Month: September 2020

NTUitive, the innovation and enterprise company of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has launched a new programme called VB18 to help graduates and working professionals explore options in the entrepreneurial space.

The programme will allow Singaporeans to build a business alongside serial entrepreneurs and get paid while doing it.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about disruptive change in many areas, including the job market. In Singapore, job prospects across all sectors have been hit hard. As a result, the conventional job hunting process by fresh graduates is being thrown into disarray, leading them to explore alternative options instead,” the company said in a statement.

VB18 provides a 12-month venture building programme which will be funded by the SGUnited Traineeships Programme, for which 18 fresh graduates will be selected as venture builders.

They will undergo NTUitive’s experiential entrepreneurship education programme and work with and learn from seasoned entrepreneurs to build disruptive, tech-enabled and regionally-focused companies.

NTUitive will be owning a minority stake in the companies. As the programme progresses, it may also inject funds and earn more shares according to the valuation.

Individuals will also learn how to raise funding, leadership, business operations and growth hacking. They will also receive training and advice from experts, along with funding support.

Besides, selected participants, known as “venture builders”, will also receive a monthly stipend of US$1,800 per month.

Also Read: This app makes your SMS inbox organised and intuitive; sends you contextual offers based on the content

The criteria

According to NTUitive Interim CEO Dr Alex Lin, applicants need to depict three qualities to be selected for VB18 which are crucial for success. They are entrepreneurial inclination, resiliency, and tenacity.

“You need to have a certain inclination to be entrepreneurially successful, this is based on the 10-year research that we have done,” he told e27.

“We have worked with the NTU Business School, Psychology and Mathematics Departments to redesign a psychological profile that studies a person’s inclination. That is our number one deciding criteria before we invite them,” he explained.

Although there are no grade requirements, the psychological profiling quiz with 150 questions is mandatory for applicants. Knowledge of a particular subject and experience are bonuses.

He also pointed out that the programme is not looking for “technical entrepreneurs”, as the founders in the programme will be provided with an extensive set of resources such as a commercialisation team and an entire software team that will help them build the product.

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Image Credit: NTUitive

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Merchantrade Asia, a home-grown digital money services company and e-money issuer in Malaysia, has fully acquired local fintech player Valyou from Telenor Group, following a competitive bidding exercise.

As per a press statement, Merchantrade has obtained all regulatory approvals for the acquisition.

Following the deal, the businesses, operations and staff force of Valyou will be merged with Merchantrade and operate as a single entity by the end of 2020.

Also Read: Malaysia’s cross-border remittance is going through a renaissance, say fintech experts

It will result in Merchantrade having a combined annual remittance turnover value (based on 2019 figures) of more than RM 11 billion (US$2.7 billion), which includes domestic outbound and international aggregator transactions.

The new entity will have a staff strength of over 1,200 and a network of over 1,700 touch-points and will serve a customer base of over three million.

According to Merchantrade MD Ramasamy K Veeran, the acquisition will also consolidate and significantly bump up Merchantrade’s share of Malaysia’s large migrant-worker customer base which is a major user of the cross-border remittance services.

“To serve the migrant worker segment effectively, we’ve built an ecosystem of relevant financial services through industry partnerships and collaborations. We currently work with AXA and MCIS to offer affordable micro-insurance products. The acquisition of Valyou will further strengthen and expand our digital channel and present us with new opportunities to partner with more financial services provider and set the stage for us to go regional,” he added.

Also Read: How fintech is disrupting the Southeast Asian payments market

Valyou is a player in the e-money and cross-border digital remittance services industry in Malaysia, which is going through a renaissance . It serves a customer base of over one million through its online and app-based digital channels and physical network comprising 22 branches, 20 agents and 1,200 cash-in cash-out (CICO) merchants.

Merchantrade is a money transfer, e-money issuer, wholesale currency services and foreign currency exchange service provider. It operates at 81 retail money services outlets with footprints in major and high-end shopping malls, which offer retail currency, remittance, and on-boarding of Merchantrade Money.

In July, Merchantrade acquired an additional 21 per cent stake in KLIQ, a fully digital cross-border remittance service provider based on Singapore, to increase its stake to 70 per cent.

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Image Credit: Merchantrade Asia

 

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Malaysia-headqauartered online shopping aggregator iPrice Group has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from JG Digital Equity Ventures (JGDEV), the corporate venture capital arm of Philippines-based JG Summit Holdings.

This is the continuation of the group’s Series B Investment, which was announced in March this year. The round is led by ACA Investments with participation from Daiwa PI Partners, and returning investors LINE Ventures, Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund.

Also Read: Southeast Asian e-commerce group iPrice raises funding from LINE’s corporate VC arm

This financing will allow the group to tap into the Philippines’s large e-commerce market and enhance its current product. 

With the help of JGDEV, iPrice has already secured partnerships with local companies such as RewardsMart in the Robinsons Rewards mobile app and Summit Media’s online domain PEP.ph. It plans to explore more opportunities across the Gokongwei Group of Companies (a VC firm focussed on e-commerce). 

iPrice is a meta-search engine that helps customers find a wide selection of products and brands from hundreds of its partners in Southeast Asia.

“iPrice has a unique approach. It doesn’t aim to compete with other players, but instead, it enables these players to have more channels. As a result, it connects them to more consumers. It enables consumer transactions to be deeper and wider through its comprehensive understanding of the digital economy,” said JGDEV President and CEO Jojo Malolos.

Besides Malaysia, the group also operates in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, and claims to have about 20 million monthly visits across the region. 

While COVID-19 has affected almost all the industries globally, e-commerce has largely been spared and it has shows immense resilience and continues to grow strong.

According to a Google-backed report, Southeast Asia’s e-commerce industry is predicted to reach US$180 billion by 2025. With e-commerce’s recent accelerated adoption, the industry is expected to experience an even stronger boost. 

Also Read: Roundup: E-commerce enabler iPrice Group names new CEO

iPrice recently appointed Paul Brown-Kenyon as its new CEO.

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Image Credit: iPrice

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AMTD Digital, the Singapore subsidiary of Hong Kong-based investment baking firm AMTD Group, has secured a S$386 million (US$285 million) in a new financing round.

Key investors include Value Partners, Greater Bay Area Homeland Investments, Vision Knight Capital, Ariana Capital, Maoyan Entertainment, and Infinity Power.

Calvin Choi, Chairman of AMTD Group and AMTD Digital, said: “We have chosen Singapore as our global headquarters to build a one-stop digital solutions platform that connects the ASEAN market with our solid financial services presence in Hong Kong, including a digital bank joint venture with Xiaomi. We are committed to connecting the dots across the many major markets in Asia to create a one-stop digital solutions platform.”

Also Read: AMTD Digital to acquire Singapore’s insurtech startup PolicyPal

“We are not restricting or limiting ourselves to providing financial services, but we are pushing our capabilities and strengths beyond to providing a plethora and diverse range of solutions that include digital connectors and ecosystem building, digital intelligence and data analytics, digital media and marketing,” he added.

Osman Faiz, Chief Information and Operating Officer of AMTD Digital, added: “We embrace new ideas and new value creation for the regional and international scenes. We are committed to nurturing local talent and cultivating innovation both within AMTD and in the wider ecosystem, as we grow across and along the industry.”

AMTD Digital builds a one-stop digital solutions platform that connects different stakeholders in the SpiderNet ecosystem via digital innovations.

Last year, AMTD Digital, together with Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, established Airstar Bank and had obtained one of the first eight virtual banking licenses issued by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

In March, AMTD Digital announced that it would acquire a controlling stake in Singapore-based insurtech startup PolicyPal.

Recently, AMTD Solidarity Fund, backed by AMTD Digital and the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network, invested US$8.5 million in five companies: Funding Societies, Active.ai, Cardup, Transwap, and PolicyPal.

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Image credit: AMTD Digital

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Lightspeed Venture Partners has announced the launch of its Southeast Asia operations with an office in Singapore.

In the region, the early-stage VC firm will actively engage with ventures in sectors — such as e-commerce, fintech, edutech and SaaS — mainly in Singapore and Indonesia. It will deploy capital from its global funds.

In April this year, Lightspeed raised US$4 billion for is three global funds.

The firm’s Southeast Asia team includes Akshay Bhushan (Partner), Bejul Somaia (Partner), Pinn Lawjindakul (Vice President) and Marsha Sugana ( Senior Investment Associate).

Also Read: The future of Southeast Asia’s big tech in the Next Normal

“Southeast Asia is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and startup ecosystems, and this is due in no small part to the region’s extraordinary entrepreneurial talent. We believe the startup ecosystem will continue its significant expansion and are excited to partner with entrepreneurs as they build and scale disruptive companies,” said Bhushan.

In Southeast Asia, Lightspeed has already invested in companies, including Grab, social commerce platform Chilibeli, B2B marketplace app Ula, enterprise AI firm NextBillion.ai, and fulfilment and shipping gateway company Shipper.

Additionally, many of its portfolio companies are scaling up business in Southeast Asia and have regional headquarters in Singapore, including Snap, OYO Rooms, Yellow Messenger and Darwinbox.

“With a large, tech-savvy and young population, Southeast Asia is leading the charge in technology-driven innovation. We have a strong belief in the opportunities here and the capabilities that founders of this region have demonstrated,” said Bejul Somaia, Partner, Lightspeed.

“Our global footprint, combined with the local team’s expertise, will enable the region’s founders to better leverage global opportunities,” added Somaia.

Also Read: 5 survival strategies for startups in a post-COVID-19 world

Since 2000, Lightspeed has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 300 companies globally, including Snap (US), Nutanix (US), Pinduoduo (China), Man Bang group (China), Grab (Asia), OYO Rooms (India), Udaan (India) and Byju’s (India).

More than 70 per cent of its investments have been in firms at early stages, often being the first institutional capital partner.

“Our mission at Lightspeed has stayed the same, even as our global presence has expanded from Silicon Valley, Israel and China to India, Europe and now Southeast Asia: to support the bold entrepreneurs who are building tomorrow’s companies today,” said Mhatre, Founder and Managing Director, Lightspeed.

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Image Credit: Lightspeed Venture Partners

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The Panasonic Deep Tech Innovation Challenge has reached its conclusion, with Demo Day successfully being held between 28^th July to 30^th July 2020. Launched in April 2020, Panasonic’s innovation call sought to collect ideas from local businesses to develop technologies and launch new businesses with Panasonic’s smell detection technologies. These technologies are unique in being able to detect smell and visualise the relevance of that to human’s life.

The technologies in the challenge include Panasonic’s Odor Sensing technology ,which have many commercial applications in industries such as healthcare, food manufacturing, industrial safety. Other than that, Panasonic’s Skin Gas Sensing technology also has deep expertise in stress detection by human skin-gas sensing which is relevant in many setting such as in the workplace, schools and homes.

This challenge was rolled out as part of Panasonic’s vision to utilise its technologies to bring impactful solutions to existing social and customer issues. Panasonic hopes to co-create new solutions and potentially launch businesses that can deliver its technology to make a significant difference to existing and new issues.

In collaboration with the Action Centre for Entrepreneurship (ACE) and ICMG to identify suitable partners, the challenge attracted over 32 project proposals in total. 7 finalist teams pitched their business ideas to a jury panel composed of experts from Panasonic Corporation (Japan), Panasonic R&D Centre Singapore and ICMG. The judges were thoroughly impressed by the quality of ideas generated by participants and finalist.

After careful deliberation, two teams were selected as Final Winners for each challenge respectively.  The finalist who presented in Challenge 1 showcased ideas that were applicable in different industries ranging from Hospitality to Supply Chain Logistics where Panasonic will collaborate to co-create and launch new solutions to critical customer issues.

Also Read: Beyond COVID-19: A new era for deep tech startups

The winners

The following are the top two prize-winners for Panasonic Deep Tech Innovation Challenge 2:

Cogniant.co, represented by Neeraj Kothari, is remote patient monitoring platform for chronic health conditions which uses behaviour analytics for outcome based tracking and preventative care. Cogniant.co’s vision for Panasonic’s business opportunity is to co-create measurements of stress through health data.

ELXR, represented by Steffan Fung, offers innovative and personalised solutions that harness the power of sports technology and science including ELXR Personalised Cloud Sports Club and ELXR Sports DNA Test Kit. Their idea includes integrating stress detection into their solution to provide a new angle of evaluation and enhancement of their complete solution.

Panasonic Deep Tech Innovation Challenge has finally reached a close with the conclusion of Demo Day! We would like to thank all participants for your support and contributing with your innovative ideas. Do continue to keep a look out on our social media for exciting new developments and innovation challenges in the future!

Also Read: Develop new solutions and technologies with Panasonic Deep Tech Innovation Challenge

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Lightspeed enters Singapore to step up tech investment in SEA; The VC firm will deploy capital in the region from its global funds; In April, Lightspeed announced US$4B investments for its three global funds; In the region, the firm has already invested in Grab, Chilibeli, Ula, Shipper, NextBillion.ai. e27

gojek acquires payments platform WePay to expand its e-wallet business into Vietnam: Report; gojek Vietnam’s Manager Phung Tuan Duc has been appointed as CEO of WePay; WePay claims to have a partnership with 24 local banks, 1K merchants, 4 international card issuers. e27

Carousell inches closer to unicorn status with a US$80M investment round led by Naver; The deal, which also saw participation from Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund and NH Investment, values Carousell at over US$900M; Total funding by the firm so far is US$260M+; Last year, it raises US$56M from OLX. e27

Patamar Capital launches US$50M Beacon Fund for female entrepreneurs in SEA’s emerging markets; Its initial focus will be on debt products, which tend to be a better fit for the moderate-growth, cash-flow positive businesses that the fund targets; The ticket sizes range from US$500K to US$2M; Beacon will use an evergreen structure. e27

Vietnam’s ride-hailing management platform for taxi firms EMDDI raises funding led by ThinkZone Ventures; It has has more than 30K taxis in 40+ provinces and cities; The startup is coordinating with 100 taxi companies to manage and coordinate about 3M rides. e27

On-demand care-giving startup Homage gets funding from Japan’s Infocom; Through a strategic alliance, the two firms aim to accelerate the elderly-care industry in Japan and APAC; The region is home to more than half of the world’s population above 60 years of age, and this figure is expected to reach 1.3B by 2050. e27

Pivoting beyond product: You need to look at your company/work culture, too; theAsianparent.com CEO Roshni Mahtani says while product pivots are the way for companies to find success during crisis , getting the team on board with new plans amidst a very palpable crisis requires shifts in culture. e27

Singapore’s indoor air quality sensor firm uHoo raises funding led by Wavemaker; PropertyGuru’s Steve Melhuish also invested in personal capacity; uHoo claims it’s seen almost 5x increase in units deployed in the last 12 months driven by string demand in N. America, Europe, Asia. e27

Why Intuit’s TradeGecko acquisition is a promise fulfilled by the SEA tech startup ecosystem; David Gowdey of Jungle Ventures says the deal adds a huge amount of credibility to founders in SEA that they can build a software that is globally best in class, and that will attract global buyers into it. e27

Indonesian digital news media platform Asumsi.co raises funding from East Ventures; It mainly focuses on politics, current affairs, pop culture; Asumsi.co aims to integrate tech into high-quality media content; The firm claims to have 10M viewers per month on social media, including YouTube (3.2M view rate). e27

Ex-Grabbers’ social commerce startup Evo raises seed funding; Evo helps influencers and live-streamers to optimise their back-office operations, allowing them to sell more products and scale more quickly; For merchant and brands looking to engage influencers, the solution will act as a marketing and sales channel. e27

How Pomelo tackles the problem of high product return with its O2O retail experience; Despite the prevalence of virtual fitting rooms, fashion e-tailers continue to struggle to provide an offline-like shopping experience; Customers expect not just great products but also great integrated experience spanning from the store to social media to the digital platforms. e27

What is the role of a Data Protection Officer (DPO) in a startup?; DPO is responsible to ensure organisations with websites and apps that collect data have reasonable security measures in place, such as conducting yearly penetration tests; if your biz operates in Singapore and you haven’t appointed a DPO yet, government may slap you with hefty penalties ranging from US$3,600 to US$14,600. e27

How Singapore is building AI for predictive healthcare; For successful AI development for healthcare, collaboration between clinicians and computer scientists is essential; If computer scientists handle the project alone, they’d make it fantastic in a technical way but it may not be relevant to the clinician; On the other hand, a project managed only by clinicians will be oversimplified. GovInsider

ST Engineering, NUS partner on US$9M programme for Singapore’s smart future; It will focus on two key research projects to lay the foundations for digital transformation and Industry 4.0; The first is Enterprise Digital Platform, an AI platform that will support all AI methodological areas to enable synthesis of disparate data sources and other systems. Singapore Business Review

The boomerang effect: How the pandemic has made New Zealand a tech talent favourite; Since March 14, more than 77K New Zealanders have returned home from abroad; Some of these people are choosing to run their own tech companies; NZ also has great infra, a thriving local tech community and fantastic lifestyle. e27

How to make your money last: Lessons in stretching your runway while running a startup; Cash reserves are an essential aspect of success, and managing them correctly will allow you the peace of mind to focus on more important things like running your business and sowing the seeds for enduring growth. e27

How to train a diverse and dispersed workforce during COVID-19 and beyond; A estimated 14% of the global workforce would need to acquire new skills or switch occupations by 2030 due to the continuing use of automation and AI; Companies are developing coronavirus-specific training programmes by leveraging the potential found in e-learning platforms. e27

Tech is key to the survival of the travel industry: Here’s why; Robotics startups will look at how to ease the pain of the travel industry through their products; IoT will help the travel industry by centralising control of services in-flight, passengers may soon be able to alter their seat temperature, adjust the air-con, or order refreshments by merely opening up an app. Tech Collective

Gobi, Sunway announce final 4 winners of its SuperSeed II Championship in Malaysia; They are MyCash, Speedhome, Lokein and StixFresh; Winners are in line for up to US$3.6M in funding; SuperSeed Fund II is aimed at startups in agritech, AI, Big Data, cloud services, e-commerce, fintech, IoT, circular economy as well as TaqwaTech. Digital News Asia

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Jari Visibility (Jarvis), a team monitoring app developed by Jakarta-headquartered Jari Solusi Internasional, has raised an undisclosed sum in a seed financing round from UMG Idealab.

The startup will use the money to increase sales and marketing of Jarvis and focus on strengthening infrastructure to support new product launches.

Jari develops apps for the financial services industry (multi-financing companies, and fintech) with thousands of users. The company says that for the past three years, it has been receiving requests from outside the financial industry for apps to monitor the activities of employees who work remotely.

To cater to this need, Jari extended Jarvis to support the operations of employees, who continue to work in the field during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: MDI Ventures’s new US$500M fund seeks to push digitisation of Indonesia’s state-owned firms

“Through Jarvis, we want to help reach more companies outside the financial sector to increase the productivity of field personnel with the technology we have developed,” said CEO Stephanus Lutfi.

The app is equipped with features such as managing employee attendance with check-in and check-out selfies and GPS-based location recording. This makes it easier for employees to record their attendance directly via smartphones and upload reports on the available web dashboard.

It boasts of a Smartform feature, which enables users to use a digital form in the app according to the requirements of the company. Besides, its Task Assignment feature helps a superior to coordinate with the personnel under him and monitor everything from the process to the results of his team’s work.

Jarvis is also equipped with the Last Location feature to view the last position of personnel in the field.

Also Read: Expanding all the way from Myanmar, UMG Idealab shares its plans for startups in Indonesia

“This initial funding is to support the development and advancement of the app capabilities to gain a lot more users in Indonesia and also in the Southeast Asia region in the future,” said UMG Idealab CEO Kiwi Aliwarga.

UMG Idealab is a unit of UMG Group Myanmar and has actively been investing in nearly 30 startups in Indonesia. In January, it invested in SVARA, a broadcasting and media startup.

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Image Credit: Jari

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Hg Exchange (HGX), a private exchange licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, has announced its founding members PhillipCapital, PrimePartners and Fundnel have commenced trading private company shares on it.

The exchange enables its members and their clients, comprising both investors and issuers, to gain global liquidity and access opportunities in funds, high-growth companies and other alternative private assets.

Also Read: Fundnel launches private investment marketplace in Malaysia

Through a consortium strategy, HGX automatically unites 500,000 investors online. As per a statement, this will spur a synergistic effect for all parties by increasing deal velocity in a timely, cost-efficient manner and introducing liquidity to the ecosystem.

In addition to this announcement, HGX has also appointed Richard Teng, former Chief Regulatory Officer of the Singapore Exchange, as its Chairman.

“Private capital markets have been steadily gathering momentum in deal volume and the vibrancy in activities surpasses its public counterparts. We are harnessing our strength to further transform the ecosystem by offering the market with greater liquidity options,” said Teng.

“As we continue to welcome more renowned financial institutions to join us as members, with each bringing a pool of buyers and sellers, HGX’s world-class platform will assist stakeholders in overcoming problems associated with illiquid assets,” he added.

Leveraging blockchain

HGX is also allowed to list and trade both digital and non-digital Capital Market Products (CMPs), giving investors and issuers the freedom of choice.

It leverages advanced blockchain technology to digitise assets for unrivalled efficiency, which brings forth the possibility of trading in smaller lots at a fraction of the charges associated with a public listing.

This, in turn, benefits issuers who seek partial liquidity or own a limited amount of shares, including employees of private companies with equity, gained via Employee Share Option (ESOP) or Employee Share Ownership (ESOW) plans.

Also Read: Forward looking and flexible: How Singapore is setting the stage for digital asset innovation

HGX offers the full spectrum of services, including on-boarding, verification and custodising of securities, to facilitate digital transactions.

Additionally, the one-off procedure, via the blockchain, allows investors to conduct subsequent sale of the same lot, through HGX, with ease.

Non-digital trading options are available to buyers and sellers making their first foray into this realm of digitised securities. The blend of established trading practices with disruptive technology paves the way for a bespoke investment solution.

As more companies delay their IPOs, opportunities are abound in the private capital markets. However, there are high barriers to entry for new participants. Apart from lack of access, interested parties are also confronted with information asymmetry.

HGX eliminates these barriers by equipping investors with information and perspectives.

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Image Credit: HGX

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EMDDI, a company that provides a ride-hailing management platform for taxi companies in Vietnam, has raised funding led by ThinkZone Ventures, with participation from several unnamed local investors.

Other details of the deal were not disclosed.

As per a press statement, the round was closed in July 2020.

Also Read: Why is Vietnam going to emerge the strongest post-COVID-19?

Launched in 2016, EMDDI allows ride-hailing companies to create and manage their own transport services, such as booking taxis, contract cars, motorbikes and cargo transport.

As for customers, they don’t need to install multiple ride-hailing apps on their mobile phone. Instead, they can use the EMDDI app to choose and use the service of their choice from multiple taxi operators nationwide.

At present, EMDDI (developed as part of a tech project of Hanoi National University) has more than 30,000 taxis on its platform across more than 40 provinces and cities.

As a strategic partner of the Vietnam Taxi Alliance, EMDDI also has been coordinating with nearly 100 taxi companies to manage and coordinate about 3 million rides through the platform each month.

EMDDI also supplies vehicle for third-parties such as VNPAY, ViettelPay, Momo, mobile banking apps and other ride-hailing apps.

ThinkZone is an accelerator-cum-early-stage startup investors in Vietnam, which unveiled its new cohort of five startups in April 2020.

Also Read: Is Vietnam the new golden child of tech startups in SEA?

As part of this deal, ThinkZone will accompany EMDDI in developing a network of partners, supporting it with many sales and marketing packages, legal consultation from commercial law firm Indochine Counsel, as well as technology infrastructure support from AWS.

ThinkZone is also working with EMDDI on its next round of fundraising, which is estimated to be US$2 million, and is already in talks with large funds.

The two are also preparing resources to further expand in Vietnam as well as into other countries.

With a population of 96 million, Vietnam is one of the fastest growing urban populations in the ASEAN region. It is a hot market for ride-hailing companies like Grab and gojek, and the industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 26 per cent between 2015 and 2025.

With an estimated 92 per cent of the market-share in Vietnam, Grab looked poised to capitalise on all that growth.

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Image Credit: EMDDI

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