Taipei showed its startup prowess, seeing six companies qualify for TOP100 in Singapore

Taiwan is the country of Acer, Foxconn and HTC. It has a long, proud, history in the manufacturing industry and has been a regional leader in technology for decades.

As the burgeoning startup scene continues to chug along, e27 landed in Taipei to find the best young companies the country has to offer. Six companies qualified to participate in the final TOP100 competition at Echelon Asia Summit from May 23-24 in Singapore.

This year, the winner is Blyng, a chatbot for the real estate industry. It wants to help customers get quick, and convenient, information about property regardless of time of day. From an agents perspective, it’s an opportunity to upscale the business by providing great customer service during off hours.

Blyng integrates its chatbot into the website of real estate companies and provides immediate response time along with 24/7 availability.

As the company continues to grow, it will not only expand internationally, but also plans to add more channels — like WhatsApp and LINE.

As a reward for winning, Blyng has won the following prize:

• A free exhibition booth space in the TOP100 Zone at Echelon.
• A pitching slot on the TOP100 stage on day one of Echelon.
• Intimate investor meetings and inclusion to Corporate business matching.
• Five starter tickets to Echelon Asia Summit.
• Access to the TOP100 Tour in Singapore.

The qualifiers

The five additional qualifiers will have a chance to enjoy the above rewards should they take up a discounted offer for booth space at Echelon. There, they will also have a shot at competing with other qualifiers for the S$50,000 Startup SG grant prize.

The companies that qualified are as follows:

Screea
M1 Marketing
dipp
3drens
Baypay

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Photo by Pen Tsai on Unsplash

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Letting strangers work together for 54 hours, create wild new ideas and build them into a tangible success, is a truly exciting feat!

According to e27’s Southeast Asia Startup Ecosystem Report 2018, Indonesia led the region capturing a total of US$4.07 billion in startup fundraising with their four local unicorns (Bukalapak, GO-JEK, Tokopedia, Traveloka) paving the way.

While momentum doesn’t seem to be slowing this year, Adam Haluska, Head of Marketing at Greenhouse.id, continues to champion community and ecosystem building from the ground up via his annual Startup Weekend Jakarta.

According to Haluska, “Even though we are living in the golden era of entrepreneurship it’s difficult to start a business. The event brings together like-minded participants from different backgrounds pitch ideas for new startup companies, form teams around these ideas, and collaborate to develop working prototypes, demos, or presentations.

We want to help young entrepreneurs to kickstart their ideas, build a team and find mentorship for their business journey.”

About startup weekend Jakarta 2019

Startup Weekend Jakarta is a 54-hours weekend event where groups of like-minded participants from different backgrounds can pitch ideas for new startup companies, form teams around these ideas, and collaborate to develop working prototypes, demos, or presentations.

From 5-7 April, the event will host more than 100 attendees at the Greenhouse Coworking and Office Space Multivision Tower.

Also Read: The world should wish the Singapore fake news law is Fake News

There will be a diverse roster of mentors in-attendance to deliver workshops and provide valuable feedback to participating teams. This year, the line-up includes prominent figures like Anthony Reza (Co-founder at Get Kraft), Aditya Kumar (Vice President of Corporate Development at Go-Jek), Elisah Suteja (Deputy CEO at FORE Coffee) and Diajeng Lestari (CEO at Hijup).

Inspired from the momentum and track record of previous years

Speaking on his passion and motivation for running the annual event, Haluska said, “We are excited to see how people who don’t even know each other work together for 54 hours, create new ideas and build them into something that might potentially succeed and make a difference.

During our last edition, one of the teams secured an investment two weeks post-event, which makes us super happy and proud.

The participants will walk away with new friends, potential business connections and partners, team members, mentor connections and a minimum viable product that might become an actual business. Not to mention three days of fun, food and drink in their belly.”

e27 x Startup Weekend Jakarta

At e27, we avidly support and participate in ecosystem building initiatives. These help us stay true and relevant to our mission — empowering entrepreneurs with the tools to build and grow their businesses.

Also Read: What will be the next big thing in tech? Find out at the FUTURE stage at Echelon Asia Summit 2019

Regarding the partnership with e27, Haluska shared, “The ultimate goal is to contribute to the local ecosystem and help businesses to succeed. e27 can help us provide the necessary exposure to gather people with diverse backgrounds but similar interests and create something lasting.

If e27 could join us to support the most innovative ideas and the startup with the most social impact focus, we think the stories of these startups could turn some heads, help young entrepreneurs get attention and fundamentally contribute to the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

For more information about Startup Weekend Jakarta 2019, visit here.

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No one can predict the future, but if we can catch a glimpse of  the right trends and possibilities, we might just be the ones who would shape that future into what we want

At e27, we’re proud to say we have watched the Southeast Asia startup ecosystem grow from tiny beginnings to what is now one of the most active startup hubs around the world. Hindsight is 20/20, and it could not be truer than in the world of startups. This means that we’re now seeing products and technologies that visionaries could only dream of in the yesteryears.

For example, back in the late 2000s, who would’ve known that peer-to-peer app-based ride-hailing would be a big deal around the world? Who would’ve thought that a math- and cryptographically-rich technology like blockchain would start chipping away at established industries like finance? Who would’ve thought that electronic and mobile commerce would overtake physical shopping? Who would’ve thought streaming would be the dominant means of distributing and accessing rich content like songs and movies?

And a lot of seemingly SciFi stuff like self-driving cars, learning machines, and wide-scale facial recognition are now the norm in many places.

What separates the visionaries who were able to execute these dreams from the rest of us is that those people have seen the potential early on and were able to position their ideas, technologies, products, and resources into something real and marketable. In short, they had an insight into the future and were not afraid to take the risk, grab these opportunities, and turn these insights into real and viable tech.

At Echelon Summit Asia 2019, we will once again have such an opportunity, with some of today’s thought leaders and experts sharing at the FUTURE stage. They will talk about what’s to come in the tech scene in 2019 and beyond. These insights can give all of us a better idea of what to expect. Beyond that, you might just be the team or person who has the chops in making these things come true in the years to come.

Have a look at some of the experts in our lineup:

• Blake Larson, Managing Director of International, LalaMove
• Chris Yeo, Head of GrabVentures
• James Chang, CEO, Lazada Singapore
• Scott Jones, Founder of Sixkin and Managing Partner of Singularity.NET
• Nurul Hussain, Co-founder, The Codette Project
• Raiford C Cockfield III , Co-founder and CEO, Bitrep
• Zachary Wang, Co-founder, Neuron Mobility
• Charles Ng, VP, Enterprise AI, Appier

Whether you’re just curious or want to be part of the next big thing when it happens, grab your tickets for the Echelon Asia Summit 2019 now. Use promo code ECHELONFUTURE — first 20 signups get Starter tickets free. Starter tickets get you get access to the talent zone, conference stages (Founder, Future, Capital and TOP100), exhibition areas and partnered zones (TOP100, Marketplace, country pavilions), the Official Echelon App and Echelon Official Afterparty.

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Echelon Asia Summit 2019 is bringing together 15,000 of the best and brightest of APAC’s tech ecosystem. Happening on May 23-24 at the Singapore Expo, Echelon features 3 conference stages, over 300 exhibitors, TOP100 startup pitching, special workshops and roundtable discussions, and many more.

Photo by Garidy Sanders on Unsplash

The post What will be the next big thing in tech? Find out at the FUTURE stage at Echelon Asia Summit 2019 appeared first on e27.

Digitalisation is no longer a forward-looking strategy, it is a reality for businesses to evolve

Powered by the rapid rise of growing economies like China, India and Southeast Asia, the world is increasingly shifting its economic weight to the Asia Pacific region. This part of the world now stands as a beacon of growth and opportunity for entrepreneurs.

Accompanying this growth is the emergence of new technologies, such as AI and Machine Learning, both of which promise to bring about even greater development. However, while these new technologies might be dominating headlines, the foundation of a secure IT infrastructure and technology to enhance productivity and overall business growth must not be overlooked.

With all the promise that technology holds, one might be led to believe that businesses, particularly small enterprises hungry to grow their market share, would hop on the bandwagon to leverage its potential.

Many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are doing so but there’s also the gap in some SMBs which are not digitalizing fast enough. According to the Cisco APAC SMB Digital Maturity Index (Index), 43 per cent of SMBs in the Asia Pacific region recognize that competition is transforming and they must keep pace.

Also Read: Amazon Web Service is coming to Indonesia to serve Asia Pacific region

However, the reality is that digitalisation remains a challenge for most. According to the Index, over a third (39 per cent) of SMBs across the Asia Pacific region are stuck in a state of digital indifference – the lowest form of digital maturity, with little understanding of and no digital strategy in place.

Meanwhile, half were deemed digital observers, putting them in the earliest stages of transformation. This leaves only a handful of expert digital challenges and digital native SMBs that have mastered the art of technology integration. While there are varying levels of digital maturity, here’s how SMBs can level the playing field with competitive advantages:

Talent is a covetable asset

It’s a competitive hiring market. With everyone vying for the same digital skills, all of which are notoriously short in supply, SMBs shouldn’t underestimate the importance of company culture and employer brand, as well as, the advantage of flexible work practices in attracting talent.

Cultivating a culture that attracts and promotes diversity and inclusion will open up hiring opportunities and attract talents that support the company’s growth priorities.

The power of data and analytics

Cloud and analytics solutions must be integrated into the company’s digital strategy. Ensure there’s visibility into customer and operational data to strategise, inform and influence business decisions. Agility, simplicity and insights are competitive advantages in this complex world.

Invest strategically

Customer experience is everything. A digital and seamless customer journey should be guiding principle of a business’ digital strategy. SMBs need to have a well-defined digital transformation strategy and roadmap. They need to use this as a guide to make strategic technology investments, ones that help them address their key challenges and leverage specific growth opportunities.

The Index also revealed that 61 per cent of SMBs have started their digitalisation journey and transitioned to the cloud. With the transition to the cloud and challenges, SMBs face challenges such as a lack of IT resources, which also makes cybersecurity more important than ever. They are also at risk of cyber attacks and the threat shouldn’t be underestimated just because of their size.

We have worked with SMBs across various industries, including a technology start-up which develops and manufactures purpose-built Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV or simply put, drones) for the defence and commercial industry. Security is a big deal for this company since they supply drones that store classified information. Secure connectivity will help to fuel its future growth and achieve its ultimate goal: To become the frontier for manned and unmanned space exploration from Australia.

Also Read: The key ingredients for startup and corporate collaboration

Another example is the food manufacturer of the Camel brand of nuts, which is an example of a traditional SMB that saw the added value that technology could bring to the business. Seamless wi-fi connectivity supported a more efficient inventory management process for the company.

Another technology they looked at was virtual meeting solutions to facilitate communication with their overseas facility, eventually reducing travel costs without compromising on the experience of a face-to-face meeting, albeit achieved virtually. A focus on these two areas of the business helped to boost productivity and cost efficiency, also solved resource challenges, especially given the organisation’s geographic span across markets around the world.

Business strategy, governance, talent and technology adoption are parameters of digitalisation that business leaders must review and keep up with, in the face of an ever-changing market. Digitalisation is no longer a forward-looking strategy, it is a reality for businesses to evolve their business and operational models as the world’s economic centre of gravity shifts towards Asia Pacific.

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Also, Singapore-based blockchain startup Morpheus Labs launches blockchain academy with startup incubator Dreamplus, and Uber opens second APAC office in Singapore

Blockchain startup Morpheus Labs and Dreamplus join forces to launch a blockchain academy [Press Release]

Singapore-based Blockchain startup Morpheus Labs announced the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dreamplus, a global startup incubator supported by a South Korean business conglomerate. The MoU will have the two partners promoting blockchain education and the growth of its ecosystem.

The blockchain academy would be a seven-week intensive program that includes a mix of theoretical and practical components focused on the theory behind blockchain and practical coding of a sample decentralized applications (DApps) conducted with Morpheus Labs Blockchain Platform-as-a-Service (BPaaS).

The program is aimed at those who are interested in learning the basics of blockchain technology to budding technology engineers or programmers.

“Companies and governments are just beginning to understand the disruptive capability of blockchain technology. The already high demand for blockchain developers today is only expected to rise for the foreseeable future. Our platform is purposefully designed to create a friendly ecosystem convenient for students to learn the complex environment of blockchain in its current infancy, giving them a head start to blockchain development and propelling them into the talent-hungry blockchain development world,” said Dorel D. Burcea, Chief Information Officer of Morpheus Labs.

Uber launches new office in Singapore for further APAC expansion [TODAYOnline]

Uber announced yesterday that it will reenter Asia by renewing its commitment to business in Asia Pacific region in a new set up office at Frasers Towers in Singapore. The office would be APAC regional hub of the unicorn company, and currently has 165 employees who provide remote operational services to the region in sales, marketing, legal services, and other corporate functions.

Since 2015, Uber has resided in Singapore and has been its APAC headquarter. It was located at Guoco Towers in Tanjong Pagar before the merger with Grab, effectively putting Grab in charge of that location last year.

Also Read: Philippines edtech startup Edukasyon acquires online directory

Uber then moved to Mapletree Anson before relocating to its new 2,000 sqm office at Frasers Towers on Cecil Street. Uber operates in nine markets in the Asia Pacific: Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Japan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Taiwan.

The firm’s representative said that its next move would be growing its team in Singapore and hiring hire specialist and entry-level roles.

Dave McClure reemerges in tech scene after 500 Startups’ #MeToo debacle [Bloomberg]

Two years ago, Dave McClure was reported for alleged sexual misconduct in the VC that he co-founded alongside Christine Tsai, 500 Startups. McClure then decided to step down after helping funding 1,800 early-stage companies in 60 countries as the chief executive officer of the company.

Now, McClure is back in the game by raising a new fund to invest in other venture firms worldwide that would be called Practical Venture Capital, according to two people familiar with the plans.

The new fund is said to be designed to purchase stakes in smaller funds, sometimes called micro-venture capital firms and also buy stakes from those funds’ investors when they’re seeking liquidity. The initial target for the fund would be US$100 million, although the final amount could be larger, according to the sources.

On the other hand, even before McClure’s departure, 500 Startups reportedly had struggled to raise its fourth fund in 2015. Recently, the firm even laid off what Christine Tsai said to be a “handful” of people.

Today, 500 Startups is raising fresh investment for its fifth global fund, expected to be the firm’s largest ever, according to a person familiar with the plans. Abu Dhabi Financial Group is confirmed to be the anchor investor, took a minority stake in 500 Startups and joined the board last year.

Welcoming Google India MD on board, Sequoia India will launch a US$200M startup accelerator [Deal Street Asia]

Sequoia India announced that it brings Google India MD Rajan Anandan on board for its upcoming startup accelerator program called Surge. Surge, that was launched in January, is said to be focussed on India and Southeast Asia-based startups with a potential US$150-200 million raised for the initiative.

“Sequoia has approached limited partners to pitch for a fund independently and onboarding someone like Anandan will make it easier to get in the capital. He is a very well-respected name in the technology and startup ecosystem,” said a source, reported by Deal Street Asia.

Anandan has made a record for himself as an angel investor, having backed more than 60 startups.

Surge will focus on sectors such as consumer internet, technology, enterprise software, healthcare, fintech, among others. Sequoia is expected to invest over US$100 million over the next four-five years under Surge, financing its separate team.

Surge will have five modules, which will be hosted across the globe in China, India, Silicon Valley, and in Singapore. It plans to recruit 10 to 20 early-stage startups in two cohorts in a year and invest Us$1.5 million in each of them at an early stage of the program.

Also Read: ezCater raises US$150M funding led by Singaporean wealth fund GIC

At the end of Surge, founders will have the opportunity to raise capital during an ‘UpSurge’ week from a curated list of angels, seed funds, and VC’s. So far, confirmed mentors are edtech unicorn BYJU’S founder Byju Raveendran, Carousell’s Siu Rui Quek, credit card bills payment app Cred’s Kunal Shah, SaaS unicorn Freshworks’ Girish Mathrubootham, GOJEK’s Nadiem Makarim, Google’s Rajan Ananadan, hospitality unicorn OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal, Uber’s Amit Jain, chat messaging service WhatsApp’s Neeraj Arora, food delivery Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal, and more.
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The post Today’s top tech news, April 3: Ex-500 Startups CEO Dave McClure is back in tech scene after #MeToo allegations appeared first on e27.