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Roundup: Nanox raises US$20M for Vietnam expansion; GrabMart now available in Cambodia

Medical imaging startup Nanox secures US$20M to expand its AI-based system to Vietnam

Israel-based Nanox, a medical imaging startup that seeks to rewrite the way X-ray works with hardware, has secured US$20 million led by South Korea’s SK Telecom.

According to Venture Beat, the telco will partner with Nanox to deploy 2,500 of its systems in South Korea and Vietnam next year, which is still subject to regulatory approvals.

Nanox has created Nanox.Arc, an X-ray source technology that it claims can lower the cost of imaging hardware from millions of dollars to US$10,000, making it more accessible.

Nanox.Arc can help with the early detection of conditions discoverable by computed tomography (CT), mammography, fluoroscopy, angiogram, and other imaging modalities, and it will be offered under a pay-per-scan business model at prices “competitive” with alternatives, complemented with a cloud-based software dubbed Nanox.Cloud.

Founded in 2016, Nanox was established by Hitoshi Masuya, a Japanese venture capital tycoon, as part of a joint investment with Sony before the latter dropping out. Masuya then partnered with Poliakine, and the two decided to split the company’s operations between Japan and Israel.

Grab expands essential delivery capabilities covering Southeast Asia

Grab has announced the expansion of GrabMart into eight Southeast Asian countries, with Cambodia being the latest addition.

In three months, GrabMart scaled from two to eight SEA countries and is now live in 50 cities across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

Also Read: News Roundup: Cybersecurity startup Horangi nabs US$20M Series B led by Provident Growth

GrabMart started as an on-demand daily essentials delivery service to support consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It now has partnered with over 3,000 stores in the region, including supermarkets and convenience store chains like FairPrice Xpress, FamilyMart, Mahnaz Food, Maxvalu, and Tops.

GrabMart provides consumers with a way to purchase a wide range of consumer goods including fresh groceries, home essentials, health and beauty items, gifts, and more. To access GrabMart, users can simply tap on the ‘Mart” tile within the Grab app.

Singapore-driven logistics & supply chain initiative GESCT rebrands into NEXST

Global Emerging Supply Chain Technologies (GESCT), a Singapore-driven global initiative that steers new business models and transformations in the supply chain and logistics industry, has rebranded to Next Supply Chain (NEXST),

NEXST was founded by Reefknot Investments, a Singapore-headquartered global VC firm, along with SGInnovate and Kuehne + Nagel.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Kuehne + Nagel, a global transport and logistics company; Reefknot Investments, a Temasek-backed VC firm; and SGInnovate, to this effect.

Wolfgang Lehmacher, former Director and Head of Supply Chain and Transport Industries, World Economic Forum, and Kong Wai Wei, Global Supply Chain Director, Starbucks Corporation, joined the three companies in their individual capacities.

NEXST was launched in September 2019 and recently launched a whitepaper around supply chain digital transformation post-pandemic, as well as welcoming publisher and event organiser Global Trade Review (GTR) as its latest member.

The whitepaper titled “Supply Chain Digital Transformation: Enhancement of Supply Chain Visibility For the Post-COVID-19 World” is available online through SGInnovate as well as Reefknot Investments’ websites, providing insights on what supply chain visibility means today, emerging issues and challenges and case studies on how cutting-edge technology, including IoT and AI could propel firms towards Supply Chain 4.0.

Malaysia’s Sunway launches urban farming innovation hub to focus on food and agritech solutions

Malaysian conglomerate Sunway has announced that it will build a 50,000 sq ft urban farming innovation hub, which will be completed in the third quarter of 2020.

Led by Sunway iLabs, Sunway FutureX will serve as a skills-building hub for urban farming professionals, tech companies, researchers, and young talents to collaborate and to create transformative solutions focussing on food and agritech, marking the group’s venture into agritech sector.

Also Read: Malaysian accelerator Sunway iLabs to invest US$480K in up to 10 startups in 2018

Sunway FutureX, located in the heart of Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, will have three pillars: FutureX Farm (indoor and outdoor smart farming area), FutureX Talent (R&D centre), and FutureX Campus (training and collaborative space which includes a cafe).

According to Matt Van Leeuwen, Sunway Group Chief Innovation Officer and Sunway iLabs Director, the FutureX Farm will also partner with Thought For Food (TFF), a global non-profit organisation dedicated to entrepreneurial innovation for food and agriculture.

Sunway Pyramid, Sunway Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and Sunway Hotels also joined forces to introduce the Food CPR – Compost. Plant. Reduce. campaign aimed at tackling the food waste problem in Malaysia.

Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash

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