gojek reveals five startups selected into its Xcelerate’s first cohort [Tech In Asia]
Indonesia’s gojek announced five startups from the first cohort of its accelerator programme in partnership with Digitaraya, gojek Xcelerate. They are a decentralised warehouse services provider Crewdible; mobile concierge platform IZY; mobile platform of pet care solutions PETO; smart city ecosystem enabler Qlue; and, sharing accommodation platform Travelio.
The five shortlisted startups will receive mentorship from McKinsey & Co, Google Launchpad Developer, and UBS Bank. According to Digitaraya’s Managing Director Nicole Yap, the startups will also have an opportunity to be incorporated under gojek’s ecosystem.
Malaysia prolongs VCs, angel investors’ tax incentives until 2023 [DealStreetAsia]
The Malaysian government reportedly decided to extend tax incentives given to venture capital (VC) and angel investors until 2023, which aims to encourage startup funding and attract more foreign investment in the country.
The extension is one of the latest moves by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng in his Budget 2020 proposal. The budget also seeks to boost private equity (PE) investments in the country, with the government seeking to provide a 1 billion ringgit (US$239 million) 1:5 matching guarantee for PE funds to invest in Malaysian consortia.
Also Read: Malaysia’s Petronas sets up US$350M VC fund to invest in tech startups around the world
There were 105 registered VC firms in Malaysia at the end of 2018 and these firms had invested a total of 613.3 million ringgit (US$150.1 million) in the entire year.
Budget 2020 promises to support and encourage new financing options such as Equity CrowdFunding (ECF) and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platforms. Both platforms had collectively raised more than 430 million ringgit (US$102.8 million) as of June 2019.
The Malaysian government is allocating 297 billion ringgit (US$71 billion) for Budget 2020, an increase of 19.5 billion ringgit (US$4.7 billion) compared to 2019.
Dental 3D printing startup Structo secures funding [e27]
Singapore-based dental 3D printing startup Structo announces that it has secured a new round of venture funding from several Asian investors. According to the company’s statement, the investors joining the round include the Singapore Economic Development Board’s investment arm (EDBI), GGV Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and Temasek-backed, Pavilion Capital.
Structo plans to use the latest round of funding to further develop its digital additive manufacturing solutions, and launch new products that leverage automation to enable the mass production of custom patient-specific products.
Structo was founded in 2014 as a project from the National University of Singapore (NUS). It develops 3D printers and solutions for the dental industry.
Also Read: 5 Singapore startups that could be the next industry darling
Huub van Esbroeck, co-founder and CEO of Structo added that it has installed its printers across five continents and produces hundreds of thousands of dental appliances per month. Apart from its Singapore-based headquarters, Structo also operates from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK).
AI-powered edutech startup Mathpresso receives US$14.5 Million in Series B funding, focussing on driving growth [Press Release]
Mathpresso, an AI-powered education startup from South Korea, announces that it has secured US$14.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Legend Capital with participation from new investors InterVest and NP Investments as well as existing investor Mirae Asset Venture Investment, bringing its total funding to US$21.2 million.
Founded in 2015, Mathpresso is an ed-tech company that offers ‘QANDA’, a mobile app that enables students to search solutions to math problems just by taking a photo and ask 1-on-1 questions to top-school tutors.
“Our mission is to provide equal opportunities to education through technology,” said Jongheun Lee, co-founder, and CEO at Mathpresso. “With the new investment, we plan to bolster our presence in the Asian market beyond Korea and Japan which will bring us closer to achieving our mission.”
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