2020

Seatrade Maritime News

Maritime technology startups are set to benefit from a SGD50m ($36m) fund via SEEDS Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, and six co-investment partners.

Supported by ESG and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), this latest initiative by SEEDS Capital aims to drive the growth of the maritime sector through technology and innovation.

The six partners are Innoport (capital arm of Schulte Group), KSL Maritime Ventures (venture capital unit of Kuok Singapore), PSA unboXed, Rainmaking, ShipsFocus-Quest Ventures and TecPier.

More

The Business Times

ENTERPRISE Singapore investment arm SEEDS Capital, together with six appointed co-investment partners, will pump a combined S$50 million into more than 50 maritime technology startups in Singapore.

The co-investment partners are: Innoport, the corporate venture arm of family-owned ship owner and manager Schulte Group; KSL Maritime Ventures, the venture capital (VC) unit of the Kuok family’s investment-holding company Kuok (Singapore) Limited; PSA unboXed, the external innovation and VC arm of port operator PSA International; corporate innovation and venture development firm Rainmaking; ShipsFocus-Quest Ventures, a collaboration between maritime innovation firm ShipsFocus and VC firm Quest Ventures; and TecPier, a VC investor in early-stage maritime and supply chain startups.

The co-investment initiative is supported by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. SEEDS Capital and the appointed partners will invest in startups that develop solutions to improve operational efficiency and safety across the different segments of the maritime sector.

Enterprise Singapore said that strengthening the capability of the maritime sector will in turn enhance the resilience of key economic pillars such as the logistics, manufacturing and wholesale trade sectors, which are reliant on smooth and efficient global supply chain routes.

More

The Straits Times

Enterprise Singapore (ESG) investment arm Seeds Capital, together with six appointed co-investment partners, will pump a combined $50 million into more than 50 maritime technology start-ups in Singapore.

The co-investment partners are: Innoport, the corporate venture arm of family-owned ship owner and manager Schulte Group; KSL Maritime Ventures, the venture capital (VC) unit of the Kuok family’s investment-holding company Kuok (Singapore) Limited; PSA unboXed, the external innovation and VC arm of port operator PSA International; corporate innovation and venture development firm Rainmaking; ShipsFocus-Quest Ventures, a collaboration between maritime innovation firm ShipsFocus and VC firm Quest Ventures; and TecPier, a VC investor in early-stage maritime and supply chain start-ups.

The co-investment initiative is supported by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. Seeds Capital and the appointed partners will invest in start-ups that develop solutions to improve operational efficiency and safety across the different segments of the maritime sector.

Enterprise Singapore said that strengthening the capability of the maritime sector will in turn enhance the resilience of key economic pillars such as the logistics, manufacturing and wholesale trade sectors, which are reliant on smooth and efficient global supply chain routes.

Each co-investment partner will help the start-ups to fast-track their commercialisation of solutions… ShipsFocus-Quest Ventures will focus broadly on solutions in digitalisation, sustainability and deep tech for maritime commerce.

More

The Business Times

When Singapore startups are looking to expand overseas, the go-to destination has always been its backyard in South-east Asia. But in an increasingly competitive and mature market, where the fight for top tech talent is intense, this reflex strategy requires a rethink.

Fast maturing Hanoi and Jakarta have seen startups grow at a rapid pace, and have attracted significant venture capital funding. There is not a lot of room left to play for latecomers.

At the other spectrum are Cambodia and Laos, which looked ready for Singapore startups to explore and expand. But VCs’ experiences reflect markets which are still at an early stage of building their startup ecosystems, and not quite ready for significant venture capital investments.

The need for startups here to look for fresh pastures farther afield is urgent, especially in a post-pandemic world where the search for opportunities requires greater creativity, commitment and courage.

Instead of being content to be near home, take the leap into less familiar territories. A good new landing point would be Central Asia. The region provides strong conditions to develop a startup ecosystem.

We are taking action. My company Quest Ventures will roll out a startup acceleration programme called Kazakhstan Digital Accelerator by the end of the year. It aims to nurture tech startups in Kazakhstan and Central Asia over the next three years.

This came after funding into Quest by QazTech Ventures, the venture arm of Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, in April this year. Our target is to groom 30 startups, or 10 a year.

Such optimism is not based on a punt. Central Asia, with Kazakhstan at its heart, is the new frontier for startups and is well equipped to take off.

As the most economically developed market in Central Asia, Kazakhstan has sought to create a finance and investment hub in its capital city of Nur-Sultan. The Astana International Financial Centre, established in the capital in 2018, uses English as the working language and offers visa and tax waivers to woo investors and global financial players.

On the tech front, the country has shown significant commitment in developing a future-ready infrastructure. For instance, several of their government services have gone digital – residents can register the birth of a child, or report a lost vehicle conveniently online via a centralised website.

This initiative was developed under the Digital Kazakhstan programme, a government-led effort to transform the country to a digital economy. Last year, the programme created some 8,000 jobs in the country.

Also, more than 75 per cent of its population have access to the Internet. Its telco sector is highly developed, with an extensive 4G network and high mobile penetration rate.

A large segment of the population own smartphones, and have access to mobile data. On Chocolife, a homegrown ecommerce startup in Kazakhstan that offers food delivery services, youngsters regularly spend the equivalent of S$4 or S$5 to order beverages for themselves – similar to Singaporean youths who are frequent consumers of gourmet coffee and bubble tea drinks.

This is good news for startups. Consumers in the young Central Asian country, where 45% of its population are aged under 30, are hungry for new experiences, curious about the world, and have the spending power to boot.

Some might point out that the Kazakh market, ready as it may be, is small and hence offers limited opportunities. Indeed, the sprawling country has just about 18.7 million people. But just like how Singapore is often seen by industry players as a gateway to South-east Asia markets, Kazakhstan is a bridge that connects investors to Central Asia.

The region, which includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, is home to 72 million people. In fact, if we expand the range to include regions within a 2,000km radius from Kazakhstan, we are looking at a potential market of 3.3 billion people, including a large swathe of Russia and Eastern Europe.

I can think of two immediate opportunities in Kazakhstan for Singapore-based startups.

First, to hunt for tech talent in the Central Asian region. While startups here have typically recruited talent from Vietnam and Indonesia, the brain drain in South-east Asia is a growing constraint. Kazakhstan’s emerging tech scene offers a rich talent pool of young, tech-savvy people seeking white-collar careers. They are educated, creative and modern.

The Kazakh government has invested significantly in developing and promoting STEM education. Students at the secondary education level are exposed to coding, robotics and even virtual reality to cultivate an interest in tech.

The country also wants to grow its startup landscape. Astana Hub, a government-run technology park similar to Singapore’s Block 71, offers support to startups in the form of training programmes, mentorships from entrepreneurs, office spaces and networking opportunities.

Second, Kazakhstan’s ambitious task of building a digital Silk Road provides opportunities for tech players. The government is pouring significant resources to develop the country’s information and communications technology infrastructure. It will require support in fields such as digital literacy education, cybersecurity and data analysis, to name a few – areas that Singapore startups are well-placed to be a part of.

Companies here may be reluctant to venture to the Central Asian region, due to differences in culture and language. But the longer we stay stagnant and stick to old formulas for growth, the easier it is for someone else to steal our lunches.

The writer is the managing partner of Quest Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital firm.

More

Digital Life Asia

The startup ecosystem in Singapore will recover from the COVID-19 crisis and the community will emerge stronger. This is according to James Tan, who has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE).

With more than 3,600 startups employing 18,000 people, more than 100 incubators, accelerators and venture builders, and 150 venture capital funds in Singapore, ACE’s scope has increased tremendously since its inception in 2003 by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

“This is an opportune time for ACE to revalidate and expand the role it was set up for — to support the startup ecosystem in their journey to become viable business going concerns. In this difficult period for startups, ACE provided ground-up support through public webinars and private matching activities such as the COVID-19 Seminar Series and Meet-The-VC Sessions,” Tan said in a press statement.

The global recession is in force. Singapore’s gross domestic product is forecast to shrink by between 4 percent to 7 percent this year. As such, consumer spending behavior will take a sharp turn to a cash preservation mindset. Startups face considerably more challenges than legacy businesses in this commercial new normal.

ACE has been working closely with community stakeholders, especially government agencies, innovation enablers, and startups. Its goal is to drive entrepreneurship and innovation in Singapore and beyond aggressively. ACE also helps facilitate disbursement of government grants. One of these is the Startup SG Founder grant. Another is the Global Talent Ready grant, which saw a surge in inquiries during this pandemic.

“The Innovation Island” is the vision that Mr. Tan has set for Singapore.

“The whole-of-economy digital transformation momentum from COVID-19 provides an impetus for the Singapore economy to become ‘The Innovation Island’.

More

TechNode Global

Piling into a small, sweaty room that’s just been vacated by a bunch of strangers to belt out some bangers sounds like a bad idea right now—and that’s part of the reason a Singapore startup named Popsical has secured $5 million from investors to expand the reach of its socially distanced karaoke gizmo.

Popsical’s series A funding was led by local outfit Quest Ventures, reports The Business Times. The aim is to expand sales across Southeast Asia as well as Central and South Asia, including the massive India market.

More

The Business Times

SINGAPORE-BASED Popsical, a startup that has created a home karaoke system combining a compact palm-sized device with a mobile app, has raised S$6.9 million in a Series A round led by Quest Ventures, with participation from government-owned investor SEEDS Capital.

Popsical’s notable early investors include Apricot Capital, Teo Heng KTV, Cash Studios KTV, OMG Ventures and Mediacorp.

Jeffrey Seah, a partner at Quest and an industry veteran from the data-marketing and digital-transformation domain, will join the startup’s board of directors.

The fresh funds will be used for market expansion, hiring go-to-market talent and developing Popsical’s roadmap of products and software-as-a-service offerings.

Unlike conventional karaoke sets that rely on a single remote, Popsical can pair up with an unlimited number of mobile devices at the same time. It uses a licensed cloud-based streaming system that includes a 14-language interface and a library with over 200,000 songs, updated daily with latest hits and song requests from its users. The system also has vocal effects to make one sound like a rock star – or a chipmunk.

The extended stay-home period during the Covid-19 pandemic led to an uptick in demand for Popsical via its e-commerce website. Average monthly sales from March to May were 47 per cent higher than in February.

Popsical currently sells to the Singapore and Malaysia markets. It plans to expand to Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as outside South-east Asia.

Co-founder and CEO Faruq Marican said: “India has an incredible music tradition and we think that karaoke would be an absolute hit there. We are also looking at Central Asia and places such as Kazakhstan, where karaoke is growing immensely in popularity.”

More

动点科技

总部位于新加坡的智能云卡拉 OK 创业公司 Popsical 今天宣布获得 490 万美元的 A 轮投资，当地风投 Quest Ventures 领投，Seeds Capital 跟投。

这家初创公司在新闻稿中表示，这笔资金将用于市场扩张、招聘和产品开发。

刚刚加入 Popsical 董事会的 Quest Ventures 合伙人 Jeffrey Seah 表示：” 这家初创公司发现了市场的空白。随着远程视频连线成为全球家庭和社区的日常，我们预计他们会有更多有趣的尝试和机会。”

卡拉 OK 最早起源于日本，现在已经成为亚洲地区流行的一种娱乐方式，并扩展到世界不同地区。2020 年全球卡拉 OK 市场的价值已达 42 亿美元，预计到 2026 年底将触及 46 亿美元。

该公司表示，在大流行中，Popsical 的全球需求有了很大的增长。

Popsical 的早期投资人有 Apricot Capital、Teo Heng KTV、Cash Studio KTV, OMG Ventures、Mediacorp 等。

More

e27

Singapore-based smart streaming karaoke startup Popsical announced today that it has secured US$5 million in Series A round of investment, led by local VC firm Quest Ventures.

Seeds Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, also participated.

Founded in 2016 by three Karaoke enthusiasts, Popsical makes use of a licensed cloud-based streaming system to come up with a library of songs, which is updated daily in multiple languages. It also has inbuilt features like “sing like a rockstar or a chipmunk” to capture its GenZ and Millennials audience.

Popsical delivers compact size portable boxes which can be controlled by an app, in comparison to older models which used to be heavy and bulky and could only be fixed on one location.

“The startup has spotted a viable gap in the market, and we anticipate increasingly interesting opportunities for the company to exploit, especially with the Zoom-environment meeting becoming a part of family and community life across the globe. They are an excellent team of technology lifestyle entrepreneurs and have our full support,” said Jeffrey Seah, Partner of Quest Ventures. who has now joined the startup’s Board of Directors.

More

Deal Street Asia

Venture capital firm Quest Ventures has led the S$6.9-million ($5 million) Series A funding in Popsical, a Singapore-designed cloud Karaoke brand that saw sharp growth in demand during the COVID-19 period.

In a statement, Popsical said Seeds Capital, the investment arm of Enterprise Singapore, also participated in the round. The new investors now join other early backers in the startup, which include Apricot Capital, Teo Heng KTV, Cash Studios KTV, OMG Ventures, and Mediacorp.

Popsical said the extended stay-home period during the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a huge uptake in the global demand of the product, which is available via its e-commerce website.

The Popsical Remix Karaoke system, a “cloud karaoke system with Spotify-like features”, has gained positive consumer and corporate responses alike in Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Europe, according to the company.

Unlike conventional Karaoke sets that rely on a single remote, Popsical has the capability of pairing up with mobile devices at the same time to add songs to the play queue anytime. Its licensed cloud-based streaming system also includes a multi-language interface and a library updated daily.

The fresh funding will be used for digital and geographic market expansion as well as to further upgrade Popsical’s products and services, among others, the startup said. As part of the Series A investment, Jeffrey Seah, Partner at Quest Ventures, will join the Popsical board of directors.

“They’ve spotted a viable gap in the market and we anticipate increasingly interesting opportunities for Popsical to exploit, especially with the Zoom-environment meeting becoming a part of family and community life across the globe,” Seah said.

Karaoke originated in Asia and has become a go-to recreational activity around the world. According to a research report cited by Popsical, the global Karaoke market was last valued at $4.2 billion in 2020 and is forecast to hit $4.6 billion by the end of 2026.

The investment from Quest Ventures will also present Popsical a market entry corridor into Kazakhstan and Central Asia – where Karaoke is a popular social and business event.

More