Malaysia-headquartered integrated car e-commerce unicorn Carsome Group has acquired a 51 per cent stake in Singapore-based auto solutions company CarTimes Automobile.

The transaction details remain undisclosed.

This follows Carsome’s recent announcement of completing its acquisition of iCar Asia.

Commenting on the new deal, Carsome Co-Founder and Group CEO Eric Cheng said: “This partnership will enable us to deepen our footprint in the Singapore auto market and augment our ability to bring trust, choice, and transparency together to customers.”

According to CarTimes Founder and Managing Director Eddie Loo, this partnership is crucial in assisting it in serving customers better and providing them with the resources to digitise and improve the two-decade-old relationship they have with their customers.

Also Read: Carsome completes acquisition of ASX-listed content automotive platform iCar Asia

Established in 2001, CarTimes offers a suite of auto solutions ranging from new and used car retail, rental, financing, insurance to repair, maintenance and workshops. It has retail showrooms and after-sales service centres across Singapore.

Carsome is one of the largest integrated car e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia. It provides end-to-end solutions to consumers and used car dealers, from car inspection to ownership transfer to financing.

The company currently has more than 3,000 employees and has operations across Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

In 2020, Carsome acquired an all-equity stake in Universal Collection, a Jakarta-based car and motorcycle auction service. This came a few months after it secured US$290 million in a Series E financing round, bringing its valuation to approximately US$1.7 billion.

In a September 2021 report, Reuters hinted that Carsome’s profitability on an operational level was set to be realised in 2022. 

The Southeast Asia automobiles trading value reached an estimated US$55 billion annually, according to Momentum Works Southeast Asia Used Cars Report 2020.

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The very term femtech was recently brought to prominence by the founder of a fertility app in reaction to her struggles in finding male venture capital investors who would find it difficult in understanding the specifics of her product.

However, with the industry forecast to total US$75 billion in value by 2025, there are plenty of indications that VCs are waking up to the potential of femtech. 

In Silicon Valley, there have been clear developments in the level of VC investment in women’s digital health since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States, in particular, has played host to a rise in the level of VC funds dedicated solely to investing in female founders and into startups focussed on addressing women’s needs. 

One of the most important factors behind the growth of femtech is the realization of the industry’s significant potential.

According to a report by the non-profit organization, FemTech Focus, the potential of the femtech market can total US$1 trillion, based on the fact that the 3.8 billion women around the world have a combined spending power of US$20 trillion per year whilst controlling around 85 per cent of daily household spending and making more than 80 per cent of healthcare decisions.

The report also noted that exits by female-founded firms increased 16 per cent year-over-year between 2019 and 2020, whilst male-founded exits fell by 2 per cent over the same timeframe. 

The femtech market is expected to grow at an exponential rate. As we can see from the chart above, North America and Europe are set to drive the market, whilst treatment-based technology appears set to dominate the industry alongside diagnostics. 

“The global femtech market was worth US$40.2 billion in 2020 and is projected to grow at an average of 13.3 per cent per annum from 2020 to 2025 to reach US$75.1 billion,” said Maxim Manturov, head of investment advice at Freedom Finance Europe.

“North America is the undisputed leader. Comprising almost 55 per cent of femtech companies, it far surpasses other regions. Europe is second with 25 per cent, followed by Asia with 8 per cent and MENA countries with 7 per cent.

“The US and the UK are the two countries with the largest number of femtech companies. Despite growing interest in recent years, the industry remains undervalued and has high growth potential.”

Battling under-representation in healthcare

The rise of femtech could bring far greater improvements for women’s health than the development of dedicated tech. The industry could generate a far better level of representation for women when it comes to gender-based variations in healthcare. 

Also Read: Breaking the glass ceiling: These 6 women are making their marks in deep tech field

Literature like Invisible Women (Penguin Random House, March 2019), Doing Harm (HarperOne, March 2019), and Sex Matters (Hachette Book Group, June 2021), modern medicine was developed around male physiology, with women often underrepresented. 

There’s also a widespread predisposition to the male body type within the field of medical training, diagnoses, and therapeutic development, which has impacted how physicians and scientists work on understanding the human body. As a result, women can often have very different health outcomes from men when undergoing treatments. 

Although this isn’t always the result of gender bias, for instance, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised against “premenopausal female[s] capable of becoming pregnant” being included in phase 1 and early phase 2 clinical studies, but it’s led to an increased need for women to gain better representation when it comes to health matters. 

Signs of market growth

The femtech industry has recently received a boost as German health startup Wellster Healthtech Group closed a US$20 million funding extension, which has brought the total level of funds raised to US$60 million. 

The company announced that it intended to use the revenue to launch a brand specifically within the realm of femtech, which is set to focus on developing software designed to aid insights into fertility solutions, menstrual tracking, pregnancy, and nursing care among other aspects of women’s health. 

“The funding comes at a key moment in our development,” said Co-Founder Dr. Manuel Nothelfer in a statement. “It reinforces our goal to be the leader in the European market and our offerings for personalized healthcare services to expand.”

Wellster’s impressive funding comes as the latest indicator of an industry that’s ready for exponential growth. The company’s shift towards the femtech sector illustrates the sheer volume of opportunities that companies can access in providing women with the healthcare solutions that they’ve been deprived of throughout their lives. 

With a projected market share of more than US$75 billion forecast by 2025, the firms that opt to expand into femtech are likely to be rewarded by sustained and ever-increasing custom from a market that currently spans some 3.8 billion people. 

With this in mind, venture capitalist interest may hold the key to a brand new frontier for women’s health. Although barriers still remain in a largely male-dominated industry, the future certainly looks bright for femtech and the companies that are working to serve their female audience.

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Airwallex and MongoDB aim to get engaged with the community and provide the companies on e27 the opportunity for advisory, partnerships, and collaborations, sharing of insights, or simply to expand the network. 

Over the past couple of months, we have facilitated over 10,000 connections between startups and investors through e27 Pro’s Connect feature. This time, startups on the platform are now able to network with other companies. Airwallex and MongoDB are on the e27 platform to discover up-and-coming companies in the region. 

e27 has initiated a lot of offline events in the past, and as organisers, we knew the value of physical events for companies. When we launched Startup Connect, this was exactly what we had in mind. In this new normal, wouldn’t it be better to have a visible tool to explore opportunities with companies out there? Our Startup List is all about discovering technology companies with enhanced filtering capabilities to provide you with what you are looking for. 

Why connect with Airwallex and MongoDB?

Our partners have committed to engaging with startups that qualify for their program offerings. If you’re looking for technology partners to help you grow and scale your startups, these e27 partners can help you address your current challenges. These companies have established expertise in their fields and have worked with countless startups in the past. 

Meet our partners

Airwallex is a global payments platform with a mission to empower businesses of all sizes to grow without borders, and by doing so, contribute to the global economy. With technology at its core, Airwallex has built a financial infrastructure and platform to help businesses manage online payments, treasury, and payout globally, without the constraints of the traditional financial system. Airwallex has raised over US$800 million since it was established in 2015 and is backed by world-leading investors. Today, the business operates with a team of over 1,000 employees across 19 locations globally.

MongoDB is the leading modern, general-purpose database platform empowering innovators to create, transform, and disrupt industries by unleashing the power of software and data. Headquartered in New York, MongoDB has more than 33,000 customers in over 100 countries. The MongoDB database platform has been downloaded over 210 million times and there have been more than 1.5 million registrations for MongoDB University courses.

We are thrilled to announce this partnership and as part of e27’s mission to empower entrepreneurs with the tools to build and grow their companies, we will continuously work with companies to bring more opportunities for our members. 

How to get started?

The Connect button is available in the upper right corner of this page. Before you hit Connect, make sure to edit your company profile. Our partners will look into your profile to check any potential opportunities.

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igloocompany, a smart locker company in Singapore, has banked US$12 million in its Series B1 funding round from Purpose Venture Capital and existing investors Kickstart Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, and Insignia Ventures Partners.

The amount brings the startup’s total funding raised to date to US$32 million.

The new infusion will enable igloocompany to advance its footprint in the US and European markets through broad-market adoption and fuel developmental efforts in the enterprise segment.

Anthony Chow, Co-Founder and CEO, said, “When igloocompany first started, we were smart-lock makers. Six years on, we have fully-integrated solutions for enterprises on top of our premium consumer offerings.”

“We are now focused on growing our ecosystem of symbiotic partnerships and meaningful integrations to deliver powerful customer experiences. Our strategy has gained traction, with over 1,000 integrations completed in the past 18 months, and looks set to grow,” he added.

Also Read: igloohome raises US$15M afresh to expand its smart access solutions to real estate

The startup was established in July 2015 by Chow and Kelvin Ho as igloohome, a that made smart locks and lockboxes. Since then, it has grown to include an enterprise-focused vertical, iglooworks, which focuses on large-scale access management.

In October 2020, igloocompany was announced as the holding entity of igloohome and iglooworks.

igloohome creates keyless access solutions for smarter living and smarter cities. Users can remotely grant time-sensitive access to their properties or assets with these smart locks. The device uses unique technology – algoPINTM- that enables their solutions to be highly secure and operate remotely without WiFi connectivity.

iglooworks is an enterprise-focused line offering and a suite of smart access solutions for remote monitoring and management of access for infrastructure providers, facilities managers, and smart city developers.

In July 2021, the firm set up an office in Austin in the US, where it aims to deploy one million devices, garner 400 enterprise partnerships, and achieve 2.5x growth over the past 18 months.

igloohome also announced a partnership with ShowingTime, an integrated showing management provider, and launched iglooconnect to enable users to integrate igloohome locks with third-party service providers. ShowingTime currently serves over 950,000 realtors.

igloocompany has 135 employees with ten regional offices worldwide.

In July 2019, the company announced a US$15 million Series B round, led by Insignia Ventures. A year earlier, it bagged US$4 million led by the same investor.

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Gaming has gone a long way from the arcade to mobile. In video gaming alone, there are an estimated three billion new users expected to join from across the world. The Asia Pacific region is a haven for video gamers, contributing to nearly half this number. The gaming industry’s revenue has not only significantly grown in the past years, and its increasingly mobile nature has also made gaming a social activity, one that links people worldwide.

Crunching the numbers, it appears that gamers spend at least one and a half hours a day using their consoles. This shows that more and more people may spend time on their screens but connect with each other through games. Users are at the heart of gaming, and it’s with this mindset that gaming developers are bound to gear their innovations.

On providing agile solutions to complex problems

In the webinar, “Game on with MongoDB,” MongoDB APAC Senior Solutions Architect, William Tan, and Tech Lead at gaming company Uptivistic, Dam Le, shared their experiences in the constantly evolving gaming landscape. Both speakers presented their takes on the changes in the gaming industry, particularly on the emergence of NFT gaming, the necessary shift of companies’ focus from databases to game development, and the user-centric approach to games.

In his presentation, Tan explained MongoDB’s three main assets for gaming companies, namely, agility, availability, and scalability. Working with MongoDB allows developers to get their products to the market faster and scale quickly. It helps the gamers to play both offline and online giving them a world-class gaming experience. This is especially true for mobile gaming, which often requires good Wi-Fi and a stable network. MongoDB Realm, allows users to store their gaming info in their mobile device so that they can pick up where they left off when they’re back online.

 MongoDB provides the application data platform that game developers are looking for–an intuitive way of writing game code that supports all data formats available. The company’s Atlas Cloud offers sophisticated security and simplified data architecture, perfectly complementing blockchain technology when it comes to powering NFT gaming.

NFT gaming and beyond

Today, NFTs have become so pivotal in the gaming industry, Uptivistic’s Dam Le noted, is part of their innovative offering to users. From the more traditional paywall gatekeeping games from players, NFT gaming now offers a play-to-earn setup that puts users at the forefront of the gaming industry. Le provided a diagram tracing the relationship between core games, “tokenomics,” and NFT assets, basically highlighting the potential of NFT gaming to attract both gamers who are in it for the game, and traders and holders who just plan on investing in their token. 

Despite its growing popularity, both Tan and Le surmised during the webinar’s panel discussion that NFT is not the only hot topic in the gaming industry today. Tan mentioned that more and more gaming elements are cropping up in non-gaming companies for greater interactivity with users and clients, while Le cited the Metaverse as an attractive potential for companies to keep an eye on.

Skipping the innovation tax for tech businesses

However, perhaps more importantly, beyond building databases, MongoDB allows developers and companies to focus on what they do best–building games. Simply put, MongoDB aims to ease the heavy lifting of constantly refining their database from developers and lets them focus on game development.

needless complex data architecture takes a toll on resources that could otherwise have been used productively. That complexity is ultimately a tax on innovation — the Data and Innovation Recurring Tax, or DIRT. or the cost of managing multiple technologies which leads to the cost of retaining, re-training, and persuading developers which also hampers the developers’ experience and impacts the overall productivity. 

But the innovation tax is more than just an unsatisfied workforce. Structurally, it’s also the efficiency of the company’s databases and how these won’t overwhelm developers and engineers. The solution to outdated tech is to replace them with more agile solutions, which is the work that MongoDB does for its clients. In partnership with MongoDB, for example, Le said that Uptivistic saw an exponential growth of concurrent users, from 10,000 to 200,000 through the company’s optimisation of Uptivistic’s database and tech, allowing Uptivistic to focus instead on developing their product and the game.

 The underlying thrust is that gaming companies and developers should focus on investing time in building games, not databases. While databases are a supporting component of any business, start-ups should be careful not to mistake this as their end goal, nor should they be pouring too much time into streamlining these processes when they should be focused on innovating their products.

MongoDB provides an enterprise-class, mission-critical application data platform. A cohesive, integrated suite of offerings capable of managing modern data requirements across even the most sprawling digital estates, and scaling to meet the level of any company’s ambition, without sacrificing speed or security. 

Watch the webinar discussion here.

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Photo by Lucie Liz from Pexels

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by MongoDB

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