Month: July 2026

Singapore-founded Infinium Robotics has been acquired by German-listed Deutsche Defence Beteiligungen (DDB) in a share-based transaction valued at up to about US$24 million, giving the autonomous warehouse drone company a public-market platform in Europe as demand for industrial automation continues to rise.

The deal involves DDB acquiring 100 per cent of Infinium Robotiics’s 2,395,455 shares from existing shareholders. Instead of a cash payout, the transaction was completed by issuing up to 20,548,847 new DDB shares, priced at around US$1.17 per share.

Also Read: Rise of the machines: 20 robotics startups shaping Southeast Asia’s future

Infinium Robotics develops AI-driven autonomous drone systems for indoor warehouse and inventory operations. Its drones are designed to fly inside warehouses, scan stock, capture data, and feed inventory information into enterprise systems with minimal human intervention. The company says its flagship system supports round-the-clock inventory tracking, helping logistics, manufacturing, industrial and energy-sector customers reduce manual stocktaking work.

The acquisition gives Infinium a stronger route into Europe, where warehouse operators, manufacturers and industrial groups are under pressure to automate because of labour shortages, rising fulfilment expectations, and cost pressures across supply chains.

Infinium Robotics CEO Jon Woon described the deal as a milestone in the company’s international expansion.

“This is an important step in strengthening our international footprint, particularly as demand for automation accelerates globally. By integrating into DDB’s German-listed platform, we are positioned to scale more effectively into new markets while enhancing our partnerships and capabilities,” he said.

A Singapore robotics company takes the European route

Founded in Singapore, Infinium Robotics has built its business around autonomous indoor drones, a niche within the broader warehouse automation market. The company says its systems have been deployed across Asia and Australia, including in Singapore’s industrial and energy sectors.

The company claims customer-reported cost savings of more than 80 per cent in inventory stocktaking processes in Singapore. It also says major international enterprises have used its systems to reduce counting time and improve operational visibility and workforce safety.

The European expansion angle is crucial. While Southeast Asia has been an active testing ground for logistics technologies because of e-commerce growth and warehouse fragmentation, Europe offers a different type of opportunity: large industrial customers, mature automation budgets, stricter workplace safety requirements, and a stronger appetite for robotics that can be integrated into existing enterprise workflows.

For Singapore’s startup ecosystem, the transaction also reflects a familiar pattern. Deeptech and robotics companies often develop their early products in the city-state, using it as a base for R&D, pilots, and regional deployments. But to scale revenue meaningfully, they usually need access to larger industrial markets such as Europe, the US, China, Japan, or South Korea.

Also Read: The humanoid robot economy is no longer science fiction

Woon said the acquisition gives Infinium a platform to pursue partnerships and deployments in Europe. “With Europe being a key market for advanced industrial automation, our transaction with DDB AG allows us to deepen our presence where demand is both sophisticated and rapidly growing,” he said.

Warehouse automation is moving beyond conveyor belts

Warehouse automation has historically been associated with conveyor systems, automated storage and retrieval systems, and robotic arms. Over the past decade, however, the sector has expanded to include autonomous mobile robots, goods-to-person systems, computer vision, inventory analytics, and drones.

Inventory counting remains one of the most labour-intensive parts of warehouse operations. Many warehouses still rely on staff using handheld scanners or forklifts to check stock across aisles and racks. The process is slow, prone to human error, and often requires operations to pause or slow down during audits.

Autonomous drones offer a potential workaround. They can scan barcodes, RFID tags, labels or shelf positions during off-hours or continuous operations, reducing the need for workers to climb ladders, operate lifts, or manually inspect hard-to-reach locations. The value proposition is particularly relevant for high-bay warehouses, manufacturing facilities, spare-parts depots, and energy-sector storage sites.

The broader market tailwinds are strong. The global warehouse automation market is widely estimated by research firms to be worth tens of billions of dollars and is expected to keep expanding through the decade, driven by e-commerce, omnichannel retail, supply-chain resilience planning, and labour constraints.

In Southeast Asia, the growth of e-commerce and third-party logistics has forced retailers, brands, and fulfilment providers to modernise warehousing infrastructure, even though automation adoption remains uneven across markets.

Singapore has been among the region’s most advanced markets for logistics automation, helped by high labour costs, land constraints, government support for productivity tools, and its role as a regional logistics hub. That has made the city-state a useful launchpad for warehouse robotics companies, though not always a large enough market on its own.

Competition is intensifying

Infinium operates in a competitive global field. Switzerland-based Verity is one of the better-known players in autonomous warehouse drones and has worked with large logistics and retail customers. US-based Gather AI and Corvus Robotics also offer drone-based inventory monitoring solutions.

Outside drones, companies such as Dexory use autonomous ground robots for warehouse visibility, while Locus Robotics, Geekplus, Hai Robotics, AutoStore and GreyOrange compete across different layers of warehouse automation.

Also Read: Why robotics is just entering its prime phase

In Southeast Asia, adoption has been shaped by a mix of global robotics vendors, Chinese automation companies, and regional logistics technology providers. Large e-commerce and logistics operators have invested in automated sorting centres, robotics-assisted fulfilment, and data-driven warehouse management systems. However, many warehouses in the region remain semi-manual, creating room for automation tools that can be deployed without a complete redesign of existing facilities.

That is where drone-based inventory systems may find demand. Compared with heavy fixed infrastructure, autonomous drones can be less disruptive to deploy in existing warehouses, although challenges remain around navigation reliability, integration with warehouse management systems, battery performance, safety certification, and operating consistency in complex indoor environments.

DDB gets an automation asset

DDB, formerly Strategie Kapital, is an investment company based in Cottbus, Germany. Its shares are listed in Germany under the ticker S14. The company says it pursues both security-oriented and opportunity-oriented investments.

For DDB, acquiring Infinium brings an operating technology business with exposure to industrial automation, AI, and robotics — sectors that have attracted investor interest despite tougher fundraising conditions across the global startup market.

For Infinium, the bigger test starts now. A public-market platform and European ownership structure may open doors, but warehouse automation buyers tend to be conservative. They require proven reliability, measurable return on investment, and integration with existing systems. Scaling in Europe will likely mean competing not only on technology, but also on enterprise sales, customer support, certification, and partnerships.

Woon said the company is prepared for that next phase. “We have successfully deployed our solutions in Asia and Australia, and now, we are ready to serve the European market.”

The acquisition marks one of the more notable cross-border outcomes for a Singapore-founded robotics company. It also underscores a broader shift: Southeast Asian deeptech startups may build locally and validate regionally, but their growth and exits increasingly depend on how well they connect with global industrial markets.

The post German-listed DDB acquires Singapore’s Infinium Robotics in US$24M share deal appeared first on e27.

Today, a panel of judges at the Corruption Crimes Court at the Central Jakarta District Court sentenced former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology and Gojek co-founder Nadiem Makarim to 10 years in prison for his involvement in the Chromebook procurement corruption case.

Makarim was detained in September 2025 and had been moved to house arrest in May due to health concerns. The period of detention that he had served would be deducted entirely from the imposed sentence.

Makarim was proven guilty of committing a criminal act of corruption as regulated in Article 3 of the Corruption Eradication Law and Article 604 of the Criminal Code.

As part of the punishment, in addition to 10 years of imprisonment, the panel of judges also imposed a fine of IDR1 billion (US$55,000) that can be replaced with 190 days of imprisonment, and an additional penalty in the form of an obligation to pay compensation of IDR809 billion (US$45 million).

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: SEA’s volatile 2025; Funding swings, Nadiem Makarim case, Meta–Manus deal

Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office first launched a formal probe into the case in May 2025, examining dozens of witnesses involved in Chromebook procurements valued at nearly US$600 million overall.

Makarim publicly denied wrongdoing in June 2025, defending the use of Chromebooks as a cost-effective solution for remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After being questioned as a witness, he was barred from overseas travel and was named a suspect in September 2025 before being detained.

Multiple trial delays followed, including a postponement in December 2025 due to Makarim’s post-surgery recovery, before proceedings resumed in January.

With the assistance of his legal team, Makarim has posted a statement on LinkedIn about the sentencing: “The verdict is in, and it’s as bad as I feared: 10 years in prison, plus a further five years and six months if I can’t pay the IDR809 billion restitution. I don’t have that money — never have, never touched it — and the prosecutors and judges knew this.”

“I sat in front of the judges. None of them could look me in the eye. They knew I wasn’t guilty. Of course, I will keep fighting: for my kids, my family, and the Indonesia I still love. I will appeal immediately, for the sake of truth, for the young people, the professionals, everyone innocent who’s being criminalised.”

The post Nadiem Makarim sentenced to 10 years in Chromebook corruption case appeared first on e27.

Singapore-based Qashier has raised US$6.125 million in a Series A+ round, giving the merchant operating system startup fresh capital to expand across Southeast Asia after reaching profitability and crossing US$1 billion in annualised payment volume.

The round comprises equity and debt and was led by Cocoon Capital, IFP Securities, and BlackSoil Global, with participation from strategic angel investors.

Also Read: How Qashier plans to continue on supporting SMEs with its product innovation

Qashier did not disclose its valuation or the split between equity and debt.

The company said it now serves more than 20,000 merchants across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. It claims to have been profitable every month since December 2025 and grew annualised recurring revenue by 61 per cent in 2025.

To date, Qashier has raised under US$20 million, a relatively lean capital base for a payments and merchant software business operating across multiple regulated markets.

The latest financing will be used to deepen Qashier’s omnichannel payments capabilities, expand embedded financial services, and build AI-enabled insights and workflow automation for merchants.

The company is also preparing for a future Series B round, with milestones expected around recurring revenue, payment licensing, and loan disbursements.

A fragmented market with a large prize

Qashier is targeting one of Southeast Asia’s most persistent SME problems: small merchants are digitising, but often through a messy stack of disconnected tools.

A restaurant, salon, clinic, or retail chain may use one provider for point-of-sale software, another for card acceptance, a third for QR payments, a separate inventory tool, a loyalty system, and a bank or non-bank lender for working capital. This fragmentation raises operating costs and makes it harder for business owners to get a consolidated view of sales, customers, stock, and cash flow.

Also Read: QR payments are shaping Asia’s crypto adoption curve

The opportunity is large. Southeast Asia has more than 70 million SMEs, which account for the vast majority of enterprises in ASEAN and employ a significant share of the region’s workforce. The region’s digital payments market is already estimated to exceed US$1 trillion, supported by the rapid adoption of QR payments, e-wallets, online ordering, and real-time bank transfer rails.

Yet the market remains uneven. Singapore is highly card- and QR-enabled, Malaysia has seen strong DuitNow QR adoption, Thailand has built one of the region’s most successful real-time payment rails through PromptPay, while the Philippines is still pushing wider digital payment acceptance among smaller merchants. For companies such as Qashier, the challenge is not just building software but stitching together local payment methods, compliance requirements, settlement flows, and merchant workflows in each market.

Qashier’s pitch is to bring these functions into one system. Its platform combines payments, point-of-sale tools, inventory management, ordering, customer relationship management, loyalty, automated marketing, and embedded financial services. The company says it supports more than 50 integrated modules and over 20 regional payment methods, including cards, QR payments, e-wallets, and buy-now-pay-later options.

Crucially, Qashier owns its end-to-end payments stack, including know-your-customer processes, processing, payouts, and cross-border settlement. In February 2025, it secured a Major Payment Institution licence in Singapore, strengthening its regulatory footing in its home market.

From POS software to lending

The company’s move into lending could become one of its more important growth levers.

Also Read: One size fits none: Why SEA’s SMEs need vertical payment stacks

In June 2025, Qashier launched QashierLoans, a revenue-based financing product underwritten using proprietary transaction data from its platform. Repayments are automatically deducted from a merchant’s daily sales, a model designed to reduce friction for SMEs with variable cash flows.

The product has disbursed more than US$10 million to over 100 SMEs since launch. While still small relative to the scale of Southeast Asia’s SME financing gap, it gives Qashier a path beyond software subscription and payment processing revenue.

For many merchant platforms in Southeast Asia, embedded finance is the logical next step. Transaction data can provide a clearer picture of business health than traditional SME financial statements, which are often incomplete or outdated. Companies that control checkout, sales, and settlement flows can use that data to assess working-capital needs and repayment capacity more quickly than banks.

Christopher Choo, co-founder and CEO of Qashier, said the company is trying to build core infrastructure for regional SMEs while staying disciplined on costs.

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“Merchants should not have to stitch together five vendors to run one business. By bringing payments, software, financial services and customer engagement into a single ecosystem, we give them clarity, lower costs and the confidence to scale across markets,” he said.

Competition is getting sharper

Qashier is operating in a crowded and increasingly competitive space. In Singapore and Malaysia, HitPay provides payment acceptance and commerce tools for SMEs. StoreHub, which has a strong base in Malaysia and other regional markets, offers POS, QR ordering, loyalty, and payments for restaurants and retailers.

Xendit and Fazz focus more heavily on payments infrastructure and financial services, while players such as Pine Labs, Stripe, Adyen, Grab, and traditional bank acquirers compete across various layers of the merchant payments stack.

The battle is not only about payment acceptance fees. Merchant platforms are racing to become the system of record for SMEs. Whoever owns the transaction layer can cross-sell software, financing, payroll, loyalty, procurement, and analytics. This is why profitability matters: many fintechs in the region expanded aggressively during the low-interest-rate years, only to face pressure to cut burn and prove unit economics after funding conditions tightened.

Qashier’s claim of monthly profitability since December 2025 therefore gives it a stronger story than the usual growth-at-all-costs narrative. Still, the next phase will be more difficult. Serving larger, multi-outlet businesses in food and beverage, beauty, and wellness requires deeper workflows, stronger reliability, better reporting, and tighter integrations with accounting, delivery, and enterprise systems.

Also Read: Growth-minded Singapore SMEs turn to fintech amid cost pressures: Airwallex survey

Cocoon Capital, an early backer of Qashier, framed the latest round as a continuation of a long-term bet. Michael Blakey of the VC firm said the team had shown “resilience and ingenuity” while building towards becoming operating infrastructure for commerce in Southeast Asia.

For Qashier, the funding comes at a point when Southeast Asian merchants are more willing to digitise but also more selective about the tools they pay for. Profitability gives the company breathing room. The bigger test is whether it can convert its payments volume and merchant data into a defensible regional platform before better-funded rivals close the gap.

The post Profitable Qashier raises US$6M as SEA’s SME payments race intensifies appeared first on e27.

As Indonesia continues to grapple with a persistently high rate of traffic accidents, transport technology firm TransTrack is positioning AI, telematics and data analytics as central tools for improving road safety, both for its own operations and for the customers it serves.

The company’s approach was outlined during the Road Transport Safety Management System Strengthening Socialisation Programme, held on June 4 in Medan. The event brought together regulators, transport operators, insurers and technology providers to discuss the implementation of the Public Transport Company Safety Management System, known as SMK PAU.

At the forum, TransTrack presented its Safety Intelligence solution, which combines AI-powered Driver Monitoring Systems and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems. The technology is designed to help transport operators spot risky driving behaviour, lower accident risk, and meet operational safety standards more consistently.

Speaking about the company’s broader AI strategy, chief technology officer Aris Pujud Kurniawan told e27 that TransTrack has not yet reached full agentic AI implementation, where a system manages an entire decision-making cycle independently. Instead, the company currently relies on AI assistants that speed up human decision-making.

He attributed the gap partly to the complexities of the transport sector, including safety requirements, regulatory considerations and cost management, as well as the risk posed by poorly optimised training data. Data silos across the industry, he added, remain a persistent obstacle, with much information still unintegrated.

Also Read: Profitable Qashier raises US$6M as SEA’s SME payments race intensifies

Within its products, TransTrack has introduced AI assistants capable of detecting driver fatigue and relaying reports to control centres, though Kurniawan said the tools have not advanced to the point of making higher-level judgements, such as recommending whether a driver should be dismissed. On the operational side, the company has adopted semi-autonomous AI for tasks including integrated installation processes and stock analysis used to determine when to re-engage with vendors.

Kurniawan described TransTrack’s product development process as beginning with real problems identified within the industry, drawing on a dedicated team that researches customer pain points and use cases before assessing what data is available to address them. He noted that customer requests are not always supported by existing data, making early validation essential.

The company also draws on IoT platforms, both its own and those already owned by customers, as data acquisition tools.

TransTrack’s development team numbers around 200 people, and Kurniawan said the company maintains close ties with roughly ten public and private universities in Indonesia, as well as institutions in South Korea, to support joint research. One outcome of this collaboration is an internally developed driver fatigue detection tool, which Kurniawan said relies on multiple analytical layers; additional research with university partners has helped raise its accuracy from 80 per cent to 90 per cent. The company is also pursuing maritime technology research, including work on fuel efficiency detection.

Data availability remains a broader challenge, Kurniawan said, citing inconsistent infrastructure, connectivity and accessibility across Indonesia, where many customer fleets vary widely in condition and some vehicles are too outdated to yield usable data. TransTrack said its products are designed to function in such constrained environments, supported by a database of thousands of connected IoT devices nationwide.

Also Read: German-listed DDB acquires Singapore’s Infinium Robotics in US$24M share deal

On staying current with rapid technological change, Kurniawan said he encourages his team to engage with new developments without being swept up by hype, emphasising safety, compliance and regulatory considerations before implementation. Team members are permitted to use AI tools for tasks such as correcting code.

The company also runs TransTrack Academy, which is open to the public and fresh graduates, and which some customers use to train their own staff. Strong graduates may be offered employment. Looking ahead, Kurniawan said the company aims to progress from semi-autonomous systems toward agentic AI capabilities.

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Image Credit: TransTrack

The post How TransTrack is embedding AI across its products and operations appeared first on e27.

Most of us have sat through more training, workshops, and professional programmes than we can remember. In the moment, they often feel meaningful. We leave energised, pages filled with notes, ideas sparking, and a quiet belief that something has shifted.

But time has a way of clarifying things. A few months later, the details blur. Slides fade into one another, frameworks become hard to recall, and even certificates – once carefully saved – end up forgotten in a folder somewhere.

I used to wonder what that meant. Whether learning had actually happened, or whether we were just collecting experiences that felt important at the time.

Over the years, I have accumulated more certifications than I can easily track – PMP, Scrum Master, ACLP, coaching, yoga teaching, personal training, and others. Some translated directly into work I still do today: facilitating leadership workshops, coaching teams, and designing learning experiences. Others never became careers.

For a while, I saw those as detours. But that view feels incomplete now. Each programme, even the ones I never used, offered something quieter – an entry point into a different world. A different way of thinking, a different discipline, a different lens on people.

Yoga did not turn into a career, but it changed how I understand presence. Coaching did not just give me tools, but reshaped how I listen. And leadership programmes I have attended and later facilitated myself continue to influence how I design spaces where adults learn – not through instruction, but through reflection and interaction.

That leads to a more interesting question than what we learned: what actually stays with us after learning?

Looking back at the few learning experiences I still vividly remember, three patterns show up consistently.

First, they were fun

One participant once told me after an improv-inspired leadership workshop that it was “more memorable than a yacht sunset.” That stayed with me because it was not about entertainment in a shallow sense. It was about energy.

My own improv journey taught me this deeply. Sessions were often messy, playful, and unpredictable. You might find yourself acting as a completely different character, reacting to absurd prompts, or navigating unfamiliar cultural references on the spot. It felt silly at times, but that was exactly the point.

Fun created permission. Permission to try, to fail, to respond without overthinking. That emotional engagement is what made people present. And presence is where learning actually begins.

Also Read: How SMEs can become learning organisations, without the corporate bureaucracy

Second, they prioritised practice over theory

I still remember my early days as a coach: sweaty palms, racing thoughts, and an internal voice constantly trying to get it right. Over time, I realised most of that pressure was self-imposed.

Nothing changed in theory first. It changed through repetition.

This is something I now see clearly in leadership development work as well. Insight without practice fades quickly. But when people are repeatedly placed in situations where they must listen, respond, and reflect in real time, something shifts. Capability starts to form through experience, not explanation.

Third, they embraced chaos

Most traditional learning environments are designed around structure: clear agendas, defined outcomes, predictable flow. But real learning rarely behaves that neatly.

The moments that stay with people are often the unplanned ones – when discussions go off script, when disagreement surfaces, when silence lingers longer than expected, or when someone says something that reframes the entire room.

In those moments, structure loosens just enough for people to think for themselves. And that is usually where real insight emerges.

Some thoughts

Facilitation, I have realised, is not confined to workshops or training rooms. It is a mindset for growth – guiding people, teams, and even ourselves through ambiguity while creating conditions where learning can happen naturally.

Perhaps the real purpose of training was never the certificate at all. It was learning how to stay curious, practice consistently, and feel comfortable in the unknown.

Also Read: Why Southeast Asia’s edutech must go beyond chatbots to truly transform learning

Startups operate in a very similar way. The ones that endure rarely succeed because they followed a perfect plan. They experiment constantly, learn through iteration, and keep building even when outcomes are uncertain. Leadership in that environment is less about certainty and more about creating space for discovery.

Even the pace of change today, especially with AI, reinforces this. What feels new quickly becomes baseline. The only constant is iteration.

In that sense, facilitation, leadership, and entrepreneurship are not separate disciplines. They are variations of the same practice: learning how to move forward without needing everything to be fully clear.

And maybe that is the real skill underneath it all – not what we remember from training, but what we are still able to build when certainty is missing.

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The post What facilitation taught me about learning, leadership, and building things that last appeared first on e27.