The book features interviews with start-up founders and venture capitalists and stories from Dr Sandhya Sriram, co-founder of Shiok Meats, the first cell-based seafood company in South-east Asia, and Ms Goh Yiping, a former partner at venture capital firm Quest Ventures.
國際企業創新與策略發展領導品牌Rainmaking Innovation Taiwan（RMI）與經濟部成立之「亞灣新創園」及新加坡創業行動社群（Action Community for Entrepreneurship, ACE），共同舉辦「臺星新創交流計畫」協助新創拓展國際市場。活動於2022年7月25日舉辦線上簽署MoU儀式，在經濟部陳正祺次長、駐新加坡台北代表處梁國新代表、新加坡駐台北商務辦事處代表葉偉傑先生以及中小企業處處長何晉滄博士及胡貝蒂副處長等人見證下，由資策會副執行長蕭博仁博士、ACE主席陳中及RMI執行長莊劍偉三方簽署並宣布正式啟動臺星新創雙向交流合作。
ACE主席陳中表示：「這項合作將為新加坡與臺灣的新創公司帶來更多商機，加強雙方之間的生意往來，促進跨境合作。新加坡新創公司到臺灣，除了獲得導師服務以及取得創投的機會，臺灣的戰略地位面向龐大市場且擁有許多大型企業，有助新加坡新創加速成長。」
In 2016, they set up Hepmil Media as a holding company for their fast-expanding business, which is now also in Malaysia (MGAG) and the Philippines (PGAG).
Last November, the company closed a US$10 million (S$14 million) Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Quest Ventures, Pavilion Capital – a private equity firm under Singapore’s Temasek – and Bent Pixels, the world’s largest gaming lifestyle media platform.
Mr Ang says Hepmil’s content teams in Malaysia and the Philippines have autonomy to publish content. But the same guidelines apply across countries: “No race-related content, no religious content, no sexual content, no violent content,” he says.
The Port of Singapore has held the crown of world’s busiest transshipment port by TEUs since 2020. Singapore’s ambitions go beyond just wearing that coveted crown, however. It wants its shipping industry, a core sector for the city-state’s economy, to be a highly-digitised, global maritime technology startup hub.
And to that effect, it has sunk in effort and money in the last few years. All to address key challenges such as decarbonisation, digitisation, supply-chain resistance that have dogged the industry.
Singapore’s efforts at incubating startups in a rusty old sector has borne some fruit. There are startups such as decarbonisation solutions company Everimpact and crew management platform Greywing up and running in the segment.
But change has been slow to come. According to startups The Ken spoke to, convincing large maritime corporations to adopt these digital solutions has been an uphill task. And the gap between domain expertise and technology hasn’t helped.
For now, there are a bunch of godfathers helping these startups get their ships sailing. PIER71, for instance, connects demand drivers and startups. Marine venture builder ShipsFocus and Singapore-based Quest Ventures also collaborated to launch a S$10 million (US$7.5 million) maritime fund last year.
While Quest Ventures does not rule out the possibility of setting up women-focused investment funds, the firm will only consider such a move if it makes sense for its LPs and the investment thesis.
“Investment funds specifically for female entrepreneurs or female-led startups are increasing, but you can also invest in them through a gender-neutral fund,” Quest Ventures Head of Environmental, Social & Governance Michelle Ng told TechNode Global.
According to her, Quest Ventures has always been supportive of female entrepreneurs.
“We are big on diversity and inclusion. More than 36 percent of Quest portfolio companies are led by female founders,” Ng added.
“Quest Ventures will continue supporting and investing in female entrepreneurs. It would be through the ecosystems that we have built and funding support. We have also ensured that our team is diverse, for example, we promoted two female investors earlier in the year. This will help us identify more opportunities for female entrepreneurs and female-oriented solutions,” she added.
Quest Ventures’ Ng’s suggestions to women tech entrepreneurs are straightforward and simple: “Take risks and be confident.”
Jeffrey Seah, Partner, Asia Fund of Quest Ventures speaks to Ibrahim Sani on the VC’s Ventures Day Malaysia event, set to take place this 14th of July in Kuala Lumpur.
Filipino members of the prestigious Forbes 30 Under 30 club—recipients of the business media platform’s annual citation for young people—came together for a night of networking and camaraderie in Makati City on Tuesday (June 28).
Hosted by entrepreneur Victor Lim and his Kraver’s Canteen startup, the get-together was also attended by prominent members of the local startup community, including founders and representatives of venture capital firms and funds.
The Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees spotted at the event included Lim himself, Rexy Dorado of Kumu, Henry Motte Muñoz of Edukasyon.ph, Billie Dumaliang of Masungi Georeserve, Georgianna Carlos of Fetch Naturals, photojournalist Gab Mejia, drone pioneer and Earnie startup founder Matt Cua, Shawntel Nicole Nieto of One Cainta Food Program, Ariane Lim of AcadArena, Carmina Bayombong of InvestEd, Ryan Gersava of Virtualahan, and Shahab Shabibi of Machine Ventures.
There was no program, save for a short speech by Lim, who thanked everyone for making time to see each other in real life on a rainy Tuesday night. He also thanked the sponsors who made the event possible, including Quest Ventures, Kaya Founders, Foxmont Capital, and Oak Drive Ventures.
Indonesia-based consumer insights platform Populix has raised US$7.7 million in a Series A funding led by Intudo Ventures and Acrew Capital, with participation from Altos Ventures and Quest Ventures. Co-founder and CEO Timothy Astandu told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that 15% of the funding will go to marketing.
Populix will also use the funds to reinforce its efforts to digitise the entire data collection process while continuing to optimise existing products and release new services to enable anyone to make more informed decisions about their businesses. It also aims to recruit product and tech engineering experts to enhance data collection efforts and better meet the needs of more clients, as well as bring on marketing and regional expansion roles.
Populix raised US$1.2 million in pre-series A funding last May, led by Intudo Ventures with participation from new investors Quest Ventures and a number of strategic investors. According to Populix then, the proceeds were used to enhance marketing efforts, roll out new products, and bring on new hires.
Populix, a Jakarta, Indonesia-based consumer insights platform provider, closed a US$7.7m Series A round of financing.
The round was led by Intudo Ventures and Acrew Capital, with participation from Altos Ventures and Quest Ventures.
The company intends to use the funds to reinforce its efforts to digitize the entire data collection process, to optimize existing products and release new services to enable anyone to make more informed decisions about their businesses, to recruit product and tech engineering experts to enhance data collection efforts, to initiate regional expansion by 2023 to neighboring Southeast Asian countries, building off its dominant position in Indonesia, with a focus on the Poplite product line.
Founded in January 2018 by Timothy Astandu, CEO, Populix is a technology-driven consumer insights platform, providing comprehensive research and data collection for businesses, institutions, and individuals to make more informed business decisions through quantitative and qualitative studies.
Hundreds of workers from start-ups in Southeast Asia have been fired in the last few months, proving that the fast-growing industry is not immune to the global economic slowdown.
As borrowing costs rise and the economy faces uncertainty, “it would be odd not to see companies laying off,” said James Tan, managing partner of venture capital firm Quest Ventures. “Any start-up that does not do so will face a board that [questions] their underlying assumptions and ability to manage through a crisis.”
Startups will need to prolong the cash runway by 18 to 36 months compared to the usual 12 to 18 months before they try to raise funds again, Tan said.
As valuations have fallen from last year’s high, companies will want to avoid raising money with the possibility of being valued lower than their last fundraising round. They would rather try to cut costs, and ride out this downturn before fundraising again, he added.