Medical imaging startup Nanox secures US$20M to expand its AI-based system to Vietnam

Israel-based Nanox, a medical imaging startup that seeks to rewrite the way X-ray works with hardware, has secured US$20 million led by South Korea’s SK Telecom.

According to Venture Beat, the telco will partner with Nanox to deploy 2,500 of its systems in South Korea and Vietnam next year, which is still subject to regulatory approvals.

Nanox has created Nanox.Arc, an X-ray source technology that it claims can lower the cost of imaging hardware from millions of dollars to US$10,000, making it more accessible.

Nanox.Arc can help with the early detection of conditions discoverable by computed tomography (CT), mammography, fluoroscopy, angiogram, and other imaging modalities, and it will be offered under a pay-per-scan business model at prices “competitive” with alternatives, complemented with a cloud-based software dubbed Nanox.Cloud.

Founded in 2016, Nanox was established by Hitoshi Masuya, a Japanese venture capital tycoon, as part of a joint investment with Sony before the latter dropping out. Masuya then partnered with Poliakine, and the two decided to split the company’s operations between Japan and Israel.

Grab expands essential delivery capabilities covering Southeast Asia

Grab has announced the expansion of GrabMart into eight Southeast Asian countries, with Cambodia being the latest addition.

In three months, GrabMart scaled from two to eight SEA countries and is now live in 50 cities across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

Also Read: News Roundup: Cybersecurity startup Horangi nabs US$20M Series B led by Provident Growth

GrabMart started as an on-demand daily essentials delivery service to support consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It now has partnered with over 3,000 stores in the region, including supermarkets and convenience store chains like FairPrice Xpress, FamilyMart, Mahnaz Food, Maxvalu, and Tops.

GrabMart provides consumers with a way to purchase a wide range of consumer goods including fresh groceries, home essentials, health and beauty items, gifts, and more. To access GrabMart, users can simply tap on the ‘Mart” tile within the Grab app.

Singapore-driven logistics & supply chain initiative GESCT rebrands into NEXST

Global Emerging Supply Chain Technologies (GESCT), a Singapore-driven global initiative that steers new business models and transformations in the supply chain and logistics industry, has rebranded to Next Supply Chain (NEXST),

NEXST was founded by Reefknot Investments, a Singapore-headquartered global VC firm, along with SGInnovate and Kuehne + Nagel.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Kuehne + Nagel, a global transport and logistics company; Reefknot Investments, a Temasek-backed VC firm; and SGInnovate, to this effect.

Wolfgang Lehmacher, former Director and Head of Supply Chain and Transport Industries, World Economic Forum, and Kong Wai Wei, Global Supply Chain Director, Starbucks Corporation, joined the three companies in their individual capacities.

NEXST was launched in September 2019 and recently launched a whitepaper around supply chain digital transformation post-pandemic, as well as welcoming publisher and event organiser Global Trade Review (GTR) as its latest member.

The whitepaper titled “Supply Chain Digital Transformation: Enhancement of Supply Chain Visibility For the Post-COVID-19 World” is available online through SGInnovate as well as Reefknot Investments’ websites, providing insights on what supply chain visibility means today, emerging issues and challenges and case studies on how cutting-edge technology, including IoT and AI could propel firms towards Supply Chain 4.0.

Malaysia’s Sunway launches urban farming innovation hub to focus on food and agritech solutions

Malaysian conglomerate Sunway has announced that it will build a 50,000 sq ft urban farming innovation hub, which will be completed in the third quarter of 2020.

Led by Sunway iLabs, Sunway FutureX will serve as a skills-building hub for urban farming professionals, tech companies, researchers, and young talents to collaborate and to create transformative solutions focussing on food and agritech, marking the group’s venture into agritech sector.

Also Read: Malaysian accelerator Sunway iLabs to invest US$480K in up to 10 startups in 2018

Sunway FutureX, located in the heart of Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, will have three pillars: FutureX Farm (indoor and outdoor smart farming area), FutureX Talent (R&D centre), and FutureX Campus (training and collaborative space which includes a cafe).

According to Matt Van Leeuwen, Sunway Group Chief Innovation Officer and Sunway iLabs Director, the FutureX Farm will also partner with Thought For Food (TFF), a global non-profit organisation dedicated to entrepreneurial innovation for food and agriculture.

Sunway Pyramid, Sunway Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and Sunway Hotels also joined forces to introduce the Food CPR – Compost. Plant. Reduce. campaign aimed at tackling the food waste problem in Malaysia.
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Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

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Singapore-based online language learning platform LingoAce has received a US$7 million Series A funding from Shunwei Capital, a VC fund co-founded by Xiaomi co-founder Lei Jun.

LingoAce CEO and founder Hugh Yao said that the company will focus the funding to expand its operations in Southeast Asia with Indonesia as its first entrance.

According to Tech In Asia‘s report, before this round of funding, LingoAce had earned US$3 million prior to a pre-series A round with Decent Capital last year. In 2018, it also received an angel round.

LingoAce’s main audiences are students aged between six and 15, helping them to learn Mandarin online with nearly 1,000 native speakers teaching from China. Currently, its platform claimed to serve more than 10,000 students across Asia, North America, and Europe.

Also Read: Edtech requires certain distinct help that’s different from other verticals: StormBreaker’s Pat Thitipattakul

Next in the pipeline, LingoAce plans to develop technologies such as AI, augmented reality, and virtual reality to adjust with the demand for online learning adoption with COVID-19 pandemic.

Similar to LingoAce, Indonesia has Cakap, an online language course that provides virtual learnings for Japanese, Mandarin, English, and Indonesian, allowing users to access courses with professional teachers and on-demand time schedule. Cakap was founded in 2014 with the initial name Squline, before rebranding to the current name last year.

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Picture Credit: LingoAce

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Vietnam is any tech startup’s dream market.

This Southeast Asian country has a population of over 96 million, of which 64 million are connected to the Internet, and has a smartphone penetration of 70 per cent.

There are approximately 1.9 million brick-and-mortar retail shops in Vietnam, of which only 10 per cent are into modern trade. Digitisation of retail sector is growing.

Home-grown IT company Citigo Software anticipated this opportunity early on and launched a cloud-based point-of-sale (POS) system KiotViet in 2014. Since then, it has expanded its services to provide a suite of omni-channel business and management solutions aimed at micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

At present, KiotViet has over 1,000 employees, covering 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam, with 19 sales offices.

In August last year, the startup raised US$6 million in Series A funding from Jungle Ventures and Traveloka.

KiotViet is one of the few companies that went on to exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to drive business digitisation in Vietnam.

In this interview, the startup’s Deputy General Director Tri Cao talks about the digitisation drive in Vietnam, the impact of the pandemic, and the broader B2B e-commerce market.

Excerpts:

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many offline businesses to go digital around the wold. Do you see a trend picking up in Vietnam as well?

The pandemic has changed consumer behaviour and how traditional businesses carry out their operations in Vietnam.

With social distancing measures in place, the drop in sales has been a catalyst for change among traditional retailers to move from their usual offline channels to online platforms, such as e-commerce marketplaces and social commerce.

Also Read: Southeast Asia is home to the next big B2B tech companies, says Qualgro Partners

We are seeing companies and consumers leapfrogging ahead in many aspects of digital transformation in Vietnam. Suddenly ‘nice-to-haves’ — like being able to buy groceries online or even supply chain digitisation — have become ‘must-haves’.

Increased number of consumers turning to online platforms for their needs has made digital transformation a priority for businesses, mostly SMEs.

With a population of over 96 million, Vietnam is well-connected to the world, with 64 million Internet users, 143 million mobile subscriptions and 70 per cent of smartphone penetration.

Vietnam’s modern retail industry has the potential for significant growth as shops start to integrate technology into daily retail operations. We have observed a growing interest in going digital and the modernisation of the retail sector which has been driven mostly by the next wave of young and hungry entrepreneurs.

More often than not, these entrepreneurs who have taken the reins of their family businesses or have launched their startups are increasingly conscious of the importance of technological application in daily business management.

Moreover, the Vietnamese government is supporting digital transformation in all sectors, including MSMEs and households. Customers who were afraid of applying technology to management have changed their behaviour.

Retail store owners are increasingly using technology for their sales management, developing new sales channels and starting to use software to manage costs and optimise business operations.

How well equipped are you to exploit this opportunity?

Digitisation is no longer an option but a necessity. Going digital has now become essential to remain relevant and stay connected as the world is emerging out of the pandemic.

At KiotViet, we have over 1,000 employees, covering 63 provinces and cities in Vietnam, with 19 sales offices. We have our sales and customer service personnel present in the deepest of pockets and smallest of towns.

To date, KiotViet has been adopted by 100,000 stores in Vietnam and has 50 per cent market share.

There are approximately 1.9 million retail shops in Vietnam. However, only 10 per cent are in modern trade and 65 per cent of the country is rural.

Our main barrier is the status quo. Many family-owned small business owners have been running their businesses using traditional book-keeping processes for decades. This is a time-consuming and resource-intensive process.

We have seen the daily struggles of business owners managing their retail business with limited to no technology. However, with the new generation taking over in those businesses, we are seeing a marked difference in the approach and they are more willing to adopt the technology.

KiotViet has overcome this barrier through a customer-first approach, generating trials through an affordable pricing model and providing excellent customer service. We have an easy-to-use affordable product where we ensure that every customer feedback is addressed.

They see how technological advancement provides them with a competitive edge over international companies in Vietnam and reach a bigger consumer base.

For example with KiotViet, our consumers see that they can reduce their operating costs by 40-50 per cent, increase efficiency and grow faster by reaching more consumers.

Which sectors do you see a growing interest to go digital?

We continue to see SMEs across the spectrum going digital. Our customer profile continues to be clothing and apparel, groceries, F&B and electronics.

The majority are small shops with three to ten employees. We have observed a growing interest in going digital and the modernisation of the retail sector, which has been driven mostly by the next wave of young and hungry entrepreneurs.

More often than not, these entrepreneurs, who have taken the reins of their family businesses or have launched their own startups, are increasingly conscious of the importance of technological application in daily business management.

What are the different services you provide to your clients?

Here at KiotViet, we offer an end-to-end solution — from software and hardware, to added third-party services for MSMEs. We provide clients with an affordable cloud-based POS and store management software.

Our omnichannel management software solutions include services such as inventory management, cash flow management and marketing, as well as both online and offline enterprise solutions.

We also leverage technology to help support SMEs to realize untapped opportunities and help increase the efficiency of their business operations and workflow processes.

Also Read: Hubble lands US$3.6M in Tin Men Capital-led Series A for digital construction platform

Our KiotViet+ services provide our clients with added integration with third-party providers, such as e-commerce marketplaces, shipping providers and social networks so they can market and sell their products more efficiently.

What is the size of your target market? How is the market growing and where is it heading for? Do you have any local or international competitors?

As I mentioned earlier, Vietnam has approximately 1.9 million retail stores, and the retail sector is the country’s fastest-growing market.

The sector has recorded a compounded annual growth rate of 10.97 per cent and annual retail sales of US$142 billion in 2018. Under 10 per cent is Modern Trade, and 65 per cent of the country is rural.

So the 1.7 million traditional brick and mortar retail stores will still be the foundation of Vietnam retail for a long long time.

There is a rising preference for online retail and social commerce among young consumers in both the major cities as well as rural areas, from apparel to electronics and SMEs have to keep up and digitise faster to keep up with the changing trends, or else will lose out to larger players.

There are more than 20 POS providers in Vietnam but none of them has the coverage, product superiority or customer support as KiotViet does.

Traveloka is one of your investor. Is it a strategic investor? What synergy do you see with this Indonesian travel-tech firm?

Yes, Traveloka is a strategic investor in KiotViet.

One of KiotViet’s main goals is to become the market leader of business store management software in Vietnam, and we believe that with Traveloka we can achieve that.

Traveloka, I assume, means ‘travel local’ and that means providing travellers with local experiences. Through Traveloka, we partner with small businesses such as F&B outlets, salons, spas and hotels, to enhance the travellers’ retail experience in Vietnam.

This partnership benefits the SME business owners by enhancing their customer experience, while travellers enjoy a more seamless and secure way of making their purchases.

At the time of the fundraise, you said you would collaborate with more ecosystem players and explore future regional expansion…

Our strategy continues to be to focus on Vietnam and in time, expand to other parts of Southeast Asia. At the moment, there are many Vietnamese merchants using our products in countries with a Vietnamese community, such as the US, South Korea, Australia, Laos and Cambodia.

We are also exploring the opportunity to open offices in select Southeast Asia for testing the market before scale up to other countries.

Do you expect to raise more funds to catch up with the growing demand?

Since our Series A fundraising round, we have been channelising and using the capital to increase our market share and focus on the development of our value-added services, such as logistics, payments and B2B supply chain.

On the back of the growth the organisation has seen over the last few years, we would be looking to raise our next funding round. We hope to start the process before the end of the year.

Image Credit: KiotViet

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Thai incubator SPACE-F launches programme for global foodtech startups

Bangkok based incubator SPACE-F today announced the launch of its programme for global foodtech startups, according to Greenqueen.

Founding partners Thai Union, National Innovation Agency of Thailand, and Mahidol University are pooling funds and industry resources to give each startup US$4,750 to US$12,600 in grants, along with access to an extensive network of VC firms and potential corporate partners.

SPACE-F will also be supporting international applicants by providing them with a special visa to register their business in the country.

The application will be open until July 12.

SMU calls on startups to apply for contest to inspire post-COVID-19 world solutions

The Singapore Management University is looking to invest around US$30,000 in a startup that comes out top in the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition (LKYGBPC) Edition.

The contest will centre around finding innovative ideas and solutions that will help cities, businesses and communities adapt and thrive post-COVID-19.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented challenges to individuals and societies, but it has also presented us with opportunities to rethink our way of life and livelihood and to create solutions for the post-COVID world,” said HAU Koh Foo, Director of SMU IIE.

Also Read: Our main barrier to growth is status quo in retail sector: KiotViets Deputy GM Tri Cao

The contest will be open for student founders, and early-stage startups globally and the applications will be closed on July 15 2020.

India’s Jio receives US$1.2B from Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala

India’s Jio under Reliance Industries has received US$1.2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Company, according to The Economic Times.

“I am delighted that Mubadala, one of the most astute and transformational global growth investors has decided to partner us in our journey to propel India’s digital growth towards becoming a leading digital nation in the world,” said Mukesh Ambani, MD, Reliance Industries.

Recently, Jio has received investments from a string of investors, including  Facebook and KKR.

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Image Credit:  Pineapple Supply Co.

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This time last year, we would all have been busy organising and attending various events and conferences. We’re pretty sure that was the plan for this year as well. Then the pandemic happened, everything changed, and now everything is via webinars or podcasts.

It was the obvious route to take, but even so, transitioning to digital events is not as easy as it may seem. Especially since everyone is doing it now.

This was the situation that Open Circles found themselves in. Known for creating thought-provoking environments and experiences, Open Circles made the tough decision of postponing their annual retreat.

“We were experimenting various ways to pivot,” said Joshua Yap, CEO of Open Circles. “For myself, I felt that though we may not be able to generate as high of revenue as previous years, we need to at least continue our mission to champion positive change around the world.”

Watch: OC27 Episode 1 – Stream wars: The rise of livestreaming

The obvious way is the popular way, which is to begin producing webinars. But as Yap began joining webinars, he ended up becoming fatigued because most of them tend to be a bit stuffy and too formal.

“It doesn’t help that I have a very short attention span,” he said. “I started researching for webinars or channels that were educating and fun to watch at the same time – which then hit me that there weren’t many shows that did that.”

Yap wanted to create a webinar that is fun, light hearted and enjoyable to watch, without compromising the quality of content. With that, OC27 Live Stream Talk Show was born.

 

A twist to the usual

There is no shortage of webinars now; how will OC27 stand out?

“We needed to have topics that were extremely interesting and strong speakers that other people may not have access to,” said Yap.

The first three episodes definitely fall into that description. Each one tackled a different topic and featured big names like Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, desserts superstar Janice Wong, and Theranos whistleblower Erika Cheung.

Watch: OC27 Episode 2 – Setting the bar: The pandemic pivot

The script is curated to keep the show fun and exciting, but also to dive deep on issues – even controversial ones – that need to be discussed.

For example, in the third episode, the question about how unethical CEOs can redeem themselves went into an examination of why unethical leaders are expected to, while whistleblowers are understood to have ended their careers already.

Watch: OC27 Episode 3 – Fake it till you break it

“Our hosts are very important as well,” Yap added. “Because the hosts act as the energy drivers of the show, maintaining a high energy conversation.”

That high energy conversation doesn’t begin and end with the hosts and guests. Since the show launched, it has gained a following that participated, asking thought-provoking and oftentimes difficult questions that helped take the discussions deeper.

Learn, have fun, and do good

Each episode of OC27 is in support of a chosen charity. One of the things the audience looks forward to is the activity that the hosts and guests participate in at the end of the episodes, where the loser donates to the charity. From peanut catching, dessert plating, and two truths and a lie, these end-of-episode contests have upped the fun factor, all while doing good. Which is exactly what the show is aiming for, according to Yap.

“The vision behind the show is to educate, inform, and inspire the audiences, through a fun and interactive livestream, encouraging our audiences to be better leaders, entrepreneurs and individuals.”

OC27 Live Stream Talk Show happens every Wednesdays, 9:30PM SGT.

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Disclosure: e27 is partnering with Open Circles to host and produce OC27.

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