Following a significantly oversubscribed Pre-Series A, CredoLab raised more than US$1million of funding to date.

According to a 2014 World Bank Global Findex report, there are 2 billion people in the world who remain underbanked. This huge chunk of financially excluded world population do not have access to basic financial services offered by mainstream institutions like banks, or mobile money service providers. Digital credit risk management firm Credolab aims to fill the void and provide financial inclusion to this underbanked population.

It provides highly predictive credit scoring solutions for consumer lenders based on mobile phone data, says CEO and CredoLab co-founder Peter Barcak. CredoLab utilizes its proprietary mobile application, CredoApp, to extract a unique digital footprint from a consumer’s mobile phone. These completely anonymized digital footprints are developed into highly predictive digital credit scorecards using proprietary technology and know-how. CredoLab is able to improve both the availability of credit to those with no or limited banking history, as well as allow a lender to reduce their cost of risk and increase their approval rate.

"For the underbanked populations of Asia’s emerging markets, such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar, the access to a credit score without an existing credit or collateral history greatly expands their economic opportunities, by giving them access to funds from microfinance institutions and commercial lenders," he says.

They do not obtain any personal or sensitive data from the customer for their credit analysis. At a time when stakes are high on data privacy, this is sure to give customers peace of mind.

"Our solutions promote financial inclusion by enabling lenders to focus on previously unbanked populations with an extremely high degree of control over credit risk," he says.

Following a significantly oversubscribed Pre-Series A funding round, Credolab announced that it has raised more than US$1million to date, The company closed its most recent fundraising round after receiving overwhelming investor interest offering, in total, twice the amount of capital it originally sought to raise.

The funding round was led by regional FinTech venture capital firm Fintonia Group, with additional participation from a consortium of regional institutional investors including Indonesia’s Reliance Modal Ventura. As part of the funding round, Fintonia Group Chairman & CEO Adrian Chng has joined CredoLab’s Board of Directors. Chng co-founded CredoLab and was formerly the CEO of JobsDB, who led the well-known regional job portal into an A$1billion merger with JobStreet. CredoLab’s CoFounders Peter Barcak and Greg Krasnov possess immense financial expertise, having built one of the leading consumer banks in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) from scratch and sold it for close to a net capital gain of US$100 million for the institution’s investors.

"Traditional credit scoring is severely out-dated and inadequate, forcing many to turn to informal money lending with excessive interest," he says.

On the flip side, financial institutions in these markets also stand to gain greater control over their lending decisions, Barcak explains, and vastly expand their pool of qualified borrowers with little or no credit history and reduce the risk of lending to this segment.

Credolab’s headquarters is located in Robinson Road, Singapore.
 

$3.3m was from pre-series A.

StashAway is a cost-efficient investment engine that empowers individuals to manage their savings and achieve their personal financial goals. It also analyses an individual's financial assets, investment time horizon, and risk preferences. “StashAway brings a sophisticated investment framework to everyone, irrespective of their net worth, without any minimum balance, and at a transparent low fee,” says Michele Ferrario, co-founder and CEO, StashAway.

The startup recently secured a $4.08m funding, $780,000 of which is seed by the co-founders and a few angels, and $3.3m from pre-series A, led by Francis Rozario. What made StashAway stand out amongst a sea of fintech startups? "Unlike traditional financial advisors, the internal algorithms build and manage global, customised portfolios of highly diversified, low-cost ETFs across asset-classes, while putting an emphasis on risk management by incorporating deep analysis of economic cycles in order to to navigate its ups and downs and maximise long-term returns," Ferrario said.

Ferrario said StashAway's founders established the company as a result of dissatisfaction with traditional investment options available, and so they made the investment platform that they wanted for themselves. Those attributes are reflected in StashAway's unique selling points. For instance, no minimum balance means that customers can invest $1, $100, or $1,000,000, once or every day.

"Traditional options often require large minimum balances that prevent some people from investing until they are older with more savings. Our approach allows any one to start investing and building their wealth. Experienced investors that manage significant portfolios will appreciate the sophistication of the investment framework, detailed in a white paper published on StashAway's website, and could take advantage of the very cost-efficient platform to manage the liquid part of their portfolio," says Ferrario.

Additionally, their low fees lead to higher returns, as less money is taken from the portfolio each year. Unlimited withdrawals give customers access to their money whenever they want or need it. They also have a sophisticated investment strategy.

"The technology and our investment team are closely keeping watch of economic trends, and will automatically re-optimise portfolios when major economic changes demand portfolio asset allocations to change," says Ferrario. "All security trading happens automatically and aggregately, which maximises efficiency that we pass along to our customers in the form of lower fees."

Their total funding to date is at S$11.5 million.

BeMyGuest is a provider of tours, activities, and attractions in Asia. It aims to empower businesses by letting them leverage their free and award-winning content management and booking system to digitalise their offers and consequently reach active online travellers.

BeMyGuest shares that it strives to inspire travellers by discovering great experiences from quality suppliers in Asia and making them bookable online. The company partners with thousands of verified small-to-medium-sized travel businesses to help people seek out and recommend you the best possible activities to experience Asia. Aside from mainstream tours and attractions, one can through the platform access more niche, authentic, locally specialised, and once-in-a-lifetime activities.

"BeMyGuest’s mission has always been to create the largest platform of tours, activities and attractions across Asia," says Clement Wong, CEO, BeMyGuest. "Our goal is to bridge the technology gap between fragmented supply and seasoned distribution. Our a range of travel technology solutions. These include supplier inventory push API, multilingual pull API, white labels, B2B agents marketplace, instant confirmation, e-tickets, revenue management system and more."

Attractions, tours and activities are considered the final frontier in travel distribution, with all other considerations like flight, hotels, car rental, local accommodation, taxis, buses and trains all digitised and distributed, says Wong. As Asia is highly complex with its high fragmentation and low tech, Wong and co-founder Blanca Menchaca started the business to help solve the problem of aggregating and distribution of these travel experiences through their travel technology.

The company’s focus has been to serve the highly complex Asian market. With over 500 strategic distribution partnerships including Ctrip, Ticket Monster, Tink Labs, Yatra, Tuniu, Alitrip and Travel.jp, they connect the largest industry players in the highest growth markets across China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, India with over 4,500 suppliers of over 25,000 activities, attractions, day tours, ground transfers and events in over 900 destinations.

BeMyGuest throughout its operations has already helped businesses deliver experiences for travelers. For instance, Wong shares, Ctrip, the largest online travel agency in China, was looking at driving more bookings in the attractions, tours and activities sector. "By providing our more than 4,500 suppliers with our technology, we have been able to achieve this for them. In 2016, we received the ‘Best Strategic Partner Award’ from Ctrip," Wong says.

And the startup continues to aim for greater heights. Wong shares that their total funding to date is at S$11.5 million.

"This round of investment enables BeMyGuest to further accelerate the company’s rapid growth across Asia," says Wong. Alongside this Series A funding is the launch of BeMyGuest Labs, a platform where Wong says suppliers and resellers can leverage on BeMyGuest’s vast distribution network through a range of travel technology solutions. These include supplier inventory push API, multilingual pull API, white labels, B2B agents marketplace, instant confirmation, e-tickets, and revenue management system, among others.

"This Series A is an affirmation of our vision and validation of our business model," notes Wong. "We are certain that the quality of our technology, content and customer service will take us through the next phase of growth with an extremely robust partnerships pipeline going live in 2017 and beyond."

Senescence Life Sciences uses the world’s most advanced breakthroughs in neuroscience to combat brain ageing.

"Our mission is to redefine cognitive health by empowering people to achieve optimal mental agility at work, at home and in their communities," says Dr. Shawn Watson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Senescence Life Sciences. "We recognize the worries and implications that come with age-related cognitive decline. This is why we invest in research and development to advance sciences that can help people better cope with brain ageing."

Senescence Life Sciences applies the latest research in age-related cognitive decline to develop scientifically supported supplements that contain neuroprotective compounds extracted from natural ingredients to combat brain ageing. They also aim to break the stigma of ageing by cultivating a mindset where people can look forward to growing older and living life to the fullest.

Dr. Watson, 32, founded the startup with his wife, Tegan. He came to Singapore to start an entirely different job in 2013 with her. Within the first six months of relocating, they were approached by a number of investors in Singapore who were familiar with Dr. Watson's publications and research.

At the time, his research had just started to take off, and a number of labs from around the world were performing observational studies based on his treatment strategy and not only corroborated his results but also showed that a similar mechanism was capable of arresting the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in animal models. "With the exciting prospect that my research could have a huge impact on brain health, we took the jump and Tegan started to work on our business plan and pitch," says Dr. Watson.

All the active ingredients found in their products have reported consistent positive results to improve cognitive performance and protect the brain against natural ageing in at least five clinical trials, says Dr. Watson. The products have also received third-party accreditations of the highest quality testing process. Each batch undergoes at least three rounds of quality testing before it reaches consumers, Dr. Watson shares.

"With a thorough understanding of how the brain ages and functions, we have developed two product lines intended for two different age groups – EDGE for those between 30 and 55 and REVIVE for those above the age of 55," says Dr. Watson. He shares that their products allow customers to experience better sleep, improved learning/memory and increased energy levels. Importantly, he notes, the products are not a stimulant, but target the underlying mechanisms of cognitive decline.

"However, we want to do more than supplements. It is important that we take a proactive approach to raise the awareness of age-related cognitive decline such as symptoms, diet and lifestyle changes and early action to protect ourselves," he says.

At present, the company is actively looking for distributors around ASEAN and East Asia to help bring their products to market. They are also in discussions with several institutions and organisations on potential collaborations for research and clinical trials around their products’ efficacy in slowing down age-related cognitive decline and relief of dementia symptoms.
 

SeeChat will revolutionize customer service with the potential to power 1.4 million SMEs.

Digital directories and e-commerce powered by SeeChat transform business to consumer communication and lead generation with chat and unified social media engagement. The platform is unique because most directories today are discovery platforms - one can find a business online but cannot interact with them instantly (besides landlines). However, SeeChat changes it, says Sekar. "We enable consumers to not only find a business on the directory but instantly chat with the local businesses without needing to know the local business mobile number," he says.

"Each directory provider today has 100,000 to 500,000 listed local businesses and strong local business relations," says Swami Sekar, CEO, SeeChat. "We help these directory providers go digital, increase their revenue, and provide enhanced offerings that make lives of local business owners easier when reaching to new age consumers."

SeeChat powers and brings digital directories to life with integrated messaging and payment solutions to help businesses get discovered, connect, and transact with customers from one platform.

Around 180,000 local SMEs make up 99% of the enterprises in Singapore and contribute to nearly half of the GDP while employing 70% of the workforce, says Sekar. Globally, this number is more than 100 million businesses. These companies are facing huge pressure to reinvent their operating model with a need to ‘go digital,’ engage the mobile customer, and boost their productivity. Otherwise, they risk getting disrupted by app-economy and e-commerce players that are digital and available anytime.

"We spent a year working with over 150 such companies in Singapore as we built and validated a solution to help them. In the process we learnt that the best way to scale and deliver solutions that SMEs cared about was through directory providers," says Sekar. "Directory providers service these SMEs in an aggregate manner, and they are looking for a strong technology player with an out of the box solution to help serve their SMEs. That's the genesis of SeeChat."

Local businesses today have customers coming from various digital channels: web, search engine platforms, social platforms, directory platforms and future voice assisted devices. SeeChat helps bring all these customer conversations to a single portal for a business to manage and respond easily.

"For most SMEs that are not tech savvy, such one portal solution greatly increases efficiency and productivity," says Sekar. "They do not have to go to five different places to manage their digital presence. For more sophisticated SMEs we offer analytics, bots and AI integration that automate the customer response process.

Sekar shares that in just four months since launching the product in October 2016, SeeChat has won two Enterprise Directory Customers in Singapore and the Middle East, powering 900,000 SMEs through their platforms. SeeChat is in early engagements with leading directories in four other countries, with the potential to power 1.4 million SMEs. That acceleration will set SeeChat on the path to becoming a global market leader in Business-Customer Communication Technology, shares Sekar.

"We also see Governments like Singapore are creating right initiatives for SMEs to Go-Digital. We would like to see how these initiatives take advantage of unified communication solutions like SeeChat that SMEs can consume and leverage readily to manage all their digital point of presence easily," he says.
 

It's raised US$18 million in the past 18 months.

Singapore-based digital cross-border payments company InstaReM has received a US$13 million investment, which will be used to drive the company’s global payment infrastructure further.
InstaReM will use the investment to build its global payment infrastructure, which has grown eight times in volume since its March 2016 funding. The funds will also be used to develop new products and licensing activities in new markets. Founded in 2014, InstaReM is licensed as a Money Services Business (MSB) in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and Canada. It powers local payments to more than 50 countries across the globe. To date, InstaReM has raised over US$18 million in the last 18 months.

The multimillion dollar investment was led by GSR Ventures, with participation from SBI-FMO Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund (SBI-FMO Fund), Vertex Ventures, Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH), and Global Founders Capital (GFC).

“This is an important investment for the company to propel our next phase of growth and expansion. With GSR Venture’s strong network in China and the US, coupled with SBI-FMO Fund’s strong base in Japan and other emerging markets, we believe we have found the best partners for this phase of our journey,” says Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO of InstaReM.

“We aim to make cross-border payments a level playing field for all operators in the ecosystem. So, regardless if our client is a bank, telco, mobile wallet or a money transfer operator (MTO) - by accessing our payment infrastructure, they are able to send payments to over 50 markets with full transparency on cost and destination amount, enabling them to compete with global players,” adds Nanu.

By Q4 2017, InstaReM notes that it plans to expand into all markets in Europe and US in addition to Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada. Along with the expansion into Europe, the company will be implementing a new payment system to significantly speed up Euro payment transfers from 24 hours to less than 10 seconds across 34 member countries.

“The global payments infrastructure InstaReM is building is unique in this industry and GSR Ventures is excited to join this journey,” says Jefferson Chen, Partner at GSR Ventures. GSR Ventures is a Silicon Valley and Beijing based venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology companies. GSR Ventures is the first institutional investor for a number of multi-billion dollar companies including DiDi, Qunar, ele.me, OFO, Inke, Xiaohongshu and others. GSR Ventures currently manages more than $1.5 billions and has more than 100 portfolio companies across Asia and the US.

"We are excited to partner with the InstaReM team to jointly build the leading regional cross-border digital payments platform. We look forward to plugging InstaReM into our global ecosystem of Fintech and financial service companies,” says Suramya Gupta, Fund Manager at SBI-FMO Fund. SBI-FMO Emerging Asia Financial Sector Fund Pte Ltd is a growth strategy private equity investment fund which invests in financial services and fintech sector in emerging Asia to capitalize on the high expected growth of the region.

He will be one of the panelists at the ​20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017.

A recognised authority in fintech, Aki Ranin is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Bambu. Since 1987, Aki headed the business development unit for Tigerspike across ASEAN with a focus on financial services. A technology industry veteran and former software developer, he has over 15 years of experience across multiple industries.

In his previous role as commercial director for Tigerspike, he focused on growing the financial services business across Southeast Asia and also established the partnership of Tigerspike and Bambu. As vice president of technology at Avaus, he ran operations and P&L for a team of 50 designers and software engineers.

Aki Ranin graduated with a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Aalto University.

We interviewed Ranin to find out more about his thoughts on speaking at the upcoming Singapore Business Review's 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017, happening on July 11, 2017, 8:30-11:30AM at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

What are your previous experiences and positions held that contributed to who you are as an entrepreneur today?

-15 years in B2B technology services companies both large and small gave me the confidence to build a team that can deliver on any technology even in challenging circumstances

What are your key business philosophies?

-There are few problems that more revenue doesn't solve
-Let the market determine what features to build

Can you give us a glimpse of what you will talk about at the 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017?

-The impact of automation and AI on our industry (finance) and beyond

If you are interested to attend, you may contact Nikki Quiniquini at [email protected] or at +65 3158 1386 ext 238.

Vinnie is an entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist.

He is a founding partner at Golden Gate Ventures, an early-stage VC firm in Southeast Asia with over 35 investments to date. He is a Kauffman Fellow, and a guest lecturer at the National University of Singapore. He was rated by the Founder Institute as highest startup mentor in Asia from a pool of 2,500 mentors.

He will be one of the panelists at the upcoming SBR Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017 to be held on July 11 at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre. Vinnie will share insights from his experiences as a founder, growth hacking, and fundraising.

Vinnie started two startups in Silicon Valley: Meetro, a location-based chat service which was dissolved with many lessons learned in 2007; and Lefora, a forum hosting platform which grew to over 100,000 communities and was acquired by CrowdGather in 2010.

He also founded the Silicon Valley NewTech meetup, featuring hundreds of startups to a monthly audience with more than 10,000 members. Vinnie is a builder and a passionate startup ecosystem community person where he organised many startup.

Vinnie believes in honesty, being open to constructive feedback and having good communication with the team.

If you are interested to attend, you may contact Nikki Quiniquini at [email protected] or at +65 3158 1386 ext 238.
 

Catch her at the SBR Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017.

Gillian Tee is the co-founder and CEO of Homage, a one-stop senior home care solution that combines trained and curated caregivers with smart on-demand technology, allowing seniors to age at home with grace, control and dignity. Homage is currently backed by top venture capital firms 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures and SeedPlus. Prior to Homage, she co-founded Rocketrip, a Y-Combinator and Bessemer Ventures-backed startup that's raised more than 18M USD and grew it till profitability.

Based in New York City, Rocketrip is the first commercially available platform to save companies money on travel expenses by rewarding employee behavior used by fortune 500 companies around the world. Prior to Rocketrip, Tee helped manage tech startup investments at an investment firm in New York as well as held various business development, product management and technology leadership positions at Amazon and Accenture. Tee studied Computer Science in University of Melbourne and got a master’s degree from Columbia Business School.

We interviewed Tee to find out more about his thoughts on speaking at the upcoming Singapore Business Review's 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017, happening on July 11, 2017, 8:30-11:30AM at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

What are your previous experiences and positions held that contributed to who you are as a​n entrepreneur today?

Prior to Homage I started a technology company based in New York and Silicon Valley called Rocketrip that rewards employees for saving on business travel expenses. By allowing employees of the companies we worked with to earn half of whatever they saved, many of them were so motivated to save and grow second livelihoods along the way. The dollar rewards they were receiving were helping pay off their student loans, mortgages and save for their children’s education. In this aspect, I just loved the impact of Rocketrip. To me, my first business was about improving livelihoods and helping people progress and gain a better quality of life. I love businesses that help enable that and impacts people in a meaningful way. It’s the same driving force behind Homage right now.

What are your key business philosophies?

My key business philosophy is to always focus on business fundamentals - really knowing your unit economics and growth - no matter the stage of your company. Other than that, it goes back to having resilience and grit to weather the challenges of running a business. This is particularly crucial for technology startups. The business accelerator Y-Combinator that funded my first company Rocketrip has a term for the modern phenomena where everyone is rushing to found startups due to the media hype. They call it playing the “startup game”, where attending conferences, appearing in press and raising seed venture capital, while helpful, has overshadowed and outweighed the fundamentals of building a business. The media does not focus on all the underlying economics, hardship, real risks and the amount of time it takes to build and scale a company. Nowadays whenever people ask me for advice to give to aspiring technology entrepreneurs, I always urge them to, before they take the leap, learn more about what it involves and figure out if the problem they’re looking to solve with their company is really worthwhile to them, because they will have to devote a good part of their life to the business.

Can you give us a glimpse of what you will talk about at the ​20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017?

I'd love to cover a few of these topics:
-A balance between the POV of "bootstrapping and minimising dilution" or "over raising to land grab for growth"
-How to know what's the right time to think about raising capital -- from early stage seed fundraising (Homage) to later stage funding (Rocketrip)
-The landscape of fundraising in SEA

The SBR 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing will be on July 11 at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

If you are interested to attend, you may contact Nikki Quiniquini at [email protected] or at +65 3158 1386 ext 238.

FreightKart wants to disrupt the shipping services industry.

Paper trails and rubber stamps, these are just some of the traditional requisites of shipments that FreightKart wants to do away with. As a startup at the core of shipping and logistics solutions, the group aims to change customers' perceptions about dealing with shipping services.

"We live in an extremely fast-paced world, where everything is expected to be intuitive and real-time, otherwise you lose your audience," says Abbas Vakharia, CEO & Founder, FreightKart. "Currently, shipping services are perceived to be slow, unattractive and confusing. FreightKart wants to change all that and become the go-to shipping solutions provider - a few clicks and you have all the answers."

FreightKart is the only company which has a real time, end-to-end portal which allows a customer to pose a query, compare price points and services, make a booking and do required payments online. "Essentially, we have the complete customer journey — awareness & discovery, interest, intent and then purchase all laid out on the portal as one seamless transaction," he says. "This is a huge disruption in an industry where paper trails and rubber stamps are used even today."

The idea for FreightKart, shares Vakharia, took shape out of personal experience. "Over time, we had both experienced difficulties in our own dealings with shipping companies and their agents around the world," he says. Long waiting periods — for a mere response to a query or for negotiations — were turning out to be a major issue as business was being lost as a result. In the shipping industry, supply always outstrips demand, Vakharia notes, and if a service provider takes too long to respond, the client is just going to find someone else to meet his demands. "Moreover, even after the initial query is responded to, more often than not, the client requests more information or wishes to negotiate the rates," he says. "This too results in lost time. Thus, we felt that there was a pressing and unmet need for promptness in shipping processes."

Freightkart intends to address three very important issues: Convenience, short response times and competitive prices, along with other features such as online documentation, cargo insurance and cargo tracking. All these services will be delivered to the customer via a feature rich dashboard which the customer can access on any mobile device, shares Vakharia.

The development of the complete product had been bootstrapped initially. Six months ago, FreightKart was chosen as one of the eight teams to represent muru-D Singapore's second cohort. muru-D is the startup accelerator backed by telecommunications and media company Telstra. "That brought in much needed funding, giving us a decent runway and allowing us time to hit the market with an end-to-end, fully transaction-able product. Currently, we are looking for strategic investors with whom we can grow to the next level," shares Vakharia.

 

As she shares the successes of the Asian fitness startup.

Emma Harris is a native New Yorker living in Singapore. She was the first hire at Asian fitness startup GuavaPass and is the vice president of product marketing & strategy. In just over two years, GuavaPass has grown from a grand idea to a thriving and reputable business operating in ten cities, making it the largest healthy living community in Asia & the Middle East. GuavaPass is a subscription based model, providing unlimited access to search, discover and book at the top boutique fitness studios. Prior to GuavaPass, Harris was the manager of strategic services at Livestream in New York, the top live streaming event company. When not working, Harris is an avid yoga practitioner and teacher. She loves to travel.

We interviewed Harris to find out more about his thoughts on speaking at the upcoming Singapore Business Review's 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017, happening on July 11, 2017, 8:30-11:30AM at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre

What are your previous experiences and positions held that contributed to who you are as a​n entrepreneur today?

Prior to GuavaPass, I worked at Livestream in NYC. I joined when the start-up was still young and that is where I learned how to work quickly and efficiently in a start-up environment. It gave me the entrepreneurial itch and exposed me to many parts of running a business, all of which have helped me grow with GuavaPass.

What are your key business philosophies?

A company is nothing without a strong team; employee drive, satisfaction and belief in the product are key to success. Work hard, play hard!

The SBR 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing will be on July 11 at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

If you are interested to attend, you may contact Nikki Quiniquini at [email protected] or at +65 3158 1386 ext 238.

He will discuss this and more at the SBR Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017.

Kuldeep Singh is the Founder and CEO of Biofourmis Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based data analytics company working around a singular challenge: to personalise healthcare through actionable insights. An ex-PhD Research Scholar at the National University of Singapore, Singh took a break from his PhD to focus on building bioelectronics medicines which aim to control biological processes and treat diseases by modulating electric impulses.

Prior to moving to Singapore, he held a research position at MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture group, where he worked on various wearable technologies and biosignal analytics for cardiac health monitoring. He believes in pushing out working prototypes and closing the gap between engineering and medicine. He is the part of Google’s Solve for X community and has been invited to speak at various prestigious platforms like TEDx, HiMSS, EMBC etc. on various biomedical technologies.

Singh and his team at Biofourmis have begun their journey towards unlocking the potential of biosensors to give deeper and meaningful insights into one’s health, through data. He seeks to connect ideas and people to spark innovation.

Singh will be part of the panel in the upcoming Singapore Business Review's 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017, happening on July 11, 2017, 8:30-11:30AM at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

What are your previous experiences and positions held that contributed to who you are as an entrepreneur today?

Inspired by the advancement in biosensor technology and personalised medicine, I took a break from my Doctorate Studies to build my company, as the Founder and CEO of Biofourmis, a healthcare data analytics company working around a singular challenge: to personalise healthcare. I am the inventor of Biovitals, the world’s first personalised data analytics engine based on human physiology that captures continuous stream of physiological data from bio-sensors and uses cognitive technologies towards building a sophisticated predictive analytics engine. The revolutionary health programs tackle remote, home based post-acute monitoring of cardiac patients in the most engaging, effective and personalised way possible.
I am an active member of the healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship community in Singapore, with a specific interest in technology-enabled healthcare innovation. I am also a Visiting Research Scholar at the National University of Singapore, focusing on building bioelectronics medicines, which aims to control biological processes and treat diseases by modulating electric impulses. Prior to moving to Singapore, I held a research position at MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture group, where I worked on developing automated diagnosis and interpretation algorithms using electrical and optical biosensors for cardiac health monitoring. I believe in pushing out working prototypes and closing the gap between engineering and medicine. I started my first company at the age of 18, which built assistive technologies for hearing impaired, which was acquired by a US based NGO.
I have been invited to speak at various prestigious platforms like TED, HiMSS, EMBC, BHF and IoT Asia on my vision to transform healthcare ecosystem using biosensor technology and predictive analytics. With my team at Biofourmis, we have begun our journey towards unlocking the potential of biosensors to give deeper and meaningful insights into one’s health, through data. I seek to connect ideas and people to spark innovation.

What are your key business philosophies?

Firstly, delivering high quality products with real impact which increased patient safety, adherence and drives medical outcomes. Secondly, customers are the kings! The principles of respect, consideration, open communication and transparency his highly critical with clients. Thirdly, empowering employees think like owners, and lastly, thinking big. I want to revolutionise the healthcare ecosystem with the new version of quantitative medicine using personalised predictive analytics

Can you give us a glimpse of what you will talk about at the 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017?

1. How biosensor technology is revolutionising the healthcare industry
2. The value of contextual data in health monitoring
3. Real-world continuous data with personalised predictive analytics to drive outcomes, real-word evidence and increase patient safety

In short, I’ll talk more about data analytics in the healthcare industry. With the explosion of wearable biosensors, there’s a tsunami of data being generated. It is how we leverage that data, make sense of these sensors and make it understandable and actionable to the healthcare community from payers, providers and people.

The SBR 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing will be on July 11 at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

If you are interested to attend, you may contact Nikki Quiniquini at [email protected] or at +65 3158 1386 ext 238.

And it fits right into your pocket.

Gym membership is a thing of the past and trainers are no longer confined within the walls of the gym. Active8me is a digital fitness, health and wellness platform that aims to change how people get fit. "Our aim is a fitter and healthier Asia," says Jeremy Rolleston, Founder, Active8me. "We offer customised workouts, nutrition and mindset programmes for people. We’re like a personal trainer, dietician and life coach in a pocket."

Rolleston is proud to say that there is nothing like Active8me in Asia. "We are an integrated, Asian-focused platform across exercise, nutrition, mindset and holistic health," he says.

Rolleston, 44, is an Australian who moved to Singapore 18 months ago to focus on Active8me. Outside of Active8me, he is a two-time Olympian and has represented Australia in two sports - rugby (Sevens) and bobsleigh. Following his retirement from bobsleigh, he went on to win two world masters titles in Surf Life-Saving. Alongside his sport he managed a corporate career in investment banking and investment management.

While working for one of Australia’s largest early stage VC companies, he was inspired by the success of digital fitness and health companies in Australia, US and Europe. "But there was nothing of that sort in Asia," he says. "And when I looked at Asia I see it changing. There is a growing interest in fitness, health and wellness -- looking at the growth of salad bars, cold-pressed juices, activewear labels, gym subscriptions, fun runs, among other." But Rolleston also says there is also a massive and rising need to address 60% of the world’s diabetics in Asia, an increase in obesity and a ‘skinny fat’ phenomenon that is becoming the focus of governments, insurers and corporations.

Rolleston notes that Active8me is unique because of numerous reasons, such as that it's a total, integrated solution. "There are some fitness apps that just track your steps. There are others that provide you workout plans and programmes. There are others like Active8me that gives you a fully integrated programme which includes workouts, nutrition meal plans and recipes, mindset lessons and tracking," he says.

If one wants to see real changes that last, Rolleston believes one needs an overall approach that is more than just exercise. That is why Active8me is designed the way it is, he shares.

Further, he notes that the expert team who have put Active8me’s programmes together is impressive. They include the likes of four dual-Olympians, fitness experts and accredited dietitians. "In a time of self-proclaimed fitness gurus, the ability to benefit from the experience and expertise of experts like these provides a much-appreciated sense of surety," Rolleston shares.

Lastly, the app is developed for Asia. The Asian lifestyle is culturally unique in that the habits and norm are fairly different compared to Western societies, says Rolleston, citing hawker centres, regularly eating out, busy travelling executives and a very low gym membership rate (2%) present a unique challenge when it comes to fitness and health. "This means that a solution like Active8me that offers healthy Asian meals -- we also have western offerings -- eating out tips for Asians, workouts you can go with or without a gym membership, workouts that adjust to where you choose to workout (at home, outdoors, or at the gym), and a programme that suits any level of experience is a very welcome offering," says Rolleston.

 

He will zero in on the challenges of B2B model.

Over his career, Raghav Kapoor, CEO of SmartKarma, has worked in various positions of leadership across major financial institutions. Prior to co-founding Smartkarma, Kapoor was a managing director at Religare Capital Markets from 2010 to 2014. He joined Religare upon the successful exit of Aviate Global (Asia), where he was a founding partner. From 2006 to 2009, Raghav was vice president of Regional Equities Sales at Citigroup, where he grew and managed several large relationships.

Outside of his passion for technology, Kapoor brings to Smartkarma his love for investing. He was ranked as Asia’s Number 1 investment idea generator from 2011 to 2013, based on the performance analysis of over a million top investment ideas.

Kapoor graduated with first class honours in Computer Science from Cambridge University, and a Master’s degree in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University.

We spoke with Kapoor to find out more about his thoughts on speaking at the upcoming Singapore Business Review's 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017, happening on July 11, 2017, 8:30-11:30AM at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

What are your previous experiences and positions held that contributed to who you are as a​n entrepreneur today?

I am originally from India, but came to Singapore for junior college and went on to attend Cambridge University, where I studied computer science, later doing a masters at Stanford University. I began my career in finance with Citigroup and went on to launch a boutique brokerage house, Aviate Global (Asia), which was later acquired by Religare Capital Markets.

While immersed in the world of finance, I witnessed the global financial crisis of 2008 and also watched as the scandal unfurled over the Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff, which defrauded thousands of investors. It made me realize that asset management is not as clean as I had thought. Each time a scandal surfaced, new regulations would be formed and changes to the industry would be accelerated.

I felt that the way business was being done in capital markets would dramatically change, and felt the calling to participate in this change, to lead it and help it evolve to a whole new level. This was the genesis of Smartkarma.

What are your key business philosophies?

At Smartkarma we want to have a lasting impact and fundamentally change how people do investment research. Good research is at the center of investing, and Smartkarma seeks to break down the traditional silos in the market to bring efficiency to a global industry that has long suffered from opaque pricing and bloated cost structures. Its vision is to bring simplicity, efficiency and transparency to the investing world.

The name of the company embodies some of my key business philosophies. “Smart” represents both our focus on quality, and the collection of intelligent, innovative and creative people working together. “Karma” represents both our core values and our focus on collaboration. It differentiates us from incumbents, and signifies a new approach driven by collective actions, work and deeds.

Can you give us a glimpse of what you will talk about at the ​20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017? (Panel 1: What's next in the growth of fintech in Southeast Asia?)

I will talk about the globalisation of Asia based fintech companies, thoughts on what’s going on in the capital markets space of fintech, and challenges and advantages of B2B business model.

The SBR 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing will be on July 11 at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

If you are interested to attend, you may contact Nikki Quiniquini at [email protected] or at +65 3158 1386 ext 238.
 

Wong will speak at the Singapore Business Review’s 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017.

Rhonda Wong is the CEO and co-founder of Ohmyhome. Her technical know-how in the real estate sector brought to light the various issues home seekers face. Wong graduated with distinction from Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, with majors in Finance, Entrepreneurial, Accounting and a minor in Economics. While in University, she was also awarded the Carson Scholarship to study public policy in Washington D.C.

Wong’s personal real estate investments prompted her to join Savills as a salesperson in which she was quickly the best newcomer and was promoted to sales director within a year. She started consulting for developers in 2013 and subsequently founded Anthill Realtors, a real estate agency at the age of 29 in 2014. Headquartered in Singapore, Anthill Realtors' forte in sourcing investment grade properties from within and abroad with a one-of-a-kind concierge service is guided by the one belief that if you take care of your clients, your business will take care of itself.

In March 2017, Rhonda was recognised as a Women Icon at the Inaugural Women Icons Summit & Awards. She received the award for her entrepreneurial spirit and efforts to add value to the local HDB market.

We spoke with Wong to find out more about his thoughts on speaking at the upcoming Singapore Business Review's 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017, happening on July 11, 2017, 8:30-11:30AM at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

What are your previous experiences and positions held that contributed to who you are as an entrepreneur today?

After graduating from the business school at the University of Michigan, I started my first job as a treasury bonds options trader at Nico Trading in Chicago, where I was the only female trader in the company. After a few years, I decided to go back to Singapore to be with my parents and started a bunch of businesses.

Being serial entrepreneur at heart, I worked on several businesses including retail in Singapore; import and export of equipment from USA and acted as a consultant on other businesses such as children’s education in Suzhou, China, saved up some money and eventually begun investing in real estate. That started my journey into the real estate sector.

Living in Singapore we are generally very blessed but we do face first world problems. 82% of our resident population living in HDB traditionally have a lack of options in transacting their own homes. But in reality they are fully capable of helping themselves if someone were to just make the process simpler. So we started Ohmyhome, simplifying the process of selling, buying, renting your HDB, so that today, everyone can manage this process themselves completely free of charge. And if they were to need an agent to assist, our flat fees are more manageable at $2,888. We have an exceptional team of highly experienced agents, and we’ve been getting wonderful reviews from our customers, which reaffirms that we’re on the right track.

What are your key business philosophies?

I believe that businesses are very powerful. They have the ability to change the world, change the way people behave and even change the way we think about ourselves and one another. Therefore, I believe that businesses should be meaningful and be built with integrity. So that as the business prosper, at the same time we would be building a responsible world, a better world.

Can you give us a glimpse of what you will talk about at the Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017?

I will be taking part in the ‘Creating a brand story’ panel. A company’s brand story is like your own personality. It has to be genuine, something that you truly feel during the creation of your business and your operations should set in place plans to execute and deliver that story. When you try to be a story that someone said you should be, unless you have a flawless marketing team, you’ll find it difficult to upkeep that image because the real story will show in your business making decisions, in your customer service, and your consumers will feel it.

The SBR 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing will be on July 11 at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

If you are interested to attend, you may contact Nikki Quiniquini at [email protected] or at +65 3158 1386 ext 238.
 

Rio Inaba will tackle how business card data can help your startup.

Rio Inaba was appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Sansan Global in January 2016. Inaba has almost 20 years of experience in creating successful business and marketing strategies for internet and technology companies across Asia Pacific and United States.

Prior to joining Sansan, Inaba has held the leadership position at Rakuten Asia as the president & director for New Market Development based in Singapore and Indonesia. Rio has also held several leadership positions in the US, Japan, and Asian countries with MNCs such as AT&T Internet, Black & Decker and Adidas corporation. He holds an MA in International Management from the University of Texas at Dallas.

We spoke with Inaba to find out more about his thoughts on speaking at the upcoming Singapore Business Review's 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017, happening on July 11, 2017, 8:30-11:30AM at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

What are your previous experiences and positions held that contributed to who you are as an entrepreneur today?

Rio "PopEye" Inaba has around 20 years of experience in creating successful business and marketing strategies for internet and technology companies across Asia Pacific and United States. He specialises in new market developments, cross border post acquisition management, sales & marketing management within Asia and US.

What are your key business philosophies?

"Uncover the hidden opportunity and create synergy"

Can you give us a glimpse of what you will talk about at the 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017?

I will talk about what business cards tell us. Business cards have two crucial details: clients' data, and information on who in your company met who and when. Sansan's strength is accurate data entry of business cards (99.9%), and the visibility of company wide human connection.

We can also share how our accurate data shows how people or company are connected to each other, and what it means to our users in the short future.

The SBR 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing will be on July 11 at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

If you are interested to attend, you may contact Nikki Quiniquini at [email protected] or at +65 3158 1386 ext 238.

Giulio Xiloyannis will discuss how to build a sustainable brand.

ZALORA Group is Asia Pacific’s leading group of online fashion destinations. Founded in 2012, the company has a presence in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia & Brunei, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan where it operates as ZALORA and in Australia and New Zealand where it operates as THE ICONIC.

Giulio Xiloyannis heads ZALORA in four key markets – Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan – better known as “The Cluster”, leading the performance and business plan within these markets.

His scope of expertise encompasses managing buying and stock planning, pricing, online and offline marketing, partnerships and alliances, communications and public relations, product and IT system development and management.

Prior to ZALORA, he worked in other companies founded by Rocket Internet GmbH, the world's largest Internet incubator as well as covering positions in the investment banking world for JP Morgan and Rabobank International.

Giulio Xiloyannis holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Business from University of Pisa. Singapore Business Review caught up with with Xiloyannis to find out his thoughts about the startup scene at the upcoming SBR 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017.

What are your previous experiences and positions held that contributed to who you are as an entrepreneur today?

My first "grownup job" was in banking, first in commodity trading and following that in the Investment Banking M&A department of JPMorgan Chase, I moved from banking to e-commerce in 2012, joining the Rocket Internet Business Development team in Italy/Milan, this gave me exposure to a number of e-commerce startups and projects among which the most relevant was the time I spent helping the founding team of Dalani.it (Westwing Group), a home and living e-commerce site, get the business up to speed in their first year in operation. I moved into Southeast Asia in 2013, joining ZALORA's office in Kuala Lumpur.

What are your key business philosophies?

I admire and try and practice: analytic problem solving (what do the numbers say?); decision making (the worst leader is the one that doesn't make a call for his team to act on); be ready to admit a mistake and change your decision (decide but don't be blind to the signals that follow); nurture the team, a sign of a great leader is that of being able to "render himself useless" in certain tasks by coaching his second liners into being better and more focused than him on them.

Can you give us a glimpse of what you will talk about at the ​20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing 2017?

We will be talking about Branding, and specifically about a brand story, my best example for this is of course ZALORA's Brand building efforts in the past couple of years, key focuses will be online VS offline spend, partnership campaigns VS standalone ones, and content quality VS reach tradeoffs.

The SBR 20 Hottest Startups Panel Briefing will be on July 11 at the Meeting Room 3345, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.

If you are interested to attend, you may contact Nikki Quiniquini at [email protected] or at +65 3158 1386 ext 238.