Singapore’s Quest Ventures has confirmed an investment of undisclosed size in Vietnam-based robotic prosthetics start-up Vulcan Augmetics.
Vulcan’s technology spans wearables, biometric sensing, and customizable robotics for upper limb amputations.
The Science Fund, a Kazakhstan national scientific and technological development institute, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Southeast Asian VC firm Quest Ventures to bolster the country’s startup and innovation ecosystem.
The collaboration will leverage their combined expertise and resources as well as strengthen linkages between the public and private sectors.
The Science Fund will leverage the extensive international network of Quest Ventures for research commercialisation while Quest Ventures will draw from a deep pool of top scientific talent and ideas.
The MOU was signed in Astana between Abdilda Shamenov, Chairman of the Board of the Science Fund, and James Tan, Managing Partner of Quest Ventures.
Shamenov said: “With a significant presence in Singapore and across Asia, Quest Ventures brings valuable international experience, best practices and an extensive network that aligns with our key goals of strengthening the local technology commercialisation and venture capital ecosystem.”
Tan added: “As the startup and innovation hub for Central Asia, Kazakhstan has produced many game-changing ideas for the region, and more will come. The Science Fund’s pool of resources is testament to the quality of research and defensibility of businesses that can be created.”
We spoke to James Tan. He’s the Chairman of ACE Singapore, which is Singapore’s national advocate for the startup ecosystem. He’s also the Managing Partner at Singapore-based Quest Ventures, and he told us how Singapore has successfully fostered its thriving startup ecosystem.
“At the heart of our mission is for ACE Singapore to be an effective conduit, creating greater avenues and channels for local entrepreneurs and founders to thrive and to grow Singapore’s innovation ecosystem. In line with this mandate, we work around five key pillars which are startups, corporations, risk capital, the public sector, and institutes of higher learning. Our overarching goal is to create a fertile culture and environment for entrepreneurs to succeed,” says James Tan.
Vietnamese biometric sensor and robotic prosthetics developer Vulcan Augmetics has secured undisclosed seed funding from Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures.
Vulcan Augmetics specializes in creating customizable modular robotic prosthetics, harnessing the power of proprietary machine-learning software to enhance accessibility and affordability for amputees, particularly in underserved regions across the developing world.
The company’s technology allows users to don these devices in under two minutes, which often involves a time-consuming process spanning six to 18 hours. Vulcan Augmetics effectively reduces fitting times by over 60%, ensuring quicker and more accessible solutions for those in need.
Rafael Masters, Co-Founder and CEO of Vulcan Augmetics spoke to the media during the announcement. “Making assistive technology accessible is a global challenge that will impact two billion people by 2030 and a huge opportunity for us to realize the potential of the disabled community,” he said.
“Vulcan Augmetics is a great example of addressing large and socially impactful issues with capital and technology.” James Tan, Managing Partner at Quest Ventures, further said, supporting Rafael’s thoughts.
James Tan, the Managing Partner at Quest Ventures, has expressed the venture capital firm’s mission to identify and support pioneering technology companies that operate at the intersection of deep tech and high scalability. Quest Ventures seeks out enterprises with the potential to address substantial and impactful challenges by leveraging capital and technology.
Vulcan Augmetics, a Vietnam-based robotic prosthetics firm, has on Monday announced that it has secured seed funding from Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures.
Vulcan Augmetics said in a statement that the firm envisions broadening its scope beyond prosthetics to encompass the full suite of wearable technologies, from diagnostic and health devices such as Fitbit to augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) control systems.
“We are delighted to have received seed funding from Quest Ventures. Together with raiSE, they have demonstrated understanding and empathy for the problem we are solving and the vision to see how our technology can scale,” said Rafael Masters, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vulcan Augmetics. According to him, they have been instrumental in securing early pilot programs.
“Vulcan Augmetics is a great example of addressing large and socially impactful issues with capital and technology,” said James Tan, Managing Partner at Quest Ventures.
“We are particularly concerned with ageing populations, and the quality of care that they will have. Affordable and high-performance robotic prosthetics will certainly improve independence, increase the quality of life, and decrease burden on caregivers and society-at-large,” he added.
The Science Fund, a Kazakhstan national institute for scientific and technological development, has on Monday announced that it has signed an agreement with Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures to bolster the vibrant emerging startup and innovation ecosystem in the country.
The Science Fund said in a statement that the firm and Quest Ventures have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to embark as knowledge partners to drive startup innovation and investments in the country.
“We are excited to join forces with Quest Ventures in our pursuit of innovation and growth in the startup industry. With a significant presence in Singapore and across Asia, Quest Ventures brings valuable international experience, best practices and an extensive network that aligns with our key goals of strengthening the local technology commercialization and venture capital ecosystem,” said Abdilda Shamenov, Chairman of the Board of the Science Fund.
Managing Partner at Quest Ventures James Tan provided statistics on the venture capital invested into Central Asia startups, noting that “for the last four years, the region has received only $150 million, which is a drop in the ocean.” With a focus on early-stage digital commerce investments, his Beijing-based company deploys funds across Asia.
In Tan’s view, having no back-up support, Central Asian startups head to Silicon Valley at some stage of their development. “The United States has nearly 49% of the world’s global venture capital market,” he noted.
Local limited partnerships (LP), in his opinion, should be interested in supporting the local funds, saying that “the companies focus not only on the startups themselves, but also on the interests of local LPs.”
During his speech at the opening of the Digital Bridge Forum on Oct. 12, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev outlined the importance of attracting international players to Kazakhstan’s venture capital market.
“We need their competence and high-quality expertise of projects. Domestic institutional investors, including the Baiterek national holding can become key partners. In addition, it is necessary to develop mechanisms and tools to ensure participation in venture funds of various financial institutions – second–tier banks, insurance companies, and microfinance organizations,” said the head of state.
JTC
The vibrant community of diverse startups, incubators, venture capitalists and ecosystem partners within LaunchPad offers opportunities for knowledge-sharing and collaboration. LaunchPad has played host to startups which have generated more than S$400 million in total startup revenue.
There are over 40 incubators and accelerators of varied backgrounds that are running structured incubation programmes at the two LaunchPads. The terms accelerator and incubator might seem like they have the same meaning: to help start-ups grow. They often used interchangeably but differ a lot from one another. While one helps established businesses grow quickly, the other helps to flesh out the details when starting a new business.
Incubators help entrepreneurs develop their ideas into a business model and usually don’t provide any funding to the startups. Incubators, such as NTUitive and ACE.SG, are usually non-profit run by academic or government institutions. Accelerators, like Quest Ventures, help developing start-ups speed up growth by providing structured guidance, professional mentorship and access to capital.
Embracing a state of constant learning
Quest Ventures has been at LaunchPad for more than a decade, and at one point, was the largest private sector tenant with 15 units for the various startups they were working with. “Today, we occupy Singapore’s luckiest office at Blk 71, #03-14 – it was our first office and the birthplace of many unicorns,” said Mr James Tan, Managing Partner of Quest Ventures.
Quest Ventures has backed more than 100 companies, three companies stand out – Carousell, Shopback, and Xfers – and they are all at LaunchPad. “They have strong founders, humble despite their successes, and continue to grow at incredible paces,” added James.
Since 2011, Quest Ventures has focused on an overarching digital economy strategy in Asia. Basic technology buildout such as ecommerce, payments, logistics needed to invested in and implemented. “Everything that we take for granted now, but without which today’s new disruptive technologies or business models would have greater difficulties taking off,” said James.
Always leading the industry, in 2018, Quest Ventures was the first venture capital firm in Southeast Asia to embrace Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles. Quest Ventures has started four funds in the last four years, and this includes the Metaverse Fund which advances ideas in Web 3.0 and backs entrepreneurs to take the state of the internet to the next level. The fund focuses on cutting-edge technologies that will underpin the new generation of internet. According to James, the startup world evolves, it does not stand still. New ideas and possibilities keep the staff in a state of constant learning that is exciting for Quest Ventures.
Vulcan Augmetics specializes in the development of affordable, high-performance sensor technology to augment the capabilities of prosthetics. The company’s prosthetics are modular in design, making them more adaptable to the needs of users.
The company is aiming to improve the accessibility of prosthetics in developing countries where amputees remain an underserved demographic. With an estimated 57 million amputees globally, of which over 500,000 reside in Vietnam, Vulcan Augmetics hopes to help them find employment and regain independence through its solutions.
“We are delighted to have received seed funding from Quest Ventures. Together with raiSE, they have demonstrated understanding and empathy for the problem we are solving and the vision to see how our technology can scale. They have been instrumental in securing early pilot programs. Making assistive technology accessible is a global challenge that will impact two billion people by 2030, and a huge opportunity for us to realize the potential of the [physically impaired] community,” said Rafael Masters, co-founder and CEO of Vulcan Augmetics.
STATE-OWNED enterprise investor National Development Co. (NDC) partnered with Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures to drive startup innovation and investments in the Philippines.
“We are excited to join forces with Quest Ventures in our pursuit of innovation and startup industry growth,” NDC General Manager Antonilo DC. Mauricio said in a statement.
Mr. Mauricio said that Quest Ventures’ footprint in Singapore and across Asia will be valuable in “enhancing local venture capital ecosystem and promoting sustainable investments.”
The collaboration aims to leverage the combined expertise and resources of the two companies.
NDC will be leveraging on its newly established Philippine Innovation Hub, which will house the headquarters of the Startup Venture Fund, the Philippine E-commerce Platform, and the Philippine AI (artificial intelligence) Research Center.
“Quest Ventures is delighted to join the NDC in these important efforts to transform the Philippines’ startup and innovation ecosystem by improving access to venture capital,” said April Ong Vaño, head of environment, social and governance at Quest Ventures.