The platform Jupiter Chain enables data analytics use with maintained privacy

Singapore-based blockchain startup JEDTrade today announced the launch of Jupiter Chain, a consent-able data exchange platform that enables the use of data analytics without compromising on privacy.

According to a press note, Jupiter Chain allows blockchain technology to be put in the healthcare services ecosystem, where data privacy and security is crucial. It does so by encrypting users’ data and requiring consent before other parties can access the necessary information to conduct big data analytics projects.

JEDTrade’s vision is to have customised healthcare plans from the aggregated medical data, while the data remains secure and private to them. Healthcare business owners will also no longer have to be custodians to user data, avoiding hiccups in securing sensitive data.

The whole objective is to eliminate the risks of data sharing and increases the benefits to consumers and researchers.

“With Jupiter Chain, JEDTrade hopes to fundamentally change the way we handle data. From day-to-day interactions to large-scale processes, enterprise blockchain technology will change the way we live, with new industries hungry for solutions,” said Dr. Ernie Teo, CTO of JEDTrade.

Also Read: Japan’s startup ecosystem has yet to fully mature, says Cool Japan Fund’s Shinnosuke Watanabe

Last month, JEDTrade also announced Jupiter Chain’s partnership with Genecare, a genetics testing company based in Southeast Asia. Genecare allows clients to understand their health risks based on whole-genome sequencing. With this partnership, service providers can only access assessment results and will not see specific genetic data, ensuring the privacy of users while allowing them access to tailored healthcare and services.

JED is a technology company that builds business solutions powered by blockchain technology focussing on three domains: data, supply chain and financial services. Jupiter Chain is aligned with global data laws such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and related data governance.

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How Taiwan is advancing towards becoming Southeast Asia’s leading AI talent hub

In the past two years, Taiwan has rapidly been catching up to the global AI wave and is quickly becoming the region’s defacto AI talent hub.

In order to inject greater momentum into Taiwan’s industries, the government has rolled out the AI Taiwan Action Plan in 2018, a comprehensive industrial plan to accelerate innovation and development.

The four-year action plan will be jointly implemented by the ministries of economic affairs, education, labor, science and technology with a total budget of over US$1 billion poured into the project.

During the same time the Asia Silicon Valley Development Plan was also launched in order to incorporate AI into areas like transportation, healthcare, telecommunications, logistics, and other smart city initiatives.

Over the past two years, technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM have announced the establishment of their largest Asian R&D centers to be based in Taiwan.

For example, Google, following the acquisition of HTC’s handset division in January 2018, received a total of 2,000 engineers, designers, and professionals, along with the launch of “Intelligent Taiwan” just three months later.

The first phase of this initiative was announced to recruit over 300 AI engineers and to train 5,000 AI talents in Taiwan. The second and third phases were to empower more locals to participate in the digital economy by offering free training courses thus, aiming to cultivate a future-ready workforce. Microsoft and IBM have also since announced the recruitment of  AI engineers from Taiwan.

Also Read: Is Taiwan ready to become a global innovation hub?

Compared to other Southeast Asian countries, Taiwan has two advantages: AI talents and industrial environment.

In terms of talent, Taiwan produces more than 10,000 graduates of computer-science degrees and 25,000 electrical engineers every year. A relatively sizeable talent pool that, if properly upskilled, can provide incredible value to the AI community.

According to OECD statistics, Taiwanese students have topped the global rankings in fourth place for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

In addition, over the past 30 years, Taiwan has accumulated an unparalleled foundation in hardware manufacturing, leaving ample opportunities for companies to capitalize on the growing integration of hardware and software, especially when it comes to 5G, IoT, big data, and industry 4.0.

New opportunities abound as digital marketing and e-commerce mature

According to AppWorks’ newly released 2019 Taiwan AI Ecosystem Map, Taiwan has been shaping up well with 28 startups & 12 habitat providers.

Taiwan’s earliest investment in the AI field can be traced back to Tagtoo, which was established in 2010 and specializes in marketing tech. In addition to capturing the Taiwan market, Tagtoo has also actively expanded into a Greater Southeast Asian regionalcompany.

In 2018, it won the Best Brand Award in Indonesia by CMO Asia. Tagtoo currently aggregates all their data and has a full-time AI team dedicated to train models to more effectively optimize marketing campaign decisions for their clients.

Also Read: AI is set to revolutionise content marketing

Behind the rapid rise of Tagtoo, Taiwan’s digital marketing and e-commerce development has moved into the AI era, and has spawned a number of new innovations in the field of digital marketing and advertising.

For example, Appier, which provides AI-driven data analytics and marketing solutions, recently closed their Series C round, having  received more than US$82 million in total funding.

Other well-known marketing-related startups in Taiwan include Rosetta.ai, which provides e-commerce personalization modules, and Akohub, which develops retargeting chatbots.

AI technology startups converge with Taiwan to create synergy

Notably, we have also witnessed the increasing integration of hardware and software, specifically as it relates to marrying Taiwan’s traditional manufacturing prowess with its growing AI capabilities.

Established in 2014, Umbo CV (Umbo Computer Vision) a model of this innovation and has successfully entered the European and American markets with loyal enterprise clients in over 30 countries.

Umbo CV specializes in intelligent security monitoring and develops image recognition technology with self-learning and analytic capabilities.

The software platform can be used to learn and identify objects, cars, animals, and plants, as well as monitor for intruders and special events like fires.

By combining AI technology with their own proprietary cameras, Umbo CV helps automate what has traditionally been a very labor-intensive industry riddled with false alarms, saving invaluable time and resources for surveillance and monitoring companies.

Other startups that utilize the integration of software and hardware, development of AI applications, big data from cameras, and WiFi measurement include SkyREC, Cubo, Lucid and NUWA Robotics.

With more and more AI innovations, Taiwan is also booming in terms of startup accelerators, education, and research.

The Taiwan AI Academy and Taiwan AI Labs are Taiwan’s representative institutions in the field of AI for education and research respectively.

Looking into the future for AI innovation, we believe that there are three opportunities related to startups.

The first is the automation of routine and repetitive work in labor-intensive industries such as law, accounting, and healthcare.

The second is the use of AI to facilitate tasks that would otherwise be impossible or highly inefficient for humans to do such as processing large amounts of data for personalized recommendations en masse.

The third is the development of enabling tools to help users capitalize on the growing ubiquity of AI without any prior technical foundation.

Also Read: Asian insurtech on the rise: An overview of the main players

Disclosure: AppWorks is a fully independent venture capital fund/startup accelerator and is only affiliated with the listed startups, which have previously gone through  equity-free accelerator, and Umbo CV, which we have invested in.

The map will be updated every half year to adequately capture the sheer pace at which the industry is evolving. We made our best effort to include everyone but if you feel you have been missed out, let us know.

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Also, there’s a new co-working space set to open in Jakarta’s Domestic airport, and CredoLab is expanding to Africa

Indonesia is drafting rules to apply VAT on digital goods and services

Indonesia is drafting value added tax (VAT) rules that will be applied on digital goods and services provided by offshore companies, according to a report by Reuters.

John Hutagaol, an official who heads the international department at the tax office, said that the country would need new “implementation rules to decide on the mechanism” for digital goods and services as they have no time or space restrictions, unlike physical goods.

Hutagaol added that the new VAT rules would be applicable to “e-commerce, content providers, startups and other internet-based economic activities”.

A study by Google and Temasek Holdings last year pegged Indonesia’s internet economy at US$27 billion and predicted that it will grow to US$100 billion by 2025.

Singapore-based fintech startup CredoLab to expand to Africa

Singapore-based fintech startup CredoLab has announced its expansion to the Sub-Saharan African fintech, bringing on three new clients in the region — two banks and a leading airtime credit provider.

The expansion comes on the back of the  African Development Bank’s new Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI, an initiative designed to bring financial inclusion to 332 million Africans who remain underserved and excluded from the traditional banking sector.

Also Read: 3 fintech startups win the chance to pilot project with UNCDF

CredoLab’s digital credit scoring solution uses anonymous, non-personal, consented smartphone
metadata to predict the creditworthiness of users. With smartphone penetration in sub-Saharan Africa steadily increasing and predicted to double by 2025, the company expects to be able to capture a large part of this market.

“The growing penetration of Android smartphones and KaiOS smart-feature-phones currently outpaces the penetration of bank accounts in the continent,” said Peter Barcak, co-founder and CEO of CredoLab, in an official press statement.

“This presents an immense opportunity for fintechs like CredoLab to tap into behavioural data to assess the creditworthiness of any user and enable them to receive loans at fair terms, even in the absence of credit history,” he added.

CredoLab’s entry point into Africa was South Africa and the company expects to launch in Ghana, and Nigeria and Kenya in early 2020.

To date, CredoLab claims to have assessed over US$1 billion in loans issued by more than 50 lenders across 15 countries.

UnionSPACE set to opens in Jakarta’s domestic airport

Indonesia-based co-working space UnionSPACE has announced that it will set up a co-working space in Terminal 3, Soekarno Hatta Airport, which is Jakarta’s domestic airport. The venture was made possible through a partnership with Angkasa Pura Solusi, a foreign investment company that has ventures in areas such as airport consultation.

The new co-working space will be called APSpace.

UnionSPACE currently has seven locations in Jakarta and five locations across Southeast Asia, including Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. It is set to open locations in Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia and China.

SaltyCustoms partners with StarNgage

Influencer marketing platform StarNgage by Hashmeta has announced today it has signed an MOU with Southeast Asia-based apparel branding platform YEEFU by SaltyCustoms.

The partnership will see the two companies jointly design youth-oriented apparel by leveraging the star power of more than half a million active personalities on Instagram — essentially producing licensed apparel.

Using YEEFU, creators can crowdfund merchandising projects. If they are able to hit a minimum pre-order quantity, Yeefu will manage the design, inventory, manufacturing process and last-mile delivery, while the creators will receive the earnings.

Also Read: Why the traditional story arc is obsolete for brands

“As the world changes and moves into the digital age, brands have more opportunities for fan engagement and conversation. Here at YEEFU, we exist to spread positivity and inspiration to the next generation,” said King Quah, Co-Founder of YEEFU. Their first line of merchandise will be announced on starngage.com and released for sale on yeefu.store in August later this year.

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Image Credit : amadeustx

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The Malaysia-based courier marketplace will use the funding to focus on customer acquisition and recruitment

EasyParcel, a courier marketplace startup from Malaysia, announced that it has secured RM43.5 million (US$10.6 million) in Series B from Gobi Ventures and AirAsia’s rebranded logistics arm Teleport.

According to a report by Digital News Asia,  Gobi led the round but Teleport put in more investment.

The Series B round was also joined by current investors Axiata Digital Innovation Fund and several angel investors.

The company’s Series B round reportedly had been going on for almost a year before closing. “It was important to work out the best deal possible for all parties and to get the right partner fit,” Leong said.

The company has said that it plans to use the funding to expand into existing markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, and focus on customer acquisition, as well as strengthen its talent pool by bringing in a new data team leader to scale up the team.

Clarence Leong, CEO of EasyParcel said: “The focus now is speed in execution, as we target to double the revenue in the next 12 months.”

As for scaling up, Leong expressed that EasyParcel is looking into tapping at traditional businesses, especially smaller SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), beyond its current e-commerce clients.

Also Read: South Korea’s Carelabs acquires online beauty and wellness concierge startup Eunogo

EasyParcel is a marketplace that connects courier demand with supply, seeking to enhance the operations of its digitally unsavvy courier partners.

EasyParcel was already working with AirAsia Teleport, previously RedCargo Logistics. The plan is for EasyParcel to potentially help fill spare capacity on Teleport planes.
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Image Credit: EasyParcel

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In its statement, the company said its goal is to support business travel and manage travel expenses

Singapore-based startup Travelstop announces that it has raised US$3 million in Pre-Series A funding led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Accel. Participating in the round are Strive (formerly GREE Ventures), and existing investor SeedPlus.

The new round will see Accel’s Prashanth Prakash joining the company’s Board of Directors.

Travelstop’s first funding was 10 months ago, a seed funding round of US$1.2 million led by SeedPlus, joined by travel industry veterans from Expedia and Yahoo!. In the seed round, the company also launched its business and travel and expense management product,

“Our immediate plan is to use the new funds to further invest in technology and to accelerate the adoption of Travelstop across Asia,” said Prashant Kirtane, Co-founder and CEO at Travelstop.

“Travelstop is building a locally relevant solution for the millennial generation of business travelers,” Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel, gave a nod.

The startup also announces a partnership with Traveloka, the Indonesia-based travel technology company. The partnership seeks to deliver a more extensive inventory of flights and hotels to business travelers in Asia.

Also Read: South Korea’s Carelabs acquires online beauty and wellness concierge startup Eunogo

The partnership is expected to roll out in the next few months, along with other core features such as 24×7 travel management and travel insurance.

Recently, the startup was named one of the top travel startups to watch out for in 2019 by
Skift. Fellow Asian companies like Funding Societies and Carousell have adopted Travelstop for their business travel management needs in the region.

Travelstop uses machine learning and AI-powered personalisation to customise experience for companies and their employees and eliminate the need to research and book their travel. Travelstop also offers fully localised features for seven markets in Asia like Book For Others, Travel Policies, Group Bookings, Expense Reporting, and Invoice Billing with employers and travel managers in mind so they can manage their company travel and expenses more effectively.
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Image Credit: Travelstop

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GGWP.ID is a multi-platform e-sports company which was created with a vision to make ‘e-sports for everyone’

IDN Media, a multi-platform media company for “millennials and Gen Z in Indonesia”, has announced the acquisition of GGWP.ID to mark its entry into the fast-growing e-sports industry.

The company — which also operates several other business units including IDN Times, Popbela.com, Popmama.com, Yummy, IDN Creative, IDN Event, and IDN Creator Network — aims to make GGWP.ID the  ‘ESPN’ of e-sports in Indonesia. It also wants to build awareness and exposure of the opportunities that e-sports can bring to society, including to e-sports players, enthusiasts, content creators, and brands.

As per the deal, Founder Ricky Setiawan will continue to be the CEO of GGWP.ID.

Winston Utomo, Founder & CEO of IDN Media, said: “We believe that the e-sports phenomenon has just begun. With GGWP.ID, we envision to create the biggest and most impactful e-sports company in the region for Millennials and Gen Z.”

Also Read: Sources say Tokopedia is involved in a funding round for Sayurbox

GGWP.ID is a multi-platform e-sports company which was created with a vision to make ‘e-sports for everyone’.  It has four main business units — eSports Media (a multi-platform media for e-sports enthusiasts), eSports Tournament Platform (which allows users to create and organise tournaments by themselves instantly), eSports Team (professional e-sports team that competes in popular games), and eSports Creative (a multi-platform digital agency focusing on brand storytelling, content creation, and online activation).

In addition, GGWP.ID also hosts Game Prime, a gaming event in Indonesia, together with BEKRAF, Republik Indonesia/IACE (Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy) and AGI (Asosiasi Game Indonesia), an Indonesian game association.

According to Setiawan said: “As a leading media company for millennials and Gen Z in Indonesia, IDN Media can help us reach more audience and accelerate our vision to make eSports available for everyone.”

Early this year, IDN Media raised a Series C funding round led by EV Growth. EV Growth is a joint venture of East Ventures, Sinar Mas, and Yahoo! Japan.

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The startups have received a seed funding, and stand to get a follow-on funding of up to US$200K when they secure a new round from other investors

Vietnam-based VIISA Accelerator has announced the graduation of three startups graduating from the fifth batch of its 4-month accelerator programme with the Investment Day.

The three startups have received a seed funding from the accelerator and benefited from its partners, such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Payoo, and the MoonLab co-working space.

The promising startups also stand to get a follow-on funding of up to US$200,000 from VIISA when they secure a new round of funding from other investors.

Also Read: Vietnam stars in January as e27 data tracks US$1.5B in deals

Below is a sneak-peek into the five ventures:

VDES

VIDES is a one-stop-shop marketplace that connects event venues and event suppliers to customers using Big Data, Machine Learning, and Virtual Reality. The company claims customers are able to save 80 per cent time and 30 per cent cost in all booking processes and receive the best price guarantee.

SaveMoney

SaveMoney is a full-service insurance provider. It claims to offer a scalable digital insurance platform with an integrated B2C advisory process using Big data, giving the possibility to design, implement and roll-out existing and new insurance services within three months.

Loglag

Loglag provides a truck and container booking platform with Big Data, AI techniques applied. By leveraging mobile connectivity, Loglag connects drivers and fleet owners to cargos and customers in order to make the logistics and transportation industry in Vietnam more accessible.

Also Read: Indonesia’s IDN Media foray into e-sports by acquiring GGWP.ID

Hieu Vo, CFO at VIISA, said: “I am proud of what these amazing founders have overcome and developed throughout the program. In order to make these changes happen, startups in batch 5 have actively harnessed and created large, scalable networks of users and resources that can be accessed on-demand. There are real products, real technologies that generated more than 3,000 transactions within three months.

On the other hand, the network effects these startups built touches more than 500,000 people in Vietnam. With their solution and product, the startups are helping customers in reducing time and transaction costs, increase revenue by enabling externalized innovation.”

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Here’s a high-level view of Taiwan’s blockchain industry

In the first half of 2019, Taiwan’s blockchain industry shook off last year’s steep decline in crypto prices and proceeded to show positive developments. These past few months saw Taiwan’s financial authority, the Financial Supervisory Committee (FSC), release the first draft of security token offering (STO) regulations, while also pledging more resources to further incubate the country’s blockchain capabilities.

Although there weren’t as many new ventures created compared to 2017 and 2018, existing players in Taiwan’s blockchain industry have been resilient. Since we released our first blockchain ecosystem snapshot 6 months ago, only 8 organizations have ceased operations and were taken off the chart.

At the same time, leaders like MaiCoin, BitoEX, and OwlTing have begun diversifying their service offerings and developing new solutions to fast-track user adoption. Meanwhile, the small handful of new additions, including KrytpoGO and Bincentive, are seemingly more attuned to industry pain points, at least compared to their peers.

Proliferation of exchanges

Unsurprisingly, exchanges continue to serve as the most pervasive application serving the blockchain/crypto space. In addition to becoming the first operator in Taiwan to apply for the STO sandbox, MaiCoin Group, which operates MAX exchange, is trying to reshape Taiwan’s capital markets by opening up the country’s first physical storefront to process KYC in person.

Through face-to-face interaction, the group hopes to build up trust and credibility in an industry that’s been ripe with scams, hacks, and privacy breaches.

At the same time, some exchange operators are now leveraging their technical acumen to branch into infrastructure plays. Local exchange BitoEX is now building a blockchain-based system to track and store data relating to any SME’s supply chain finances.

Also Read: Blockchain startup BlockPunk launches tokenised anime film and NFC-enabled art print

Given the immutability of distributed ledger technology, banks can comfortably use the information to facilitate commercial loans or appraise assets without the fear of compromised data. The data can also aid regulators in evaluating companies that want to eventually tokenize their assets and conduct an STO.

These past six months have also seen new exchanges emerge. ACE Exchange, for example, has been attracting its initial crop of users through the allure of initial exchange offerings (IEO), an alternative financing vehicle in which the exchange itself vets, facilitates, and lists a project’s token offering.

Among the many exchanges out there, however, none captured the attention of industry stakeholders more than COBINHOOD. In an almost Netflix drama-like fashion, the homegrown, zero-fee cryptocurrency exchange experienced ongoing internal power struggles and shareholder disputes that eventually led the founder Popo Chen to suspend the local entity and let go all of its staff. COBINHOOD and the affiliated protocol initiative DEXON are now on lockdown while all technical and legal controversies are resolved.

Responding to market demands

Although the number of new projects may have declined compared to previous years, blockchain solutions have certainly become much more tailored to immediate market needs.

For example, since cryptocurrency service providers such as exchanges and wallets have not been subject to strict supervision, the blockchain industry generally lacks infrastructure related to regulatory compliance. KryptoGO is a newly established regtech startup that developed a solution to help banks and regulatory agencies analyze on-chain data to help automate risk control.

Bincentive, on the other hand, fully believes in the future of cryptocurrencies and aims to help traditional investors get a piece of the action. By combining AI, social trading, and smart contracts, the startup has developed a Smart Mirror Trading Platform that essentially allows clients to not only follow, but mirror the trades of vetted crypto traders, who then earn a share of the profits.

Through this platform, Bincentive hopes to bridge digital currencies with traditional financial assets, helping the former to eventually become a recognized alternative investment class in and of itself.

Additionally, OwlTing—an early mover in Taiwan’s startup landscape—officially launched OwlTing Blockchain Services (OBS), a collective offering of blockchain solutions incorporating 6 years of experimentation spanning multiple industries including food traceability, hotel management, travel, and anti-counterfeiting. Last year, the company raised US$10 million from Japanese venture capital firm SBI.

Regulations get more defined

This past June, the FSC released a draft of what may be the “world’s first” set of STO regulations. Under the new provisions, startups can be approved for STOs as early as October this year, but are still held to a relatively short leash.

Those fundraising via security tokens are capped at NT$30 million (~US$1 million). Furthermore, only accredited investors are allowed to invest, with a limit of NT$300,000 (~US$10,000) in any single project. Any startup looking to raise in excess of the set threshold must apply to the regulatory sandbox, just as MaiCoin has.

As applications of cryptocurrencies have started to expand beyond just trading, Taiwanese decision makers will also look to broaden the scope of KYC/AML regulations in the second half of 2019. Moving forward, any projects working in the realm of digital payments and remittances will likely have to apply for a special license in order to operate.

Despite all the cautionary measures, the government has taken several forthright steps to incorporate blockchain into Taiwan’s future. At the opening of the Asia Blockchain Summit in July, Minister of the National Development Council (NDC) Chen Mei-ling announced the agency’s plans to form a blockchain alliance with representatives from industry, academia, and relevant government bodies. The initiative hopes to accelerate the development of Taiwan’s blockchain industry, including everything from strengthening R&D to cultivating talent to fostering global partnerships.

Also Read: 5 Asia-based startups that are making blockchain part of everyday life

The National Development Fund—Taiwan’s sovereign wealth fund—has also reportedly begun investing in blockchain ventures, XREX (an AppWorks portfolio) being the most recent case.

At the same time, other public departments in Taiwan are also beginning to experiment with distributed ledger technology. For example, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau hopes to leverage the immutable nature of the blockchains to optimize the administrative process of issuing national IDs.

Forward-looking optimism

Overall, excitement is resurging within Taiwan’s blockchain industry. Crypto prices are well on their road to recovery, with Bitcoin having now almost topped US$13,000.

The second annual Asia Blockchain Summit in Taipei attracted over 4,000 attendees from around the world and 100 speakers, including Binance’s CZ, TRON’s Justin Sun, and Bitmex’s Arthur Hayes. And two of the largest companies in the world—Facebook and JPMorgan Chase—launched their own blockchain projects, Libra and JPMCoin, surely a positive endorsement by anyone’s standards.

For AppWorks Accelerator, we’ve now facilitated two batches of startups exclusively focusing on blockchain / AI, collectively amounting to 65 startups, 29 of which were working on blockchain/crypto/dapp related projects.

Also Read: Here’s how blockchain can transform the compute resource economy

Entertainment, whether it’s gaming or gambling, seems to have represented the majority of projects that blockchain founders tend to work on, truly speaking to what exactly early adopters are willing to pay for at this stage of the industry—not so unlike the early days of the internet.

Moreover, while Ethereum has traditionally occupied the limelight, we see more and more public chains such as EOS or TRON becoming popular, each offering their own unique value proposition—a trend we expect to continue moving forward.

Disclosure: AppWorks is a fully independent venture capital fund/startup accelerator and is not currently affiliated with any of the companies or organizations mentioned in the article, with the slight exception of BitoEX, which previously went through our equity-free accelerator, and XREX, which we’ve invested in.

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Glints aims to make traditional recruiting more effective by automating certain processes such as candidate sourcing, matching and follow-ups

Glints, a tech-enabled recruitment and career development platform in Southeast Asia, has secured US$6.8 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.

Other investors include Hong Kong-based MindWorks Ventures and existing investors Fresco Capital and Wavemaker Partners, the Singapore-based startup said in a statement.

The money will be used to expand into Vietnam and Hong Kong, in addition to growing its product and engineering teams.

Launched in 2015, Glints combines the skills of experienced recruiters and technology by automating certain recruitment processes, such as candidate sourcing, matching and follow-ups. Recruiters will be able to match strong graduates with one of Glints’s employers for a good job opportunity.

The firm says it takes an end-to-end approach for potential candidates that goes beyond just sourcing profiles to actually developing candidate supply through training programs such as Glints Academy. The Academy is a coding bootcamp that trains young talent in Indonesia to become developers.

Also Read: Sources say Tokopedia is involved in a funding round for Sayurbox

The company’s clients include Go-Jek, FWD Insurance and UOB Bank. Glints claims its clients on an average make successful hires in 28 days compared to industry standards of 40-50 days, and with a lower cost.

Oswald Yeo, CEO and Co-founder of Glints, said: “We believe we have found the right growth model to solve the challenge of finding the best talent that is targeted, cost and time efficient for both clients and candidates. Employers have a tough time finding the right candidates on job portals and waste much time filtering through irrelevant applications. Traditional headhunters, while more effective, are too expensive for many employers, especially when they are hiring for junior to mid-level positions, which is especially common in Southeast Asia given its young workforce.”

Peng T. Ong, Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures, commented: “Employers are struggling to fill their vacancies with a shortage of skilled talent worldwide, and it is no exception in Southeast Asia. Glints has thought through the entire journey of someone who is looking for work or talent and has developed an end-to-end tech solution that meets the needs of both candidates and companies in Asia. The traction and strong growth we’ve seen is very exciting, which is why we decided to partner with Glints and lead the investment of their Series B round.”

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In addition to Bitcoin and Unicorn India Ventures, we also have updates from Beowulf and Moneythor

Bitcoin drops more than 10 per cent as cryptocurrency scrutiny continues – Reuters

Bitcoin slumped more than 10 per cent over the weekend as fears of cryptocurrency crackdown grew, Reuters reported.

Bitcoin fell 11.1 per cent from Friday to US$9,855 early on Monday. This figure is its lowest since July 2.

The drop is related to mounting scrutiny against Facebook’s upcoming Libra coin, which has been raising concerns from politicians and financial regulators across the world.

The concerns against the cryptocurrency range from consumer protection and privacy to potential systemic risks, given Facebook’s global reach.

Unicorn India Ventures launches second equity fund – Press Release

Mumbai-based venture capital fund Unicorn India Ventures announced the launch of its second equity fund for early stage startups.

The fund size is INR400 crore (US$58 million) and the first close is expected at INR150 crore (US$21 million) by the end-of-year.

It will look to invest in Pre-Series A and Series A funding rounds in sectors such as B2B, SaaS, fintech, healthtech, robotics, gaming, and digital content.

Also Read: eToro aims to make buying Bitcoin as easy as buying an Apple share

Mars Blockchain, Consentium invest in Beowulf – Deal Street Asia

Singapore-developed chat app Consentium and price-stable digital currency Mars Blockchain announced a seven-digit US Dollar investment into Beowulf, a decentralised cloud network for telecommunications, Deal Street Asia reported.

Beowulf is a platform that enables businesses to provide communication features without the typical barriers associated with call centres.

The company recently announced the launch of QUICKOM, a customisable and private QR code-based call service.

Moneythor opens office in Japan – Press Release

Digital banking solutions provider Moneythor today announced the opening of its newest office in Tokyo, Japan.

The Japanese subsidiary has been opened in response to rising needs in the country for digital banking
solutions.

“The Japanese market is going through a major stage of disruption and its renewed focus on digital banking makes it a very exciting market for us. By expanding our global footprint into Japan, we are confident that we can support financial institutions as they move towards digital banking by providing a simple and cost-effective banking channel that will drive online customer engagement,” said Moneythor CEO & Co-Founder Olivier Berthier in a press statement.

The company is headquartered in Singapore and has offices in Paris and London.

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Image Credit: Gratisography

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