The most exciting part about writing early stage funding announcement is seeing the variety of startups that are being invested in. But this month, the excitement doubled as we also begin to see a wider variety of investors getting into the market.

Legalku
Funding: Undisclosed seed funding round
Investor(s): UMG Idealab

Founded in December 2017, Legalku runs two business lines: An on-demand legal consultation service for medium- and small-enterprises (MSMEs) and a SaaS platform for legal practitioners.

Kopi Kenangan
Funding: Series A extension
Investor(s): Arrive, Serena Ventures, Sequoia India, Chris LeVert, Jonathan Neman

With this Series A extension, Kopi Kenangan said it plans to add more than 1,000 new stores over the next two years and expand across Southeast Asia.

Telio
Funding: US$25 million in Series A
Investor(s): Tiger Global, Sequoia India, GGV Capital, and RTP Global

Telio connects small retailers with brands and wholesalers on a centralised platform that provides them with more choices, more affordable pricing, and more efficient logistics.

Bambooloo
Funding: Undisclosed seed funding
Inevstor(s): Angel investors from US and Singapore

The startup will use the funding to expand Bambooloo in the domestic market and also overseas. It also plans to create additional marketing and brand licensing support materials as well as perform talent acquisitions.

Also Read: From coffee to dentistry: The top 10 funding news that rocked the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem in 2019

Glee Trees
Funding: Undisclosed funding
Investor(s): 500 Startups

Robotic Process Automation startup Glee Trees plans to use part of the new fund to enhance capabilities such as a document-extraction feature that can read documents in multiple Asian languages, including Chinese and Indonesian.

Sleek
Funding: US$5 million in seed funding
Investor(s): MI8, Pierre Lorinet, Fabio Blom

In addition to supporting its expansion to Hong Kong, Sleek plans to use the new funds to expand its tech team, develop new features, and increase its operational capability.

Intrepid Group
Funding: Undisclosed Series A
Investor(s): Kairous Capital, Sun SEA Capital, 500 Startups Vietnam

Founded by ex-Lazada’s co-founders, Intrepid Group offers brands one-stop-shop access to Southeast Asia’s e-commerce.

Sunday
Funding: US$11 million in Series A
Investor(s): Quona Capital, Vertex Holdings

The company said that it will use the new funding to enable Sunday to expand its business and build enhancements to its proprietary core technology, which utilises machine learning to price premiums for health, motor, and travel insurance in real-time.

Neuron Mobility
Funding: US$18.5 million in Series A
Investor(s): GSR Ventures, Square Peg Capital

The company will use the fresh capital to accelerate its Australian and New Zealand roadmap, its foray into other Asia Pacific markets, and further development of its technology.

Ezay
Funding: Undisclosed seed funding
Investor(s): EME Myanmar, undisclosed angel investor

Founded in August 2019 by former Oway employee Kyaw Min Swe, Ezay provides a mobile platform that connects rural ‘mom-and-pop’ shops with wholesalers.

Also Read: Indonesian legal tech startup Legalku raises seed funding from UMG Idealab

Interloan
Funding: US$500,000 in seed funding
Investor(s): Phoenix Holdings

Interloan is one of the winners of Fintech Challenge Vietnam 2019, which was organised recently by the State Bank of Vietnam.

Evermos
Funding: US$8.25 million in Series A
Investor(s): Jungle Ventures, Shunwei Capital, Alpha JWC Ventures

Founded in November 2018, the Evermos platform focuses on bringing the everyday needs of Muslims by providing halal products in various verticals, including fashion, food, cosmetics and home and business opportunities that comply with Sharia laws.

Populix
Funding: US$1 million in seed funding
Investor(s): Intudo Ventures, Gobi Agung, Pegasus Tech Ventures

With this round of financing, Populix aims to develop new product features to provide more dynamic and in-depth insights to clients, ramp up marketing efforts to build awareness and attract more respondents to use the platform, and bring on new employees to help the company scale.

TADA
Funding: US$5 million in Series A
Investor(s): SV Investment, Central, SIMWON

The financing will be used to fund the company continued expansion within its existing markets and the development of the mobility ecosystem built on MVL’s blockchain protocol.

Komunal
Funding: Undisclosed seed funding
Investor(s): East Ventures, Skystar Capital

The company said that the investment will be used to accelerate Komunal’s mission to bridge the funding gap much-needed by the growing population of underbanked Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia.

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There are reasons why the later stage funding rounds that we managed to cover in December are ground-breaking.

We saw the highest ever funding round ever secured by an edutech startup in the market. We also saw leading US athletes and celebrities getting into the Southeast Asian market through their investment.

Most importantly, after spending years going crazy over the unicorn phenomenon, in December, some startups began to put profitability as part of their goal for the new year.

Here are those phenomenal funding rounds:

Ruangguru
Funding: US$150 million in Series C
Investor(s): Global Atlantic, GGV Capital, EV Growth, UOB Venture Management

The funding round is meant to support the company’s expansion effort to Vietnam, where it has launched under the brand Kien Guru.

AWAK
Funding: US$40 million
Investor(s): Vickers Venture Partners, Advanced MedTech, SEEDS Capital

The medtech startup will use the proceeds from this round to complete the pivotal clinical trial of its AWAK PD wearable dialysis device.

Also Read: From coffee to dentistry: The top 10 funding news that rocked the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem in 2019

Travelio
Funding: Series B extension
Investor(s): Samsung Ventures

Travelio said it plans to use the investment to accelerate the company’s target in 2020 with deeper integration and partnership with the conglomerate’s network, technology, and electronic-related ecosystem.

Carsome
Funding: US$50 million in Series C
Investor(s): MUFG Innovation Partners, Daiwa PI Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, Ondine Capital, Gobi Partners and Convergence Ventures

The capital will help “consolidate Carsome’s market leadership in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, with expansion into more cities in Southeast Asia”, and to accelerate financing product offerings for dealers and consumers with multi-country roll-outs over the next 12 months.

Style Theory
Funding: US$15 million in Series B
Investor(s): SoftBank Ventures Asia, Alpha JWC Ventures, The Paradise Group

The company said that it plans to use part of the funding for developing its tech platform. The company also plans to start using RFID tagging and will attach passive RFID tags on each of its rental items to manage its inventory.

Hummingbird
Funding: US$19 million in Series B
Investor(s): Mirae Asset Venture Investment, GNTech Venture Capital, Heritas Capital, Seeds Capital, Delian Capital, Mirae Asset Capital, DAValue-GiltEdge, HB Investment, Wooshin Venture Investment, Kiwoom Investment-Shinhan Capital

Hummingbird Bioscience is a biotherapeutics company that brings the discovery and development of new precision antibody therapeutics for difficult-to-treat conditions.

Modalku
Funding: Undisclosed debt funding
Investor(s): Triodos Microfinance Fund, Triodos Fair Share Fund

The company said it will use the funds to accelerate its vision of driving financial inclusion and widening credit access for the region’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Also Read: Indonesian legal tech startup Legalku raises seed funding from UMG Idealab

Kredivo
Funding: US$90 million in Series C
Investor(s): Asia Growth Fund, Square Peg Capital, Singtel Innov8, TMI (Telkomsel Indonesia), Cathay Innovation, Kejora Intervest, Mirae Asset Securities, Reinventure, DST Partners

This funding round brings the total capital raised by the company in 2019 alone to more than US$200 million, across both debt and equity, with the debt being provided by a consortium of lenders including banks and credit funds.

Collab Asia
Funding: US$7.5 million in Series B
Investor(s): Gorilla Private Equity, Samsung Ventures, PKSHA SPARX Algorithm Fund L.P., NCORE VENTURES, Altos Ventures

Collab Asia said it plans to use the funds to create localised content for Asia and focus on helping creators and content companies produce, distribute, monetise, and build audiences across multiple digital platforms.

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Singapore-headquartered venture capital firm EV Growth has announced the close of its first fund at US$250 million, exceeding the firm’s initial target of US$150 million.

The VC firm’s new Limited Partners (LPs) include several Asia-based family offices and two of Asia’s largest sovereign wealth funds, including Temasek.

EV Growth was launched in March 2018. A joint venture among East Ventures, SMDV and Yahoo! Japan Capital, the fund focusses on providing growth capital to startups in Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia with an industry agnostic focus.

EV Growth aims to bridge the gap in VC growth funding with the goal of creating a diversified portfolio of Southeast Asia early growth tech stage leaders.

The firm is led by three partners — Willson Cuaca from East Ventures, Roderick Purwana from SMDV, and Shinichiro Hori from Yahoo! Japan Capital.

Also Read: Indonesia’s SMDV leads US$20M funding round for Thai SaaS platform Eko

To date, EV Growth has invested across different sectors in Southeast Asia. Its portfolio firms include  Ruangguru (US$150 million Series C round with General Atlantic and GGV Capital); Sociolla (US$40 million Series D round with Temasek), Shopback (US$45 million round with Rakuten and EDBI), Sendo (US$61 million Series C round with Softbank Ventures Asia and Thailand’s Kasikornbank), Koinworks (US$16.5 million round), and Warung Pintar (US$27.5 million Series B round with Vertex and Pavilion Capital).

Other major follow-on rounds that the VC firm is involved included the latest round of two Indonesian unicorns Tokopedia and Traveloka, insurtech startup Fuse, Indonesia’s on-demand coffee chain Fore Coffee, Indonesian SME Saas Mekari, regional prop-tech 99.co, Indonesia’s online media company IDN Media, and payment company Xendit.

EV Growth claimed that it has deployed more than 50 per cent of its total funds in 20 deals. About 80 per cent of its portfolio companies are Indonesian.

Also Read: East Ventures, Yahoo! Japan Capital, and SMDV launch EV Growth

Cuaca of East VC said: “The inflection point in Southeast Asia is now and we are lucky to be here early. Our firm’s operating experience, deal velocity, local knowledge, and regional networks have helped us capture some of the best deals in the region. We plan to deploy US$325 Million for Southeast Asian startups combining active funds size, for both seed and growth stage.”

Just this year, East Ventures was named the most consistent top performing VC fund globally by Preqin and the most active investor in SEA and Indonesia.

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Image credit: EV Growth

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dtac Accelerate, the startup accelerator programme backed by Thai telco company dtac, has been discontinued.

In an interview with e27, Sompoat Chansomboon, former Managing Director of dtac Accelerate, explained that the discontinue was due to the “new business direction” that the telco has set up.

“The direction of the corporate has been changed with the appointment of the new CEO of dtac at the beginning of the year,” he said.

Chansomboon also announced that the team members that run the programme have all resigned from the company.

As an accelerator programme, dtac Accelerate provides participating startups seed funding and access to dtac and Telenor Group companies in 13 markets.

Its most recent batch was the seventh batch, which saw 15 startups graduating from the programme in May 2019. It has worked with startups from various verticals, from health tech to travel tech.

Also Read: These 11 startups have made it into dtac accelerate 6th batch programme

The announcement about the programme’s discontinuation was made in an Instagram post from December 27, where it expressed gratitude for the continuous support in the past seven years.

A day later, in a Facebook post, Chansomboon highlighted some of the milestones and achievements that dtac Accelerate has made: It has worked with 60 startups and 151 founders with a total valuation of US$227 million.

The startups have raised a total of US$36 million with 70 per cent success rate, working with a network of more than 350 VC and CVC firms.

When asked about his plans for the next year, Chansomboon stated that together with the team that used to run dtac Accelerate, he is preparing to announce “something big” in the “next few weeks.”

“The ecosystem will still continue with the help of our team,” he said. “It will be bigger than how it had been.”

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Image Credit: dtac Accelerate

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Every person who wishes to become a successful entrepreneur has the primary aim of making maximum profits out of business. However, merely wishing for the same is not going to reap the desired results as one has to work towards business success and profitability literally.

As per the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy, almost 80 per cent of small businesses survive the first year, and 90 per cent of startups do not succeed owing to the wrong choices made by their owners.

According to the Wells Fargo Small Business Index, US$10,000 is the average startup amount. As per a YouGov survey conducted on 503 business executives, 97 per cent of them cited customer service as the most significant driving factor for business success.

The largest valued startup at US$75 billion is ByteDance, a Toutiao maker.

There are a lot of roadblocks on the path to success, and one needs to have adequate solutions in place, along with a firm determination and positive attitude to taste success in the business world. So, let’s get started and understand the transformation of a business from the startup phase into the successful phase in detail.

Development of an idea

The very first stage of the business lifecycle is nothing but the development of an idea. It is the idea only that paves the way for success or failure for a business. You should clear every doubt in your mind through industry experts, friends, and colleagues before you proceed with planning for the idea.

Also Read: Good reads: Business books that influenced startup founders in 2019

Ideally, before you plan, you should get answers for the following:

1. Is this idea filling a market need?
2. Is my idea going to get acceptance in the market?
3. What steps should I take to establish a business structure?
4. Will this idea bring in any profits for me?

Startup

The next phase of the business lifecycle is the startup phase, which is considered to be one of the most stressful phases. The simple reason being it is the platform where your idea meets reality and may or may not meet the perfect execution.

Mistakes at this stage may leave an effect on the company even in the later stages of the business.

Some of the major challenges faced by business owners at this stage include:

1. Looking for investments (raising money)
2. Looking for quality staff
3. Handling expectations from cash reserves and sales
4. Establishing market presence and customer base
5. Management of financial accounting

Establishment

This is the ground state for your business’s success. If you have reached this far, you must be having an adequate amount of customers and positive cash flow. Your expenses should be easily adjusted against the net income generated by your business.

The challenges which the business owners face at this point include managing time for operations and customer service, adopting new strategies for client acquisition, dealing with the competition, and more.

Also Read: 10 business building tips for a successful freelance career

Growth and scalability

This is the stage where your business is growing at a steady pace and is ready for scalability. There are a different set of challenges faced by business owners at the growth and scalability stage which are discussed below.

Business growth challenges:

1. Dealing with increasing revenues and customers
2. Increasing the volume of the profit
3. Dealing with competitors
4. Streamlining operations, and more…

Business expansion challenges:

1. The never-ending challenge of competition
2. Dealing with additional services and stocks
3. Entity expansion
4. Competitor acquisition
5. Strategic decision making, and more…

Maturity

This is the final stage of a business lifecycle, which every owner wishes to reach as this is the stage where the business has flourished thoroughly during the initial stages and is looking to evolve itself into a brand.

However, this type of business expansion involves multiple risks owing to the competition from the established brands and the management’s ability for scalability. At this stage, the same questions repeat themselves that existed at the initial stage of expansion. These include:

1. Are there subtle opportunities?
2. Is the business financially stable for such a risk?
3. Does the business have the potential to sustain further growth?
4. What is the exit plan in case things do not work out the planned way?

Also, a number of companies opt for new leaders like having an additional CEO for dealing with the new set of challenges.

Also Read: What early-stage startups should know when fundraising with VC’s

Top ways to tackle challenges

As per research by CB Insights, problems with cash pave the way for the exit for small businesses. In order to deal with this challenge, businesses should:

1. Focus on the sales and profits strategy to bring in more cash flow revenue
2. Use technology to process invoices quickly so as to start the payment process quickly
3. Collect account receivable ASAP to aid revenue
4. Extend the date of accounts payable as long as possible to maintain a positive cash flow
5. Negotiate with vendors or partners to save money and reduce unnecessary expenses

Also read: 4 ways to boost your preparation for a startup pitching competition

Competition exists at every phase of the business lifecycle. The only difference that is seen is in the form of intensity at every level. However, it is imperative that businesses are prepared to tackle their competitors at every phase. They should continue doing what they are best at and also adopt new strategies for gaining an edge over their peers. These include:

Learning when to delegate

During the growth stages of a company, owners are faced with multiple responsibilities. It is important to understand the importance of that responsibility and its overall impact on the growth and operations of the business.

This means owners need to delegate some tasks to their leaders, which can be managed by their expertise. Also, it is imperative that they make some strategic business decisions by themselves, which demands their immediate attention.

Dealing with the market changes

Every industrial sector experiences market changes owing to technological advancements, customer trends, or an enhanced demand for product or service quality. Irrespective of which business lifecycle stage you are at, you are required to keep compliance with the market changes if you wish to retain current customers and acquire new ones.

For this, it is imperative that you train your employees against the latest technology use regularly, and work on marketing strategies that boost your customer base, along with leaving no stone unturned to have unmatched product/service quality.

Deciding on strategy abandonment

There are times during the initial stage when businesses are looking to experiment to create an early impact. This type of strategy may work or may not work. So, it is important to assess the forthcoming possibility of success or failure and make decisions regarding the continuation and abandonment of the strategy.

This brings us to the conclusion that every business witnesses the startup phase, but only a few of them are able to turn themselves into a brand. It is important for businesses to work on strategies that aid business growth and profitability at every stage of the business lifecycle, to meet customer demands and be at par with the competitors eventually.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas by submitting a post.

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

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The e27 Community has become a cohesive and forward-thinking network of thought leaders in the ecosystem. And we could not have done this alone. Thank you to all the engaged stakeholders in the Southeast Asia tech industry — investors, entrepreneurs, and more — who made this collaboration possible by sharing their views and opinions.

Today, this community of contributors has become integral to our platform’s growth. They complement our core team of reporters by providing in-depth and critical insights into the industry on top of our daily news and features coverage.

With each year the popularity of our community posts is growing and many of them have become some of the top-read articles on our site in 2019.

Continuing this annual tradition, without further ado, we present to you the 10 most read e27 community articles of 2019!

Note: the articles are arranged in no particular order.

What I learned from procrastination while scaling my startup to 4.2M users

For anyone considering the shift –yes, that ultimate shift from a fulltime job to being a full-time entrepreneur– this post is an eye-opener. Balancing a full-time job with the responsibilities of scaling his startup is a self-journey and might reveal fascinating aspects of yourself.

Also Read: Community Edition: How to share your founder’s story to inspire and influence

5 ways Augmented Reality is redefining the gaming industry

Did you know? The first commercial application of Augmented Reality (AR) technology was the yellow “first down” line that began appearing in the football games in 1998.

The integration of game visual and audio content with a user environment in real-time is what we know today as AR. Now don’t confuse it with virtual reality which creates completely an artificial environment. AR in the gaming industry uses the existing environment and creates a playing field within it.

AR games can be played on smartphones, tablets, and portable gaming systems. It is the integration of digital information and overlays new information on top of it. Still confused? Read on…

Modernising your venture’s marketing tactics by understanding how to communicate effectively

One thing is never going out of fashion. And that is communication. In fact, it just gets better and layered, thus making it that subtle art one must constantly hone.

It’s hard to sustain your business growth without marketing. Remember: the right kind of communication defines a business’s journey, mission, and vision.

The battle between private and public blockchains

Blockchain and its applications are multiplying and so are the regulatory and social challenges around them. The race to lead and capitalise on this trend has led to a surge in players in this industry. More than one player can co-exist and thrive in its niche market.

It is interesting to see how the public and private sectors will fight this one.

Also Read: Fake news law is good but it shouldn’t be used to stifle dissent: Singapore’s startup community speaks out

Building a digital to the core public service for Singapore

There is no doubt Singapore is the most technologically advanced nation in the Southeast Asian region. And with the Digital Government Blueprint (DGB) – released in June 2018 — it has set out an ambitious goal of transforming Singapore’s public sector into one that is both “digital to the core” and “serves with heart”.

The DGB — with a list of 14 targets to be achieved by 2023 — challenges the Singaporean government agencies to provide easy-to-use, seamless, secure and relevant digital services to citizens and businesses.

10 crazy blockchain ideas for Facebook

2019 brought in Facebook’s Libra and 2020 may bring in more innovations from the house of the most popular social media.

The word is that Facebook is hiring aggressively for blockchain roles. With the long term cryptocurrency utility and adoption of blockchain technologies, things can get pretty creative.

Get a sneak peek at what to expect if Facebook goes crazy about blockchain.

Differences between AI and Machine learning –and why it matters

Often mistakenly synonymised, artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing the world entirely. They are indeed parallel advancements and changing everything from how we watch TV to how we buy clothes. But if you want to use these two in an effective and useful manner, you must understand the differences between these.

What role does big data play in the insurance industry?

If big data were tangible it would be the biggest currency of the decade. From e-commerce to banking, consumer data is the key to a digital business. Extracting massive volumes of relevant customer data is also transforming the insurance industry.

Read more about how big data is changing the insurance industry.

Also Read: A call to end gatekeeping in Asia’s crypto community

The factors driving the success of Grab and what it took to become a market leader

The StartupViet Bootcamp in 2019 hosted 80 startups for an in-depth dialogue with Grab’s representative in Vietnam. Thanks to the interesting discussion, this contributor was able to shed light on what were the key components to Grab’s success in Vietnam.

How Google is slowing innovation

For all those who like brand wars as much as I do! What and how Google did outsmart its competitors? Was it fair? What can we all learn from their moves and where in the world of innovation headed. Find answers to them and more.

Improving blockchain awareness in Asia through the hardware

While Asia is playing catch up with the world when it comes to new and emerging technology, the scope potential is massive.

Blockchain is most visible in the digital space, with a majority of blockchain-powered projects being digital platforms like electronic wallets and decentralised apps. But digital alternatives to physical assets are paving the way.  Several tech firms are extending blockchain’s presence outside of the digital space by creating blockchain-compatible hardware.

The future of remote work is happening now. Here’s how to make it work for you

If there is a coworking space within 20 minutes of where you live, you know this phenomenon in real. Not only does working remotely call for greater ownership but the productivity boosts of working from home are also higher. The skill sets required to succeed in working from home are the new in-thing. The movement is broader and growing faster than most realise.

Happy new year! And hope to see your views and opinions in 2020 via the e27 Contribution Programme.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas by submitting a post.

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

Image credit: Perry Grone on Unsplash

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It’s not science fiction anymore. AI is transforming healthcare beyond our imagination. The power of AI is echoing across healthcare subindustries, and it is truly life-changing.

AI is bringing a paradigm shift in the healthcare industry, with its ability to mimic human cognitive functions. It is the catalyst to self-running growth by leveraging advanced technologies that enable machines to sense, understand, act, and learn to perform diverse administrative and clinical healthcare functions to augment human activity.

Which healthcare industries will transform?

From early detection to improved medical diagnosis, AI is positively contributing to the welfare of humanity. AI and ML are reshaping healthcare in multiple ways — how consumers access it, how the providers are delivering it, and what health outcomes may achieve.

In this article, we identify seven healthcare sub-industries that will see a significant impact and massive transformation in the coming years.

‘Diagnostic errors contribute to approximately 10 per cent of patient deaths, and account for six to 17 per cent of hospital complications.’ – National Academies

Physician performance is not the only factor that causes these errors. There are many others, such as:

• Inefficient collaboration and integration of health information systems
• Communication gaps among clinicians and patients
• A traditional healthcare work system that does not adequately support the diagnostic

Applications of AI in medical diagnoses are currently in the early adoption phase due to limited data available on patient outcomes. However, by around 2022, AI may advance in its potential to impact how healthcare providers and health care systems approach diagnostics. It will play its role in reshaping the ability for individuals to understand changes to their health in real-time

Medical billing

Coding accuracy is an ongoing challenge for healthcare providers. These errors are increasing claims denial rates and eventually affecting their ROI. On the other hand, billing is a manual and tedious task that requires efficiency.

The role of AI in medical billing is that of an expert billing assistant who is accurate, fast, and highly efficient.

Medical billing and coding is a core element of how healthcare is delivered and received in the US. The risks of inaccurate billing are still a challenge in this field, and the vast amounts of data involved are prime territory for AI applications.

Also Read: Verita Healthcare Group acquires three healthcare platform, expanding abroad

The sheer volume of billables requires quick processing, and AI can address these hurdles through intelligent text analysis, denial management analysis, and more.

Pharma

Over the last five years, the use of AI in the pharma industry has redefined how scientists develop new drugs, counter diseases, and more.

AI may have a crucial role in the pharma industry in developing new drugs, helping in drug adherence, and in-depth analysis of clinical trials.

As per a report published by the HIMSS Analytics 2017 Essentials Brief, less than five per cent of healthcare organisations are currently using or investing in AI technologies.

The current IT infrastructure of Pharma companies is traditional and based on legacy systems, lacking in interoperability and tagged data. AI-based systems in pharma can solve these challenges. It can cut costs down, create new, effective treatments, and above all else, help save lives.

Medical imaging

Deep learning technology can identify specific features in images, enhance image quality, and spot outliers and abnormalities. Many imaging research laboratories are rapidly moving towards advanced techniques to achieve efficiency and expertise to the optimum level.

AI in medical imaging can enhance a broad spectrum of an essential process such as medical image reconstruction, noise reduction, quality assurance, segmentation, triage, and more. Many upcoming AI-based applications are claiming to have potential in radio genomics, computer-aided detection, and classification.

In the coming years, AI will remodel current healthcare systems to offer a powerful impact on current clinical imaging practices. To make it happen, we need to focus on building novel pre-trained model architectures tailored for medical imaging data along with means of data exchange with seamless interoperability.

Also Read: Vietnamese healthcare startup Med247 gets seed funding from KK Fund, broadens users coverage

IoT

Dubbed as the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), this advanced technology can enable connecting different medical devices and sensors with the internet to gather vast amounts of critical patient data.

This collected data can be analysed and utilised to understand patient conditions, faster and accurate medical diagnosis and to understand resource utilisation patterns at a healthcare facility.

Though it requires a substantial initial investment, many healthcare facilities are taking an interest in the merits of IoMTs. It can bring great relief to patients and providers related to chronic diseases.

These patients can be monitored in real-time from the comfort of their homes.

Pathology

Traditional pathology practices are nearing an end as digital pathology with AI is quickly replacing them. With the rising workload and need for accuracy, AI will mark its impact in the coming years at a full-scale level.

Advanced technologies hold the power of taking current pathology procedure labs beyond the limits of the microscope and human sight.

AI in pathology can simplify image analysis, rare object identification, morphology-based segmentation, and digital whole slide imaging. The accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence and digital pathology in recent clinical practice has ushered in new horizons for value-based care delivery.

Also Read: These 10 startups are changing the way Malaysians access healthcare and wellness

Radiology

Advancements of AI in radiology domain can be a crucial breakthrough in our efforts of revolutionising patient care. AI can power an integrated cloud-based RIS/PACS platform to help radiologists review the cases automatically in real-time.

The current predictions for the upcoming future of radiology with AI are pro-AI mostly. If these predictions are realised, then clinicians, patients, and payers will undoubtedly gravitate toward modern-day radiologists who have figured out how to work efficiently alongside AI.

AI is becoming highly ubiquitous, and we have yet to realise its game-changing clinical, administrative, and financial opportunities that await us in healthcare. With current experiences, we can say that AI has multiplied productivity across a range of human endeavors.

AI has already progressed rapidly to solve process inefficiencies, manual and expensive procedures, guard against human error, and provided assurance to redefine the whole idea of patient care. Unlocking the power of AI will need closer collaboration between the healthcare IT stakeholders and the end-users in the industry.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas by submitting a post.

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

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The Taiwan AI x Robotic Accelerator (TAIRA) is set to advance the success of three of Taiwan’s rising AI startups to the global audience at CES Eureka Park 2020

Since 2012, CES has served as a global expo for more than 1,200 startups from more than 40 countries and have been funded with more than $1.5 billion. This year, CES Eureka Park 2020 will be held in Las Vegas on 7-10 January 2020, where investors and corporations are attending to fund new ideas and forge new partnerships and acquisitions. With dozens of global media coverage, CES Eureka Park is easily one of the best international platforms for new startups to showcase their best products and get worldwide recognition onward to becoming the next unicorn.

This buzz-worthy exhibition is an opportunity to be seized by many new startups, encompassing various forms of tech innovations and providing solutions to a slew of today’s problems. As such, three Taiwan-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups facilitated by Taiwan AI x Robotics Accelerator (TAIRA), an accelerator program for startups developing AI and robotics technologies, are taking this chance to steal the spotlight.

Healthtech and Medtech making their global mark

Big Data Mobile is a company that specialises in the commercialisation of technologies related to smart healthcare, media AI, and products. With technical cooperation among some well-known Taiwan and United States universities, the company focuses on AI technology that can accurately determine the area of vascular occlusion as a means to provide a more accurate index for cardiologists.

Around half of the 50 million people in the US and Europe alone are not aware of their arteriosclerosis index until it leads to a critical stage such as peripheral arterial disease. Screening at the hospital is one way to prevent it but it is nearly impossible during the early stage and only 10% of patients presenting typical symptoms are accurately diagnosed.

The company’s leading product, AI-Screening is a combination of portable hardware and mobile application to help measure user’s arteriosclerosis index and obtain report in just one minute. Users simply change their smartphone back case with B.D Mobile back case and install the app called “iScreening”.

“iScreening provides real-time quantitative arteriosclerosis index of the aorta in the app. Our innovation provides aorta arteriosclerosis index to small devices that allows customers to measure the index anytime and anywhere,” said CMO Joyce.

The product is developed with an A.I. interpretation of the biomedical system to accelerate the labeling of cardiovascular index, such as pulse wave velocity, blood pressure, and HRV. This helps give immediate analysis reports for doctors to provide accurate diagnosis and pharmaceutical suggestion.

Also read: TAIRA 2019 sets the stage for global AI startups to expand in Southern Taiwan

As it integrates data and algorithm calculated on the AI platform, AI Screening is also ready for trial operation to provide the best diet analysis report based on the cardiovascular index.

In the near future, B.D Mobile will develop a product to provide quantitative arteriosclerosis index that includes aorta and peripheral artery.

“B.D Mobile started from developing algorithms, signal processing, and developed our own circuits and hardware. Currently, we focus on software-side big data analysis and the establishment of AI models and data collection,” continued Joyce who also co-founded the company back in 2014.

Now with support from TAIRA, the company targets to establish a wider network next year with manufacturers and hospitals to complete more data collection and integrated supply chain.

“We plan to have customer relationship establishment, product function integration, market research, FDA certification information,” added Joyce explaining what things to expect from their participation in CES Eureka Park 2020.

Internet of Things for car owners

Another TAIRA-supported startup that will also be exhibiting in TTA Taiwan Tech Pavilion at CES Eureka Park 2020 is 3drens, a B2B Internet of Things (IoT) solution provider that builds vehicle intelligence platform by using data collection and IoT technologies to empower mobility industries.

Focusing on optimising operations, 3drens provides a comprehensive tool that can cover almost everything for a commercial vehicle business owner to maximise a vehicle’s ROI.

“3drens product Fleet Intelligence Platform is designed to provide a one-stop solution to the whole-network scheduling, commanding, and monitoring space. This is a completely data-driven IoT platform designed for commercial fleet owners including vehicle rentals, logistics, public transportation, and automakers,” said CEO Oeo Yu.

The platform is also software-based so it can be basically integrated to any hardware, and includes many useful features such as geofence, map trajectory, driver performance reports, and issue management.

“Furthermore, we provide capacity matching, distribution tracking and route optimisation for LSPs (Logistics Service Providers),” added OeO, who also came from many experiences of developing smart city projects before co-founding the company.

Founded in 2017, 3drens was the brainchild of Oeo with CTO Chungdial Lim and COO Jammy Yu, with the intention of seizing the tremendous prospect of IoT, a smart computing system that integrates any device with the internet.

Also read: Fast-track your startup growth in Southern Taiwan with TAIRA’s corporate innovation

The company then was selected by TAIRA to be fostered in its accelerator program. It was an essential boost to the company’s success as they were equipped with funding, resources, and collaborations with enterprise clients.

“In addition, Starfab (TAIRA) continuously refers us to their corporate partners, even if we already graduated from the accelerator program. We recommend startups to join StarFab which is really a quality accelerator.”

Indeed the journey doesn’t end as they are now participating again at the much anticipated CES Eureka Park 2020 to reach international markets. “We are looking for corporate partners such as 3rd party logistic corporate partners, shippers, and domestic distributors,” said OeO.

More AI startups from the Taiwan ecosystem

In the same tone, Memorence AI also expects to grow even bigger as an artificial intelligence company, especially with their participation in the CES Eureka Park 2020.

Focusing on human-machine interactive AI learning system, the company aims firstly to change the way and the experience for people who want to build AI-based visual understanding and recognition applications. Secondly, it aims to build a learning system with human-like memories to enhance the capability of AI. And thirdly, it aims to improve the production quality and operation efficiency with AI for professionals such as smart factory engineers and radiologists.

“By doing so, we assist every professionals with great experience in building their high-precision visual recognition applications and therefore make sure end-customer receives the safest and highest quality products and services,” said Founder and CEO Pai-Heng Hsiao.

Founded in 2018, Memorence AI consists of a team of technology experts on AI, software, sensor & edge device, and brain theory scientist.

Their latest creation, Memorence Suite, is an AI learning system with graphical user interface for people without AI backgrounds to easily and efficiently build their high-precision AI applications without coding. It includes advanced features such as auto-labeling, multi-class recognition, and continuously incremental learning.

“We provide AI visual learning and recognition systems for enterprise and consumer solutions. Users include smart factories, health care industries, and continue to expand applications in different fields,” explained Pai-Heng who has 10 years of experience as an AI scientist.

Throughout his experience, manual operation has been a long-time concern as it was subject to human mistakes. Memorence AI was founded to show real commitment in improving quality and efficiency for consumer daily and industry operations.

“At present, the company is in the growth stage, and we are currently accepting the training of TAIRA accelerator which is very helpful to us.” Now with CES Eureka Park 2020 is in sight, Memorence AI is well-prepped to demonstrate their AI learning platform to enterprise professionals and consumers. “We want to find potential customers and business partners, increase company awareness, and survey markets needs and feedback,” added Pai-Heng.

Like the previous two startups, the company was facilitated by TAIRA in setting up collaborations, technical platforms, and funds to be further prepped with business and fundraising opportunities, allowing the company to increase market shares and acquire more clients.

As AI startups are blooming in Taiwan’s technology ecosystem, Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) and StarFab Accelerator — two of Taiwan’s leaders in modern tech — came together to initiate a platform that would bridge the gap between AI startups and enterprise corporations in Taiwan.

The idea eventually formed TAIRA, a program to accelerate AI startups in building partnerships with top companies and support them in acquiring resources to help vitalise further Taiwan’s startup ecosystem.

As TAIRA-supported startups, Big Data Mobile, 3drens and Memorence AI have passed the CES 2020 qualification to exhibit their finest contributions in AI technology for potential investors and enterprise corporations across the globe to witness and potentially invest in. As such, Taiwan’s future is shaping up to become an important AI talent hub for the international market.

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South Korea’s ATU Partners launches e-sports-focussed growth fund – Dealstreet Asia

South Korean private equity firm ATU Partners has announced the launch of a US$17-million growth fund that will invest in e-sports space, Dealstreet Asia reported.

Said to be the first in the region to focus on the industry, the fund is backed by Kakao Games, The E&M, Woori Technology Investments, and SB Partners.

It has already acquired South Korean e-sports organisation DRX (formerly known as Kingzone Dragon X) and invested in leading US-based talent agency AZYT.

Tencent says it fired more than 60 employees this year for corruption and bribery – SCMP

Chinese internet giant Tencent said that it has fired more than 60 employees in the first three quarters of 2019 for alleged corruption and bribery, with 10 of those handed over to Chinese public security and judicial authorities, South China Morning Post reported.

Tencent said that it investigated over 40 cases in the past nine months, mainly involving misappropriation of company assets, corruption and bribery.

It has also blacklisted 16 companies involved in such misbehaviour.

Also Read: Thailand E-Sports Arena raises funding from Japan’s GameWith; to foray into Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia in 2020

Grab, Singtel form consortium for Singapore digital banking license – e27

Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab announced that it has formed a consortium to apply for a digital full bank licence in Singapore with Singtel, the communications technology group.

Grab will have a 60 per cent stake in the consortium entity while Singtel will hold a 40 per cent stake.

In a statement, it is stated that Grab and Singtel seek to contribute to the financial services sector with a differentiated offering that addresses the unmet and underserved needs of consumer and enterprise segments in Singapore.

Temasek invests in Indonesia-focussed EV Growth’s US$250M fund – e27

Singapore-headquartered venture capital firm EV Growth has announced the close of its first fund at US$250 million, exceeding the firm’s initial target of US$150 million.

The VC firm’s new Limited Partners (LPs) include several Asia-based family offices and two of Asia’s largest sovereign wealth funds, including Temasek.

EV Growth was launched in March 2018. A joint venture among East Ventures, SMDV and Yahoo! Japan Capital, the fund focusses on providing growth capital to startups in Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia with an industry agnostic focus.

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Image Credit: Frank Busch on Unsplash

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A year-end throwback featuring three of our startup partners in 2019

2019 proved to be a great year for startups. Funding news upon funding news upon funding news dotted our newsfeed so much that exclusive monthly roundups were drafted for them. The fundings traversed from early stage to late stage and moved across verticals. Will 2020 be as bountiful? We can only wait.

Meanwhile, on the partnership side of things, exclusive startup coverage has also increased this year. Each partnership had their stories to tell that’s uniquely their own, and tell it they did, on a tech and media platform that operates within the same spectrum — e27.

Whether they were created to cater for businesses or for consumers, they leveraged on the power of storytelling to engage potential partners, clients, or investors in the region.

Also read: The power of storytelling: how to engage your audience 

So, as we wrap up another year, allow us to walk you through three startup stories that graced our platform this year, and anecdotes about them that will linger long after the year is over.

Pocket Money — improving access to credit while enhancing ROI with a social repayment system

Pocket Money is already a win in my book, serving the underbanked at the heart of this startup’s mission. In this exclusive article, CEO Stefano Virgilli detailed several facets that differentiated Pocket Money from other micro-lending platforms. In particular, we found their ‘social repayment’ system to be quite the stand out.

How this works is that borrowers are given the option to earn payment credits by accomplishing certain tasks, ensuring the lender that they will have other means to get back their money should the borrower default on payment.

In talking about the inclusion of this unique concept within a familiar space, Virgilli emphasised that he would rather introduce small innovations that actually work, rather than radically disrupt the microlending industry in ways that may not work.

Clean on Demand — a one-stop-shop for cleaning and household repair services

“We clean everything except money,” quipped CEO Ben Xavier, serving as our introduction to this Echelon 2019 alumni. Clean on Demand tapped e27 to craft the article during their participation at the Echelon Asia Summit.

The article showcased a cleaning business that goes beyond cleaning — one that leverages on tech and automation. They also adjust with the market’s demands. This is a company that understands their strengths and innovates continuously from there.

Speaking about how Clean on Demand pursues innovation, Xavier has this nugget of wisdom to share: “Never ever procrastinate. It’s just suicide on installment plan.”

SalesCandy and their LMS platform that lets you close more sales

It’s one thing to start a business out of a perceived need, and another out of personal experience. SalesCandy founders Stanley Chee and Jeffry Chan belong to the latter category. The duo both ran performance marketing agencies in the past and had witnessed firsthand how potential leads were lost as a result of inefficient sales process management.

Stanley and Jeffry eventually created an Uber-style lead routing system to bridge the sales gap and leverage data analytics to measure and improve their clients’ future advertising efforts.

As they prepared for regional expansion, SalesCandy tapped e27 to tell its story, highlighting its wins, and putting into detail its future expansion plans.

With the aim to help clients close as many sales as they possibly can, SalesCandy continues to innovate all the way with their regional expansion.

Help is out there — your startup story is worth sharing

These are just three of the many startup stories we’ve shared this year. Anecdotes aside, it’s always a pleasure to see these pieces come to fruition — from ideation to publishing. Not only because it means work is done, but also because we believe that opportunities multiply when you put your story out there.

Your prospective clients, potential investors or partners, and even future rockstar employees could be reading about you!

We’d love to give every startup a chance to tell their story, highlight their wins, elaborate on their products or services, and get connected to the rest of the ecosystem.

To explore possible collaborations, drop us an email at engage@e27.co or visit us at https://e27.co/advertise/. Our best consultants are here to connect with you!

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