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Today’s top tech news, July 17: Oyo acquires co-working space Innov8 for US$30M

Also, wealthtech from Thailand expands to Singapore, and honestbee’s VP of Marketing Christina Lim left the company

Women’s health app Nyra launches Bahasa Malaysia version [Press Release]

Vivant, the digital health technology startup, announces the launch of ‘Nyra’ in Bahasa Malaysia to help women of all ages track their feminine health, fertility, and fitness. Vivant claimed that Nyra is designed as a one-stop solution for women of all ages juggling multiple health and wellness goals to accurately track their period, fertility, ovulation, as well as physical activity, symptoms, and diet.

From information entered into the app, Nyra provides personalised health and fertility insights, giving women full control over the entire feminine health journey – from preconception to pregnancy and post-pregnancy. It also has an in-app chat feature that allows women to connect directly with a doctor for private one-to-one conversations on health matters including fertility, contraception, sexual health, and everything in between.

Adrit Raha, Chief Executive Officer, Vivant said, “Women’s health can be a sensitive subject in Malaysia and Nyra aims to empower women to break through existing barriers and take full control of every aspect of their feminine health and wellbeing, informed by accurate and personalised health insights.”

Nyra is the first product launched by Vivant under its Nyra women’s health brand, which expects to see an expanded range of products in the region across the women’s health spectrum including pregnancy, post-pregnancy care and re-entering the workplace.

Thai wealthtech Jitta forays into Singapore and India [Nikkei Asian Review]

Thai wealth technology startup Jitta has announced its plan to expand its services to Singapore and India following the US$6.5 million raised from Beacon Venture Capital, the venture capital arm of Kasikornbank in the first half of 2019.

Jitta was founded in 2014 offering a free asset analysis platform that analyses public information, such as earnings, and ranks stocks on their valuation from stock markets in the U.S., Thailand, Japan, and other parts of Asia.

Also Read: Singapore’s data protection framework gets a boost with new appointment, initiative

Jitta is launching a fund that uses its analysis service to help investors manage their investments. Customers will be charged a 0.5 per cent management fee, and Jitta will take 10% of their yearly profits.

Oyo sets foothold in co-working space acquiring Innov8 [Techcrunch]

India’s budget hotel startup Oyo announced that it has acquired co-working space Innov8 for US$30 million, as reported by Techcrunch. The co-living spaces segment is its new business to target, the report said.

The Gurgaon-headquartered firm on Tuesday announced Oyo Workspaces, which is already operational across 10 cities in India with more than 20 centers. It currently has the capacity to serve more than 15,000 people, with more than 6,000 employees from firms such as Swiggy, Paytm, Pepsi, Nykaa, OLX, and Lenskart have already signed up for the service.

Innov8 is one of the three in-house brands that are part of Oyo Workspaces. The other two brands — Workflo and Powerstation — are aimed at people who are looking for the economical offering. A user could access one of these co-working spaces for as low as Rs 6,999 (US$102) a month.

honestbee’s VP of Marketing left the company [Vulcan Post]

After a whirlwind of negative press surrounding its “temporary pause” in operations and partnerships due to an alleged cash crash issue and multiple layoffs, it is now reported that Christina Lim, the company’s Vice President of Marketing has exited the company.

Lim’s move followed suit the resignations of co-founder Isaac Tay and Joel Sng, and managing director Chris Urban.

Also Read: Digitised cross-border trade platform dltledgers raises Pre-Series A funding

Lim was previously responsible for the marketing team to drive brand awareness and loyalty across all its business verticals and has been with the firm for a year.

Lim has revealed to the press that she will be focused on consulting work for companies.

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Singapore’s data protection framework gets a boost with new appointment, initiative

The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) will help create more job opportunities for professionals who specialise in the field of data protection

The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) of Singapore has announced the launch of its new Data Protection Officer  Competency Framework and Training Roadmap, which is designed to help Data Protection Officers’ (DPO) perform their jobs more effectively.

DPO’s are key to the country’s data protection framework as they support the responsible use of data and help to drive data innovation.

The commission also appointed Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) as Singapore’s Accountability Agent (AA) for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Cross Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) and Privacy Recognition for Processors (PRP) Systems certifications.

What this combination of acronyms translates to essentially is that IMDA will help facilitate cross-border data flow between countries under APEC.

PDPC, supported by National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), and NTUC LearningHub, will be launching a 12-month pilot programme to train and upskill DPOs.

Also Read: How an energytech firm is improving energy efficiency in Singapore

These data protection-related courses will be available from the fourth quarter of 2019, and expected to benefit at least 500 DPOs in the first year.

Gilbert Tan, CEO of NTUC’s e2i said, “Data is an increasingly vital resource needed for timely business decisions. e2i, together with NTUC, will help to operationalise the new Framework by reaching out to working professionals, whose job function includes data protection, and equipping them with relevant skill sets to manage, protect and govern data.”

Also Read: Singapore’s AI-based data startup Near raises US$100M from Greater Pacific Capital

Singapore is the third economy after the US and Japan to operationalise the system, and certifications are now open for applications by all companies.

To encourage more organisations to apply for CPBR and PRP certifications, IMDA will waive the APEC CBPR and PRP Systems application fees for SMEs until 30 June 2020. Enterprise Singapore will also support Singapore-based organisations in adopting the certifications by defraying assessment and consultancy costs.

The APEC CBPR and PRP certifications will complement the IMDA’s Data Protection Trustmark certification. Organisations interested in applying for both certifications can do so via an integrated application process.

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Blockchain startup JEDTrade launches privacy-protected data exchange platform

The platform Jupiter Chain enables data analytics use with maintained privacy

Singapore-based blockchain startup JEDTrade today announced the launch of Jupiter Chain, a consent-able data exchange platform that enables the use of data analytics without compromising on privacy.

According to a press note, Jupiter Chain allows blockchain technology to be put in the healthcare services ecosystem, where data privacy and security is crucial. It does so by encrypting users’ data and requiring consent before other parties can access the necessary information to conduct big data analytics projects.

JEDTrade’s vision is to have customised healthcare plans from the aggregated medical data, while the data remains secure and private to them. Healthcare business owners will also no longer have to be custodians to user data, avoiding hiccups in securing sensitive data.

The whole objective is to eliminate the risks of data sharing and increases the benefits to consumers and researchers.

“With Jupiter Chain, JEDTrade hopes to fundamentally change the way we handle data. From day-to-day interactions to large-scale processes, enterprise blockchain technology will change the way we live, with new industries hungry for solutions,” said Dr. Ernie Teo, CTO of JEDTrade.

Also Read: Japan’s startup ecosystem has yet to fully mature, says Cool Japan Fund’s Shinnosuke Watanabe

Last month, JEDTrade also announced Jupiter Chain’s partnership with Genecare, a genetics testing company based in Southeast Asia. Genecare allows clients to understand their health risks based on whole-genome sequencing. With this partnership, service providers can only access assessment results and will not see specific genetic data, ensuring the privacy of users while allowing them access to tailored healthcare and services.

JED is a technology company that builds business solutions powered by blockchain technology focussing on three domains: data, supply chain and financial services. Jupiter Chain is aligned with global data laws such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and related data governance.

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What is the state of Taiwan’s AI ecosystem?

How Taiwan is advancing towards becoming Southeast Asia’s leading AI talent hub

In the past two years, Taiwan has rapidly been catching up to the global AI wave and is quickly becoming the region’s defacto AI talent hub.

In order to inject greater momentum into Taiwan’s industries, the government has rolled out the AI Taiwan Action Plan in 2018, a comprehensive industrial plan to accelerate innovation and development.

The four-year action plan will be jointly implemented by the ministries of economic affairs, education, labor, science and technology with a total budget of over US$1 billion poured into the project.

During the same time the Asia Silicon Valley Development Plan was also launched in order to incorporate AI into areas like transportation, healthcare, telecommunications, logistics, and other smart city initiatives.

Over the past two years, technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM have announced the establishment of their largest Asian R&D centers to be based in Taiwan.

For example, Google, following the acquisition of HTC’s handset division in January 2018, received a total of 2,000 engineers, designers, and professionals, along with the launch of “Intelligent Taiwan” just three months later.

The first phase of this initiative was announced to recruit over 300 AI engineers and to train 5,000 AI talents in Taiwan. The second and third phases were to empower more locals to participate in the digital economy by offering free training courses thus, aiming to cultivate a future-ready workforce. Microsoft and IBM have also since announced the recruitment of  AI engineers from Taiwan.

Also Read: Is Taiwan ready to become a global innovation hub?

Compared to other Southeast Asian countries, Taiwan has two advantages: AI talents and industrial environment.

In terms of talent, Taiwan produces more than 10,000 graduates of computer-science degrees and 25,000 electrical engineers every year. A relatively sizeable talent pool that, if properly upskilled, can provide incredible value to the AI community.

According to OECD statistics, Taiwanese students have topped the global rankings in fourth place for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

In addition, over the past 30 years, Taiwan has accumulated an unparalleled foundation in hardware manufacturing, leaving ample opportunities for companies to capitalize on the growing integration of hardware and software, especially when it comes to 5G, IoT, big data, and industry 4.0.

New opportunities abound as digital marketing and e-commerce mature

According to AppWorks’ newly released 2019 Taiwan AI Ecosystem Map, Taiwan has been shaping up well with 28 startups & 12 habitat providers.

Taiwan’s earliest investment in the AI field can be traced back to Tagtoo, which was established in 2010 and specializes in marketing tech. In addition to capturing the Taiwan market, Tagtoo has also actively expanded into a Greater Southeast Asian regionalcompany.

In 2018, it won the Best Brand Award in Indonesia by CMO Asia. Tagtoo currently aggregates all their data and has a full-time AI team dedicated to train models to more effectively optimize marketing campaign decisions for their clients.

Also Read: AI is set to revolutionise content marketing

Behind the rapid rise of Tagtoo, Taiwan’s digital marketing and e-commerce development has moved into the AI era, and has spawned a number of new innovations in the field of digital marketing and advertising.

For example, Appier, which provides AI-driven data analytics and marketing solutions, recently closed their Series C round, having  received more than US$82 million in total funding.

Other well-known marketing-related startups in Taiwan include Rosetta.ai, which provides e-commerce personalization modules, and Akohub, which develops retargeting chatbots.

AI technology startups converge with Taiwan to create synergy

Notably, we have also witnessed the increasing integration of hardware and software, specifically as it relates to marrying Taiwan’s traditional manufacturing prowess with its growing AI capabilities.

Established in 2014, Umbo CV (Umbo Computer Vision) a model of this innovation and has successfully entered the European and American markets with loyal enterprise clients in over 30 countries.

Umbo CV specializes in intelligent security monitoring and develops image recognition technology with self-learning and analytic capabilities.

The software platform can be used to learn and identify objects, cars, animals, and plants, as well as monitor for intruders and special events like fires.

By combining AI technology with their own proprietary cameras, Umbo CV helps automate what has traditionally been a very labor-intensive industry riddled with false alarms, saving invaluable time and resources for surveillance and monitoring companies.

Other startups that utilize the integration of software and hardware, development of AI applications, big data from cameras, and WiFi measurement include SkyREC, Cubo, Lucid and NUWA Robotics.

With more and more AI innovations, Taiwan is also booming in terms of startup accelerators, education, and research.

The Taiwan AI Academy and Taiwan AI Labs are Taiwan’s representative institutions in the field of AI for education and research respectively.

Looking into the future for AI innovation, we believe that there are three opportunities related to startups.

The first is the automation of routine and repetitive work in labor-intensive industries such as law, accounting, and healthcare.

The second is the use of AI to facilitate tasks that would otherwise be impossible or highly inefficient for humans to do such as processing large amounts of data for personalized recommendations en masse.

The third is the development of enabling tools to help users capitalize on the growing ubiquity of AI without any prior technical foundation.

Also Read: Asian insurtech on the rise: An overview of the main players

Disclosure: AppWorks is a fully independent venture capital fund/startup accelerator and is only affiliated with the listed startups, which have previously gone through  equity-free accelerator, and Umbo CV, which we have invested in.

The map will be updated every half year to adequately capture the sheer pace at which the industry is evolving. We made our best effort to include everyone but if you feel you have been missed out, let us know.

Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Louis Cheng

 

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EasyParcel receives US$10.6M funding from Gobi Ventures and AirAsia

The Malaysia-based courier marketplace will use the funding to focus on customer acquisition and recruitment

EasyParcel, a courier marketplace startup from Malaysia, announced that it has secured RM43.5 million (US$10.6 million) in Series B from Gobi Ventures and AirAsia’s rebranded logistics arm Teleport.

According to a report by Digital News Asia,  Gobi led the round but Teleport put in more investment.

The Series B round was also joined by current investors Axiata Digital Innovation Fund and several angel investors.

The company’s Series B round reportedly had been going on for almost a year before closing. “It was important to work out the best deal possible for all parties and to get the right partner fit,” Leong said.

The company has said that it plans to use the funding to expand into existing markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, and focus on customer acquisition, as well as strengthen its talent pool by bringing in a new data team leader to scale up the team.

Clarence Leong, CEO of EasyParcel said: “The focus now is speed in execution, as we target to double the revenue in the next 12 months.”

As for scaling up, Leong expressed that EasyParcel is looking into tapping at traditional businesses, especially smaller SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), beyond its current e-commerce clients.

Also Read: South Korea’s Carelabs acquires online beauty and wellness concierge startup Eunogo

EasyParcel is a marketplace that connects courier demand with supply, seeking to enhance the operations of its digitally unsavvy courier partners.

EasyParcel was already working with AirAsia Teleport, previously RedCargo Logistics. The plan is for EasyParcel to potentially help fill spare capacity on Teleport planes.

Image Credit: EasyParcel

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Today’s top tech news, July 16: Indonesia drafting VAT rules for digital goods

Also, there’s a new co-working space set to open in Jakarta’s Domestic airport, and CredoLab is expanding to Africa

Indonesia is drafting rules to apply VAT on digital goods and services

Indonesia is drafting value added tax (VAT) rules that will be applied on digital goods and services provided by offshore companies, according to a report by Reuters.

John Hutagaol, an official who heads the international department at the tax office, said that the country would need new “implementation rules to decide on the mechanism” for digital goods and services as they have no time or space restrictions, unlike physical goods.

Hutagaol added that the new VAT rules would be applicable to “e-commerce, content providers, startups and other internet-based economic activities”.

A study by Google and Temasek Holdings last year pegged Indonesia’s internet economy at US$27 billion and predicted that it will grow to US$100 billion by 2025.

Singapore-based fintech startup CredoLab to expand to Africa

Singapore-based fintech startup CredoLab has announced its expansion to the Sub-Saharan African fintech, bringing on three new clients in the region — two banks and a leading airtime credit provider.

The expansion comes on the back of the  African Development Bank’s new Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI, an initiative designed to bring financial inclusion to 332 million Africans who remain underserved and excluded from the traditional banking sector.

Also Read: 3 fintech startups win the chance to pilot project with UNCDF

CredoLab’s digital credit scoring solution uses anonymous, non-personal, consented smartphone
metadata to predict the creditworthiness of users. With smartphone penetration in sub-Saharan Africa steadily increasing and predicted to double by 2025, the company expects to be able to capture a large part of this market.

“The growing penetration of Android smartphones and KaiOS smart-feature-phones currently outpaces the penetration of bank accounts in the continent,” said Peter Barcak, co-founder and CEO of CredoLab, in an official press statement.

“This presents an immense opportunity for fintechs like CredoLab to tap into behavioural data to assess the creditworthiness of any user and enable them to receive loans at fair terms, even in the absence of credit history,” he added.

CredoLab’s entry point into Africa was South Africa and the company expects to launch in Ghana, and Nigeria and Kenya in early 2020.

To date, CredoLab claims to have assessed over US$1 billion in loans issued by more than 50 lenders across 15 countries.

UnionSPACE set to opens in Jakarta’s domestic airport

Indonesia-based co-working space UnionSPACE has announced that it will set up a co-working space in Terminal 3, Soekarno Hatta Airport, which is Jakarta’s domestic airport. The venture was made possible through a partnership with Angkasa Pura Solusi, a foreign investment company that has ventures in areas such as airport consultation.

The new co-working space will be called APSpace.

UnionSPACE currently has seven locations in Jakarta and five locations across Southeast Asia, including Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia. It is set to open locations in Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia and China.

SaltyCustoms partners with StarNgage

Influencer marketing platform StarNgage by Hashmeta has announced today it has signed an MOU with Southeast Asia-based apparel branding platform YEEFU by SaltyCustoms.

The partnership will see the two companies jointly design youth-oriented apparel by leveraging the star power of more than half a million active personalities on Instagram — essentially producing licensed apparel.

Using YEEFU, creators can crowdfund merchandising projects. If they are able to hit a minimum pre-order quantity, Yeefu will manage the design, inventory, manufacturing process and last-mile delivery, while the creators will receive the earnings.

Also Read: Why the traditional story arc is obsolete for brands

“As the world changes and moves into the digital age, brands have more opportunities for fan engagement and conversation. Here at YEEFU, we exist to spread positivity and inspiration to the next generation,” said King Quah, Co-Founder of YEEFU. Their first line of merchandise will be announced on starngage.com and released for sale on yeefu.store in August later this year.

Image Credit : amadeustx

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Travelstop secures US$3M Pre-Series A funding led by Accel

In its statement, the company said its goal is to support business travel and manage travel expenses

Singapore-based startup Travelstop announces that it has raised US$3 million in Pre-Series A funding led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Accel. Participating in the round are Strive (formerly GREE Ventures), and existing investor SeedPlus.

The new round will see Accel’s Prashanth Prakash joining the company’s Board of Directors.

Travelstop’s first funding was 10 months ago, a seed funding round of US$1.2 million led by SeedPlus, joined by travel industry veterans from Expedia and Yahoo!. In the seed round, the company also launched its business and travel and expense management product,

“Our immediate plan is to use the new funds to further invest in technology and to accelerate the adoption of Travelstop across Asia,” said Prashant Kirtane, Co-founder and CEO at Travelstop.

“Travelstop is building a locally relevant solution for the millennial generation of business travelers,” Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel, gave a nod.

The startup also announces a partnership with Traveloka, the Indonesia-based travel technology company. The partnership seeks to deliver a more extensive inventory of flights and hotels to business travelers in Asia.

Also Read: South Korea’s Carelabs acquires online beauty and wellness concierge startup Eunogo

The partnership is expected to roll out in the next few months, along with other core features such as 24×7 travel management and travel insurance.

Recently, the startup was named one of the top travel startups to watch out for in 2019 by
Skift. Fellow Asian companies like Funding Societies and Carousell have adopted Travelstop for their business travel management needs in the region.

Travelstop uses machine learning and AI-powered personalisation to customise experience for companies and their employees and eliminate the need to research and book their travel. Travelstop also offers fully localised features for seven markets in Asia like Book For Others, Travel Policies, Group Bookings, Expense Reporting, and Invoice Billing with employers and travel managers in mind so they can manage their company travel and expenses more effectively.

Image Credit: Travelstop

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Meet the 3 startups graduating from Vietnam-based VIISA Accelerator’s fifth batch

The startups have received a seed funding, and stand to get a follow-on funding of up to US$200K when they secure a new round from other investors

Vietnam-based VIISA Accelerator has announced the graduation of three startups graduating from the fifth batch of its 4-month accelerator programme with the Investment Day.

The three startups have received a seed funding from the accelerator and benefited from its partners, such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Payoo, and the MoonLab co-working space.

The promising startups also stand to get a follow-on funding of up to US$200,000 from VIISA when they secure a new round of funding from other investors.

Also Read: Vietnam stars in January as e27 data tracks US$1.5B in deals

Below is a sneak-peek into the five ventures:

VDES

VIDES is a one-stop-shop marketplace that connects event venues and event suppliers to customers using Big Data, Machine Learning, and Virtual Reality. The company claims customers are able to save 80 per cent time and 30 per cent cost in all booking processes and receive the best price guarantee.

SaveMoney

SaveMoney is a full-service insurance provider. It claims to offer a scalable digital insurance platform with an integrated B2C advisory process using Big data, giving the possibility to design, implement and roll-out existing and new insurance services within three months.

Loglag

Loglag provides a truck and container booking platform with Big Data, AI techniques applied. By leveraging mobile connectivity, Loglag connects drivers and fleet owners to cargos and customers in order to make the logistics and transportation industry in Vietnam more accessible.

Also Read: Indonesia’s IDN Media foray into e-sports by acquiring GGWP.ID

Hieu Vo, CFO at VIISA, said: “I am proud of what these amazing founders have overcome and developed throughout the program. In order to make these changes happen, startups in batch 5 have actively harnessed and created large, scalable networks of users and resources that can be accessed on-demand. There are real products, real technologies that generated more than 3,000 transactions within three months.

On the other hand, the network effects these startups built touches more than 500,000 people in Vietnam. With their solution and product, the startups are helping customers in reducing time and transaction costs, increase revenue by enabling externalized innovation.”

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Indonesia’s IDN Media foray into e-sports by acquiring GGWP.ID

GGWP.ID is a multi-platform e-sports company which was created with a vision to make ‘e-sports for everyone’

IDN Media

IDN Media, a multi-platform media company for “millennials and Gen Z in Indonesia”, has announced the acquisition of GGWP.ID to mark its entry into the fast-growing e-sports industry.

The company — which also operates several other business units including IDN Times, Popbela.com, Popmama.com, Yummy, IDN Creative, IDN Event, and IDN Creator Network — aims to make GGWP.ID the  ‘ESPN’ of e-sports in Indonesia. It also wants to build awareness and exposure of the opportunities that e-sports can bring to society, including to e-sports players, enthusiasts, content creators, and brands.

As per the deal, Founder Ricky Setiawan will continue to be the CEO of GGWP.ID.

Winston Utomo, Founder & CEO of IDN Media, said: “We believe that the e-sports phenomenon has just begun. With GGWP.ID, we envision to create the biggest and most impactful e-sports company in the region for Millennials and Gen Z.”

Also Read: Sources say Tokopedia is involved in a funding round for Sayurbox

GGWP.ID is a multi-platform e-sports company which was created with a vision to make ‘e-sports for everyone’.  It has four main business units — eSports Media (a multi-platform media for e-sports enthusiasts), eSports Tournament Platform (which allows users to create and organise tournaments by themselves instantly), eSports Team (professional e-sports team that competes in popular games), and eSports Creative (a multi-platform digital agency focusing on brand storytelling, content creation, and online activation).

In addition, GGWP.ID also hosts Game Prime, a gaming event in Indonesia, together with BEKRAF, Republik Indonesia/IACE (Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy) and AGI (Asosiasi Game Indonesia), an Indonesian game association.

According to Setiawan said: “As a leading media company for millennials and Gen Z in Indonesia, IDN Media can help us reach more audience and accelerate our vision to make eSports available for everyone.”

Early this year, IDN Media raised a Series C funding round led by EV Growth. EV Growth is a joint venture of East Ventures, Sinar Mas, and Yahoo! Japan.

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Tech recruitment platform Glints eyes Vietnam, Hong Kong expansion with US$6.8M funding

Glints aims to make traditional recruiting more effective by automating certain processes such as candidate sourcing, matching and follow-ups

Glints, a tech-enabled recruitment and career development platform in Southeast Asia, has secured US$6.8 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.

Other investors include Hong Kong-based MindWorks Ventures and existing investors Fresco Capital and Wavemaker Partners, the Singapore-based startup said in a statement.

The money will be used to expand into Vietnam and Hong Kong, in addition to growing its product and engineering teams.

Launched in 2015, Glints combines the skills of experienced recruiters and technology by automating certain recruitment processes, such as candidate sourcing, matching and follow-ups. Recruiters will be able to match strong graduates with one of Glints’s employers for a good job opportunity.

The firm says it takes an end-to-end approach for potential candidates that goes beyond just sourcing profiles to actually developing candidate supply through training programs such as Glints Academy. The Academy is a coding bootcamp that trains young talent in Indonesia to become developers.

Also Read: Sources say Tokopedia is involved in a funding round for Sayurbox

The company’s clients include Go-Jek, FWD Insurance and UOB Bank. Glints claims its clients on an average make successful hires in 28 days compared to industry standards of 40-50 days, and with a lower cost.

Oswald Yeo, CEO and Co-founder of Glints, said: “We believe we have found the right growth model to solve the challenge of finding the best talent that is targeted, cost and time efficient for both clients and candidates. Employers have a tough time finding the right candidates on job portals and waste much time filtering through irrelevant applications. Traditional headhunters, while more effective, are too expensive for many employers, especially when they are hiring for junior to mid-level positions, which is especially common in Southeast Asia given its young workforce.”

Peng T. Ong, Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill Ventures, commented: “Employers are struggling to fill their vacancies with a shortage of skilled talent worldwide, and it is no exception in Southeast Asia. Glints has thought through the entire journey of someone who is looking for work or talent and has developed an end-to-end tech solution that meets the needs of both candidates and companies in Asia. The traction and strong growth we’ve seen is very exciting, which is why we decided to partner with Glints and lead the investment of their Series B round.”

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