‘There’s still an acute shortage of Series C/D capital in SEA’
Asia Partners’s General Partner Nick Nash said there is a Series C and D funding gap of ~US$900M for SEA to catch up with China; This is, however, less than the funding gap of US$1.1B last year and US$1.2B in 2019.

Malaysia’s unicorn Carsome to lay off staff 
The used-car firm has apparently started letting people go in Thailand and Indonesia; It is now bringing the effort to Malaysia and its regional roles, a Tech In Asia report highlighted.

Shopee layoffs hit staff in Taiwan, Philippines
Dozens of employees in the Taiwanese office were asked to pack their things and leave on Monday; The layoffs in the Philippines would reduce the workforce by “a low single-digit percentage.”

Shopee faces backlash over endorsement in the Philippines
The firm appears to have sparked the ire of users who questioned how it has money to hire Filipino celebrity Toni Gonzaga as its brand ambassador even as it recently announced layoffs in the country.

Traveloka receives US$300M financing facility
The investors include Blackrock, Indonesia Investment Authority, and Allianz Global; Traveloka has so far raised US$862M+ from investors, including Expedia, Rocket Internet, GIC, and East Ventures.

Exclusive: Scooterson lands US$74M contract to build electric two-wheelers in Singapore
Scooterson is setting up a manufacturing facility in Singapore, which plans to produce around 850 units monthly, starting April-March 2023; It plans to hire 15 employees in the R&D department and 20-25 in the manufacturing department in the next 6-9 months.

Grab to launch digibank in Malaysia, Indonesia in 2023
Bank Fama International will serve as the foundation for the digibank it plans to establish in Indonesia; The announcement follows the launch of GXS Bank, a digibank formed in partnership with Singtel, in Singapore last month.

E-commerce brands aggregator Una Brands raises US$30M Series B
Lead investors are White Star Capital and Alpha JWC; The firm will use the capital to double down and fund acquisitions of high-quality e-commerce brands across home & living, mother & baby, and beauty & personal care categories.

Aiello banks US$5.8M to take its voice AI assistant for hotels beyond Taiwan
Lead investors are JAFCO Asia and Wistron Corporation; Aiello’s voice assistant analyses the needs and usage behaviours of guests during their stay and extracts data which can be used to improve hotel management.

Singapore’s field service management startup FTV Labs raises US$1.5M seed
Investors are Origgin Capital and Mitsubishi Electrics ME Innovation Fund; FTVLabs’s KEGMIL digitises and automates inefficient spreadsheet and paper-based workflows, enabling field service companies to enact timely data-driven insights.

Indonesia’s Mycotech raises US$1.2M to develop eco-friendly leather for fashion industry
Investors are AgFunder, Temasek Lifesciences, Fashion for Good, Third Derivative, and Rumah Group; Mycotech employs mycelium as a binding agent to create biomaterial composite Biobo and cultivates it to create strong, leather-like material Mylea.

Children’s behavioural health startup KinderPass raises US$500K
Goodwater Capital, Momentum Capital, Better Capital, and SuperMorpheus are the investors; KinderPass provides online therapy and personalised support for children’s developmental delays, learning difficulties and behavioural issues.

Entrepreneur First unveils 7 SG firms in latest cohort
The Singaporean companies in the latest cohort solve problems related to women’s health, fintech, Web3, and machine learning; Five of these startups are raising seed rounds and two have recently concluded fundraises.

AC Ventures ties up with CTO-as-a-service firm to bolster tech teams
The collaboration with 8020cto is aimed at helping SEA startups face technical challenges; 8020cto will guide the founders of ACV’s portfolio companies on streamlining their technical and business strategies as well as coach their CTOs and engineers.

Malaysian crypto exchange MX Global bags US$1.6M
Binance and Hachiman Technology are the investors; In June, CEO Changpeng Zhao revealed that Binance will work with Malaysian cryptocurrency exchanges to expand its services in the country.

Terra founder contests South Korea’s Bitcoin transfer accusations
“There is no ‘cashout’ as alleged,” Do Kwon shared in a Twitter post; However, the police alleged that 3,313 bitcoins from Luna Foundation Guard were moved to crypto exchange platforms KuCoin and OKX between September 15 and 18.

Terraform Labs says accusations against CEO have ‘no reasonable basis’
A spokesperson for the firm issued a statement that Do Kwon was in communication with the authorities through his lawyer; The exec said Kwon is “not on the run” and is actively managing Terraform Labs.

Physical collectibles maker Mighty Jaxx launches NFT collection
It will team up with checkout solutions provider Paper to offer buyers the option to pay via credit card; Adding credit cards as a payment option makes buying NFTs more convenient.

Crypto adoption steadies in South Asia, soars in the SEA
This article analyses the main drivers and barriers to grassroots cryptocurrency adoption in South and Southeast Asia countries.

This startup aims to make rooftop solar accessible to smaller households with zero upfront cost
Customers can then choose either its five-to-year plans for rent-to-own or direct purchase; Solar AI’s goal is to convert 5,000+ properties across Southeast Asia to solar by 2025 and decrease up to 84,394 tonnes of carbon per year.

Web3, wallets, and winning the next culture revolution in SEA
Blockchain wallets fundamentally serve as the entryway into Web3 and the next evolution of consumer culture, marked by decentralisation.

How e-sports is evolving with blockchain gaming
The use of blockchain will increase trust in e-sports because of the platform’s transparency, allowing everyone to see what is happening.

Meet the 6 companies you can connect with at Echelon 2022
Echelon 2022 is designed to help companies achieve favourable business outcomes by connecting attendees with decision-makers of various companies across various industries.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon.

The 2022 Echelon edition will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

The post Ecosystem Roundup: Traveloka raises US$300M, Carsome to lay off staff, Shopee kicks up a storm in Philippines appeared first on e27.

YAS MicroInsurance, a blockchain-powered insurtech company in Hong Kong with operations in Vietnam and Malaysia, has completed its US$4.5-million pre-Series A funding round.

Noria Capital, ZEMU VC, and JKL Capital co-led the round, which also saw participation from Beyond Ventures and 500 Global.

The new capital will be used to expand YAS’s services to the Web3 insurance industry.

A multitude of technological advances across the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Web3, DeFi and the IoT is shaping the future of society. These innovative technologies create risks while presenting opportunities for insurance innovators like YAS.

Also Read: Web3, wallets, and winning the next culture revolution in Southeast Asia

YAS sees enormous opportunities here.

It provides insurance for hiking, cycling, and transport, besides NFT insurance. It is now aggressively expanding to Web3 insurance; out of a total of US$1 trillion in Web3 assets, only US$6 billion are insured today.

“We are on track with our goal to achieve our vision of how future insurance works – autonomous insurance on-chain, as we transition from the old Web2 world into a more interconnected Web3 world,” said William Lee, Co-founder of YAS.

Noria Capital specialises in bringing innovation to the insurance industry in the Middle East. It will provide expertise in the region and support YAS in obtaining a digital asset insurance license in the Middle East. It is one of the world’s leading hubs for blockchain adoption and represents an excellent opportunity for YAS.

JKL Group is a diversified digital asset and blockchain-focused firm providing institutions and direct clients with end-to-end expertise in asset management, quantitative investment solutions, lending, OTC services and Bitcoin mining.

Also Read: Immunefi secures US$24M Series A to offer bug bounty programme for Web3 whitehat hackers

Beyond Ventures aims to revitalise Hong Kong’s innovation ecosystem by bringing together local venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to invest in new ideas and startups.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon.

The 2022 Echelon edition will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

The post YAS Microinsurance completes US$4.5M pre-Series A to venture into Web3 insurance appeared first on e27.

Metastrike, a blockchain-based role-playing gaming (RPG) startup, has closed its US$3.3 million in a private financing round from GD10 Ventures, Jump Capital, and Kucoin Labs.

In addition, the Vietnamese startup looks to raise an additional US$500,000 during its public round.

Metastrike is a blockchain-based virtual reality first-person shooter (FPS)-RPG, featuring an array of digital assets that players can collect and trade on the open market, such as weapons, skins, and projectiles.

Also Read: What does blockchain gaming need to succeed in the long haul?

It also features an equitable play-to-earn economy that rewards players for their time and dedication to improving their skills in the game.

Players can collect an NFT arsenal and upgrade their weapons to boost their appeal and value. These NFTs can be traded or sold on its NFT marketplace, along with maps that players can build and also sell as digital assets.

Metastrike also infuses a social element into its ecosystem, as players can form guilds and embark on missions to increase rewards and improve their ranking in the game.

The Metastrike in-game economy will be supported by two utility tokens. The native $MTS token will have a maximum supply of 565 million tokens. It will serve as the in-game currency that players can utilise to purchase metaverse land and NFTs, participate in tournaments, stake, and vote on important ecosystem decisions.

Its second utility token $MTT has an uncapped supply and will serve as the main P2E reward token. It allows players to upgrade weapons, purchase consumables, participate in special events and features a burning mechanism in which 10 per cent of all burned tokens will be reserved for a weekly prize pool for players.

Also Read: Why the Web3-enabled gaming world still has hope

“The next stage in our evolution is to launch $MTS in Q1 of 2022. This quarter will also see the release of our closed beta version and our very first NFT sale,” the company said in a statement.

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The post NFT gaming startup Metastrike closes US$3.3M funding round appeared first on e27.

Just as blockchain technology is disrupting the financial sector, so too is it revolutionising the gaming industry. In Q1 2022 alone, investors have poured more than US$2 billion into blockchain games. 

Meanwhile, esports continues to grow, with global revenue already reaching US$1.38 billion in 2022. In fact, the esports audience is estimated to be 532 million people worldwide.

When gaming meets finance

The growing popularity of blockchain games has given rise to the buzzword GameFi, which is a portmanteau of “game” and “finance”.

Unlike traditional video games, GameFi offers economic incentives to players in the form of cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which is why the term play-to-earn was born.

This is in stark contrast to traditional gaming, where players only get virtual items such as in-game gold, armour, weapons, and so on, which have no value outside the game.  

Esports and evolution

Meanwhile, esports helped traditional gaming evolve by turning video games into spectator sports. Game designers must now also keep in mind the audience watching the esports competitions.

For instance, how can they make the gameplay easier to understand and follow? What kind of fresh content can they release to keep interested in the game alive and make it more engaging?

Esports has also introduced gaming to a new audience, who might not have started out as gamers, but who enjoy watching the tournaments and cheering on their favourite teams. 

Blockchain as a game changer

Now, blockchain gaming is, in turn, revolutionising the esports industry. For one, the esports industry is currently fragmented, with different game publishers, game developers, and esports organisations running their own tournaments on different platforms. With blockchain, however, esports can have a decentralised platform that will bring together all stakeholders.

Also Read: A Founder’s journey from sewing machines to blockchain gaming

Moreover, the use of blockchain will also increase trust in esports because of the transparency of the platform, which allows everyone to see what is happening. Not only that but also cryptocurrency will enable secure payment systems and in-app purchases. 

These are just some of the benefits that blockchain technology brings to the table for esports. 

Beyond Web3 bubble

One big challenge, however, is whether GameFi can grow beyond the cryptocurrency space and attract traditional gamers and even non-gamers. 

“Perhaps it’s building out the gaming experience or creating new openings for non-crypto-native players to enter the space, but there’s a range of opportunities and challenges for builders and gamers,” TechCrunch noted in this article. 

After all, the main reason players fall in love with a game is because it is fun. Sure, esports is a competition, and pro gamers are out to win cash prizes and attract sponsorships. But they would not have become interested in the game in the first place if not for the fun factor. Nor would the audience want to watch esports tournaments if the games were boring.

A tale of two game developers

What we will see in this space are two parallel developments: blockchain game developers that will try to make their games more fun and traditional game studios that will try to embrace Web3 and integrate blockchain into their games. 

Both will face challenges, and blockchain gaming startup Playfix was founded precisely to help developers overcome these. Playfix offers a platform for easily building, launching, and growing web3 games and NFTs. By providing all the APIs needed to build a web3 game, from tokens to NFTs to wallets, developers don’t have to worry about the technology. Instead, they can focus on what they do best: making fun games and delighting their players.

So get ready, gamers. With blockchain gaming, esports is about to level up again.

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Una Brands, a multi-channel e-commerce aggregator in Singapore, has closed its US$30 million Series B financing round led by White Star Capital and Alpha JWC Ventures.

The firm will use the capital to double down and fund acquisitions of high-quality e-commerce brands across home & living, mother & baby, and beauty & personal care categories.

Additionally, Una Brands will continue to invest in developing its in-house proprietary technology infrastructure.

Also Read: Ex-CEO of Rocket Internet Asia launches new e-commerce venture Una Brands with a US$40M seed round

Founded in 2021 by e-commerce veterans and a senior management team, Una Brands acquires and grows well-loved and enduring e-commerce brands with a geographical focus across Southeast Asia, Australia/New Zealand, China, and the US.

Since its beginning, Una Brands has acquired and operates over 20 e-commerce brands across six countries. It has also built its technological, operational and growth platform to acquire, operate and scale brands across e-commerce channels, such as Amazon, Shopify, Shopee, Lazada, and Tokopedia.

The company has built its proprietary technology infrastructure and on-the-ground presence in strategic locations to enable this cross-channel platform.

Last year, Una Brands acquired ErgoTune and EverDesk+, two top ergonomic furniture brands in Southeast Asia. It expanded these homegrown brands into Australia and grew revenues by over 40 per cent in less than a year.

The startup claims it has an annualised revenue of over US$50 million and is expected to achieve group profitability by the end of 2022.

CEO Kiren Tanna said: “The e-commerce landscape, particularly in Southeast Asia, with a more than 600 million population, has tremendous secular tailwinds. The funding has further strengthened our balance sheet and cash position as we look to continue to acquire great brands and invest in our technological advantage moving forward.”

“Una Brands has built out a multi-platform capability that no other aggregator has, catering not only to sellers on Amazon but also Shopify and on local platforms such as Lazada, Tokopedia and Shopee,” commented Nick Stocks, General Partner, White Star Capital.

Also Read: Una Brands nets US$15M Series A to acquire new e-commerce brands in Asia

The aggregator has 200+ employees in six offices across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, India, and China.

Since its inception, Una Brands has raised close to US$100 million. Its other investors are 500 Global, Kingsway Capital, Presight Capital, 468 Capital, and Claret Capital Partners.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon.

The 2022 Echelon edition will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

The post Una Brands raises US$30M Series B to acquire e-commerce brands in home & living, mother & baby care appeared first on e27.

Singapore-registered KinderPass, a behavioural health platform for children, has secured US$500,000 in a pre-seed investment round.

Goodwater Capital, Momentum Capital, Better Capital, SuperMorpheus, and Rebalance Angel Community are the investors.

The startup will use the funds to launch video-based multilingual detection modules, build a proprietary parent education platform, expand its clinician network, and partner with pre-schools and schools to reach more families.

Many children face developmental differences, delays and disabilities. One in five children has dyslexia, ADHD, autism, speech delays, or anxiety. India ranks highest on the list of kids with developmental disabilities and years lived with disabilities.

Studies show that holistic and sustained progress happens when parents are aware and get the right tools at the right time to help kids at home. That is what KinderPass provides.

Launched in early 2020 by Sumedha Khoche and Shireen Sultana, KinderPass aims to transform paediatric behavioural health through online therapy and personalised support for developmental delays, learning difficulties and behavioural issues.

Also Read: How these five startups are changing the game in health and well-being

The mobile app empowers families through a personalised programme that entails (1) interactive 1×1 sessions that teach kids and parents, activities and techniques to use in real-life situations and (2) weekly practice activities, games and worksheets that help them reach goals faster.

KinderPass has a network of 50+ child experts (speech therapists, teachers, occupational therapists, psychologists, behaviour therapists etc.) who have helped families across over 75 cities, from Delhi to Dubai, Bengaluru to Balrampur.

The multilingual app is currently accessible in Hindi and English and claims to have crossed 1.2 million downloads. Six new languages will be added soon.

The app has over 1,500 skill-building modules and 50+ assessments. So far, KinderPass has enabled thousands of assessments and live sessions.

“Developmental screening and early intervention are not the norms, and most developmental delays go undetected or unaddressed during early years and surface as ‘learning difficulties’ or ‘behaviour problems’ at school. We want to change this”, the company said in a joint statement.

In 2021, KinderPass graduated from Rebalance’s early-stage accelerator programme and received support from T-hub, WE-hub, Jio BuildforBharat and Action for India.

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Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon.

The 2022 Echelon edition will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

The post KinderPass nets US$500K to transform children’s behavioural health through online therapy appeared first on e27.

FTV Labs, a Singapore-based field service management startup, has secured US$1.5 million in a seed funding round led by Origgin Capital and Mitsubishi Electrics ME Innovation Fund.

GHV Accelerator and Plug and Play Indonesia also participated.

This fresh capital injection will enable the company to accelerate its product roadmap and fuel growth in key verticals, such as construction, manufacturing, marine offshore and renewable energy across the Southeast Asian region.

Founded by CEO Kelvin Ong, FTV Labs owns and operates the field service management solution KEGMIL. It helps accelerate the modernisation of legacy industries with labour-intensive field services, primarily in Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Meet the 6 companies you can connect with at Echelon 2022

Digital transformation remains a key challenge for companies that operate in labour-intensive sectors, such as construction, logistics and manufacturing. Workers on the ground still manage records manually, with paper accounting for many of these work records.

The KEGMIL software solves these issues by digitising and automating inefficient spreadsheet and paper-based workflows, enabling field service companies to enact timely data-driven insights.

Origgin Capital is the VC arm of Origgin Ventures, a deep-tech venture creator. Origgin focuses on investing and commercialising defensible patents from universities and research institutes. The venture co-creation approach provides the initial capital and hands-on support to create deep-tech startups, guide them to initial success and create value for our stakeholders.

Since 2017, Origgin has spun off more than 30 deeptech startups from partner universities, such as NUS, NTU, Harvard and ETHzurich.

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The post Origgin Capital, Mitsubishi invest US$1.5M in SG’s field service management startup FTV Labs appeared first on e27.

The rising popularity of the Web3 space means investors are flocking to invest in companies in the space, but Vickers Venture Partners does not follow through.

In a written interview with e27, when asked about why the firm is not enthusiastic about the Web3 space, Chairman and Founder Dr Finian Tan replies, “The simple answer is that it doesn’t meet our criteria.”

The criteria that Dr Tan speaks about centered around its ESG & Sustainability efforts focus.

“When we started our ESG journey in 2008, it was primarily a negative screening process where we did not invest in ‘bad’ companies. Our OB markers included the so-called ‘sin stocks’ such as gambling and companies with poor HR policies (e.g. the use of child labour),” he writes.

“Today, our starting premise is that our capital should not just avoid ‘bad’ companies but also push humanity forward somewhat. Hence our ESG & Sustainability efforts focus on the theme of Funding a Better World. This is reflected in the portfolio companies we invest in, and is in line with the efforts we have taken since 2019 to incorporate the assessment of impact (aligned with the UNSDGs) in addition to the assessment of sustainability risks and other material ESG factors.”

In conclusion, the firm believes that deep tech companies are the ones that are “most likely” to help solve some of the most pressing global issues today. As a result of this thought process, Vickers Venture Partners says that at least 80 per cent of its fund has been allocated to relevant innovation in the tech industry.

Also Read: Deep tech startups gain multi-pronged support from Leave a Nest

To better understand its focus on the deep tech space, in this interview, Dr Tan reveals the characteristics that the firm is looking for in a potential investment and the kind of support that Vickers Venture Partners can provide to the company while busting some myths on deep tech investment at the same time.

Deeper into the deep tech scene in Southeast Asia

As a firm, Vickers Venture Partners does not specifically focus on Southeast Asia, but they have begun to see more deep tech startup activity growing in the region. Some of the deep tech companies that it has invested in are based in Singapore.

“When looking at opportunities, we generally look at emerging technologies based on scientific discoveries or engineering innovations in expanding fields such as biotech/healthcare, AI, and nanotechnology. And these technologies are seeking to tackle some of the world’s fundamental challenges. We typically come in and invest in these companies when they have already developed a proof of concept and need funds to scale,” Dr Tan says.

Despite the community of deep tech startups in SEA countries such as Singapore, the deep tech sector is not exactly a fan favourite in the region.

“Deep tech companies are usually built around a novel technology that offers breakthrough advances over existing solutions in the market. Taking these technologies from ‘lab to market’ requires substantial capital carrying high risk,” Dr Tan explains.

However, he also stresses that this is the case with venture investment in any vertical.

“We would like to think that deep tech investments reduce the number of risks because it involves a solution to a known and ready problem, whereas a general venture capital investment might involve a solution that doesn’t yet have a problem,” Dr Tan points out.

Also Read: Japan is looking for deep tech startups to collaborate with

“For example, we didn’t know we needed a TikTok until there was one. Furthermore, there is often a winner-takes-all in the consumer space. In the deep tech space, market risk is reduced to a minimum and focussed risk to the technology where it is possible to mitigate it with good technical understanding and foresight,” he continues.

Innovation that excites us

When looking at a potential investment, Vickers Venture Partners considers several criteria that include:

– The technology: A breakthrough product that does not currently exist in the marketplace
– Market risk: The product has to service a large market with known and ready demand
– Intellectual Property (IP): The product’s IP can be protected

In its portfolio, Dr Tan names several innovations that the firm finds to be “really exciting” that includes medtech innovations such as the next-generation x-ray systems developed by Lumitron Technologies that are capable of ultrahigh­-fidelity imaging (1000x more resolution) and ultra­-low dose radiography (100x less dose).

“They’ve achieved this by developing a new laser technology that shrinks the capabilities of a football field-sized synchrotron, onto a tabletop device. This could be a paradigm shift for medical imaging and cancer therapy but also has other applications in non-destructive evaluation and mining,” Dr Tan says.

The firm has also invested in RWDC Industries (which has developed a product to replace petroleum-derived plastic materials) and Eavor Technologies (which has developed a geothermal energy solution that has the advantage of no fracking, no GHG emissions, no earthquake risk, no water use, no produced brine or solids, and no aquifer contamination).

“Others like Emergex Vaccines are on the cusp of developing synthetic universal vaccines that reinvent the way vaccines are currently developed and administered and AWAK Technologies has a portable dialysis machine which will improve the quality of life for chronic kidney disease patients everywhere,” Dr Tan says.

Also Read: How to build deep tech startups across borders

What is next

During this pandemic, Dr Tan says the firm has been busy raising its US$500 million plus capital for its latest funds, the SPACs, and co-investments into their portfolio companies.

For 2023, Vickers Venture Partner aims to focus on taking its portfolio companies across their respective milestones and proving out the original thesis of the investments.

“The world will go through a very rough period ahead, so we are bracing ourselves to assist our companies through these challenging times. But we are optimistic that as long as our tech proves out as expected, we will be able to make the impact we set out to make. 2023 is going to be a very interesting year for Vickers,” he closes.

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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.

Image Credit: Vickers Venture Partners

The post Why Vickers Venture Partners go with deep tech investments to solve world’s biggest problems appeared first on e27.

Echelon 2022 happens in a month and the team at e27 is looking forward to meeting you at Resorts World Singapore for two days of business-building meet-ups, discussions, and activities.

From panel discussions and fireside chats at the main stage, to roundtable discussions, open networking, and 1-to-1 business matchings, Echelon 2022 is designed to help companies achieve favourable business outcomes by connecting attendees with decision makers of various companies across various industries.

This is made possible with the support of our amazing sponsors who would help us make your Echelon 2022 experience valuable and productive.

And they are looking forward to meeting you there! Here are six companies you can connect with at Echelon this year:

Aiven

Aiven provides managed open source data technologies on all major clouds. Through Aiven, developers can do what they do best: create applications. Meanwhile, we do what we do best: manage cloud data infrastructure. Aiven is e27‘s preferred cloud database partner.

Meet Aiven at Echelon! Sign up to schedule here.

Sendbird

Sendbird believes conversations are at the heart of building relationships and getting things done. As such, we built the world’s most proven conversations platform for mobile apps across chat, voice, and video. Industry leaders like Reddit, DoorDash, and Hinge use Sendbird to drive increased transactions & loyalty for hundreds of millions of users every month.

Meet Sendbird at Echelon! Sign up to schedule here.

Also read: 2022 invite-only edition: Echelon is focussing on business matching and sustainable growth

CleverTap

CleverTap is the modern, integrated retention cloud that empowers digital consumer brands to increase customer retention and lifetime value. CleverTap drives contextual individualization with the help of a unified and deep data layer, AI/ML-powered insights, and automation enabling brands to offer hyper-personalized and delightful experiences to their 1200+ customers in 60+ countries and 10,000+ apps.

Backed by leading venture capital firms, including Sequoia, Tiger Global Management, and Accel, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in Mumbai, Singapore, Sofia, São Paulo, Bogota, Amsterdam, Jakarta, and Dubai.

Meet CleverTap at Echelon! Sign up to schedule here.

AppsFlyer

AppsFlyer helps marketers make good choices for their business through innovative, privacy-preserving measurement, analytics, and engagement technologies. They empower 12K+ brands and 10K+ tech partners to have meaningful customer relationships.

Meet AppsFlyer at Echelon! Sign up to schedule here.

Also read: Apps UP 2022: A platform for today’s leading mobile apps to shine!

Equinix

Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company. Digital leaders harness our trusted platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success. We enable our customers to access all the right places, partners and possibilities they need to accelerate advantage. With Equinix, they can scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value.

SAP

SAP is one of the world’s leading producers of software for the management of business processes, developing solutions that facilitate effective data processing and information flow across organisations.

At SAP, our purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. Our promise is to innovate to help our customers run at their best. SAP is committed to helping every customer become a best-run business. We engineer solutions to fuel innovation, foster equality, and spread opportunity across borders and cultures. Together, with our customers and partners, we can transform industries, grow economies, lift up societies, and sustain our environment. #TheBestRun

Meet SAP at Echelon! Sign up to schedule here.

Also read: Get Privy for secure digital ID solutions

Echelon 2022 aims to provide intimate and focused discussions on key topics and business matching services to facilitate business-driven connections during the two-day event. e27 will curate and invite key stakeholders of startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem enablers to drive towards fruitful business outcomes at Echelon.

The 2022 Echelon edition will be co-located with SWITCH at Resorts World Sentosa from 27 to 28 October 2022. Learn more here. 

The post Meet the 6 companies you can connect with at Echelon 2022 appeared first on e27.

Aiello, a natural language processing (NLP) and voice AI startup based in Taipei, has received US$5.8 million in a pre-Series A+ funding round led JAFCO Asia and Wistron Corporation.

Existing investor Cornerstone Ventures also participated in the round.

“The new funds will be used to accelerate business in international markets, especially in Japan and Thailand, where we see good traction. We also plan to boost R&D and launch a new product, a ‘conversation intelligence platform’ aiming to improve corporate sales and meeting efficiency. This platform, which focuses on AI-driven voice and audio analysis and collaboration, is expected to be launched by the end of this year,” said Vic Shen, Founder and CEO of Aiello.

Founded in January 2019 with a founding team from Google, Qualcomm, and HTC, the startup offers Aiello Voice Assistant (AVA), a natural language understanding (NLU)-based solution dedicated to hospitality.

AVA drives additional hotel revenue, increases direct bookings, and encourages guest loyalty. It analyses the needs and usage behaviours of guests during their stay and extracts data which can be used to improve hotel management.

“Our data shows that AVA has reduced front desk workloads in hotels where it is deployed by approximately 30 per cent. For a hotel with 200 rooms, that represents more than 300 hours of labour time in six months”, added Shen. “According to our findings, our AI voice assistant also helps hotels increase their social media exposure by up to 10x, largely thanks to guests sharing their experiences.”

Also Read: How voice AI is revolutionising the fintech scene

The firm claims its AI solutions process more than 900,000 speeches and text interactions per month in Chinese, English, Thai, and Japanese.

Over the past six months, Aiello has won multiple international hotel contracts in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Several leading hotel brands recently signed corporate-level service contracts with the company.

This year, the number of AVA-equipped guest rooms is expected to increase an impressive 2.5x compared to 2021.

John Lin, MD of JAFCO Asia Taiwan, remarked: “Aiello is one of the few AI companies in Asia with a scalable business model. In the post-pandemic era, enterprises’ labour shortages and digital transformation are visible trends. We expect that the demand for AI and intelligent voice in enterprises will be higher and higher, and Aiello is bound to play an important role. ”

Aiello has raised over US$10 million in funding since its inception four years ago. It closed its pre-Series A round in 2021, co-lead by Chunghwa PCHome Fund I, Zylux Acoustic Corporation, and ColoplNext.

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