing in the market?”

All of this can be achieved through the use of data.

As a company with the mission to empower entrepreneurs with the tools to build and grow their company, e27 recognised the importance of implementing the use of data in the products and services that we offer. More importantly, we also recognise this as an opportunity that we can tap into as a company, considering the wealth of data that we have on our platform.

So what can you expect next?

You will continue to enjoy news and features, the very thing that draw you into this platform. But we are going to take it up a notch by introducing a series of listicles that showcased the strength of the data available on the e27 platform.

Our Contribution Programme, which has given a space for community members and thoughts leaders to voice their opinion and show their expertise, will also continue to grow bigger and better.

Last but not least, the startup ecosystem report is also set to return this quarter –with a new face. So watch this space.

All of this would not be possible without the support that you have given to us. I would definitely love to hear from you! Tell me what your startup has been up to, what you would like to see more in our platform. I am looking forward to see your messages at writers@e27.co and the e27 Telegram Group.

Also, next time we bump into each other at events, do not hesitate to say hello.

Regards,

Anisa Menur Maulani

 

 

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