Singapore-based venture capital fund Expara announced the list of 15 startups that are participating in its Expara VirTech Global Accelerator programme, which was launched to search for companies building solutions for a post-pandemic world.

The list includes the following Southeast Asia (SEA)-based companies:

XCLR8 Technologies Pte Ltd
Based in Singapore, the company develops wearable sensors and applications to enable remote physiotherapy.

Healthzilla: Healthy Habits
Also based in Singapore, the company uses data from wearable products to help users make sense of their stress level and build healthy habits.

MiNeed Technology
Based in Thailand, the startup builds a transdermal drug delivery platform.

BrainPoolTech
Last but not least, from Singapore, the company is a risk management platform that uses drone technology to assess and analyse potential risks in a location.

Also Read: Thai buffet app Hungry Hub secures US$450K funding from Expara, 500 Startups

Outside of the SEA region, the programme takes in startups from other regions such as Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia:

1. Gheorg (Australia), mental health platform
2. Facense Ltd (Israel), wearable technology
3. Car Scanner (Poland), robotics
4. SENSE Software (Poland), IoT
5. Adappt Intelligence Inc (India), IoT
6. XpertFlow LLC (Pakistan), digital healthcare
7. Scudo (US), risk management
8. Insignes Labs (Poland), chemical
9. DjinnSensor – IoT, sensors, data cloud service (Belarus), smart building
10. Omnious Nanobiosciences (Sweden), diagnostic
11. WeavAir (Canada), smart building

The Expara VirTech Global Accelerator programme is launched almost half a year ago; it is dedicated to startups who are developing products and services to help address the pain, problems and economic and societal disruption caused by COVID-19 and potential future pandemics.

This involves detection, information, prevention and protection, and mitigation.

Also Read: 500 Startups, IIX, Expara Ventures invest in fintech social enterprise Salutat

For the past three months, the startups had gone through programme that consists of weekly workshops and mentoring sessions. It will also receive funding of up to US$50,000.

“We launched this accelerator because the 2020 pandemic should be a wake-up call for the hyper-connected world to our vulnerability to pandemics in the 21st century. We will never go back to the way things were in 2019 – that world is gone forever,” Expara CEO Douglas Abrams said in a press statement.

“The probability of a potentially worse pandemic in the future is 100 per cent; it is just a question of when it will happen. Hopefully, we will build a much better new normal starting today and be much better prepared for the next outbreak, in part due to new products and services created by startups,” he continued.

The demo day, where the startups will pitch to local and global investors, will be held virtually on September 23.

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Image Credit: Expara VirTech Global Accelerator

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Asumsi.co, a digital media startup based in Indonesia, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from East Ventures.

“This investment will enable us to develop a technology infrastructure that will give us leverage while preserving the quality and cutting-edge approach that we’re known for,” said Pangeran Siahaan, CEO of Asumsi.co.

“We will use the investment, among others, to hire more engineers and build tech infrastructure. With those additions, Asumsi will be one step closer in creating a news platform that is supported by advanced monitoring and analytical systems to help us better understand our existing audience and reach new ones,” he added.

Asumsi was founded in 2015 by Siahaan, who has previously worked as a journalist and TV presenter.

Asumsi.co aims to “build a sustainable media ecosystem” by integrating tech into high-quality media content. It mainly focuses on politics, current affairs and pop culture. Most of its viewers are young.

Social media platforms are getting substantially crowded with individual content creators as influencer marketing begins to get popular. Asumsi thinks that these media channels can be no longer relied upon because of the overload of competition.

To venture outside the traditional ways of thinking of promotion and visibility, Asumsi.co wants to develop a new technology infrastructure which will allow it to reach newer audiences and understands their existing ones better.

Also Read:  In the age of aggressive marketing, how can YOU and your product stand out?

The firm claims to have 10 million viewers per month on various social media platforms, including YouTube (3.2 million view rate).

Also Read: Malaysian digital media group REV Asia to acquire iMEDIA for US$9.6M

Indonesia is known to be extremely social media forward and a large number of locals are known to spend a lot of time on the internet.

According to Hootsuite and We are Social, the region has 415 million users, who are actively spending plenty of time on the web in comparison to 346 million in North America and 183 million in Western Europe. Digital media seems to be a growing industry in the region, despite heavy competition.

“Indonesia has many good stories that need to be told. We are looking forward to backing Pangeran and his team to build the platform to tell the stories,” said Willson Cuaca, Co-founder and Managing Partner of East Ventures.

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Image Credit: Asumsi.co

 

 

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In order to help empower the APAC tech startup ecosystem, we recently launched Perks: a curated selection designed to give e27 Pro members an access to top-class products and services with over US$10,000 worth in savings. In order to do that, we have partnered with some of the most amazing solution providers in the region.

We spoke to Sanjay Jha, Co-founder and CTO of LetsVenture, India’s most active startup fundraising platform and the Chief Product Officer (CPO) of MyStartupEquity, to get a closer look at their products and services and to help the community understand better how MyStartupEquity can help them yield desirable results.

Can you describe what your company does? What industry you are in, who your target market is?

For the last 7 years, Letsventure has been the most trusted and active platform for startup fundraising in India. We have a strong track record in building out a tech-enabled platform that has enabled over 250 startups to raise more than $200 M from thousands of angel investors, micro-VC funds and family offices. Having raised this equity, we have also noticed the gap in the market to manage this equity and that was the genesis of MyStartupEquity in late 2019.

MyStartupEquity is a SaaS fintech play that is digitising, automating and securing the most valuable asset that any startup has — its own equity! This is a product to help founders, employees, investors and VCs better manage their equity in startups. What do we mean by this?

Also read: A closer look at Zendesk: fostering better customer relationships for startups everywhere

Well, the product is designed to become the single source of truth for all matters related to a startup’s cap table and ESOPs (including Phantom Stocks, Stock Appreciation Rights). By using the product, startups, right from the earliest stages to those with 10s of investors and 100s of employees with ESOPs can avoid errors that might creep into an Excel sheet and the lack of security when this Excel sheet floats into the market. Moreover, the product has a lot of tools packed in to make the life for the founder, finance and HR teams simple.

Presently, MyStartupEquity has 60 startups (seed to Series D) from India, USA and Singapore using the cap table and ESOP management product.

How does your product/service help companies? What gaps in the market do your products bridge?

Today, the biggest problem is the information asymmetry and lack of security in the way cap tables and ESOPs are managed. Founders have a lot on their plate, finance and HR team members may change, an outsourced firm might not prioritise tasks; and all this leads to delays and errors — both forced and unforced.

Let’s take an example: Mark is the founder of a startup that has raised a seed round of $500,000 from friends and family and two angel investors (his ex-bosses at the big tech company he was working at before). With this, he brought on board his co-founder and CTO, Eileen and the early product team, marketing and sales team — all of whom he promised generous ESOPs since he couldn’t meet market salaries. For his product and marketing team, Mark chose to have standard quarterly vesting after the one-year cliff period but for the sales team, he chose performance-based vesting. He’s managing all this on an Excel sheet.

Fast forward two years, the startup is doing well — over 10 employees now have ESOPs and Mark has raised a small round of convertible debt too. Now, he is in the market to raise a Series A of $1.5 M. VCs and some large individual angels want to see the cap table and also get a sense of what the fully diluted cap table will look like if they were to invest. Mark also has to be cognisant of the part conversion of the debt round and topping up of the ESOP pool as part of the Series A. He also has to allocate a higher share to Eileen as he had promised her when she came on board two years ago.

Also read: 5 actions to consider for your startup as the economy reopens

Now, all of these calculations and managing expectations of current and prospective investors are daunting for Mark, he’s running multiple Excel sheets and having to cross-check every new round modelling scenario with his chartered accountant. This is taking up time and bandwidth. Meanwhile, new team members are being on-boarded and as the founder, Mark has to run and manage the ESOP conversations with them too.

Sounds difficult and strenuous? Well, it is, but it is also the reality of startup and founder life!

This is where MyStartupEquity comes in with its easy to use interface and click of button calculators, report generators and in-product communication tools.

For instance, the Cap Table Tool helps founders maintain a single source of truth and safe keep share certificates and various other documents online. Information from multiple rounds including bridge rounds are maintained online and tools and notifiers for convertible debt instruments like SAFE, Convertible Notes, ensures that no investor and round information is missed out due to unforced errors. Moreover, MyStartupEquity’s scenario modelling tool can help Mark run various calculations on what his new cap table would look like and he can securely share the same with his investors on a need to know basis — all of this from within the product itself. No need to worry about conflict of interests and unsolicited entities becoming privy to sensitive information.

Also read: Pivoting beyond product: You need to look at your company/work culture, too

On the ESOP front, at the earliest stages, the MyStartupEquity product would have allowed Mark to create and customise his ESOP policy online and get a simple dashboard view of the ESOP pool. He would have been able to manage the granting, vesting and exercising of options digitally for all team members too. Additionally, the product generates all the accounting and book-keeping required for ESOPs and Mark or his CA can use these reports to make all the regulatory filings required; literally at a click of a button.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the products’ employee interface allows everyone on Mark’s team to actually see the value of their ESOPs and continue to be energised about the road ahead for the startup.

To summarise, these are the top features of the product that makes life easier for founders, employees and investors:

• Digital cap table with features for round & exit modelling
• Calculator & notifier to manage convertible instruments
• Secure document vault
• Customised ESOP scheme generator
• Manage grants, vesting, exercise, & employee exits online
• Automated accounting, reporting, & annual filings
• Role based permissions for users
• Multi Factor Authentication

Can you give an example of how your product is being used by your customers? Any customer success stories you’d like to share?

Presently MyStartupEquity has 60 startups from India, USA and Singapore using the cap table and ESOP management product. Some of these startups include Zetwerk (funded by Sequoia, Lightspeed), Jupiter Money (funded by Sequoia, Matrix), Cyware (Emerald Development Managers), Darwinbox (Sequoia funded), Epifi (Sequoia, Ribbit Capital), Kyt.academy.

Also read: How Pomelo tackles the problem of high product return with its O2O retail experience

“Zetwerk is a 2-year old startup and we just closed our Series C. Right from the time we closed our Series B, I had been thinking about moving into a product that would help us manage the cap table and the administration of the ESOPs because there were times when our data did not match — when something like that happens to a process like ESOPs which has financial liability both for the employee and the employer, it is of great concern. We scanned various products and then decided to go ahead with MyStartupEquity because of the capability and competence of the team. Secondly, I wanted the product to have a simple and easy user interface while getting things done smoothly & accurately. Lastly, the price point was very compelling and that helped us make a faster decision,” Barat Vinayakan, CHRO, Zetwerk (a manufacturing services startup with 300+ employees, 100+ customers across 30+ countries)

Are there any recent accomplishments of your company that you want to share with the e27 Community?

Sequoia Surge, Freshworks for Startups, and of course, e27 are some of the partners that have endorsed MyStartupEquity and extended the product to their startups across India and APAC. In India, MyStartupEquity is also a partner of choice for the Mumbai Fintech Hub.

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Stay tuned to find out what other Perks we have in store!

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uHoo, a Singapore-based indoor air quality sensor company, said today it has secured an undisclosed amount in a funding round “oversubscribed by 50 per cent”, led by Wavemaker Partners.

Enterprise Singapore, along with existing and new investors from the tech and real estate sectors, including PropertyGuru Group Co-founder Steve Melhuish (who is also a Venture Partner at Wavemaker), also joined the round.

The funds will be used by uHoo to meet the “large increase in demand” for healthy building solutions, accelerate growth through increased hiring, and development of innovative new products and services.

Also Read: This IoT device monitors air quality using laser tech that counts each individual air particle

Founded in 2014 by Dustin Jefferson S. Onghanseng and Brian Lin, uHoo has designed an air quality sensor device. It can monitor nine air quality parameters and also provides data, alerts, insights and recommendations via the uHoo mobile app.

The firm claimed in a press release that it has seen “an almost 5x increase” in units deployed in the last 12 months driven by “strong healthy building demand” by governments, schools, hospitals, hotels, malls, kitchens, offices and families in North America, Europe and Asia.

The company also said its revenue is exceeding original 2020 plans due to COVID-19 and the increased focus on health and wellbeing.

In June 2020, uHoo launched a Virus Index to provide a real-time view on COVID-19 survivability and airborne transmission risk.

“Air quality, health, and wellbeing have become key concerns for many, especially as we spend more time indoors and gradually return to our workplaces and schools. This is evidenced by the many blue-chip brands and government clients globally that uHoo has secured in 2020,” said Melhuish, who joins uHoo’s Board of Directors.

The company is tackling a large US$180 billion air quality market, which is expected to grow rapidly due to increased health and safety concerns globally.

Also Read: Getting smarter with tech: How will smart cities look like 10 years from now?

“Health and safety have been neglected by majority of employers, landlords and building owners for the longest time. The COVID-19 pandemic has put this in the spotlight and accelerated the movement towards healthy workplaces and healthy buildings. Healthy workplaces and healthy buildings are no longer just empty buzzwords, it is the bare minimum required of employers and landlords,” said Onghanseng.

Over the last few months uHoo has grown its customer base across different vertical industries worldwide to provide solutions such as data insights, dashboards, apps, alerts, and integrations with building management systems.

Clients include Capitaland, CDL, GIC, Gammon Construction, Schiphol Airport, HK Baptist University, and the governments of Holland, the USA, and Australia.

In 2018, uHoo had raised a 7-figure in a bridge round led by Wavemaker Partners with co-investment from Seeds Capital.

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Image Credit: uHoo

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Carousell, a B2C and C2C consumer marketplace for buying and selling new and used goods in Singapore, has inched closer to becoming a unicorn with a fresh US$80 million fundraise from a consortium of companies, led by South Korean tech honcho Naver Corp.

Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund and NH Investment & Securities are the other investors in the consortium.

The deal values Carousell at over US$900 million.

Also Read: Carousell appoints Jennifer Lim as Head of People to drive growth in Southeast Asia

“The last six months have been challenging for all. It’s inspiring to see how the Carousell community is making the best out of a challenging situation, helping those in need and rallying each other on. Their stories of how Carousell has been essential to them to make ends meet and afford what they need during this global health crisis reminds us to keep heads down focused in serving our community,” said Quek Siu Rui, Co-founder and CEO of Carousell.

Launched in August 2012, Carousell began in Singapore and now has a presence in eight markets across Asia. The firm claims it has over 250 million listings across Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The marketplace has a diverse range of products across a variety of categories, including cars, lifestyle, gadgets and fashion accessories.

The company also owns and operates Cho Tot (Vietnam), Mudah (Malaysia), OneKyat (Myanmar), and Revo Financial (Singapore).

Since inception, the firm has raised over US$260 million across several rounds of funding, including a US$56 million from OLX Group in April 2019. Carosell’s other investors include Telenor Group, Rakuten Ventures, Sequoia India and Naspers.

Last year, Carousell made a series of acquisitions in 2019 to accelerate leadership in Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, including 701Search, the classifieds firm owned by Norwegian telco Telenor Group and OLX Philippines.

“Carousell has built a tremendous platform enabling people in the region to transact more effectively and efficiently. We believe its efforts to focus on the products and the community will be further consolidating its market leader position. We highly look forward to working closely with Carousell,” said Jung An Lee, Head of Investments at Naver.

After the onset of COVID-19 six months ago, which affected individuals and businesses globally, Carousell launched several regional initiatives. They include providing US$2 million worth of free ads to non-profit organisations, the launch of a new ‘free items’ category for #ChoosetoGive campaign where the community donated free items to users in need, and partnerships with government agencies such as Enterprise Singapore, Hong Kong Productivity Council and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation to support the digitalisation of micro-enterprises and SMEs.

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Image Credit: Carousell

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