Day: January 24, 2020

Cambodian VC firm Ooctane today announced that it has made an undisclosed strategic investment in local food delivery startup Muuve.

The Phnom Penh-headquartered Muuve said it plans to use the funding for expansion into new cities in the country and strengthen its current operations. “This investment will allow us to continue to scale, drive business for Muuvers and merchants, and offer more choices to consumers,” said CEO Phanith Panh.

Also Read: Cambodia-grown VC firm Ooctane secures US$55M from country’s logistic giant

As part of the investment, Tapas Kuila, General Partner of Ooctane, will join the board of Muuve.

“We have been closely tracking Muuve’s progress over the past few months as well as the growth of the food delivery industry in Cambodia in general. We believe that their business model along and customer experience will continue to set them apart from the rest of the pack,” said Kuila.

Launched in Phnom Penh in 2018, Muuve crowdsources its delivery partners (called Muuvers) using an ‘asset-light’ approach. Currently, the company offers over 18,800 different food items on its menu catering to locals, expatriates, and Chinese taste-buds via its 350-plus restaurant partners.

“We’ve always been proud of being the first local delivery platform to utilise an asset-light business model to provide Muuvers with opportunities for jobs and incremental revenues,” Panh added.

Also Read: Venture capital firm Ooctane debuts in Cambodia to support local startup ecosystem

Ooctane primarily focuses on technology-enabled businesses in the logistics, e-commerce, real estate, and financial services verticals, and also advises on various mergers and acquisitions for the WorldBridge Group. The fund is chaired by Oknha Sear Rithy, Chairman of the WorldBridge Group.

The VC firm recently closed its debut US$55 million Cambodia Investment Fund with a mandate to invest in technology-enabled businesses founded in Cambodia, looking to expand into Cambodia, or founded by Cambodians anywhere in the world.

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Google CEO thinks AI will be more a profound change than fire [The Star Malaysia]

Google’s chief executive officer has left no doubt in how important he thinks Artificial Intelligence will be to humanity.

“AI is one of the most profound things we’re working on as humanity. It’s more profound than fire or electricity, ” Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan 22.

Also Read: Cambodia’s Muuve scores funding from Ooctane to take its food delivery service to new cities

Alphabet, which owns Google, has had to grapple with its role in the development of AI, including managing employee revolts against its work on the technology for the United States government. In 2018, a group of influential software engineers successfully delayed the development of a security feature that would’ve helped the company win military contracts.

Indian bike rental startup Bounce raises US$105M [TechCrunch]

Bounce, a Bangalore-based startup that operates over 20,000 electric and gasoline dockless bikes and scooters in nearly three dozen cities in India, said today it has raised US$105 million in a new funding round as it explores sustainable ways to expand within the nation and build its own electric vehicles.

The new financing round, Series D, was co-led by existing investors Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital and Accel Partners, said the startup. The new round valued Bounce at a little over $500 million, up from about $200 million in June last year, a person familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

Thai stock exchange promotes SMEs, startup fundraising via capital market [Pattaya Mail]

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is pursuing its initiative to encourage SMEs and startup businesses to raise funds via the capital market, expecting general investment this year to be challenged by external factors, urging investors to properly manage the risks.

SET President PakornPeetathawatchai said the SET aims to promote balanced growth due to technological changes in the capital market this year, by streamlining its services at One-Stop Service points for registered companies, as well as providing opportunities in Thailand and abroad through capital market connections with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

The SET will be urging SMEs and startup companies to raise funds via capital markets, and improve regulations to provide better ease of doing businesses.

Banned cryptocurrency to uphold the integrity of the banking system: central bank [The Economic Times]

The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday defended in the Supreme Court its 2018 circular directing banks to desist from dealing in any transactions involving cryptocurrencies, insisting that it had always been consistent in its opposition to allowing any other payments systems and undermining the integrity of the banking system.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Indonesian edutech startup Gredu raises Pre-Series A funding round to help ease teachers’ workload

The central bank, through senior advocate Shyam Divan, argued that though there was no formal ban on cryptocurrencies under any law in existence in India, it had consistently been warning all those dealing with virtual currencies of the risks inherent in them.

Thailand’s DeeMoney rolls out next-day money transfer service DeeNEXT [press release]

DeeMoney, a Thailand-based fintech company specialising in digital cross-border money transfers, today announced the launch of DeeNEXT, a next-day money transfer service.

The new service guarantees transactions are completed within the next business day and is offered at a flat rate of just THB 250 [US$8.27] with no hidden charges and no matter the amount transferred.

DeeNEXT will support outbound money transfers to nine countries and 19 markets under the European Union. This includes the US, the UK, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

The European Union markets are Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Malta, Finland, Ireland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, San Marino, Slovakia, Monaco and Belgium.

 

The post Today’s top tech news: Google CEO thinks AI will be more a profound change than fire appeared first on e27.

Singapore-registered company Hi-So Co., which owns a food delivery app under the same brand name in Myanmar, has secured “six-digit funding” from several unnamed individual investors.

Hi-So Co. is a spin-off of Hi-So Mall, an e-commerce platform owned by Myanmar’s Htun Khaing International.

Hi-So said in a press release that the money will be used to further accelerate the pace of expansion of transaction volume in the delivery and online shopping market in the country, where the competitive environment is intensifying day by day.

Also Read: Cambodia’s Muuve scores funding from Ooctane to take its food delivery service to new cities

The Hi-So app allows users to order any items from its Hi-So Mall app (available on iOS and Android). Besides food, Hi-So Mall also sells a variety of products such as vegetables, cosmetics, home appliances, and clothing.

Since launch in October 2019, Hi-So’s transaction has increased by more than 50 per cent.

The firm has partnered with over 200 stores in Myanmar.

In the food delivery market, Hi-So is pitted against Yangon Door 2 Door and Food2U. “We do not consider them as long-term competitors. Our competitors are the companies that have recently entered the market with huge capital and strong business network Grab Food and FoodPanda. However, since we are not an only food delivery company, we believe Shop.com.mm could be our competitor in the future,” a Hi-So spokesperson told e27.

Htun Khaing International was founded by Kenta Takada, a Japanese entrepreneur. After graduating from Meiji University in Japan, he joined the trading company Marubeni Corporation, where he was engaged in automobile trading and business administration. After that, he was stationed in Myanmar in 2016, and after studying Burmese at Yangon University of Foreign Languages, he established Htun Khaing.

 

 

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Jatri, a mobility-as-a-service startup based in Bangladesh, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a slew of investors, including Superangel, Falcon Network, and Tahseen Consulting.

Several unnamed angel investors — many of whom were early investors and advisors to leading transport apps like Bolt (previously Taxify), Uber, Bird, Angkas, and Buseet — also joined the round.

The funding will allow Jatri to scale up its services in Bangladesh’s populous metropolitan areas and fast track product development for additional transport modalities.

The startup’s pre-seed financing came from Adventure Capital, a global VC fund founded by Fahim Saleh, Co-founder of Pathao and several other on-demand transport apps.

Jatri is currently in discussions with other MENA investors to participate in its Series A round.

Dr Sayd Farook, Co-founder of Falcon Network, said: “In a very short time, Jatri has proven that it has the aptitude to revitalise the public transportation industry in Bangladesh. It has created a pathway for the everyday commuter to benefit from smart solutions, and we believe these solutions have wide-ranging applications in many markets in the Middle East and Africa region as well.”

Also Read: Meet the 7 leading startup incubators and accelerators in UAE

Jatri was founded in early 2019 by Aziz Arman, Khondoker Taswar Zahin, and Zia Ahmed who saw an unmet need to enhance the reliability of public transport to address Bangladesh’s notorious traffic congestion challenges and insufficient public transport system.

According to the United Nations, Dhaka’s traffic congestion reduces GDP by 6 per cent annually. It pushes commuters to use private vehicles to get around due to lack of public transport coverage and passenger-centric services offered by transport operators — thereby creating a cycle that results in more congestion from significant private vehicle use.

Transport surveys show that lack of reliability is the primary reason for Bangladeshis not using public transport. Jatri views increased bus ridership as a critical solution to enhancing public transport ridership.

Jatri’s mobile app enables digital tracking and ticketing, which enhances the rider experience on buses. Its technology also allows bus operators to improve schedule adherence and optimise travel times.

Jatri’s technology also has use cases for minibuses, electric scooters and bikes, and other emerging transport modalities.

In just over eight months of operation, Jatri has over 30,000 users, and its technology has been used by leading bus operators to complete more than 50,000 trips.

Also Read: Why Bangladesh is the next frontier for tech investment

“Our initial target is to enhance the rider experience on buses significantly, but we are just getting started. We plan to look at other transport modalities and view, enhancing the public transport experience as a global challenge that Jatri’s technology is positioned to solve. We are creating a solution born in the developing world that can address congestion and enhance public transport ridership in the developing and developed world,” said CEO Arman.

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A Senator in the Philippines moved a resolution to declare Angeline Xiwen Tham, Founder and CEO of motorcycle ride-hailing company Angkas, as ‘persona non-grata’ for violating ownership law and defaming the government, says a CNN report.

The resolution was filed by Aquilino Koko Pimentel against Tham for her “high-handed, arrogant and irresponsible acts” in the Philippines.

Than is a Singapore citizen.

“Tham is merely a guest in our country, yet she is already acting like an oligarch which seems hell-bent on becoming at our expense,” said the resolution.

Also Read: Motor taxis declared illegal in the Philippines as pilot run ends before time

According to the Senator, Tham holds almost full ownership of Angkas which is against the local law, which stipulates that Filipinos must own 60 per cent of public transport companies. Angkas maintained that it is the Chief Transport Advocate George Royeca, who owns 60 per cent of the company, and that its stakes were divided among its six owners, with his stake fulfilling the law’s requirement. The Department of Transportation, however, didn’t accept this.

The Senator also alleges that she in December triggered a rally in which thousands of motorcycle riders participated, bringing the traffic of Metro Manila into a standstill. Tham is also accused of spearheading a social media campaign against the government.

The campaign, #SaveAngkas, trended on Twitter late December in an effort to call for action against the DOTr’s order for a 39,000-cap on motorcycle taxis in the country, which effectively means Angkas would be allowed to have only 10,000 riders in Metro Manila and 3,000 in Cebu.

According to Angkas, this order would render nearly 17,000 of its riders jobless. The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board later clarified the cap will still allow riders to join other motorcycle ride-hailing firms such as JoyRide and Move It.

Early this week, motorbike-based taxis were officially declared as illegal in the Philippines, after a pilot run to test its practicality and safety ends ahead of schedule. Overseen by a technical working group under the DOTr, the “pilot run” itself was supposed to be extended until March 2020.

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