Singapore-based e-commerce company Qoo10 has acquired ShopClues, an online marketplace in India, for US$70-100 million, The Economic Times reports.

This an all-stock deal is the culmination of a prolonged hunt for a buyer by ShopClues, which at its peak was valued at US$1.1 billion in late 2015, says the report citing three unnamed sources.

ShopClues has confirmed the development to ET.

The deal is not completed yet. As part of the buyout, Qoo10 will also acquire Momoe, the payments arm of Clues Network, parent of ShopClues.

Qoo10 operates localised online marketplaces across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Hong Kong.

ShopClues was founded in 2011 by Sandeep Aggarwal. Unlike other marketplaces, which tend to focus on mobile, electronics, computers and branded fashion, ShopClues mainly focusses on unstructured categories. The firm is backed by GIC, Tiger Global, and Nexus Venture Partners.

The e-commerce company had a tumultuous past as its co-founders fought with each other over several issues, including an illicit relationship. In September 2017, Sandeep filed first information report or FIR (the equivalent of Writ of Petition) against his co-founder-wife Radhika Aggarwal and CEO Sanjay Sethi, accusing them of criminal conspiracy to kick him out of the company.

Also Read: These early-stage funding rounds have made October the busiest time of the year

This came almost six months after Aggarwal accused Radhika of stripping his voting rights at the company and having an illicit relationship with Sethi. In a series of Facebook posts, he had also accused her of “intentionally and deliberately kicking out other founding team members by collaborating with once illicit love affair partner” and “changing web history, tempering with Wikipedia and lying in the press.”

The problem between the couple started when Sandeep, a former equity analyst at US-based financial services firm Collins Stewart, was arrested in 2013 by the FBI over insider trading charges. According to the investigation agency, Sandeep tipped off Richard Lee, a portfolio manager at hedge fund SAC Capital about a pending deal between Microsoft and Yahoo. Sandeep was consequently banned by the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) from trading after he pleaded guilty. He was later released on a US$500,000 bond until trial.

After a few months, he came back to India. Upon his return, he found something wrong in the company and that his wife deliberately avoided him. He grew suspicious about her behaviour, as she appeared more close to Sethi.

Sandeep claims that he founded ShopClues in 2010 using his personal savings. Radhika and Sethi were hired later as Vice Presidents. Sethi was later inducted as Co-founder. When Sandeep was arrested in the US, he nominated Sethi as the new CEO to the Board and Radhika to be a Board member.

When he came back to India in August 2014, Sandeep claims, he found that ShopClues changed Sandeep’s right to nominate a board member way back in April 2014 and he was kept in dark by the two.

The post Singapore’s Qoo10 acquires India’s ShopClues, once a Unicorn, for less than US$100M appeared first on e27.

Helpling, the online marketplace for household services, announces that it has secured US$22 million investment from ProSiebenSat.1, a European media group. Lakestar and Mangrove Capital also come back to invest in this round.

Collectively, Helpling claimed that it has raised a total of US$97 million in funding since launching in early 2014. It entered Singapore in 2015 via the acquisition of a local business called Spickify.

The company said it will use the new investment to drive growth and expansion across additional verticals.

Philip Huffmann, Co-Founder of Helpling said: “The investment is an important step towards Helpling becoming the hub for all home services. We will now move to the next phase of enabling as many people as possible to find and provide help at home.”

Also Read: Sendhelper wants US$300K to take on Helpling in Singapore

Helpling is a platform that connects households with adjacent service providers such as air conditioning servicing, laundry, and furniture assembling. On the website or via the app, customers can book a vetted and insured cleaner and gain back free time within a couple of clicks.

In the Asia Pacific, the company has established firm market strongholds in Singapore and Australia- with plans to expand into new markets.

James Lim, Managing Director of Helpling Asia Pacific: “The Singapore business has grown 15 folds since its launch and is still one of the fastest-growing markets within the Helpling Group.”

For service providers, the platform makes it easier to access new clients and to manage when and where they want to work.

Helpling was founded in early 2014 by Benedikt Franke and Philip Huffmann. Among its investors are Mangrove Capital, Lakestar, APACIG, Rocket Internet and Unilever Ventures.

Also Read: Household services marketplace Helpling raises funding from Swiss media group

Helpling said that its main markets are Germany and Singapore at the forefront of its innovation. Currently, Helpling offers its services in 10 countries: Australia, Germany, Italy, France, Ireland, UK, UAE, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Singapore.
–

The post Helpling raises US$22M investment from a European media group, adding new business verticals appeared first on e27.

SoftBank wires US$1.5B to WeWork before cash runs out [Bloomberg]

WeWork said it received an early payment of US$1.5 billion from SoftBank Group, as the co-working company was weeks away from running out of money.

As a result, a slate of governance changes went into effect Wednesday, including the replacement of co-founder Adam Neumann as chairman and the assignment of five board seats to SoftBank, which will take a majority stake. WeWork also said it appointed a new independent director to the board, Jeff Sine, co-founder of financial firm Raine Group.

“This financing package enables the company to accelerate the path to profitability,” Marcelo Claure, WeWork’s new executive chairman, said in a statement.

Child Health Imprints raises US$2.3M in pre-Series A funding [press release]

Child Health Imprints (CHIL), a Singapore-based company focusing on neonatal-clinical care improvement, today announced that it has raised US$2.4 million in pre-Series A funding, led by HealthXCapital, with participation from Enterprise SG and other HNIs.

CHIL is engaged in the development and application of cutting-edge informational and computational technologies including IoT, Artificial Intelligence and predictive analytics to the practice of medicine in neonatal intensive care units across the world with the objective of making an early diagnosis of critical diseases and improving the overall quality of healthcare which is being provided to neonates.

The CHIL cloud platform (iNICU) also integrates laboratory results, and bedside clinical observations. It then analyses the data in medically comprehensive formats leveraging Machine Learning and Deep Learning technologies, which
enhances the overall quality of healthcare provided to neonates in NICUs. Post-discharge of baby from NICU, discharge data is pushed into iCHR (integrated Child Health Record). It automates growth monitoring, prescription and lab investigations, vaccination record & scheduler for the child.

MX Player raises US$110M from Tencent, Times Internet [press release]

MX Player, a video player and video OTT platform in India, has received US$110 million in fresh funding from Tencent and Times Internet. The deal marks Tencent’s second investment into a Times Internet asset, after it invested in Gaana, the music streaming platform, in 2018.

Since its formal OTT launch in February 2019, MX Player claims to have bagged over 175 million monthly active users in India and over 275 million monthly active users worldwide. Its OTT service is now live in 5 countries.

In 2018, Times Internet acquired a majority stake in MX Player, which was then a video playback app, from Chinese mobile games firm Zenjoy, which continues to be a shareholder.

Singapore’s ST Telemedia leads US$40M funding in Big Data firm Datameer [DealStreetAsia]

Temasek-backed investor ST Telemedia had led a US$40-million funding round in Datameer, a San Francisco-based big data analytics and visualisation company that seeks to build out its global sales and engineering capabilities.

In a statement, Datameer said its existing investor ST Telemedia was joined by shareholders Redpoint Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Nextworld Capital, Citi Ventures, and Top Tier Capital Partners in the funding round.

The company said it will use the fresh funding to expand its capabilities in the enterprise data preparation and exploration market and to finance the market introduction of its Neebo solution. Neebo is a cloud-native self-service solution that allows teams of analytics and data scientists to create, discover, use and share trusted assets in hybrid landscapes, Datameer said.

Mitsui to manufacture electric vehicle motors in India [press release]

Mitsui & Co. plans to build a US$14 million plant to manufacture electric vehicle (EV) motors in India, in partnership with leading Taiwanese motor manufacturer TECO Electric & Machinery.

The plant, in Bengaluru, Karnataka state, is expected to commence full production by the end of next year, generating 110,000 high-efficiency motors per year.

The investment is being made by a joint venture, TEMICO, set up in April 2018 by Mitsui (40 per cent) and TECO (60 per cent) to pursue the development, manufacturing, and sales of EV motors and EV powertrains globally.

Shinichiro Omachi, Managing Director of Mitsui & Co. India said: “The plant creates 200 jobs and will contribute to the growth of India’s EV industry, local manufacturing and reducing air pollution. Sustainability and mobility are key growth areas for Mitsui and we are investing more in EV businesses as the world moves towards a low-carbon society.”

The joint venture will establish a local company, TEMICO India, to build the plant, which will produce EV traction motor for electric vehicles.

The plant is Mitsui’s second major EV venture in India following its investment in SmartE, India’s first and largest three-wheeler electric mobility service, in July.

The post Today’s top tech news: SoftBank wires US$1.5B to WeWork before cash runs out; CHIL, MX Player raise funding appeared first on e27.

The post Google’s best leaders use this simple tool to show care and concern for their employees appeared first on e27.

From hyper-personalisation, predictive analytics, content creation to fraud detection, we are seeing AI creep into our daily lives as both advertisers and consumers. According to Gartner’s survey of CIOs, “14 per cent of organisations employ AI and 50 per cent intend to do so in 2020”. 

At its core, AI pertains to the use of machines and their ability to continuously learn and solve problems. Algorithmic advances in AI like deep learning came at the right time for mobile advertising, these advanced techniques are immensely powerful and are capable of capturing complex non-intuitive patterns.

The key driver for AI is the huge amount of training data* and in mobile advertising, there are numerous touchpoints gain through views and engagements with users.

Hyper-personalisation

When one draws the progression of mobile advertising, it started with broadcasting common messages to all users, it then changed to targeting specific segments based on demographics like age, gender and location, with the help of AI mobile advertisement has now moved to hyper-personalization where decisions are made at the individual user level.

Also Read: A glimpse into the future of mobile crypto microtransactions

Hyper-personalisation means targeting the right user at the right time on the right channel with the right message. Hyper-personalisation creates a win-win situation for user and advertiser. 

Right channel: Mobile advertisement covers channels like search, display, video, social, push notifications, in-app notifications, text messages, emails etc. Each channel is unique in terms of visual appearance, cost, engagement potential and reach**. Different users have a different affinity towards each of these channels. AI helps to predict user affinity at the channel level and target accordingly. 

Right message: Message in Mobile advertisement context means content which includes text, images etc and creative which includes colour, design, look and feel etc. Traditionally advertisers have used intuition to come up with messages, it then moved to A/B test where again the evaluation is done at a set of users.

AI is able to proactively predict right messages for a user based on its demographics and previous interactions. AI goes one step further and is able to recommend user-specific cross-sell and upsell messages. Advanced AI techniques work on the principle of exploring and exploit this enables AI to correct mistakes and adapt to the changing optimal based on data. 

Ad fraud 

Ad Fraud is an increasing problem for the ad industry, eating into the ad budgets.  Some of these frauds come innocently in typically free applications, sometimes secretly displaying ads that are hidden to the user clicks on the ads, installs applications and even makes fake engagements.

All of these add to the costs that advertisers will have to pay to these non-human engagements. Ad fraud is like virus scanning, fraudsters are always coming up with ingenious ways of getting past fraud tools and systems. AI algorithms can learn the organic behaviour basis time of day, age, gender, location and other behavioural patterns and in real-time flag any anomalies.

We believe AI today has just scratched the surface in mobile advertising and the future has much more in store. 

Breaking siloed systems 

Advertisers have understood the value of Mobile Advertising and are spending huge budgets non-different channels with multiple teams. There are separate teams for social, user acquisitions, re-marketing and CRM marketing.

Today each of this channel is running individually in their own capacity, though each channel adds individual value they at some point are cannibalizing each other, plus there are many intuitive and non-intuitive synergies between these channels that exist and are not leveraged.

Also Read:  A call to end gatekeeping in Asias crypto community

Trivial synergies like use free channel before paid channel are easy to appreciate but there are many non-trivial synergies which go beyond intuition. We believe these siloed efforts have to come together. 

A common AI system which uses transfer learning where learnings from a single AI model can be used to train a second model. This shortens the time for the machine to learn, increase the pace of the learning, shortening the cost and ultimately improving user experiences.

Mobile advertisement for offline commerce 

On average people spend more than 3 hours a day on mobile and yet 90% of the commerce happens offline. Advertisers from offline commerce are already using mobile advertising focused on deriving footfall to offline stores and bringing offline users online. AI using hyper-personalization can solve both the use cases effectively.

AI is changing our world today, it already is with computers becoming beating grand-masters in chess, the game of go, becoming better than humans at detecting images, and detecting speech. 

All of this is powered with Moores law, whereby 2023, it is arguably said that it will approach the computational power of a human brain and by 2045 the computational power of all human brains combined.  While it is arguable that algorithms will be as efficient at the brain, there will be no doubt huge improvements in the capability of machines.

Hyper-personalisation is here to stay and will become more intelligent in the future, in predicting our needs and to become more relevant and serendipitous to us all.

* Training data is the one on which we train and fit our model basically to fit the parameters 

** Reach means how many unique users can be targeted using this channel 

–

Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit:  Will Francis

The post How AI is changing mobile advertising in 2019 appeared first on e27.

While the fintech sector continued to become a prima donna in the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem –considering the number of fintech companies that announced their funding rounds each month– the month of October also brought forth plenty of exciting new sectors to consider.

Within one week, we even saw two funding announcements from New Protein companies. These announcements indicated a greater appetite to invest in companies that are working in solutions to save the environment –for example, by developing the alternative to conventional meat.

Another unique, unheard of sector is maritime tech, which we saw one funding announcement of.

The following is a list of the early-stage funding round that we manage to cover in October:

Milleu Insight
Funding round: US$2.4 million pre-Series A
Investor(s): MassMutual Ventures

With the new funds, the Singapore-based analytics startup aims to expand into four new markets in Southeast Asia: Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Also Read: As September ends, wake up to these notable early stage funding rounds of the month

Paper.id
Funding stage: Undisclosed Series A
Investor(s): Golden Gate Ventures, Modalku

The Indonesian SaaS platform plans to use the funding to improve its digital invoicing and bookkeeping system.

Crewdible
Funding stage: US$1.5 million in pre-Series A
Investor(s): Global Founders Capital

The Indonesian micro-warehousing platform will use the funding to build a stronger presence in big cities across the country, marketing efforts, and most importantly to improve the platform to support massive traffic and other needs.

Edukasyon.ph
Funding round: Undisclosed Series A
Investor(s): EduLab Capital Partners, Obunsha Ventures, Alternate Ventures, Foxmont Capital Partners, Lorinet Foundation, French Partners, First Asia Venture Capital, and KSR Ventures

Since its launch in 2015, Edukasyon.ph has enabled access to education for about 10 million visitors annually.

Yummy Corp
Funding round: US$7.75 million in Series A
Investor(s): SMDV (Sinarmas Digital Ventures), Intudo Ventures, East Ventures, Agaeti Ventures, Sovereign’s Capital, and Selera Kapital by Sour Sally Group

With this investment, Yummy Corp said it is targeting 200 locations for the year 2020 across Jakarta and other major cities in Indonesia.

Also Read: 5 valuable things I learned about the angel investment and early stage funding scene in Southeast Asia

GDP
Funding round: US$1 million in Seed
Investor(s): Angel investors

Singapore-headquartered fintech startup GDP Inc. has already established offices in five locations (Singapore, The Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Estonia) and soon to be in Hong Kong and China.

Ento
Funding round: Undisclosed Seed
Investor(s): Rapzo Capital (lead)

Malaysian new protein startup Ento said that the funding will be used for production and regional market expansion.

RoomMe
Funding round: Undisclosed Series A
Investor(s): BAce Capital

Indonesia-based co-living startup RoomMe is BAce’s first known investment in Indonesia.

Fuse
Funding round: Undisclosed Series A
Investor(s): EV Growth

The Indonesian insurtech startup said that it raises “a couple of million” US dollars, aimed at helping it expands to eight major cities in the country.

StickEarn
Funding round: US$5.5 million in Series A
Investor(s): East Ventures, SMDV, Grab, OVO, Agaeti Ventures

The Indonesian O2O adtech startup said that the funding will enable it to “explore new opportunities from different verticals and enhance its data and analytics capabilities.”

MyCash
Funding round: Undisclosed Seed
Investor(s): 500 Startups, Ng Sek San

The Singapore- and Malaysia-based fintech startup will use the investment to acquire remittance licenses in the two countries.

Also Read: Early stage fundraising: What it takes to win over investors that best fit your team

Cricket One
Funding round: Undisclosed Seed
Investor(s): 500 Startups, Masik Enterprises

Vietnam-based new protein startup Cricket One plans to use the funding for further R&D and study of the cricket protein structure.

Yours
Funding: US$3.5 million in Seed
Investor(s): Surge, Global Founders Capital, Kindred Ventures, and an undisclosed celebrity fund

The Singapore-based personalised skincare startup plans to use the funding to focus on improving computer vision and Machine Learning to achieve personalisation at scale.

Sampingan
Funding: US$1.5 million in pre-Series A
Investor(s): Golden Gate Ventures (lead), Antler

Indonesia-based on-demand workforce platform Sampingan plans to use the money to expand operations by providing businesses with more extensive options to scale.

Claritecs
Funding: US$600,000 in pre-Series A
Investor(S): INNOPORT, Bernhard Schulte, angel investor

The Singapore-based maritime tech startup will use the funding to support product development and market roll-out.

FazWaz
Funding: “seven figure” pre-Series A
Investor(s): Undisclosed

The Thailand-based proptech company will use the funding to expand its market share in Thailand and to continue its overseas expansion into the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

NuSpace
Funding: Undisclosed Seed
Investor(s): BEENEXT

NuSpace, a Singapore-based nano-satellite company that provides IoT connectivity and data platform services, stated that the funding will help “accelerate momentum” for their product launch.

Autify
Funding: US$2.5 million in Seed
Investor(s): Global Brain Corporation, Salesforce Ventures, Archetype Ventures Inc., individual investors

Autify, the AI-powered software testing automation platform, plans to use the seed funding to reinforce product development and sales systems, as well as to explore the international market.

Also Read: A look into one of the most active early stage VC firms this year

Zipmex
Funding: US$3 million in pre-Series A
Investor(s): Infinity Blockchain Holdings

Zipmex, a Singapore-based currency exchange focussed on providing retail and institutional investors the ability to invest securely in cryptocurrencies, plans to accelerate its Asia Pacific expansion plans.

—

Image Credit: You X Ventures on Unsplash

The e27 Startup Database connects the community to the hottest internet companies in Asia. We encourage startups to visit their profile and regularly update their information.

The post These early stage funding rounds have made October the busiest time of the year appeared first on e27.

Standard Chartered opens second eXellerator in Hong Kong- Press release
Standard Chartered opened its second eXellerator innovation lab in Hong Kong to inculcate an innovative culture across the Bank and to engage the fintech ecosystem to develop innovative solutions that meet the evolving banking needs of clients.

eXellerator will focus on leveraging emerging technologies and co-creating solutions for corporate, commercial and institutional banking clients. It aims to become a focal point for engagement with the stakeholders of the Hong Kong fintech ecosystem like regulators, government-backed organisations, business partners, clients, and technology companies.

Alex Manson, Global Head of SC Ventures, said: “The new eXellerator lab location in Central gets us to the heart of it [Hong Kong’s fintech ecosystem] and we look forward to many more engagements and partnerships.”

OBOR Capital invests in Cambodia’s Delishop.Asia- Press release

OBOR Capital closed an early-stage equity fundraising deal with Delishop.Asia, an online supermarket that is set to transform online shopping experience in Cambodia.

Funds raised will be utilised for developing a more user-centric and scalable web portal, as well as Android and iOS Apps, which are scheduled to be launched by the end of the year. They will also develop backend technologies for supply-chain management.

Additionally, funds will be used to purchase new motorcycles and to cover driver-training programmes as Delishop.Asia scales its business within Phnom Penh and towards newer frontiers in Cambodia.OBOR Capital’s investment includes fresh capital injection and acquisition of secondary shares.

OBOR Capital’s portfolio company CamboTicket has also acquired a minority stake in the business. As part of the deal, OBOR Capital and CamboTicket will provide strategic support to Delishop.Asia in some key functional areas.

Julien Nguyen, CEO, and Founder of Delishop.Asia exclaimed: “I am very excited to partner with OBOR Capital for our next phase of growth. The funds will be used to strengthen our team, offer more top quality products and improve user experience. OBOR Capital’s hands-on approach towards its investments is what we are looking for in an investor at this stage of our company’s lifecycle.”

Also read: Asia is giving the West a run for its money says Alex Manson of Standard Chartered’s investment arm

TikTok owner ByteDance to ramp up global operations before IPO- DealStreetAsia

ByteDance, owner of the popular video app TikTok is focused on hiring staff to beef up its international operations before considering an initial public offering in the US or Hong Kong in the near future according to a DealStreetAsia report.

It is considering Hong Kong as a listing destination but any float remains a long-term objective given ByteDance remains well-funded and still needs to hire a chief financial officer, the people said, stating its a private matter. On Tuesday, the company denied a Financial Times report that it planned a Hong Kong IPO in the first quarter.

One of the perennial issues for investors is its lack of a Chinese news-publishing license, which the company is trying to overcome by strictly adhering to news aggregating and diversifying into short video entertainment apps. ByteDance is unlikely to rush into an IPO in the middle of a bitter trade war and rising scrutiny from Washington.

Two US senators have urged investigations into TikTok, calling it a national security threat. “TikTok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a letter Thursday to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.

Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit

Google owner Alphabet Inc has made an offer to acquire US wearable device maker Fitbit said Reuters. Google has joined Apple and Samsung Electronics in developing smartphones, but it has yet to develop any wearable offerings. Fitbit’s fitness trackers monitor users’ daily steps, calories burned and distance traveled. They also measure floors climbed, sleep duration and quality, and heart rate.

There is no certainty that the negotiations between Google and Fitbit will lead to any deal, the sources said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential. The exact price that Google has offered for Fitbit could not be learned.

Google and Fitbit declined to comment. Nevertheless, Fitbit shares rose 27% on the news, giving the company a market capitalization of $1.4 billion. Alphabet shares rose 2% to $1,293.49.

A deal for Fitbit would come as its dominant share of the fitness tracking sector continues to be chipped away by cheaper offerings from companies such as China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK).

The post Today’s Tech News: Stan C’s second eXellerator, Google’s parent wants to buy Fitbit appeared first on e27.

Orange you glad Apple cares about education?

Are you familiar with the three apples that changed the world?

First, the forbidden fruit from Adam & Eve’s story, then the apple that gave Newton a concussion (and later, gravity), and lastly Steve Jobs’ half-bitten apple.

Although in retrospect, the people wielding the fate of these apples were more responsible for the changes than mere fruit.

For optimists, it’s apparent that we hold the reins of our own future — albeit unknown — and technology is just a tool we need to navigate through this unknown future. Therefore, immersing it into our education system is vital and urgent.

Recently, e27 sat in for Apple’s Edtech talk centred around how education policies, institutes and new collaborative initiatives could help Singaporean students develop the digital skills they needed to succeed in the future workforce.

Apple was represented by Lisa Jackson, the VP of environment, policy and social initiatives. Guests included Professor Chong Tow Chong from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Helen Souness from RMIT online, Denise Phua from Pathlight School and Ong Ye Kung, Singapore’s Minister for Education.

Here’s what we gathered from the event.

Autism and coding

It’s clear that the world is rapidly changing, but the fact that it’s still a ‘world’ remains constant.

A ‘world’ encompasses all the people and societies of the earth — including the special needs community. And, the future does not discriminate. Everyone, regardless of background, will need to be prepared for it.

Pathlight School recognises this and seeks to future-ready its autistic students for the demands of an ever electrifying, ever ‘technifying’ world.

Arm-in-arm with Apple certified trainers, the school will run the Swift Accelerator programme for a selected group of students aged 13-18. The 144-hour coding programme will help deepen the skills and competencies of these interested and talented students.

Pathlight also has its six-year-old IT & Design Academy that was launched to stimulate students’ natural interest and aptitude for IT. The programme exposes students, as young as seven, to ICT skills via a slew of engaging techniques like learning to code with angry birds or expressing creativity through design and digital media.

Denise Phua said that Pathlight strongly advocates for the “nobody left behind” rule and that they are very heartened by this thoughtful and inclusive collaboration with Apple.

“Not just to survive, but to thrive” were Denise’s passionate parting words that fully encapsulated Pathlight’s strong conviction and commitment to upskilling its students for the digital age.

Advancing the curriculum

Education-meets-technology has to be the greatest crossover since The Jeffersons met The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Tech is woven so intricately into the fabric of our lives that not being able to comprehend it would mean missing out on a major part of the esteemed human experience.

Mr Ong Ye Kung compared the digital language to English, explaining that digital literacy was a growingly significant mode of communication. He stressed that in order to enjoy a pleasant co-existence with technology, we had to “demystify it” first — and we all know that impressionable young minds are the perfect busting grounds for myths.

Also Read: Hostel startup Tribe Theory secures US$739,165 seed funding from Aurum Investments

Echoing his sentiments was Ms Lisa Jackson as she described coding as the “language of the future” and a skill that should be accessible to everyone.

Coupling the thought of accessibility with the pressing need for technological intervention, the Ministry of Education has partnered with Apple to see through programs like Everyone Can Code, Swift, Swift Playgrounds and even Teacher Guides. These programmes are all engineered to ease coding into the classroom setting for the benefit of both student and teacher.

In particular, App Development with Swift has been newly expanded across more schools in Singapore for students to build iOS apps from scratch. This presents a huge opportunity for budding app designers to cash in on a market that virtually enables their ideas to reach millions.

Everyone should have the opportunity to change everything and Edtech provides just that.

Adapting to the world

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it”. This is a communal principle that Einstein and the many adults who are avidly interested in app design and development share.

Fortunately, SUTD has joined up with Apple and Skillsfuture Singapore to design two short courses that will cater to the pool of keen adult learners.

Just how short are they?

Also Read: This Singapore healthtech company just raised US$25 million for APAC expansion

In five days, the Swift App Development Fundamentals course can turn rookies to basic app designers. Also, the Augmented Reality with ARKit programme can take app designs to a whole new level in half a week.

SUTD looks forward to humanising advanced technology and helping working adults embrace digital transformation for enhanced employability under this collaborative move.

In tandem with SUTD’s mission to enhance employability, RMIT online will be expanding its successful iOS App Development with Swift course to Singapore. The course, jointly spearheaded by Tigerspike and Accenture, will offer self-paced opportunities for mid-career professionals to learn coding.

Speaking eagerly on the subject, Helen Souness said that “the future of work will be governed by emerging technologies and data” and that such industry-relevant training would be key in pioneering the upskilling of a nation.

Digital literacy isn’t reserved for the creme de la creme of our population. With these initiatives, all anyone needs is a spoonful of enthusiasm and a dash of hard work to enjoy greater relevancy and employability.

The people of the future are the students of the now. Edtech is here to be endorsed, embraced and most of all — to empower.

Have fun kids!

—

This article was first published on March 14, 2019.

The post Digital literacy for the masses: How Apple is investing in tech education across Singapore appeared first on e27.

Jungle Ventures Partners Amit Anand and Anurag Srivastava

Singapore-based early-stage investor Jungle Ventures today announced the closure of its third fund at US$240 million.

This also includes US$40 million raised in separately-managed account commitments for investments in innovative technology and digital-driven consumer businesses across Southeast Asia.

This is more than double the amount of its previous fund, Jungle Ventures II (2016).

More than 90 per cent of the new capital came from institutional investors spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with new investors accounting for nearly 70 per cent of the fundraise and returning investors for the rest.

Its backers include DEG, Germany’s development finance institution; IFC, a member of the World Bank Group; Bualuang Ventures, a corporate venture capital fund of Bangkok Bank; Dutch development bank FMO; Cisco Investments; and Singapore’s Temasek.

Also Read: Jungle Ventures closes US$175M of third fund, targets US$220M

Jungle Ventures III has already invested in Sociolla, KiotViet, WareSix and Engineer.ai.

Amit Anand, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Jungle Ventures, said: “The traditional view of Southeast Asia is that it’s a fragmented region of countries with more differences than similarities. Thanks to the rising internet penetration, demographic shifts and mobile-technology adoption over the last decade, the region is now home to a fairly homogenous addressable market of more than 250 million cyber-sophisticated young people comparable to any ‘developed’ market.”

“We saw the tide shifting and focused on companies that demonstrated an early leadership position in one market. Then, we supported these companies with capital, expertise and resources to help them become regional category leaders,” he added.

Jungle Ventures is one of the largest early-stage venture capital firms in Southeast Asia. Its portfolio broadly covers three verticals: consumer brands for the digitally native; digital platforms for transforming SMEs; global technology leaders born in Asia.

Jungle Ventures’s other portfolio companies include RedDoorz, Pomelo Fashion, Kredivo, and Deskera.

The post Jungle Ventures makes final close of third fund at US$240M; IFC, Temasek, Cisco among its backers appeared first on e27.

Reefknot MD Marc Dragon

Reefknot Investments, a joint venture between Temasek and Swiss transport and logistics company Kuehne + Nagel, has announced its maiden investment in PROWLER.io.

Based out of the UK, PROWLER utilises Artificial Intelligence to help turn dynamic, real-time data into optimal decisions about business problems.

This strategic investment follows the launch of Reefknot’s US$50 million global fund and the think-tank The Centre of Excellence for Global Emerging Supply Chain Technologies.

Founded in 2016, PROWLER’s AI engine VUKU can process moving data in real-time, adapt to uncertainty, act on sparse information and learn from experience. It is data-efficient, not data-hungry, so does not need Big Data sets to be effective, and is designed to have broad application across multiple sectors.

“PROWLER.io’s AI platform and capabilities will greatly enhance decision-making in complex and uncertain environments that represents the type of transformational technologies Reefknot is committed to supporting in order to drive supply chain and logistics sector innovation,” said Marc Dragon, Managing Director of Reefknot.

Vishal Chatrath, Co-founder and CEO of PROWLER.io, added: “AI has huge potential to empower supply chain and logistics companies to operate more efficiently and grow more quickly. We already have great success in improving asset utilisation for our logistics clients through data-efficient AI. Through Reefknot, we have access to their ecosystem of domain partners and have the opportunity to combine their sector expertise with our leading technology platform.”

Also Read: Startups should adopt the glocalisation mode of design and thinking: Reefknot Investments’s Marc Dragon

Based in Singapore, Reefknot recently closed a US$50 million fund, which invests in high-growth technology companies pushing new frontiers within the supply chain and logistics space. Other domains the fund is actively exploring opportunities in include digital logistics and trade finance.

Reefknow also provides founders access to the business insights of Temasek, the logistics & supply chain expertise of Kuehne + Nagel, and an ecosystem of high-value partners who will bring added support to help accelerate business growth.

PROWLER.io has recently raised an investment led by Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings, with participation from SGInnovate and Atlantic Bridge.

The post Singapore’s new VC firm Reefknot makes maiden investment in AI startup PROWLER.io appeared first on e27.