Indonesian public company Erajaya injects funding into Singapore-based wifi provider Datapro [The Jakarta Post]
PT Erajaya Swasembada, a publicly listed retail company from Indonesia, announces that it has invested in Singapore-based tech startup that provides on-the-go WiFi services for tourists Datapro.
According to Erajaya’s Director for Marketing Communications Djatmiko Wardoyo, the decision to invest comes from the data that shows there’s a large number of Indonesian tourists visiting Singapore every year. It supports Datapro to tap into the growing number of Indonesian tourists in the country.
About 18.5 million tourists visited Singapore last year, of which three million were from Indonesia.
Circles.Life announces key hires for regional tech hub, global innovation [Press Release]
Following its launch in Australia and Taiwan, Circles.Life, Singapore-base mobile virtual network, announces several key hires as the latest move to scale across markets and multiple consumer verticals. Key hires include Dhanush Hetti to lead the engineering department, Anupam Mathur to lead strategic business development, and David Boublil to lead talent acquisition.
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Hetti was previously CTO & Head of Engineering for Venmo, the mobile payments service in the United States where he led and built an engineering organisation that aligned closely with the company’s strategy and brought solutions to the market.
Meanwhile, Anupam joins the company with 14 years of experience in financial services and strategy consulting. He will be playing a key role in driving Circle.Life’s growth and its entry into multiple verticals.
Moreover, David joins the company to build the acquisition team to support headcount growth across all departments, including expanding the engineering team and scale the regional tech hub.
Proptech startup Hidup secures over US$100k from Australian angel investors [DealStreetAsia]
Digital Marketplace Asia’s proptech product Hidup.co.id raises more than AU$150,000 (US$100,725) in seed funding from angel investors in Australia, as reported by DealStreetAsia. The Indonesia-based company also has received support from the Small Business Entrepreneur Grants Program from the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training in Queensland, Australia.
Founded by Steven Ungermann, it wants to change the way foreigners and expats search for long-term accommodation while relocating to Indonesia. The startup said it seeks to offer a new way to find mid to long term accommodation rentals in major cities through its offices in Jakarta, Makassar, and remote teams in other Indonesian cities and in Brisbane, Australia.
It is also looking to replicate its business model in more Southeast Asian hubs like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh City, and others.
Thai Tuk-tuk to become a testbed for autonomous, energy-efficient makeover [Economic Times]
Thailand’s famous vehicle tuk-tuk, the three-wheeled taxi reportedly will get a makeover to help carry the local auto industry into the future. As reported by Economic Times, starting in November, a public-private partnership will run a test for the first self-driving tuk-tuk.
The move is initiated by startup Airovr, investor Siri Ventures, and the Thai government, who together will run the months-long trial inside a gated Bangkok community.
Also Read: East Ventures invests in Indonesian rental marketplace CUMI, eyeing growth and expansion
Most autonomous-driving advancements in Asia come from Chinese and Japanese companies, such as Baidu Inc., Pony.ai and Toyota Motor Corp. Southeast Asia has yet to see a local champion, so this could be the first of its kind and a further boost of the auto industry that reportedly generates 12 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Tuk-tuk was chosen as a test vehicle because the three-wheeler is more energy-efficient than a car, requires fewer parts, is cheaper, and is more suitable for the country’s hot weather, said Amares Chumsai Na Ayudhya, founder of Bangkok-based Airovr.
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Photo by Grahame Jenkins on Unsplash
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