Speedoc, a virtual clinic and healthcare solutions platform that brings advanced medical care to homes in Singapore and Malaysia, has announced closing its US$28 million pre-series B funding round.

New investors Bertelsmann Investments, Shinhan Venture investment, Mars Growth, and returning backer Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India invested in the round.

“With this investment, we look forward to expanding our collaborations with private and public healthcare players to bring hospital-level care into every home and for every person. This would further empower patients and caregivers by providing them with an alternative to recover at home whilst providing them with adequate cost savings. The thrust towards virtual hospitals will complement and ensure better hospital utilisation rates, enabling medical personnel to attend to life-threatening conditions more efficiently,” said Dr Shravan Verma, CEO and Co-Founder of Speedoc.

Also Read: How home-based care is changing the face of the health sector

Founded in 2017, Speedoc is a virtual clinic and healthcare solutions platform enabling users access to home-based medical care and services. It aims to drive medical care needs out of hospitals and clinics by delivering a full suite of healthcare services to homes. These services include home visits by doctors and nurses, video consultations, allergy and health screenings, virtual hospital wards, and remote health monitoring.

The platform is available in nine cities across Singapore and Malaysia and serves patients and caregivers across both countries.

Speedoc is currently working with hospital partners, such as the National University Health System, the Singapore General Hospital, and Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

The healthtech startup will also look to expand its H-Ward virtual hospital programme, an integrated platform monitored by a dedicated 24×7 patient-care team that standardises and combines different services needed for hospital care at home.

In 2020, Speedoc secured US$5 million in Series A funding led by Vertex Ventures.

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e27 and CleverTap, trusted by 10,000+ mobile brands and a pioneer in helping brands engage and retain their users, have joined forces to bring you The Big Leap.

Over the next six months, we will bring exclusive interviews, content, roadshows, networking events, and informal meet-ups with Southeast Asia’s leading tech leaders in multiple countries – Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.

Our first stop will be Indonesia, where we will host the first edition of SEA’s The Big Leap Roadshow at The Raffles Hotel Jakarta on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, at 5.30 PM Jakarta time.

In this event, we will touch on the Retention Playbook – GEN Z and Unexpected Segments in the New Normal with our distinguished speakers:

– Timothius Martin – CMO of Pintu
– Felicia Kawilarang – CMO of Halodoc
– Mediko Azwar, ACC – CMO of Blue Bird Group
– Marc-Antoine Hager – SEA Regional Vice President, Sales of Clevertap
– Mohan Belani – CEO of e27 (moderator)

The following list includes the names of growth leaders and their companies ready to take the leap and gather in the Jakarta roadshow.

Also Read: 5 video marketing trends that marketers can leverage in 2022

Are you ready to follow in their footsteps?

99 Group
– Firman Pamungkas Putra (AVP Marketing)
– Bharat Buxani (Senior VP Marketing)

99 Group is a leading real estate technology company that operates real estate portals across South East Asia, specialising in digital property advertising. Headquartered in Singapore, it is currently operational in Singapore and Indonesia and employs over 350 employees.

Agate
– Vincentius Ismawan (VP Marketing & Sales)

Agate is an Indonesian video game development company based in Bandung, West Java. It was founded on April 1, 2009. It has worked with publishers such as Square Enix and Electronic Arts.

Akseleran
– Andri Madian (Chief Marketing Officer)

Akeseleran is an Indonesia-based P2P lending crowdfunding platform that connects MSMEs to potential lenders to expand their businesses.

Bank Jago
– Elissa Vananda (Growth Manager)

Indonesia-based Bank Jago primarily offers digital banking services. It is also one of Indonesia’s most valuable publicly traded companies, with a market cap at the moment of around US$10 billion, according to The Diplomat.

Bibit
– Olivia Budiono (Product Marketing Lead)

Bibit is an Indonesia-based app that allows automated mutual funds investment, allowing users to allocate their funds easily and smartly.

Also Read: We can no longer adopt a cookie-cutter approach to marketing: Gunalan Ram of CINNOX

Binance
– Ferry Setiawan (Growth Marketing Manager)

Binance operates the world’s biggest Bitcoin exchange and altcoin crypto exchange in the world by volume.

fivejack
– Maresa Sumardi (VP Business & Marketing)

fivejack is the company behind the itemku platform. The company provides the biggest marketplace for virtual goods for gaming, entertainment and hobbyist in Indonesia.

Glints
– Ghea Religia (Growth Marketing Manager)
– Candraditia Daryanto (Sr. Growth Analyst)

Headquartered in Singapore, Glints was founded in August 2013 by Oswald Yeo, Looi Qin En and Seah Ying Cong. It allows users to apply for internships, full-time, part-time or project-based positions with partnered companies in its platform.

Gojek
– Ardhika Setyo (Product Marketing Manager)

A leading Indonesia-based on-demand multi-service platform and digital payment technology group. Gojek was first established in Indonesia in 2009 as a call centre to connect consumers to courier delivery and two-wheeled ride-hailing services.

Gudang Ada
– Satrio Legowo (VP Campaign & Trade Marketing)
– Benaya Adiguna (Digital Marketing Manager)

An Indonesia-based online groceries platform that allows MSMEs to expand their businesses more easily.

Also Read: 3 stages of marketing for your startup that can drive effective results

Hukumonline.com
– Ramos Pandia (COO)

An integrated and trusted online platform for legal products and services in Indonesia.

IDN Media
– Audi Eka Prasetyo (Senior Marketing Manager – GGWP.ID)

An Indonesia-based leading media platform for Millennials and Gen-Z that aims to democratise information and positively impact society.

Investree
– Kevin Lovis (Marketing Manager)
– Feby Inas (Digital Marketing Manager)

Investree is an Indonesia-based online marketplace of financial products and services, particularly lending.

JD.ID
– Maneesha Bhusal (Director CX)

JD.ID is the Indonesian operations of Chinese tech giant JD. The company started operations in Indonesia in 2015.

Lemonilo
– Johannes Ardiant (Co-Founder, CTO/COO)
– Andita Rasyid (VP Marketing and Innovation)

An Indonesian e-commerce platform that focuses on healthy and natural food products.

PasarPolis
– Nadya Chandradewi (VP of Marketing Communications)
– Jauza Stamboel (Senior Corporate Communications Associate)

Founded in 2015, PasarPolis is now one of the leading insurtech platforms in Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Pre-launch marketing is a tease that works, how to get it right?

Travelio
– Hendry Rusli (President Director)

The Indonesia-based startup works with individual apartment owners and property dealers to enable potential tenants to find and rent apartments.

Traveloka
– Andri Muljadi (Vice President)

An Indonesian technology company focused on travel and ticketing. It is active in six countries and, in 2022, remained the largest online travel app in Southeast Asia.

Yuna & Co.
– Winzendy Tedja (CEO)

Yuna & Co is an Indonesian fashion platform that helps women with personal styling.

LINE Bank
– Bryan Karunachandra (Data Scientist)

LINE Bank is a digital banking application in Indonesia that was born from the collaboration between Hana Indonesia (Hana Bank) with LINE Corporation and LINE Financial Asia.

Also Read: How can influencer marketing help the travel industry in a post pandemic world

GoTo
– Muhammad Izzul Haq (Content Operations Merchant Development Associate)

GoTo is the result of a merger between two Indonesian unicorns –Gojek and Tokopedia– in 2021.

Smartfren
– Satyadev Sarvaiya (Head of Customer Life Cycle Management)

A wireless network operator headquartered in Central Jakarta that is owned by Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas, under the company PT Sinar Mas Komunikasi Teknologi.

Tokopedia
– Chaisar Ahmad (Senior Operations Partnership)

One of the leading e-commerce companies in Indonesia. It merged with Gojek, a fellow Indonesian unicorn, in 2021.

ruparupa.com (Kawan Lama Group)
– Jessica Natania (Customer Engagement Lead)
– Khalifardi Utama (Channel Performance Lead)

ruparupa.com is the e-commerce platform of Kawan Lama Group, an Indonesian family office that works in the Commercial & Industrial, Consumer Retail, Food & Beverage, Property & Hospitality, Commercial Technology, and Manufacturing & Engineering sectors.

Shipper
– Jessica Hendrawidjaja (Chief Marketing Officer)

Shipper is an Indonesia-based logistics aggregator that provides shipping services for businesses and individuals.

Tanamduit
– Benedick Karuna (Digital Marketing Manager)
– Alwine Chitra Japardi (Data Analyst tanamduit)

Indonesian wealth tech platform that helps customers comprehensively in financial planning.

UpBanx / VCGamers
– Wafa Taftazani (Founder & CEO / Co-Founder & Chairman)

An Indonesian social commerce platform for gamers to trade, connect, interact, share gaming experiences, and discover new games with millions of gamers.

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Want to be part of this amazing opportunity? There is time for you to sign up for The Big Leap in Jakarta! See you on November 9 at The Raffles Hotel.

Image Credit: saksit054

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I’m sure that almost everyone has, at some point, experienced issues with fintech payment processors – frozen accounts, high hidden fees, and fraud. According to the Federal Trade Commission, 16.6 per cent of the fraud reports involved a payment app or service like Paypal in 2020.

More recently, Paypal updated its terms of service agreement that allows a US$2,500 deduction from a user’s account simply by posting anything the company deems as ‘misinformation’.

This received massive backlash on Twitter, which Paypal claimed to be an error, but only to add it back to its terms of service after the criticisms died down.

Imagine having your savings deducted for what the company deems as ‘offensive’. Or worse, to the extent of losing access to your entire savings without any reason, like the case with Monzo – where 1,392 complaints were made against Monzo for freezing accounts without warning in 2020.

These incidents remind us that fintech payment processors have the authority to deny you access to your money and may reflect a growing shift in attitudes against fintech payment processors/neobanks.

Financial censorship threatens the free and open society that we are progressing towards. We need a better alternative which can ensure that we are in control of our own money.

A new breed of fintech payment

As many businesses reconsider or even close their accounts with fintech payment processors like PayPal, many are turning instead to a new breed of payment fintech: crypto payment apps.

Crypto payments can be used to make cross-border payments without going through costly and time-consuming bank transfers. Unlike traditional payment processors like PayPal or credit card companies, cryptocurrency offers a direct P2P payment system without any intermediary to process transactions – making it cheaper and faster. This has revolutionised online payments, which makes crypto payments
attractive to businesses, especially those operating internationally.

Also Read: Crypto adoption steadies in South Asia, soars in the Southeast

On top of that, crypto payments are becoming increasingly popular with the rise of stablecoins. According to Request Finance, USD-denominated stablecoins account for 60 per cent of the crypto payments made in September 2022.

Their stable prices are ideal as opposed to volatile cryptocurrencies, especially in the current macroeconomic situation with rising interest rates and inflation. Stablecoins also open up access to DeFi platforms like AAVE, which delivers higher returns to corporate treasuries as compared
to traditional bank deposits.

More importantly, businesses have full control over their own private keys and cryptocurrencies. This alone makes crypto payment apps superior.

Making crypto safe for enterprises

Despite the advantages of crypto payments, there is a lack of consumer protection against invoice fraud or transferring money to the wrong wallet. Barclays recently reported that invoice fraud accounts for 55 per cent of money small businesses lose to scammers.

“Another savvy move may be asking for a payment request before transferring money. By confirming where to send the funds, users may avoid payments going to the wrong accounts,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer advocate in the U.S. PIRG.

Fortunately, Request Finance offers tools to fight invoice fraud in crypto. For instance, their “Invoice Me” feature allows enterprises to send their contractors a QR code or link to automatically create an invoice already pre-filled with their business information. Teammates can also be cc-ed on invoices sent to clients, allowing finance teams to check with relevant parties whether the invoice is legitimate.

As businesses embark on their journey into the new crypto payment space, applications like Request Finance help to make this journey a safe and easy one.

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WriterZen, a Singapore-based AI-powered SEO content creation startup, has announced a US$1.35 million seed funding round led by Wavemaker Partners.

With this new round, the SaaS company will focus on expanding its product features and penetrating strategic markets such as the US, the UK, and Australia in 2023.

WriterZen will also continue investing in cutting-edge technologies, including the next generation of search engine intelligence platforms, to help businesses gain data-driven insights and make more well-informed marketing decisions to optimise conversions.

The company will also double down on the courses offered by its newly launched WriterZen Academy, a free e-learning platform designed specifically for digital content marketers.

Also Read: Understanding SEO and website hacks with Kevin Geary

Founded in May 2021, WriterZen offers tools for digital content creators to streamline their search engine optimisation (SEO) workflow and produce content efficiently and competitively.

WriterZen currently serves more than 12,000 customers globally, including major industry players, such as MediaCom from GroupM.

“Google searches are one of the most important datasets ever collected in human history, yet they are severely underutilised by brands and businesses across all industries worldwide. Our mission is to help businesses capture these untapped demands with better efficiency and higher precision,” Daniel Nguyen, CEO of WriterZen, stated.

Phuong Tran, VP of Investments and Head of Vietnam at Wavemaker, said, “The global SEO market stands at US$52 billion today and is projected to grow to US$122 billion by 2028. WriterZen is best placed to capture a sizable portion of this market as it urgently addresses global clients’ need for a holistic and well-designed SEO toolset that can fuel their growth.”

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Fundraising or preparing your startup for fundraising? Build your investor network, search from 400+ SEA investors on e27, and get connected or get insights regarding fundraising. Try e27 Pro for free today.

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The Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology (SWITCH) last 25-28 October was back this year to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, innovators, and industry players to elevate the global-Asia innovation ecosystem. 

Focusing on deep tech applications, it provides opportunities for closer collaboration and knowledge-sharing among startups, small and medium-sized enterprises, investors, corporate and innovation departments, research and development organisations, and local and international government bodies. 

Last year, more than 15,000 participants from 42 countries gathered at SWITCH. This year, SWITCH is back bigger as an entirely in-person conference, comprising innovation programmes including a Sectoral Thought Leadership Stage, Market Access Sessions, and Industry Exhibition Showcases and Roundtable sessions. 

One of its much-anticipated events is the SLINGSHOT 2022 Startup Pitching Sector Finals and Grand Finals, organised by Enterprise SG in collaboration with AWS to provide extra support to participating startups. Returning for its sixth edition this year, SLINGSHOT 2022 gave global startups a chance to immerse in Singapore’s innovative business landscape and explore opportunities to grow and expand within the region’s vibrant market. 

SLINGSHOT2022 was open to global startups currently working on either one of the five emerging challenge domains: Transformative Digital Technologies; Environment, Energy, and Green Technology; Consumer Media, Goods, and Services; Health and Biomedical; Manufacturing, Trade, and Connectivity. The Top 50 startups will receive a sponsored trip to Singapore for the grand finals during SWITCH, to showcase and pitch their startups for a chance to win SGD 1.2 million worth of prizes. 

Opening doors for startups in ASEAN

SLINGSHOT, organised by Enterprise SG, has made it possible for the top startups to experience an eye-opening immersion in Singapore’s business and innovation industry. Enterprise SG sought to encourage startups to realise their potential and design solutions to accelerate their growth in the region and beyond through this initiative. 

Enterprise SG has collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enable the SLINGSHOT 2022 participating startups to access important tools and services that can help them realise plans for their products.

Also read: Meet the 100 nominees for Alibaba’s AsiaStar 10×10 campaign

AWS has supported the SLINGSHOT finalists by lending its cloud computing expertise and providing mentorship. Through the AWS Public Sector Startup Ramp, a programme meant to guide early-stage startups in building and launching solutions in different sectors including health, digital government, agriculture, smart cities, and space technology, the finalists gained access to AWS’s global community of startup members and partners, relevant training, and AWS credits.  

AWS also supported startups through AWS Activate, which provided tools, resources, content, and expert support to help startups build, accelerate, and scale at every stage.

Samuel Harris, Public Sector Startup Lead, Asia Pacific and Japan at AWS, said, “AWS is committed to supporting all startups with the tools, guidance, and mentorship they need to transform industries. We are happy to collaborate with Enterprise SG on SLINGSHOT 2022 to inspire startups to build and innovate on AWS Cloud, and help to accelerate and scale businesses that drive societal benefits and economic development.”

Building global networks with the AWS-SWITCH Networking Nodes

The AWS-SWITCH Networking Nodes were held globally in three Amazon offices: San Francisco (September 16), London (September 20), and Hyderabad (September 23). The AWS-SWITCH Networking Nodes are intended for startups to learn more about that programmes and resources which can be leveraged to build and scale innovative solutions on AWS, as well as how they could accelerate growth via Enterprise Singapore to expand their businesses to Singapore and the region.

The three locations were chosen as they were startup hotspots and had an influx of registrations for SLINGSHOT. AWS and ESG jointly organised these sessions – inviting startups within their networks to join the sessions and tapping on their ecosystem partners to share their experiences on innovating and expanding.

The AWS-SWITCH Networking Nodes hosted SLINGSHOT fellows in a series of technical and networking sessions that allowed them to meet and connect with local startup founders and industry leaders.

Also read: Reimagining customer experience with Sendbird

The sessions were designed to educate participants about the different AWS programmes and resources they can leverage to help them experiment with their ideas, develop existing products, and scale their innovative solutions according to their desired markets. The sessions also enabled participants to tap Enterprise SG for support to help them accelerate and grow their foothold across Singapore and the region.

The panel discussion was held on the topic, “Innovation as a Driver for International Expansion.” Guest panelists included Vinayak Ganapuram (Vice President, Head of Engineering, Crayon Data) who helped provide the startup perspective on the processes and challenges in growth and expansion; Zaran Bhagwagar (Principal, Anthill Ventures) who expounded on their successful ventures and the investor’s perspective in enabling the startup ecosystem; and Enterprise Singapore Regional Directors who shared about programmes and initiatives that Enterprise Singapore is running to spur innovation in the respective geographical locations.

Immersion Day in Singapore

In the lead-up to the Grand Finals of SWITCH 2022, AWS hosted SLINGSHOT’s Top 50 Global Startups on October 21 at the AWS office in Singapore as part of the immersion programme. During this session, the participating startups learned more about how organisations leverage AWS to innovate, and participated in a workshop on AWS Amplify — a complete solution which allows developers to accelerate full-stack web and mobile app development.

Also read: We need to accelerate progress at the frontier of innovation

The startups also learned first-hand through a sharing session by Samuel Harris (Public Sector Startup Lead, Asia Pacific and Japan, AWS), Tuan Nguyen (Public Sector Startup Business Development Manager, AWS), Andre Low (Public Sector Technical Program Manager, AWS), and Richard Goh (Public Sector Business Development and CIC Leader, Singapore, AWS) on how they work with AWS to build and scale innovative solutions.

Innovation through partnerships

The collaboration among AWS, SWITCH, SLINGSHOT, and Enterprise SG aims to redefine the startup industry. It shows the power that collaboration brings to every area of a startup business in today’s digital world. Asia is driving growth globally, and Singapore lies at the heart of the action. While competition is tough, collaboration makes businesses more robust and resilient.

To learn more about AWS Start Up Ramp, visit https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/startups/public-sector-startup-ramp/

About ESG: Enterprise SG is a government agency working with companies to innovate, internationalise, build capabilities, and promote enterprise development. It strives to accelerate Singapore’s growth as a hub for global trading and startups.

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

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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