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Lianhe Zaobao

根据最新发布的2021年《全球起步公司生态系统报告》，新加坡在亚洲和全球排名跟去年一样维持不变，亚洲排第五名，全球排第17名。

这项研究由国际创业调查公司Startup Genome牵头，并与全球创业网络（GEN）和本地的创业行动社群（Action Community for Entrepreneurship，简称ACE）合作完成。

报告主要根据绩效、资金、连接性、市场覆盖率、知识和人才等六个因素，给各城市评分和排名，今年报告涵盖了全球300万多家公司、近300个生态系统的数据，以及全球1万多名起步公司高管的调查。

对此，创业行动社群指出，我国政府已增加更多研发资金，如政府将通过“研究、创新与企业2025计划”，在未来五年投入250亿元，继续强化和深化我国的创新和研发能力。

创业行动社群说：“报告凸显了全面发展我国起步公司生态系统中每一个参与者的重要性——从起步公司到企业，以至高等教育机构和投资者。一个强大、紧密联系的生态系统将为起步公司提供更好的共享平台，让它们能利用创意、资金或人才等各类资源。”

创业行动社群主席陈中表示，该协会将继续努力促进知识和人才的无缝转移，以支持本地起步公司，提高新加坡作为一个繁荣和具吸引力的起步公司生态系统的地位。

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5Q Media

Алина Әбдрахманова  — бизнес-білім беру саласын басқару жөніндегі маман, сарапшы. Қазақстанда Geneva Business School-дың өкілдігін ашқан. Q88 Қазақстан урбанистері қауымдастығының атқарушы директоры. Қазір IN VR стартапын қашықтан білім беру жүйесіне енгізуге күш салып жүр.

Әзірге Дархан екеуіміз ғана. Біз өз ақшамызды құйдық. Оған қоса, бізді сингапурлық Quest Ventures қоры қаржыландырды.

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DealStreetAsia

Singapore-based electric vehicle maker ION Mobility has raised a total of $6.8 million in a seed funding round co-led by Quest Ventures and TNB Aura, according to a company announcement.

Other investors including GDP Venture, Monk’s Hill Ventures, Seeds Capital, and 500 Southeast Asia (formerly 500 Durians) also participated in the round along with venture capitalist Alice Hung, ION Mobility founder and CEO James Chan, and the company’s CTO Calvin Cheng.

The company had announced raising $3.3 million in the fourth quarter last year. It has now raised $3.5 million in an extended round.

“There is a growing sense of excitement and momentum in Southeast Asia around electric motorbikes and how they can transform not just the way people move around cities, but also their impact on the environment and the economy,” said founder and CEO James Chan.

As part of this round, Quest Ventures managing partner James Tan and TNB Aura managing partner Charles Wong will join the ION Mobility board alongside existing board members James Chan and Ting Feng Toh.

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Singapore Business Review

The country was also recognised as the leading ecosystem in ASEAN this year.

Singapore performed well in three factors, namely, funding, connectedness, and market reach. Even in the presence of a pandemic, the country drew in $5.5b in capital over the past year, placing it as the leading city in acquiring venture capital dollars in Southeast Asia.

Talent, performance, and knowledge, however, were areas of improvement for Singapore. Performance, which includes actual leading, current and lagging indicators of ecosystem performance, and knowledge, which encompasses innovation through research and patent activity, were seen as the areas with the most room for improvement.

According to the report, this highlights the importance of developing every player within the startup ecosystem in Singapore.

“The Singapore Government has provided ample funding and opportunities for development, and we are confident in the level of innovation and the resilient nature of our startups and their stakeholders to uplift the ecosystem. Breaking down the silos that have separated them, many of these stakeholders are beginning to think of the big picture—collectively working towards solutions that are beneficial for all parties,” said ACE Chairman James Tan.

“Taking the lead from this momentum, we will continue our development efforts, to facilitate a seamless transfer of knowledge and talent to support our startups, and to enhance Singapore’s standing as a thriving and attractive startup ecosystem,” he added.

The research was conducted by Startup Genome in partnership with ACE and the Global Entrepreneurship Network.

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The Business Times

THESE tech deals made headlines in the past week:

ION Mobility
Date announced: Oct 14
What it does: Smart electric motorbikes
Headquarters: Singapore
Amount raised: US$3.5 million, bringing total seed round to US$6.8 million
Round: Seed
Lead investors: Quest Ventures, TNB Aura
Other investors: GDP Venture, Monk’s Hill Ventures, SEEDS Capital, 500 South-east Asia, Alice Hung, ION’s chief executive James Chan, ION’s chief technology officer Calvin Cheng

More details:

• ION is preparing to unveil its smart electric motorbike later this year.
• It is commissioning 1,175 sq m of EV motorbike and battery pack assembly operations at [email protected] in Singapore by end-2021.
• It plans to expand its EV motorbike assembly operations into Jakartain 2022
• Quest Ventures managing partner James Tan and TNB Aura managing partner Charles Wong will join the board of ION

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The Straits Times

Far-flung Kenya, Uganda and South Africa do not usually come to mind as test beds for a Singaporean start-up.

But local edtech start-up Edsy Bitsy saw opportunity in Africa, where poor Internet connectivity makes remote learning amid the Covid-19 pandemic unviable.

“As the entrepreneurs of a lean start-up, we want to validate our product where problems we address hurt the most,” said co-founder Edwin Ho, 29.

Mr Ho and co-founder Deevak Premdas, 26, approached teachers and principals in those three countries to offer a mobile app that lets teachers design interactive yet resource-efficient digital lessons, attracting around 350 users, mostly in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa.

The Impact Start-up Challenge Grand Finale brings together the top teams from previous impact start-up competitions organised by SUSS.

The other judges were Quest Ventures partner Jeffrey Seah; Mr Kevin Moon, head of private investments at Lonsdale Capital; and Investigate VC co-founder Mikael Krogh.

Said Mr Seah: “Impact businesses do good in solving a problem and do well financially.”

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Digital News Asia

Fefifo, a Singapore founded Agtech startup with operations in Malaysia, has closed a total of more than US$3.1 million (RM12.9 million) in early-stage funding to empower smallholder farmers and agriculture graduates to kickstart their own modern commercial farming businesses easily, starting in Malaysia. The most recent venture capital backers are Malaysia’s RHL Ventures and Korea’s KB Investment, the appointed co-investment partners for Malaysia’s Dana Penjana Nasional by Penjana Kapital under the economic recovery plan. Both parties are lead investors.

“Agriculture is the major employer in most Southeast Asian countries, that is currently experiencing a sharp decline in both farm productivity and rural incomes, further pressuring the region’s food security challenges compounded by the pandemic,” says Jeffrey Seah, Partner at Quest Ventures. “Fefifo is a much needed solution that supports smallholders to easily start farms in a profitable and sustainable way, directly addressing food security in a few ways – significantly improving the efficacy of smallholder farming, attracting the youth to farming and uplifting the livelihoods of traditional smallholder farmers.”

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DealStreetAsia

After Beijing’s tightened regulatory control over its tech sector wiped out billions of dollars in value from internet giants, investors and entrepreneurs are increasingly shifting sights to overseas opportunities to diversify risks, with Southeast Asia among their top options.

China’s regulatory crackdown on its tech sector, which has by far erased about $1.5 trillion of value from the country’s tech stocks, started in November 2020 when the regulators pulled the plug on the initial public offering (IPO) of Jack Ma’s fintech juggernaut Ant Group. The suspension of Ant’s $34.5-billion IPO was followed by a slew of new legislations over the past months, ranging from anti-monopoly rules to user data security and protection laws, that have put high-profile tech companies under investigation and big-ticket fines.

“There is a diversion of capital that would have otherwise gone into China now interested in going elsewhere… with Singapore and SE Asia at the top of their minds,” said James Tan during the panel discussion. “… I think many of these Chinese individuals who are coming over [to SE Asia] will become a natural bridge to raising Chinese capital.

Tan, who co-founded VC firm Quest Ventures to invest in the digital economy in Asia, cited Sea Limited, Southeast Asia’s most valuable firm with Tencent among its top backers, as an example. The rise of Sea Group has turned its China-born co-founder and CEO Forrest Li into Singapore’s richest person with an estimated net worth of $19.8 billion as of August, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The fundraising model can also be seen in regional champions such as logistics startup Flash Group, which was co-founded by ex-Alibaba executive Di Weijie. Flash became Thailand’s first unicorn in June with a valuation of over $1 billion after raising $150 million from investors including China’s Buer Capital, and Alibaba’s eWTP Capital.

“There are still plenty of opportunities in China. It’s just that… there are opportunities elsewhere [that] really present themselves better,” said Tan, who expects Beijing’s heightened scrutiny over its tech sector to last for another one to two years.

“If you don’t want to deal with the regulatory pressure in China, you can come to SE Asia,” he said. “There are regulations [across the region], but at least they are not interfering in the [tech] space.”

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Tech in Asia

Makmur, an Indonesia-based investment app, raised a seven-digit US dollar amount in a seed funding round led by Beenext.

Kinesys Group and Trihill Capital also participated in the round, along with several angel investors such as Quest Ventures partner Yiping Goh, Kopi Kenangan CEO Edward Tirtanata, GagiGesa CEO Vidit Agrawal, and former Gojek executive Andrew Lee.

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Yahoo! Finance

Indonesia-based investment app, MAKMUR, has secured a seven-digit seed funding round, led by BEENEXT, with participation from Kinesys Group, Trihill Capital, and notable angel investors including Yiping Goh (Quest Ventures’ partner), Edward Tirtanata (Kopi Kenangan’s CEO), Vidit Agrawal (GajiGesa’s CEO), and Andrew Lee (former unicorn executive). MAKMUR will use the capital to expand its features and product portfolio, as well as to hire new talented individuals and people development.

The app also provides a Robo Advisory feature that adapts to users’ risk tolerance, as well as investment horizon, and prevailing economic conditions. This proprietary dynamic asset allocation technology helps users invest optimally regardless of whether the market is bullish or bearish.

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