Korea International Trade Association recruits startups to testbed Indonesia market via shopping mall

The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) is reportedly recruiting companies to join the “Lotte Mart Testbed” in Jakarta, the first overseas testbed project for Korean startups looking to expand overseas.

According to Business Korea, the selected startups will be able to apply their technologies at Lotte Mart in Jakarta with the goals to “maximise customer shopping convenience, increase sales marketing effectiveness, and reduce facility operation costs”.

KITA also noted that there will be opportunities for the startups to verify products, services, and technologies for two months, and on-site meetings with local venture capital (VC) investors.

KITA plans to expand the “Startup Overseas Testbed” programme to landmark facilities in Europe, including Spain and Luxembourg, in the second half of this year.

Vietnam joins hands with VABIOTECH, Bristol University for COVID-19 vaccine tests

Vietnam is working alongside the UK’s Bristol University to test a potential coronavirus vaccine on mice at a laboratory in Khanh Hoa Province in central Vietnam, as reported by VNExpress.

The test will be conducted for two weeks before further evaluation and will be tested further in animals for safety and effectiveness before a manufacturing process is embarked on.

Also Read: How gamification is increasing productivity during COVID-19

Dr. Do Tuan Dat, President of the Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (VABIOTECH) in Hanoi said that the vaccine was developed after scientists successfully generated the novel coronavirus antigen in the lab. For vaccine production, antigen units are the most important ingredient that helps the body process antigens.

After testing the VABIOTECH vaccine in mice for two weeks, the scientists will conduct blood tests on the animal and send samples to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

According to the institute, it will take at least 12-18 months to develop the vaccine that can work safely on humans.

Serba Dinamik, MTDC partners for digital startup ecosystem development in Malaysia

Serba Dinamik Group has signed an MoU with the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) to foster the growth of the digital startup ecosystem in Malaysia by “providing guidance and mentoring to budding entrepreneurs for innovative transformation”, as reported by The Star.

Both parties said that the partnership seeks to assist the new-age technology startups in the country by focussing on areas such as Artificial Intelligence, 5G, Big Data, cybersecurity, blockchain, Internet of Things, and machine learning.

The parties also announced a US$1.4 million Innovative Transformation Seed Fund that will encourage new startups involved in digital or business innovation to commercialise their ideas via a clear business model.

MTDC CEO Norhalim Yunus said: “We will also design and develop programmes, including training, knowledge-sharing, developmental programmes and other programmes of similar nature that will benefit the cooperation besides providing knowledge transfer and expertise for the development of technology transfer, commercialisation, and entrepreneurship.”

Fintech platform Nium raises funding from Visa

Remittance platform Nium announced its latest fundraise today by Visa, with participation from existing investors and new investors such as BRI Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Bank BRI of Indonesia.

Also Read: BRI, Visa join remittance firm Nium’s Series C round to facilitate tuck-in acquisitions

Nium said it will use the funds to further build out its diversified payment infrastructure offering that includes outreach to consumers, SMEs, large enterprises as well as banks and financial institutions, product development, and tuck-in acquisitions that compress time to market.

Just before the funding announcement, the company has made news for two wins, one for the account of a large European marketplace payment provider to process a billion Euros annually, and the other for a large international bid for one of the world’s biggest maritime businesses to process crew payments via cards and collections for vessel management.

The company also has been working with a prominent Asian Neobank to help them expand overseas by providing international collections.

As part of their own consumer and SME remittance offering (InstaReM) and remittance- capabilities, Nium has reached millions of customers across 10 licensed jurisdictions through a fully micro-service driven model and offering services such as payroll disbursement to travel and expenses management.
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Photo by Al ghazali on Unsplash

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