Jari Visibility (Jarvis), a team monitoring app developed by Jakarta-headquartered Jari Solusi Internasional, has raised an undisclosed sum in a seed financing round from UMG Idealab.

The startup will use the money to increase sales and marketing of Jarvis and focus on strengthening infrastructure to support new product launches.

Jari develops apps for the financial services industry (multi-financing companies, and fintech) with thousands of users. The company says that for the past three years, it has been receiving requests from outside the financial industry for apps to monitor the activities of employees who work remotely.

To cater to this need, Jari extended Jarvis to support the operations of employees, who continue to work in the field during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also Read: MDI Ventures’s new US$500M fund seeks to push digitisation of Indonesia’s state-owned firms

“Through Jarvis, we want to help reach more companies outside the financial sector to increase the productivity of field personnel with the technology we have developed,” said CEO Stephanus Lutfi.

The app is equipped with features such as managing employee attendance with check-in and check-out selfies and GPS-based location recording. This makes it easier for employees to record their attendance directly via smartphones and upload reports on the available web dashboard.

It boasts of a Smartform feature, which enables users to use a digital form in the app according to the requirements of the company. Besides, its Task Assignment feature helps a superior to coordinate with the personnel under him and monitor everything from the process to the results of his team’s work.

Jarvis is also equipped with the Last Location feature to view the last position of personnel in the field.

Also Read: Expanding all the way from Myanmar, UMG Idealab shares its plans for startups in Indonesia

“This initial funding is to support the development and advancement of the app capabilities to gain a lot more users in Indonesia and also in the Southeast Asia region in the future,” said UMG Idealab CEO Kiwi Aliwarga.

UMG Idealab is a unit of UMG Group Myanmar and has actively been investing in nearly 30 startups in Indonesia. In January, it invested in SVARA, a broadcasting and media startup.

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Image Credit: Jari

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Lightspeed enters Singapore to step up tech investment in SEA; The VC firm will deploy capital in the region from its global funds; In April, Lightspeed announced US$4B investments for its three global funds; In the region, the firm has already invested in Grab, Chilibeli, Ula, Shipper, NextBillion.ai. e27

gojek acquires payments platform WePay to expand its e-wallet business into Vietnam: Report; gojek Vietnam’s Manager Phung Tuan Duc has been appointed as CEO of WePay; WePay claims to have a partnership with 24 local banks, 1K merchants, 4 international card issuers. e27

Carousell inches closer to unicorn status with a US$80M investment round led by Naver; The deal, which also saw participation from Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund and NH Investment, values Carousell at over US$900M; Total funding by the firm so far is US$260M+; Last year, it raises US$56M from OLX. e27

Patamar Capital launches US$50M Beacon Fund for female entrepreneurs in SEA’s emerging markets; Its initial focus will be on debt products, which tend to be a better fit for the moderate-growth, cash-flow positive businesses that the fund targets; The ticket sizes range from US$500K to US$2M; Beacon will use an evergreen structure. e27

Vietnam’s ride-hailing management platform for taxi firms EMDDI raises funding led by ThinkZone Ventures; It has has more than 30K taxis in 40+ provinces and cities; The startup is coordinating with 100 taxi companies to manage and coordinate about 3M rides. e27

On-demand care-giving startup Homage gets funding from Japan’s Infocom; Through a strategic alliance, the two firms aim to accelerate the elderly-care industry in Japan and APAC; The region is home to more than half of the world’s population above 60 years of age, and this figure is expected to reach 1.3B by 2050. e27

Pivoting beyond product: You need to look at your company/work culture, too; theAsianparent.com CEO Roshni Mahtani says while product pivots are the way for companies to find success during crisis , getting the team on board with new plans amidst a very palpable crisis requires shifts in culture. e27

Singapore’s indoor air quality sensor firm uHoo raises funding led by Wavemaker; PropertyGuru’s Steve Melhuish also invested in personal capacity; uHoo claims it’s seen almost 5x increase in units deployed in the last 12 months driven by string demand in N. America, Europe, Asia. e27

Why Intuit’s TradeGecko acquisition is a promise fulfilled by the SEA tech startup ecosystem; David Gowdey of Jungle Ventures says the deal adds a huge amount of credibility to founders in SEA that they can build a software that is globally best in class, and that will attract global buyers into it. e27

Indonesian digital news media platform Asumsi.co raises funding from East Ventures; It mainly focuses on politics, current affairs, pop culture; Asumsi.co aims to integrate tech into high-quality media content; The firm claims to have 10M viewers per month on social media, including YouTube (3.2M view rate). e27

Ex-Grabbers’ social commerce startup Evo raises seed funding; Evo helps influencers and live-streamers to optimise their back-office operations, allowing them to sell more products and scale more quickly; For merchant and brands looking to engage influencers, the solution will act as a marketing and sales channel. e27

How Pomelo tackles the problem of high product return with its O2O retail experience; Despite the prevalence of virtual fitting rooms, fashion e-tailers continue to struggle to provide an offline-like shopping experience; Customers expect not just great products but also great integrated experience spanning from the store to social media to the digital platforms. e27

What is the role of a Data Protection Officer (DPO) in a startup?; DPO is responsible to ensure organisations with websites and apps that collect data have reasonable security measures in place, such as conducting yearly penetration tests; if your biz operates in Singapore and you haven’t appointed a DPO yet, government may slap you with hefty penalties ranging from US$3,600 to US$14,600. e27

How Singapore is building AI for predictive healthcare; For successful AI development for healthcare, collaboration between clinicians and computer scientists is essential; If computer scientists handle the project alone, they’d make it fantastic in a technical way but it may not be relevant to the clinician; On the other hand, a project managed only by clinicians will be oversimplified. GovInsider

ST Engineering, NUS partner on US$9M programme for Singapore’s smart future; It will focus on two key research projects to lay the foundations for digital transformation and Industry 4.0; The first is Enterprise Digital Platform, an AI platform that will support all AI methodological areas to enable synthesis of disparate data sources and other systems. Singapore Business Review

The boomerang effect: How the pandemic has made New Zealand a tech talent favourite; Since March 14, more than 77K New Zealanders have returned home from abroad; Some of these people are choosing to run their own tech companies; NZ also has great infra, a thriving local tech community and fantastic lifestyle. e27

How to make your money last: Lessons in stretching your runway while running a startup; Cash reserves are an essential aspect of success, and managing them correctly will allow you the peace of mind to focus on more important things like running your business and sowing the seeds for enduring growth. e27

How to train a diverse and dispersed workforce during COVID-19 and beyond; A estimated 14% of the global workforce would need to acquire new skills or switch occupations by 2030 due to the continuing use of automation and AI; Companies are developing coronavirus-specific training programmes by leveraging the potential found in e-learning platforms. e27

Tech is key to the survival of the travel industry: Here’s why; Robotics startups will look at how to ease the pain of the travel industry through their products; IoT will help the travel industry by centralising control of services in-flight, passengers may soon be able to alter their seat temperature, adjust the air-con, or order refreshments by merely opening up an app. Tech Collective

Gobi, Sunway announce final 4 winners of its SuperSeed II Championship in Malaysia; They are MyCash, Speedhome, Lokein and StixFresh; Winners are in line for up to US$3.6M in funding; SuperSeed Fund II is aimed at startups in agritech, AI, Big Data, cloud services, e-commerce, fintech, IoT, circular economy as well as TaqwaTech. Digital News Asia

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EMDDI, a company that provides a ride-hailing management platform for taxi companies in Vietnam, has raised funding led by ThinkZone Ventures, with participation from several unnamed local investors.

Other details of the deal were not disclosed.

As per a press statement, the round was closed in July 2020.

Also Read: Why is Vietnam going to emerge the strongest post-COVID-19?

Launched in 2016, EMDDI allows ride-hailing companies to create and manage their own transport services, such as booking taxis, contract cars, motorbikes and cargo transport.

As for customers, they don’t need to install multiple ride-hailing apps on their mobile phone. Instead, they can use the EMDDI app to choose and use the service of their choice from multiple taxi operators nationwide.

At present, EMDDI (developed as part of a tech project of Hanoi National University) has more than 30,000 taxis on its platform across more than 40 provinces and cities.

As a strategic partner of the Vietnam Taxi Alliance, EMDDI also has been coordinating with nearly 100 taxi companies to manage and coordinate about 3 million rides through the platform each month.

EMDDI also supplies vehicle for third-parties such as VNPAY, ViettelPay, Momo, mobile banking apps and other ride-hailing apps.

ThinkZone is an accelerator-cum-early-stage startup investors in Vietnam, which unveiled its new cohort of five startups in April 2020.

Also Read: Is Vietnam the new golden child of tech startups in SEA?

As part of this deal, ThinkZone will accompany EMDDI in developing a network of partners, supporting it with many sales and marketing packages, legal consultation from commercial law firm Indochine Counsel, as well as technology infrastructure support from AWS.

ThinkZone is also working with EMDDI on its next round of fundraising, which is estimated to be US$2 million, and is already in talks with large funds.

The two are also preparing resources to further expand in Vietnam as well as into other countries.

With a population of 96 million, Vietnam is one of the fastest growing urban populations in the ASEAN region. It is a hot market for ride-hailing companies like Grab and gojek, and the industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 26 per cent between 2015 and 2025.

With an estimated 92 per cent of the market-share in Vietnam, Grab looked poised to capitalise on all that growth.

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Image Credit: EMDDI

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning are quickly becoming highly sought-after technologies. However, Quan Pham, founder of PI.EXCHANGE feels that most companies that provide AI solutions focus more on enterprises –leaving little room for small business owners to keep up.

Compared to a few years ago when AI solutions could only be utilised by the likes of Google and Microsoft, there has now been a significant shift where AI is much more accessible. Yet still, at US$6,000 to over US$300,000 for custom AI solution, the costs of integrating AI is still not affordable enough for individuals and small businesses.

In addition to cost, there is also a barrier in the form of time and technical expertise that can prevent small businesses and individuals to implement the use of AI in their businesses.

Based in Melbourne with offices in Vietnam, Singapore, and India, PI.EXCHANGE is determined to solve this problem. The company provides a platform that enables businesses of all sizes and technical capabilities to build and operate machine learning applications quickly and cost-effectively.

After creating an account a user can simply upload or connect to a data source and The AI and Analytics Engine provides smart recommendations on how to wrangle and prepare the data for modelling.

The Engine then uses the prepared data set to provide smart model recommendations. These recommendations empower users to save time so user train only the recommended models. Users can achieve their tasks through the user interface or alternatively, tasks can be done via APIs to suit their requirements.

This is in line with the recent trend of low-code and no-code movement that has become popular today, where startups are providing platforms for users with minimum or even no coding skills to develop products.

PI.EXCHANGE claims that it is one of the few in the world that offers an affordable solution for AI deployment with only US$129 per month of signup cost for an individual. It also offers a free trial on its website for anyone interested.

Also Read: How Shopee uses AI, data to build a marketing strategy that suits changes in user behaviour

Pham tells e27 in an interview that the platform was built based on R&D efforts initiated by the company itself in Melbourne without any external help.

He shares that the technology is protected by Intellectual Property (IP) rights.

“Our IP is on how we are driving the computational costs for data preparation. If you think about it, its kind of like an AI agent which helps to compute and pick the right kind of data for each client. We maintain a very strong focus on IP and focus on perfecting our technology,” he says.

Meet the founder

Before kickstarting PI.EXCHANGE, Pham worked as the Chief Security Officer of Melbourne Water, a government-owned statutory authority which controls the water system in the city and the state of Victoria. He terms himself a “corporate dropout” after spending nearly over 10 years in the corporate world.

Aside from having an extensive formal background in cybersecurity, mathematics and science, Pham says that he learnt how to build data science and AI solutions through industrial experience –not by some school or university.

“My background in data science came from my previous life experience where I worked as a technology manager and a software developer. I came across different exercises and opportunities where I had to build a machine learning application all by myself with my team … so that’s how I got into the whole AI business,” Pham says.

Due to his prior roles in cybersecurity. Pham says that he takes privacy concerns very seriously. This is why the company has something called the “privacy by design and security by design principle”. He further stresses that the data is encrypted at all level in-transit address.

Also Read: AI-empowered data platform Sentient.io secures Series A funding led by Digital Garage Group

What is next

The company says that it will officially have a commercial launch in the next two to three months; it also has secured partnerships with Amazon Web Services and NVIDIA.

In terms of investment, Pham also says that PI.EXCHANGE is currently in funding talks with reputable VCs across the APAC region.

On the flip side, it is important to note that AI is highly complex and some may argue that making use of a packaged AI tool has a limited reward, and may not offer the disruptive competitive advantage that AI has the potential to deliver.

But, for the target audience that PI.EXCHANGE is aiming for, this could be the way to go.

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Image Credit: PI.EXCHANGE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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For many years, there has been countless discussions and reports about the massive potential that the Southeast Asian (SEA) startup ecosystem has. One of the most outstanding of such reports is the Google Temasek Bain report which stated that the region’s internet economy is set to hit US$240 billion by 2025.

The general outlook of the future of this region has always been promising. But 2020 is the year where we can finally see that potential manifest –even during a global health crisis.

In August, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in major markets in SEA, global SaaS platform Intuit announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire TradeGecko, the Singapore-based inventory and order management platform that aims to ease omnichannel commerce for small businesses.

Financial details of the acquisition were not announced, but it was expected to close in September. The deal was the first Intuit had made in SEA, and one of the few a US-based tech giant had made in the region.

There are many reasons why this acquisition is outstanding. Yes, there is the fact that it happens at a time where the ecosystem is struggling to continue surviving. But apart from that, the acquisition is a manifestation of the potential of the SEA tech ecosystem.

Or we can say, a promise that we manage to deliver.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Intuit acquires TradeGecko; Synagie proposes US$45M sale of e-commerce arm; Ayoconnect, Wahyoo, Clik, Vesta secure investment

Acknowledging our place in the world

To discuss the acquisition, e27 sits down with David Gowdey, Managing Partner at Jungle Ventures, the VC firm who invested in the company in its pre-Series A funding round.

He begins by noting the two different approaches that SaaS companies in SEA tend to take in developing and marketing their solutions. There are companies that build products in their local language, aiming for a very specific target audience. But then there are companies with “global ambitions”.

“So the software that they’re building could be used by companies all over the world … and those businesses are very challenging because you’re not just competing against local competitors. You’re competing against companies in the US or China or anywhere else in the world that could be building software in that same space,” Gowdey explains.

But with great challenge comes a great opportunity.

“If you look at the different emerging economies, there are already some great software that was developed in Europe or Australia, but we haven’t had a large software company here that’s been able to get on the radar of a global software giant [until this acquisition],” Gowdey says.

“I think it adds a huge amount of credibility to founders in this part of the world that they can build a software that is globally best in class, and that will attract global buyers into it,” he continues.

How the pandemic makes it easier

Recently, there has been more investment coming for companies that are enabling digital transformation for conventional businesses, from SMEs to state-owned enterprises. It seems like enabling digital transformation is the key to win a pandemic-ridden world –perhaps beyond.

Also Read: [Updated] Intuit acquires TradeGecko to further strengthen its accounting platform QuickBooks

This is something that Gowdey acknowledges.

“If you think about the pandemic, there were small businesses that had to shut down their retail locations and move a lot of their sales online. An inventory management system that can allow small businesses to manage their inventory and orders effectively, it helps them digitise their businesses. It also creates a lot of operational efficiency within those SMEs,” he elaborates.

“So, I think part of the rationale [of the acquisition] has to be the pandemic and the shifts that a lot of families were making … how they can make that transition much easier,” he concludes.

In fact, this urgency for digital transformation might just be the push that Intuit needed to seal the deal with TradeGecko.

What is next for SEA and SV

In a statement to e27, Intuit spokesperson wrote that the company does not comment on any possible future plans or considerations related to company acquisitions.

But when asked about the reason that has drawn them to acquire a SaaS platform in SEA, the company wrote: “Intuit’s mission is to power prosperity around the world. We are always looking for opportunities to help our customers succeed and grow in an effort to fulfil our mission.”

There are certainly many ways to interpret the statement. But my take is that this acquisition is set to help Intuit in manifesting its mission; so there is always the possibility that it will not be the last.

In a recent webinar episode with e27, leading startup investors such as Paul Meyers and Jussi Salovaara highlights the rise of M&A and strategic acquisitions during the pandemic.

There is a great likelihood that these acquisitions will be by US-based tech giants. Why?

In this contributed post, Kyle Kling pointed out why global tech investors should be looking to invest in SEA, even during a pandemic. He brought an example of Indonesia, the largest SEA market, and the fact that it now has six unicorns and tax policy to encourage startup investments.

Also Read: SaaS inventory management platform TradeGecko raises US$10M from TNB Aura, others

“For a country that is home to 267 million people, of which at least 50 million are in the growing middle-class with rising discretionary incomes, the hunt for the next Indonesian unicorn is on. American VCs can bring their expertise and best practices to play. In Europe, Africa, South Asia, South America and Asia Pacific, Indonesia’s story is repeated, with slight variations,” he writes.

We feel that these reasons could also be the consideration for US-based tech giants to get into the market.

So how does the year 2021 will look like for SEA startup ecosystem? It seems like we can get a visualisation of it already.

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Image Credit: Mario Gogh on Unsplash

 

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According to Statista, the online gaming market is predicted to be worth over US$ 174 billion by 2021, and this sector has been dominated by the Asia Pacific region for years. With Southeast Asia’s steadily growing online population, thanks to increased internet penetration and smartphone usage, its mobile games market is the fastest-growing in the world. Amidst these trends, startups like ZeusX are unsurprisingly thriving.

Singapore-based ZeusX is a digital marketplace for gamers all over the world — enabling them to buy and sell gaming assets like accounts, in-game items, top-ups, services, gift cards and collectibles in a secure online environment.

In a nutshell, ZeusX eliminates the challenges of lack of transparency and security in online trade in the gaming space and provides gamers with a secure platform to trade virtual assets at competitive rates.

Also read: Superfanz: Growing visibility for creators in the wake of COVID-19

Launched in March 2020, ZeusX recently revamped their platform earlier this month to include more product categories. Despite launching at a time where the economic climate is probably at its worst as seen in decades, ZeusX has attracted thousands of interested parties from some 85 countries.

Alex Tay, the Founder & CEO of ZeusX, shared with e27 that he has been an obsessed gamer since he was nine. In fact, it was his passion towards gaming that led him to leave a 17-year old flourishing corporate career in the Insurance & Banking sector so he could chase his dreams full-time, and build a career in the gaming world.

Mobile gaming: Emerging trends and tech disruptions

Tay believes that mobile gaming is the future and he is not wrong. In Singapore alone, players spent a total of $327.2 million on mobile games last year. In the online population, 74% of men and 68% of women play mobile games as of 2019.

Tay foresees two fundamental technology disruptions that can potentially change the “game”: 5G and hyper-personalization.

“Telcos are already working with cloud gaming providers to eventually be able to deliver and stream high-end quality games on mobile that were previously only available on console and PC,” he said.

Tay added, “just imagine, 5 to 10 years ago, what we were watching at home was dependent on what devices we owned—cable, DVD or BluRay. Now, everyone streams HD movies from Netflix at any time to any smartphone while sitting on the train, and I believe that gaming is heading towards that direction”.

Also read: How VITA by Zing Healthcare empowers employee well-being through technology

Furthermore, the prevalence of AI and Big Data technologies are also changing the gaming landscape and there is a need to create highly personalized experiences for gamers.

Tay added that it is not a coincidence that their platform focuses on mobile games and that they are trying to differentiate with personalization and community integration. “We truly believe that is the future, and we have been innovating towards that vision from Day 1,” he shared.

What’s next

ZeusX plan to continue refining their offerings to achieve wider adoption with a primary focus on the Southeast Asian market given its massive potential.

Tay recalls that one of their very first transactions was by a gamer based out of Texas, USA who traded with a fellow gamer based in Slovenia.

“We want to leverage that global capability, and empower gamers in our regional market, including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, so they are able to easily trade with anyone in the world without worrying about payments and security,” he said.

Addressing challenges

The key challenge for ZeusX is catering to the diverse demographics of the Southeast Asian market, while still operating as a global marketplace. Each of the eleven countries within Southeast Asia has its own national language, preferred payment methods and spending patterns.

“While there is a big difference between supporting a global versus a local market, we also think it opens up vast opportunities for gamers anywhere to monetize their efforts, skills and virtual assets to appreciative gamers elsewhere in the world. We will pick one market and try to get it to work before getting ahead of ourselves,” Tay explains.

With more capital and access to better resources, they can slowly and steadily scale across the region.

To find better connectivity and in the pursuit of expanding their network, ZeusX has signed up for an e27 Pro membership so they can easily explore funding opportunities and discover relevant incubation programmes.

Also read: Workbean: Empowering the workplace in the time of COVID-19

“We were the most attracted to the membership due to the e27 Connect feature as it makes our search for potential investors super easy. Plus, other perks that came along are a bonus. We have been leveraging the benefits of the membership to offset our costs in AWS, Hubspot and Zendesk,” Tay shared.

He added, “our e27 Pro membership has helped us yield 8 direct introductions to notable VCs, plus a few more indirect referrals. It has addressed our issue of getting interested investors to talk to us as an early-stage startup and also given us insights into what VCs are specifically looking for.”

Despite the COVID-19 crisis and the ongoing economic upheaval, ZeusX has managed to not only launch themselves in the market this year but also establish a considerable user interest. With the rising mobile gaming industry, ZuesX’s innovative vision, and support form the e27 Pro membership, we can only expect great things from this startup.

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Hong Kong-headquartered startup accelerator-cum-VC firm, Betatron, has unveiled the nine startups participating in its sixth cohort.

These startups were selected from a total of 2,500 applications it received.

“Cohort 6 represents our most competitive portfolio to date with an acceptance rate of only 0.36 per cent. The investments reflect our focus on companies in the B2B markets who have validated their business model and are ready to scale in Asia,” said Matthias Knobloch, Managing Partner of Betatron.

Unlike other accelerators, Betatron provides an investment of US$500,000 each to the selected startup immediately after they join the programme. Further investments are done based on their valuations.

Also Read: Facebook reveals 13 participants selected for its Community Accelerator programme in Asia Pacific

During the first three weeks, companies go through an intensive Bootcamp,  which involves introductions to mentors and networks who help them identify their scope in the next four months.

A spokesperson of the company told e27 that the accelerator is geographic-agnostic but primarily invests into companies that want to expand in Asia.

The nine startups attending this virtual programme are:

ShipsKart (Singapore, India)

A B2B e-commerce marketplace platform for the maritime industry.

Qwikwire (Philippines)

A cross-border payment solution for real estate brokers and property developers.

Phable Care (India)

Helps doctors provide personalised care to patients using AI/ML (machine learning) into one single platform. It digitises prescriptions, personalised health reminders and tracks vitals like blood pressure, etc.

Also Read: Hong Kong’s B2B accelerator Blueprint announces first batch

FreightBro (India)

Logistics startup that provides high-tech solutions to digitise cargo forwarding and shipping.

App4Legal (UAE)

Practice management software for legal practitioners.

Connected Analytics (Nigeria)

Helps businesses grow in Africa by utilising customer data.

SINAY (France)

Captures proprietary maritime data such as port arrival times and environmental indicators.

TakeTask (Poland)

Implements digital standards of procedures for the blue-collar workforces.

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Image Credit: Betatron

 

 

 

 

 

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Asumsi.co, a digital media startup based in Indonesia, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from East Ventures.

“This investment will enable us to develop a technology infrastructure that will give us leverage while preserving the quality and cutting-edge approach that we’re known for,” said Pangeran Siahaan, CEO of Asumsi.co.

“We will use the investment, among others, to hire more engineers and build tech infrastructure. With those additions, Asumsi will be one step closer in creating a news platform that is supported by advanced monitoring and analytical systems to help us better understand our existing audience and reach new ones,” he added.

Asumsi was founded in 2015 by Siahaan, who has previously worked as a journalist and TV presenter.

Asumsi.co aims to “build a sustainable media ecosystem” by integrating tech into high-quality media content. It mainly focuses on politics, current affairs and pop culture. Most of its viewers are young.

Social media platforms are getting substantially crowded with individual content creators as influencer marketing begins to get popular. Asumsi thinks that these media channels can be no longer relied upon because of the overload of competition.

To venture outside the traditional ways of thinking of promotion and visibility, Asumsi.co wants to develop a new technology infrastructure which will allow it to reach newer audiences and understands their existing ones better.

Also Read:  In the age of aggressive marketing, how can YOU and your product stand out?

The firm claims to have 10 million viewers per month on various social media platforms, including YouTube (3.2 million view rate).

Also Read: Malaysian digital media group REV Asia to acquire iMEDIA for US$9.6M

Indonesia is known to be extremely social media forward and a large number of locals are known to spend a lot of time on the internet.

According to Hootsuite and We are Social, the region has 415 million users, who are actively spending plenty of time on the web in comparison to 346 million in North America and 183 million in Western Europe. Digital media seems to be a growing industry in the region, despite heavy competition.

“Indonesia has many good stories that need to be told. We are looking forward to backing Pangeran and his team to build the platform to tell the stories,” said Willson Cuaca, Co-founder and Managing Partner of East Ventures.

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Image Credit: Asumsi.co

 

 

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Singapore-based venture capital fund Expara announced the list of 15 startups that are participating in its Expara VirTech Global Accelerator programme, which was launched to search for companies building solutions for a post-pandemic world.

The list includes the following Southeast Asia (SEA)-based companies:

XCLR8 Technologies Pte Ltd
Based in Singapore, the company develops wearable sensors and applications to enable remote physiotherapy.

Healthzilla: Healthy Habits
Also based in Singapore, the company uses data from wearable products to help users make sense of their stress level and build healthy habits.

MiNeed Technology
Based in Thailand, the startup builds a transdermal drug delivery platform.

BrainPoolTech
Last but not least, from Singapore, the company is a risk management platform that uses drone technology to assess and analyse potential risks in a location.

Also Read: Thai buffet app Hungry Hub secures US$450K funding from Expara, 500 Startups

Outside of the SEA region, the programme takes in startups from other regions such as Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia:

1. Gheorg (Australia), mental health platform
2. Facense Ltd (Israel), wearable technology
3. Car Scanner (Poland), robotics
4. SENSE Software (Poland), IoT
5. Adappt Intelligence Inc (India), IoT
6. XpertFlow LLC (Pakistan), digital healthcare
7. Scudo (US), risk management
8. Insignes Labs (Poland), chemical
9. DjinnSensor – IoT, sensors, data cloud service (Belarus), smart building
10. Omnious Nanobiosciences (Sweden), diagnostic
11. WeavAir (Canada), smart building

The Expara VirTech Global Accelerator programme is launched almost half a year ago; it is dedicated to startups who are developing products and services to help address the pain, problems and economic and societal disruption caused by COVID-19 and potential future pandemics.

This involves detection, information, prevention and protection, and mitigation.

Also Read: 500 Startups, IIX, Expara Ventures invest in fintech social enterprise Salutat

For the past three months, the startups had gone through programme that consists of weekly workshops and mentoring sessions. It will also receive funding of up to US$50,000.

“We launched this accelerator because the 2020 pandemic should be a wake-up call for the hyper-connected world to our vulnerability to pandemics in the 21st century. We will never go back to the way things were in 2019 – that world is gone forever,” Expara CEO Douglas Abrams said in a press statement.

“The probability of a potentially worse pandemic in the future is 100 per cent; it is just a question of when it will happen. Hopefully, we will build a much better new normal starting today and be much better prepared for the next outbreak, in part due to new products and services created by startups,” he continued.

The demo day, where the startups will pitch to local and global investors, will be held virtually on September 23.

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Image Credit: Expara VirTech Global Accelerator

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Carousell, a B2C and C2C consumer marketplace for buying and selling new and used goods in Singapore, has inched closer to becoming a unicorn with a fresh US$80 million fundraise from a consortium of companies, led by South Korean tech honcho Naver Corp.

Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund and NH Investment & Securities are the other investors in the consortium.

The deal values Carousell at over US$900 million.

Also Read: Carousell appoints Jennifer Lim as Head of People to drive growth in Southeast Asia

“The last six months have been challenging for all. It’s inspiring to see how the Carousell community is making the best out of a challenging situation, helping those in need and rallying each other on. Their stories of how Carousell has been essential to them to make ends meet and afford what they need during this global health crisis reminds us to keep heads down focused in serving our community,” said Quek Siu Rui, Co-founder and CEO of Carousell.

Launched in August 2012, Carousell began in Singapore and now has a presence in eight markets across Asia. The firm claims it has over 250 million listings across Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The marketplace has a diverse range of products across a variety of categories, including cars, lifestyle, gadgets and fashion accessories.

The company also owns and operates Cho Tot (Vietnam), Mudah (Malaysia), OneKyat (Myanmar), and Revo Financial (Singapore).

Since inception, the firm has raised over US$260 million across several rounds of funding, including a US$56 million from OLX Group in April 2019. Carosell’s other investors include Telenor Group, Rakuten Ventures, Sequoia India and Naspers.

Last year, Carousell made a series of acquisitions in 2019 to accelerate leadership in Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, including 701Search, the classifieds firm owned by Norwegian telco Telenor Group and OLX Philippines.

“Carousell has built a tremendous platform enabling people in the region to transact more effectively and efficiently. We believe its efforts to focus on the products and the community will be further consolidating its market leader position. We highly look forward to working closely with Carousell,” said Jung An Lee, Head of Investments at Naver.

After the onset of COVID-19 six months ago, which affected individuals and businesses globally, Carousell launched several regional initiatives. They include providing US$2 million worth of free ads to non-profit organisations, the launch of a new ‘free items’ category for #ChoosetoGive campaign where the community donated free items to users in need, and partnerships with government agencies such as Enterprise Singapore, Hong Kong Productivity Council and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation to support the digitalisation of micro-enterprises and SMEs.

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