Day: November 27, 2019

Yangon-based on-demand trucking start-up, Kone Si has received a six-digit investment for nationwide expansion from Yangon Capital Partners (YCP), a Myanmar-focused venture capital under Trust Venture Partners, a local financial advisory firm, and Nest Tech– a Vietnam-based venture capital company as reported by local media.

This is the second round of investment for Kone Si after it initially received pre-seed funding from Phandeeyar in 2017, which has invested in Kone Si and 16 other local companies since 2016.

The start-up is planning to use the new funding to boost its technology platform, acquire talent, and expand to other commercial cities around the country to strengthen its user base.

A Top 100 contender, the ecosystem of Kone Si comprises more than 100 business shippers and over 2000 truckers; it also has an average month over month sales growth of 30 percent.

Ma Zar Phyu Tint Lwint, CEO of Kone Si said that in addition to understanding the power paradigm between the customers and truck suppliers, knowing the logistics freight flows throughout the year in the country is critical as that can help partner truckers get return loads and operate efficiently.

Also read: Don’t sleep on them: Here are food tech startups from Cambodia, Myanmar that you should know about

Businesses in Myanmar face difficulty in outsourcing transportation to third parties due to unreliability, lack of standardised procedures and non-transparent pricing among truckers, according to Kone Si.

Moreover, due to fluctuating transport pricing controlled by large trucking groups as well as unethical working nature, small fleet owners and individual truckers have to struggle to get regular jobs. Kone Si aims to bridge the gap between shippers and small fleet truckers.

“The services designed by market-savvy management will bring down logistics cost, a bottleneck of business operation across industries, and eventually benefit consumers in Myanmar” said Shinsuke Goto, managing director of YCP.

Just last week, Emerging Markets Entrepreneurs (EME), an early-stage venture capital firm, had also announced during its anniversary celebration on November 20 that it had invested a six-figure and five-figure sum respectively into two local start-ups: Natural Farm Fresh, a local company producing high-quality solar-dried chili powder and other dried products, and Yangon Broom, a home-services firm offering on-demand services including cleaning and ironing to residential homes and businesses.

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AppWorks, Taiwan-based startup community that claims to be the region’s longest-running accelerator, announces 18 startups joining its 19th Demo Day. With a focus on AI and blockchain, the 18 founders that will pitch in the Demo Day today demonstrated experiments in the AI, IoT, and Blockchain frontiers.

The Ai-powered industries include real estate, finance, and medical science, with a total of 14 AI, IoT startups and four blockchain startups. Six of the founders featured are from Taiwan, and the other 12 come from around the world and Greater Southeast Asia (GSEA), with half of the founders are serial entrepreneurs, bringing backgrounds in tech companies like Google, Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, Agoda, IBM Watson, Initium Media, and PepsiCo.

After spending four months development in Taiwan, the pitching by founders only will happen in front of the investors and potential corporate partners from Taiwan and Southeast Asia, including investment professionals and executives from Fubon Financial Holdings, Taiwan Mobile, Cathay Life Insurance, Wistron Corporation, Hungtai Group, UDN, FarEasTone, as well as Taiwan’s National Development Council, and more, seeking an opportunity for investment and business collaboration for these founders.

Also Read: E-scooter-sharing platform Telepod raises funding led by SMRT’s corporate VC and incubator

With Taiwan as a launchpad, the products from these 18 startups are ready to be pushed into new markets for potential accelerated growth throughout the region.

• Telepod, an EV smart mobility startup based in Singapore with a mission to bring transport efficiency and climate harm reduction to cities in developing Southeast Asia markets. The startup was founded by Jin-Ni Gan, who claimed that it has shipped her EV smart mobility devices and battery kiosks to seven markets.
• Matters, a Hong Kong blockchain startup that enables content providers to be paid for their content, rather than to have their content and revenue opportunities that are often dependant on advertising algorithms and walled social media. The startup was founded by Annie Zhang that claimed to have scaled to over 20,000 customers during the accelerator session.
• Beseye, a startup that provides wifi-managed AI cameras allows the scanning of the movement of people near railway tracks to prevent accidents. The startup was founded by Shaq Tu, claimed to have already booked giant Tokyo Railways as a client.
• SELF TOKEN, Taiwan-based blockchain digital assets through Ethereum Smart Contracts that’s committed to creating an ecosystem of immersive entertainment experiences. Founder Jack Hsu also directed “The Last Thieves”, the world’s first film based on Blockchain.
• WeavAir, sensors and analytics company started by Singularity University graduate Dr. Natalia Mykhalova. The company uses AI and IoT sensors to build a recurring revenue business model that helps developers and landlords pinpoint trouble spots in their building control systems.
• Arical, a startup that’s co-founded by San Wong and Clement Tien from Hong Kong, is a platform that plans to “unlock the potential of property development.” Their 3-D AI envisioning tool enables clients like Henderson Land to spend only a few hours to map out hundreds of possibilities for designing buildings, as they have done recently in a project in Manila, the Philippines.
• Fourcons, Indonesia-based construction equipment platform started by founder Felix Hartantio. Fourcons provides an AI-driven platform for finding, verifying, and managing construction equipment.
• Blyng, an AI virtual assistant in real estate created by co-founder Julien Priour. It helps agencies cut down on missed opportunities in qualifying inbound leads.
• OnMyGrad, a career development, and workforce transition co-founded by Clement Tien and Anthony So, from Hong Kong. It works with recruiters to help students prepare for roles in several industries.
• KaChick, a platform for sourcing authentic photography from over 1,500 amateur and professional photographers, and have taken steps to pair those media assets with brands in the hospitality and entertainment space to drive more engaging marketing and branding campaigns at lower margin cost. The startup’s co-founders Peggy Cheung and Larry Lam.
• Dent & Co, a medical services AI chatbot created by dentist Steve Chu.
• Fluv, a pet care platform for local pet parents and sitters, is being demonstrated by former PepsiCo marketing staffer Candace Chen.
• Mellow, an app to help young people and families manage finances created by first-time founders Chester Szeen and Teresa Chan from Hong Kong. It enables children to use their “first money” through debit card usage and parent-regulated accounting.
• Dapp Pocket, a crypto wallet app created by Anderson Chen that’s in the vertical of payments.
• Portto, a blockchain startup created by three former members of the crypto company Cobinhood promises to make the KYC and onboarding process for using Blockchain simpler.
• Whoopee Robot, an AI/IoT startup created by founder Morris Lu, is now operating in five local shops and has served over 10,000 cups of robotically-delivered espresso beverages.
• SparkAmplify, an AI-powered PR service founded by Chien Lee that delivers an automated public relations system for clients.
• Gigvvy Science, a platform for speeding up the sluggish vetting and reviewing of critical science research co-founded by New Zealand-based co-founders Lisa Hsu and Mark Mai.

AppWorks Chairman and Partner Jamie Lin said at the opening of the event:
“Of the 31 teams that were admitted to the AW#19 program, 19 are working with AI/IoT, 10 with Blockchain/Crypto, and 2 are incorporating both technologies. What’s more, 23 per cent of founders from this batch are female, which marks one of our highest percentages in recent years. With the addition of the graduates from AW#19, there are now a total of 376 active startups and 1,113 founders in the AppWorks Ecosystem.”

Also Read: Our TOP100 Taiwan champion says let’s bring chatbots to real estate!

Founded in 2009, AppWorks is a startup community built by founders, for founders. With its commitment to mentorship, investment, and talent, AppWorks said it has established a one-stop-shop for founders willing to drive a change they see in the world through its three primary lines of service: Accelerator, Funds, and School.
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ADBRO, the Malaysia-based adtech startup that specialises in in-image programmatic marketing for publishers and advertisers, announces that it has secured financing from 500 Startups.

“Our next goal is to expand throughout the entire APAC. With a total of nearly US$100 billion in digital spend, 70 to 80 per cent will be spent on programmatic,” said Artem Titov, ADBRO Co-founder, and CEO. “The move from direct deals between advertisers and publishers to programmatic guarantees advertisers that their ads are only linked to premium content while allowing publishers to generate more revenue.”

According to Binh Tran, General Partner, 500 Startups Vietnam, adtech remains an area of interest in Southeast Asia due to the relatively nascent digital marketing ecosystem. “By leveraging computer vision and AI, ADBRO has helped marketers create premium ads that lead the market in engagement. By working closely with marketers to classify and understand images differently in each market, they have developed a deep understanding of consumer engagement that won’t be easily replicated”, said Binh.

Claiming to be the first to apply computer vision to serve ads in the region, ADBRO provides advertisers with ways to reach and engage their audiences. Using eye-tracking research, the computer vision feature enhances ad delivery by doubling the viewability, CTR, and video engagement rates as compared to traditional display options.

Also Read: E-pharmacy startup Gmedes raises funding led by 500 Startups, to boost G-MEDS service in the region

Founded in 2017 during YC School program, ADBRO serves the marketing tech sector by providing computer vision enhanced ads that are placed over contextually relevant images across publishers in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. ADBRO’s proprietary technologies in computer vision and machine learning is used to scan articles, images, and other content types, bringing programmatically accessible in-image formats for advertisers.

The company is headquartered in Singapore, with three operational offices across Southeast Asia and development hubs in the Netherlands and Russia. Its investors include Future Matters and PilotX venture capital funds.
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Photo by Tran Mau Tri Tam on Unsplash

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Startups are growing at an unprecedented rate in the Philippines. The country has welcomed numerous fintech startups and celebrated funding rounds for remittance, healthtech, and logistics startups.

However, when it comes to foodtech startups, the country may not have a similar problem faced by other countries in the region where food startups are part of its citizen’s daily lifestyles. The closest similarities the Philippines may have in terms of its need for accessible, one-tap-away food service is with Indonesia, where it shares complex archipelago and traffic nightmares.

In the food and tech area, it seems like the Philippines might take its sweet time as we uncover these six local food startups.

Good Meal Hunting

Described itself as “an online food marketplace for home-cooked meals”, Good Meal Hunting provides options of a freshly-made, hearty meal cooked in gourmet style.

According to its official website, the startup empowers its kitchen merchants to manage their own food business out of the comfort of their homes and fully handles the logistical and technical aspects of food business, from providing food containers to coordinating with delivery services.

According to an article by Rappler, the startup also provides caterings for company events and parties, all done with a mission to empower home cooks in the Philippines.

Also Read: These agritech startups might be the next big thing in the Philippines

LalaFood

In an article by Spot PH, LalaFood was considered a newcomer in the food startup scene, especially in the heavily-congested Philippines. LalaFood lets users track their meal delivery and guarantees delivery in 45 minutes or less with no minimum order required.

The concept of LalaFood is obviously nothing new, but its presence definitely boosts a variety of the online platform for food delivery in the country, aside from the market leaders GrabFood and FoodPanda.

Delivery Guy

Launched in 2018, Delivery Guy is what its name suggests, a Filipino-owned delivery app. The startup was co-founded by logistics-background Neil Castillo, and his wife Finina Marie Tugade-Castillo.

According to an article by Rappler, Delivery Guy promises a delivery time of 60 minutes or under, within a 3-kilometer radius. The service also features delivery tracking, including a delivery journal that informs users what stage of preparation their order is.

In an article by Rappler, Castillo said that their strategy for restaurant partnerships leans more toward careful curation rather than having thousands of restaurants onboard to ensure every merchant gets distributed and exposed.

Mangan.PH

According to its website, Mangan.PH is an online food delivery service app that caters to Pampanga, the Culinary Capital of the Philippines. It offers a guarantee of delivery time under 60 minutes.

Also Read: Food Runner makes a dash for the Philippines by acquiring City Delivery

Restograph

Unlike its fellow food startups, Restograph is a new Philippines-based business intelligence software platform that helps restaurant owners store and analyse their legacy and offline PoS (Point of Sales) data to create actionable insights to increase sales.

In an interview with e27, Brian Dimarucot, Co-founder of Restograph explained about the company: “Restograph grabs your PoS data, translates that into something useful and delivers it in such a way that it’s easy to understand.”

Booky

Booky was founded by an Englishman Ben Wintle, who created Booky when he and his girlfriend, a well-known Filipino model and actress Iza Calzado, encountered a problem to find restaurants fast due to the Philippines’ poor Internet service.

According to an article by Rappler, Booky allows users to search for restaurants even if they are not online. Wintle explained that it works just like the influence Contacts list on the phone.
Using the search bar, users can search for restaurants by location, restaurant name, or cuisine.

By allowing the app to access users’ location, users can also search for restaurants “nearby” with an offline phone, showcasing restaurants within at least 500 meters distance.

Targeting food lovers, the app allows users to report incorrect information and share details on Facebook. The app offers free and premium content, wherein users can sign up for paid service to get more deals.

Philippines’ food scene is definitely not the main tech sector for the country at the moment given how locals already are used to GrabFood, Foodpanda, and Honestbee rather than starting a local operation with more Filipino roots. This leaves a vacant spot for potential local startups focussing on the Philippines and its food scene.

With food delivery, restaurant booking, and restaurant management apps already available, it remains fascinating to watch the sector closely for the next innovation.
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Photo by Eiliv-Sonas Aceron on Unsplash

The post Eating your way in the Philippines: These 6 food startups can kickstart your foodies journey in the country appeared first on e27.

Ministry of Movement Pte. Ltd. (SWAT), an on-demand transport technology startup that pools passengers in high-capacity vehicles to route them to offer the highest utilisation rates and service levels has closed US$10 million in its Series A funding.

The funding is led by the University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC), joined by investors include new investors SMRT Momentum Ventures, ComfortDelGro Ventures, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) New Ventures, EDB Investments, and LKJ Capital Japan. Pre-Series A investors iGlobe Platinum Fund II Pte. Ltd. and the Goldbell Group family office reinvested in this round.

SWAT said it plans to use the funds to grow and expand overseas. This investment will allow the company to tread new business verticals and establish its position as an intelligent transport technology provider in the region.

“SWAT is focussed on providing efficient transport for commuters through ride pooling in high-capacity vehicles. We see a need for such shared transport, especially in areas where the transport system has not caught up with rapid urbanisation and high population density,” said Jarrold Ong, Co-founder, and CEO of SWAT.

Ong continued: “Our solutions are designed to improve connectivity and reduce congestion within cities.”

Also Read: (Exclusive) Singapore startup SWAT raises US$2.2M to expand minibus ride-sharing services locally

Founded in September 2015, SWAT launched Asia’s first-ever dynamic on-demand bus service in Singapore the following year.

The company currently provides on-demand employee transportation for large corporations and industrial parks with operations in Singapore and Vietnam. It also operates an on-demand public bus service in Australia, providing first/last-mile connection from North-West Sydney to the new Sydney Metro.

Earlier this year, SWAT also conducted the Singapore Land Transport Authority’s public on-demand bus trials.

SWAT said it differs from ride-hailing services most people are familiar with, in that its algorithm allows for ridesharing, or essentially car-pooling, in vehicles of varying passenger capacity.

SWAT is set to launch projects in Japan, China, the Philippines, and Indonesia by the first half of 2020. As part of its expansion, SWAT also plans to support the growth of its commercial operations by boosting internal tech, data, and engineering teams, streamlining operations and increasing marketing activities.
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