Generation Prime, a startup that wants to make IVF and other fertility services more accessible to patients in Asia, is launching its first two clinics in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. The company also announced seed funding led by Recharge Capital, which incubated it, with participation from Thiel Capital, Shamrock Holdings, the Disney family’s investment vehicle and Blue Lion Global.

Generation Prime describes itself as the first “full-stack, closed-loop IVF health services clinic” in Southeast Asia, which means that IVF services will be provided through digital and physical channels, starting with initial consultations and including egg and sperm freezing, diagnosis, testing, IVF and surrogacy. The clinics expect to serve both patients who live locally, as well as those traveling from other countries, like China, for fertility services.

Over the next three years, Generation Prime plans to open a total of 15 clinics in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Lorin Gu, a founding partner at Recharge Capital, said the firm incubated Generation Prime because people in Asia want options and flexibility for family planning, but often do not have access to fertility services in the countries where they live.

Recharge Capital founding partner Lorin Gu

“Across Asia and Southeast Asia, the different legal structures have created a highly fragmented industry,” he said. He added that studies show by 2045, close to half of couples are expected to use IVF to start their families. “Despite these markers, female health conditions totaled just 1% of pharmaceutical research funding in 2020.”

Generation Prime expects about 70% of its clients to be medical tourists from China, and 30% to be local patients. “This is not because local patients are not actively using IVF services, but mainly because of the sheer population of China and the unmet demands that exists in the country,” said Gu. “In addition, China does not allow many of the IVF procedures that are currently desired by patients seeking more robust family planning services, and as a result, a large number of patients have been pushed into the Southeast Asian market.”

Generation Prime launches to make fertility services more accessible in Asia by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Skorlife, the fintech that wants to give Indonesians more transparency into their credit scores, has raised $4 million in seed funding. The round was led by Hummingbird Ventures with participation from QED Investors, and returning investors AC Ventures and Saison Capital.

The startup’s last funding round was $2.2 million in pre-seed funding announced in September. Co-founded by Ongki Kurniawan and Karan Khetan,  Skorlife launched to the public around the same time.

Since then, it has reached 100,000 downloads. Other milestones Skorlife has hit over the past eight months include being the only credit builder admitted by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) of Indonesia into a regulatory sandbox, and receiving ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications.

Skorlife’s app shows users their credit scores and reports from Indonesia’s credit bureaus and gives personalized advice on how they can improve their credit and keep safe from identity theft. For example, it will remind them to pay bills on them, improve their credit mix and watch the age of their credit. It also provides an Identity Monitoring feature, which alerts users when someone tries to use their identity to apply for a loan.

Skorlife founders Ongki Kurniawan and Karan Khetan

Kurniawan told TechCrunch that many Indonesians have limited access to fair credit because banks and financial institutions tend to be very conservative about approvals due to lack of a robust credit scoring infrastructure and data. As a result, low interest credit products, including credit cards, are usually only accessible to people with the highest credit scores, or super primes. On the other end, subprime lenders are served by peer-to-peer lending and buy now, pay later platforms, but those tend to have high interest rates.

This leaves people in the middle, with prime or near-prime credit, who have good repayment histories but still don’t make the cut for affordable credit products. Skorlife helps by giving Indonesian consumers access to their scores from Indonesian credit bureaus, along with personalized advice on how to improve them.

Skorlife will work with local regulators as part of the OJK’s regulatory sandbox, which gives it more flexibility to plan its business model. Its new funding will be used on product development, marketing and hiring.

Indonesia’s Skorlife gets funding to give Indonesians power over their credit scores by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Singapore-based BandLab Technologies, the parent company of social music creation platform BandLab, has raised $25 million in Series B1 funding that bumps its post-money valuation to $425 million. The round was led by returning investor Cercano Management (formerly Vulcan Capital), with super-pro rata participation from Prosus Ventures.

The new funding adds to BandLab Technologies’ $65 million Series B, which it raised at a $315 million post-money valuation and announced in April 2022. The company is the digital division of Caldecott Music Group, which also includes Vista Musical Instruments and NME Networks.

In total, BandLab Technologies has 60 million registered users. BandLab’s suite of features include a digital audio workstation called Studio, royalty-free sample and loops service Sounds and AI music generator tool SongStarter. BandLab Technologies’ other properties are Cakewalk, a digital audio workstation for professional musicians, ReverbNation, a professional services site for indie musicians and producers, and beat marketplace Airbit.

The new funding will be used on hiring and developing new music creation tools, as well as initiatives like BandLab for Education.

Singapore-based BandLab Technologies raises $25M at $415M valuation by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Embedded insurtech is still hot, as the $196 million in funding landed by bolttech proves. The company, which started in Singapore but now has operations around the world, said it is now valued at $1.6 billion. The funding was led by Tokio Marine, Japan’s first insurance company, and life insurance leader MetLife through its subsidiary MetLife Next Gen Ventures. Other participants included new and existing shareholders, and Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional.

Bolttech earlier announced that Tokio Marine will lead its Series B funding round, which then valued the company at an up-round valuation of $1.5 billion. Group CEO Rob Schimek said the current funding is part of the same round. “Bolttech’s Series B is closed to new interest from the market, but we continue to engage with the investor community in case of future opportunities,” he told TechCrunch.

Founded three years ago, bolttech says its Series B funding is the largest straight equity Series B for an insurtech in the last year, and that its Series A round, announced in 2021, was also the largest ever for an insurtech.

Embedded means insurance or protection products that are embedded into the customer experience as they buy a product or sign up for a service. For example, someone purchasing a smartphone might be prompted to purchase a protection plan that that offers repair, device replacement or trade-ins.

Schimek said bolttech’s model uses a B2B2C approach, which means it connects more than 700 distribution partners around the world with 230 insurance providers, who offer 6,000 products to consumers.

Bolttech bills itself as one of the world’s leading embedded insurance providers. Its customers include LibertyMutual, PayMaya, Progressive, Lazada, Samsung and HomeCredit. It has licenses to operate throughout Asia, Europe and all 50 United States states. The startup currently quotes about $55 billion worth of annualized premiums.

Some examples of how bolttech’s embedded insurance works include device protection, which Schimek describes as a “hero product” for bolttech. Both white-labelled and cobranded protection products are offered to end-customers through partners like Samsung, Windtre, LG U+, BackMarket and HomCredit.

Device protection isn’t the only product bolttech offers. For example, it enables JKOPay in Taiwan and Maya in the Philippines to offer insurance marketplaces through their apps.

“Overall, we can help any kind of business—whether they are insurers, brokers, agents or non-insurance businesses like telcos, e-commerce, retailers, fintech—to embed insurance at the point of need for their customers,” Schimek said.

Bolttech launched in Singapore in April 2020 and was able to establish an international presence for several reasons. The key one was the partnerships it forged with 700 distribution partners and over 230 insurers around the world.

“We were very intentional about making sure that we have established the right partnerships for success in specific geographies. We generally follow our partners into a geography with business already established,” said Schimek. “We were also able to grow our international footprint as we established greenfield operations in several markets and completed a number of acquisitions that helped us accelerate our expansion.”

He added that bolttech now has 1,500 team members around the world, including insurance and tech experts, and that helps them find innovative new ways to distribute insurance products.

The Series B will be used on bolttech proprietary technology, with plans to pioneer the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in its operations and the insurance and protection value chain, including computer vision, generative AI/natural language processing, advanced analytics and robotic automation.

Schimek said bolttech also plans to enhance its insurance distribution tech, including its purchasing experiences and quoting engines, optimizing claims automation, fraud detection and inventory management.

Insurtech bolttech gets $196M at $1.6B valuation from investors like MetLife by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

According to the founder of Singapore-based telehealth platform Ora, 90% of its patients are less than 39 years old and have not been treated for their conditions offline. That puts the onus on Ora to make sure its patients, mostly millennials who live in cities, have a good experience. Ora wants to perform with verticals focused on specific health issues, like women’s and men’s health and skincare. They also run an end-to-end platform that handles everything from consultations to prescription delivery and post-care.

Today, Ora announced it has raised $10 million in Series A funding, which it says is the biggest telehealth Series A round in Southeast Asia. The investment was co-led by TNB Aura and Antler, with participation from Gobi Partners, Kairous Capital and GMA Ventures.

This brings Ora’s total raised since its inception in 2020 to $17 million. Ora was founded by Elias Pour, the former CMO of Zalora, and says it has had uninterrupted >20% month-over-month growth since it launched last year.

Pour told TechCrunch that while working at Zalora, he “saw a very clear trend from customers investing in looking good, driven by fashion buys that allowed them to express themselves, to feeling good, which is connected to physical appearance such as skin, hair, weight and overall well-being.” He started looking for segments that were underserved and found a major opportunity in healthcare.

Ora founder and CEO Elias Pour

Pour added that Southeast Asia has one of the highest out-of-pocket health expenditures globally, so there didn’t need to be a behavioral change in order to convince people to move to direct payments. “People are already used to paying out of pocket for their healthcare costs, suiting this category well for DTC.”

Ora says it has delivered over 250,000 doctor consultations since its launch in 2021. It has an end-to-end model, meaning it covers consultations, pharmacy, medication delivery and post-purchase care. Ora monetizes with subscriptions, with subscriptions accounting for more than 70% of its revenue.

Ora is vertically-integrated, and currently operates three brands. The first, called Modules, is focused on online dermatology consultations and prescription skincare. The second, andSons, offers male health care, and the third, OVA, treats female reproductive healthcare.

The platform primarily treats a young clientele. The company says that 90% of its patients are first to condition, under 38 years old and have never been treated before online. Younger patients demand flexibility and speed, which is why Ora’s telemedicine model is attractive to them.

Pour said that one of the challenges healthcare providers face in Southeast Asia is the “large disconnect between the patient population,” which skews young, and the legacy experience of healthcare. He believes that over the next decade, about 80% of healthcare services will be brought online.

“Today, men and women in their 20s and 30s living in capital cities represent 36% of the total population. It’s the fastest growing segment, forecasted to represent half of the population in most markets by 2030,” he said. Pour added that Ora is “establishing a strong relationship with them at this early stage, to earn their trust, remaining relevant to address the healthcare needs they will have as they age.”

Pour said Ora differentiates from other telehealth players like Doctor Anywhere, Speedoc and Alodokter because it focuses on specific health issues. Ora is also combining prescription, OTC and strong consumer products to provide post-treatment service and clinical continuity.

Ora’s new funding will be used to expand into new markets and brings its brands to more than 1,300 retail stores.

In a statement, TNB Aura founding partner Charles Wong said, “[Ora’s] combined focus on specialized, and often taboo, healthcare verticals as well as a direct-to-patient approach has led the team to clearly differentiate itself while delivering market-leading unit economics that meet the tailored needs of patients across the full value chain.”

Singapore’s Ora takes a vertically-integrated approach to telehealth by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Jenfi, a “growth-capital-as-a-service” platform, can provide online businesses with revenue-based financing in a little as a day. The Singapore-based startup announced today it has raised $6.6 million in pre-Series B funding, led by Headline Asia. Participation came from returning investor Monk’s Hill Ventures, which led Jenfi’s Series A two years ago, ICU Ventures, Granite Oak, Korea Investment Partners & Golden Equator Capital and Atlas Ventures.

Since Jenfi’s inception four years ago, it has deployed more than $25 million in non-dilutive capital to about 600 companies. Its customers include Gushcloud, Ralali, Hello Health, Lamer Fashion, Buy2sell and Mystifly. The new funding will be used to grow its customer base in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia, and expand into new markets in Southeast Asia, like Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. It will also enable Jenfi to refine its credit underwriting and risk assessment capabilities, including its proprietary risk assessment engine.

The fintech was founded in 2019 by Jeffrey Liu and Justin Louie, who exited from their previous startup, fitness marketplace GuavaPass, when it was acquired by ClassPass. Jenfi’s “growth capital as a service” model was developed after the two realized that online business owners, like e-commerce sellers, SaaS and consumer tech providers, often had trouble getting capital to fund their growth expenses from traditional financial institutions.

Jenfi co-founders Jeffrey Liu and Justin Louie

Businesses that apply to Jenfi can get financing ranging from $10,000 to $1 million to spend on marketing, inventory and growth campaigns. Liu told TechCrunch that aggregate sales generated by companies in Jenfi’s portfolio is now more than $150 million.

Decisions about what businesses to lend to are made with Jenfi’s proprietary risk assessment engine, which integrates into data sources like accounting software, payment gateways, e-commerce platforms, online marketplaces and digital advertising. This lets Jenfi continuously monitor its borrowers’ business activity, including revenue growth and marketing return on investment.

As Jenfi grows, it is adding more local market data sources, including selling management platform Haravan and POS management software KiotViet in Vietnam, and almost all banks in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Jenfi’s proprietary risk engine is one of the main ways it differentiates from other companies offering revenue-based financing to digital-native businesses, said Liu, because it means more comprehensive assessments of creditworthiness and tailored financing solutions.

Since its Series A was announced, Jenfi has deployed its first machine learning-assisted underwriting system, which Liu said enables it to make faster underwriting decisions, with better accuracy and less human involvement.

In the future, Jenfi will work with synthetic data to get a better understanding of client behavior and possible future outcomes. The company also plans to develop a tech platform to allow third-parties to use its proprietary scoring models in their own native infrastructure.

Another way Jenfi differentiates from competitors is the flexibility of its repayment plans, said Liu. They range from three to twelve months and are designed to flexible, taking the needs of each business in mind. Repayment amounts are based on a pre-determined percentage of revenue, but that varies widely depending on business type. For example, a high-margin software business may be granted a higher revenue share percentage than businesses in another sector.

The total amount of fees that a company pays depends on the credit score generated by its proprietary risk engine. Liu said rates are transparent and competitive, with no hidden fees or charges.

Jenfi’s plans for the near future include offering growth capital to more clients through the use of dynamic limits, which can be adjusted based on client needs and creditworthiness. It will also launch an on-demand financing product to cover recurring growth capital needs like variable monthly ad spend.

In a statement, Headline Asia partner Aki Okamoto and principal Jonathan M. Hayashi, said “We have been continuously conducting research on revenue-based financing, and have talked to almost every single player in this field in Asia. Jenfi absolutely stood out to us. Their technology, product, operation and traction are significantly better than their peers.”

Jenfi raises more funding for its “growth capital as a service” platform by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Much of our computer time is spent in a web browser, where we check emails, create documents, transfer files, carry out online banking, shop or stream entertainment. This leaves us vulnerable to security threats like phishing, identity theft and session hijacking, but many cybersecurity tools were created when the main threats were file viruses, worms and network attacks, said Vivek Ramachandran, the cybersecurity entrepreneur and researcher who discovered the Cafe Latte attack.

To combat browser-based vulnerabilities, Ramachandran founded SquareX. The Singapore-based cybersecurity startup announced today it has raised $6 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia, which it will use on R&D engineering and its go-to-market plans.

SquareX wants to serve as an alternative to current cybersecurity products by being tailor-made for browser-based cloud SaaS tools. It integrates with browsers as an extension and lets users open links and files in disposable browsers that serve as temporary container sandboxes. The headless browsers run in SquareX’s data centers so threats don’t reach users’ computers and they don’t need to worry about their personal information being exposed.

Before launching SquareX, Ramachandran was the founder of Pentester Academy, a cloud-based cybersecurity training startup that lets users and enterprises study how hackers break into their company. Pentester Academy was acquired by INE in 2021.

SquareX founder Vivek Ramachandran

Ramachandran told TechCrunch that while running Pentester Academy, his customers complained about how often their security products were disabled by users because they got in the way of their productivity. For example, someone in the process of receiving of an important Word document from a contact would have that file flagged as malware and would end up disabling security software in order to view it. As a result, Ramachandran realized that many security products are actually counterproductive because they make people less likely to use them.

As a result, he created SquareX, which does not block access to files or resources, even when they have been categorized as potentially malicious. Instead, it uses its disposable browsers. Ramachandran said SquareX is intended as a alternative to VPN, anti-virus, anti-malware and other endpoint security solutions.

SquareX’s disposable browsers enable anonymous browsing from any location. Users can “dispose” of it at anytime, which means no data is retained and the browser session is destroyed and removed from SquareX’s servers immediately. Ramachandran said it is safer and more private than incognito mode because websites the user visits or files they download don’t get stored in their computer.

“By creating disposable environments, SquareX ensures that a user’s identity and data is decoupled when accessing the internet,” he added. “This ensures that even the most sophisticated website trackers would fail to track and log the users activities and tie it to their identity.”

SquareX’s go-to-market strategy will focus on the United States, the United Kingdom and Asia first.

In a statement about the funding, Anandamoy Roychowdhary, Surge partner at Sequoia Southeast Asia, said, “The online world is about to get a whole lot worse as the AI revolution gets channeled towards building malicious code. Every cybersecurity solution out there is only probabilistically successful in protecting internet users, which is not of much comfort if they get hacked and lose money. SquareX is the first solution we’ve seen that takes a 100% protection approach–where irrespective of how new and sophisticated the attack is, it has no chance to infect users. This is the future we think all internet users deserve.”

Backed by Sequoia Southeast Asia, SquareX protects web users with disposable browsers by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Small to medium-sized enterprises contribute 60% of Indonesia’s gross domestic product. But companies in the D2C space still struggle to compete against bigger brands. Praktis wants to put them on a more level playing field.

The startup, which handles everything from raw material purchases to order fulfillment for D2C brands and suppliers, announced today it has raised $20 million in Series A funding. The round was led by East Ventures (Growth fund), with participation from Triputra Groiup and SMDV.

Praktis co-founder and chief executive officer Adrian Gilrandy told TechCrunch that even though 60% of Indonesia’s GDP comes from SMEs, many experience difficulties while scaling up their business operations. These include finding reliable suppliers, getting fair pricing, the cost of labor and high exposure to fixed costs.

Praktis’ team

Through its platform, Praktis’ customers are able to manage this business operations, including raw material purchases, production, fulfillment and logistics. Gilrandy said Praktis also aggregates purchasing and processing for economies of scale. This leaves D2C brands free to focus on other parts of their business, including brand building and marketing.

The startup plans to scale up by growing alongside the D2C brands it serves. Gilrandy said its ecosystem can easily be applied to other verticals—for example, it started in fashion before moving on to the beauty industry. Praktis claimed 12x growth year-on-year from 2020 to 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption of its services, and 4x growth year-on-year from 2021 to 2022.

Praktis will use its new funding for technology development for both brands and suppliers, building its team and expanding its end-to-end supply chain ecosystem.

The startup also announced today it has appointed Leonard Pontoh as its chief financial officer. Pontoh is also joining its board of directors.

In a statement, East Ventures co-founder and managing partner Willson Cuaca said, “We are thrilled to double down our investment to Praktis as they strive to empower D2C brands in Indonesia and hit profitability much faster than we expected.”

Praktis lands $20M to help Indonesian D2C brands handle their supply chains by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Many employee engagement and retention tools were created with the assumption that workers spent most of their time at desks. But the majority of the global workforce is deskless, meaning that they are usually on the move and don’t have constant access to a laptop. A lot of them are also dissatisfied with their jobs, which means companies need to deal with high churn and low retention rates. Based in Singapore, Mercu wants to help with a platform designed specifically to reach deskless employees.

Launched in November 2022, Mercu announced today it has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from 500 Global, TEN13, Flying Fox Ventures, Archangel Ventures, XA Network and returning investor Sequoia Capital India.

Mercu is used by companies in retail, logistics, hospitality and manufacturing to onboard employees, communicate with them and help increase engagement. Its customers include Mexican fast food chain Guzman Y Gomez’s operations in Singapore and Sam Prince Hospitality Group in Australia. It also has customers in the United States, where the seed funding will be used to expand Mercu’s footprint and on hiring.

Before launching Mercu, the startup’s two co-founders, Jascha Zittel and Elliott Gibb, both worked at Grab. Zittel, a product manager there, needed to communicate with millions of drivers in eight countries, and found that engagement for messages sent through WhatsApp and Facebook was much higher than in-app communications or email.

The two told TechCrunch that COVID laid the groundwork for Mercu because it highlighted the importance of the deskless workforce, and also how little their needs were being met. Despite accounting for more than 70% of the global workforce, less than 1% of VC funding gets allocated to startups in the space, they said.

Mercu founders Elliott Gibb and Jascha Zittel

While working at Grab, Zittel and Gibb, a former product designer on Grab’s passenger experience team, saw that many deskless workers feel disconnected from their companies, which negatively impacts retention rates. Keeping workers means staying in constant touch with them and that means meeting them where they are, which is why Mercu works with popular messaging apps instead of requiring workers to download yet another one. This is especially important in emerging markets where there are hardware and data bandwidth restrictions on smartphones.

Mercu can be used to create custom content, or employers can pick from templates for campaigns like engagement surveys. The platform segments employees into groups based on their role, tenure and location, and gives content creators analytics about read and completion rates, industry benchmarks and recommendations.

Some examples of what employers use Mercu for include team dinner invitations, recognition programs, shift swaps and training sign-offs. Guzman y Gomez automated their hiring and onboarding process by using Mercu to perform tasks like sending interview invites and offers through WhatsApp, which reduced the number of no-shows to interviews. The fast food chain also uses Mercu to gauge worker sentiment on a monthly basis to reduce turnover rates.

Sam Prince Hospitality Group uses Mercu to send continuous training, including SOP updates, product information and sales training.

Mercu’s product development team plans to focus on more tools for employees, including looking at how large language models, like ChatGPT, can be used to communicate with employees at scale.

Mercu meets deskless workers where they are by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

ZEBOX, an international accelerator network founded by shipping conglomerate CMA CGM to introduce more tech innovation into the supply chain industry, announced today the launch of its APAC headquarters. Based in Singapore, ZEBOX Asia will also look at markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.

The APAC hub is backed by Enterprise Singapore, a board under the Ministry of Trade and Industry to foster SME development, and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, alongside industry partners Bureau Veritas Marine and Offshore, PSA unboXed and Synergy Marine Group.

Founded in 2018 by CMA CGM Group chairman and CEO Rodolphe Saadé, ZEBOX already has hubs in France, the United States, the United Kingdom, West Africa and the Caribbeans, which have collectively worked with 100 startups that have raised a total of $235 million in funding. It has 20 corporate partners that startups collaborate with while they are in ZEBOX’s incubator, including BNP Paribas, CEVA Logistics, Infosys, BNSG Railway, Port of Virginia and Centrime.

ZEBOX CEO Gwen Salley told TechCrunch that along with access to mentoring, experts, business opportunities and funding, its incubator program gives startups opportunities to test their solutions and work with large corporations. For corporate partners, the advantage is working with startups that can address their specific business challenges and engage in de-risked proof of concepts.

The incubator network picked Singapore for its newest hub because more than 4,000 regional headquarters and startups are based there and it has pro-business policies, an efficient regulatory framework, transparent legal and financial systems and strong digital infrastructure, Salley said. “Additionally, the city state’s strategic location at the crossroads of major shipping lines and air routes connects large parts of Asia to the rest of the world, making it a global logistics hub,” he added.

Some examples of startups incubated by ZEBOX include Searoutes, which uses routing engines and predictive data to show shippers how much CO2 emissions they’re producing at key points in the procurement chain and Sublime Energie, a deeptech startup that focuses on biogas liquefaction tech and provides biogas collection services. Both of these took part in ZEBOX France.

BasicBlock, which took part in ZEBOX America and has iraised more than $78 million in funding, automates invoices and develops financial products for the freight industry. Expedock, also from ZEBOX America, has raised more than $20 million and automates freight documents, payable reconciliation and other manual paperwork. Meanwhile, SMO Solar Process, which took part in Zebox Caribbeans, developed solar-based technology that turns carbon-based waste into other materials, like hydrogen, biochar and carbon powder.

ZEBOX looks for startups in four area. One is operational efficiency, or tech that helps minimize the physical movements of goods in everyday operations. Another is decarbonization and ZEBOX is looking at alternative fuels, net zero energy, asset recovery, green infrastructure, emissions tracking and reporting and sustainable warehousing and distribution. This is an especially critical area for CMA CGM Group, since its goal is to reach net zero carbon by 2050. The company says it has already reduced carbon emissions per container carried by 50% since 2008.

The third area of focus, workflow automation, looks for startups that streamlines and eliminates back office tasks so companies can get more work done in less time. Finally, the future of work will zone in on startups that can innovate in training, workplace safety, employee engagement, talent acquisition, hybrid work environments, ESG and customer experience.

In a statement, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore chief executive Teo Eng Dih said, “Startups play a critical role in the transformation of the maritime sector by generating value through their innovative solutions. Through working with partners, MPA hopes to anchor more marinetech startups in Singapore to develop, test and commercialize new products and services from Singapore to benefit the global maritime community.”

ZEBOX, an incubator for supply chain startups, launches its Asia hub in Singapore by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Betterdata, a Singapore-based startup that uses programmable synthetic data to keep real data secure, announced today it has raised $1.55 million. The seed round, which it says was oversubscribed, was led by Investible with participation from Franklin Templeton, Xcel Next, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Bon Auxilium, Tenity, Plug and Play and Entrepreneur First.

The startup was founded in 2021 by Dr. Uzair Javaid, its CEO, and chief technologist Kevin Yee, with the goal of making data sharing faster and more secure as data protection regulations increased around the world. The company is currently in research and development partnerships with two major universities in Singapore and the United States (it can’t publicly disclose who they are) and its clients include Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

Betterdata says it is different from traditional data sharing methods that use data anonymization to destroy data because it utilizes generative AI and privacy engineering instead.

Yee explained to TechCrunch that programmatic synthetic data uses generative models, like deep learning models including generative adversarial models used in deepfakes, transformers used in ChatGPT and diffusion models used in stable diffusion, to create and augment new datasets.

These synthetic datasets have similar characteristics and structure to real-world data without disclosing sensitive or private information about individuals.

“The idea is to create a fictional version of a real dataset that can be used safely for a variety of purposes including safeguarding confidential data, reducing bias and also improving machine learning models,” he said.

Programmatic synthetic data helps developers in many ways. A few examples include helping them protect sensitive data, comply with data protection regulations like GDPR and HIPAA, increase data availability between teams, create more data to train, test and validate machine learning models and address data imbalance issues by creating more records for underrepresented groups or classes.

Betterdata’s funding will be used on its product launch and to enhance its programmable synthetic data tech stack, including support for single-table, multi-table and time-series datasets. These are different variations of tabular datasets and Yee explains that the main differences are their structures and the problems thy are created to address.

For example, single-table datasets focus on standalone tables, while multi-table datasets are meant to consider relationships between multiple tables, and time-series datasets deal with data collected over time.

Betterdata also plans to hire more people, including sales and marketing employees, and expand beyond Singapore to more of the Asia-Pacific region over the next one to two years.

In a statement about Investible’s investment, principal Khairu Rejal said, “Betterdata solves one of the biggest issues the AI industry is facing today: lack of high-quality data that also meets privacy requirements. Through its powerful platform, Betterdata generates synthetic data that mimics real-world data without compromising quality and privacy, helping businesses meet global compliance and privacy laws at scale.”

Betterdata uses synthetic data to keep real data safe by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

Founded in 2015, MindX was created to address the lack of coding in Vietnamese school curriculums. The startup’s goal is to create “small Silicon Valleys” across Vietnam, with educational centers that help prepare students of all ages for careers in tech. Since TechCrunch covered MindX’s seed funding in November 2021, it’s tripled its geographical coverage to 32 campuses across Vietnam, graduated 35,000 students so far and connected students to employers in countries like Australia, Thailand, the United Kingdom and, soon, the United States. The startup claims to be the largest coding educator in the region.

Today, the edtech announced that it has raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Kaizenvest, a private equity firm that focuses on the education space. Other investors included Thai education firm Aksorn, Japanese HR firm Mynavi and returning investor Wavemaker Partners. MindX also received another round of debt financing from Beacon Fund, an impact investment firm focused on women-owned and led businesses in Southeast Asia.

MindX’s educational offerings have now expanded beyond coding to in-demand skills like blockchain, data analytics and UI/UX design. It also began entering Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities like Ha Long, Da Nang and Bien Hoa, with the goal of covering 45 cities by June. Founder Nguyen Thanh Tung told TechCrunch that that MindX had many students in those cities who had been taking classes virtually, and and they started attending classes in person once new campuses opened.

Nguyen said localization is very important to MindX as it scales into new areas. Before entering a new city or province, its team spends months visiting homes and getting to know students and parents. Then they customize their product offerings based on what they hear.

Despite its hybrid model, most of MindX’s campuses are standalone, because this gives it better brand recognition and more control over curriculum and teaching quality. Before the pandemic, all of MindX’s classes were in person. During the pandemic, MindX shifted to a hybrid model, letting students attend classes at a campus or virtually from home. This helped the company reach new students in remote areas, and it continue to uses a hybrid model, with online classes for instructions and in-person classes for tutorials.

“The transition to a hybrid model was not without its challenges,” said Nguyen. “It was an entirely different learning experience.” MindX had to revamp its course materials and learning experiences to make sure that both online and in-person delivery was seamless. For example, it added online mini-game and breakout room group discussions to its online classes to make them more engaging.

MindX’s afterschool classes include web/blockchain programming, digital art, data analytics and UI/UX design. Courses range in length from two months to six years. One difference between MindX and other edtechs is that it focuses on getting students ready for new jobs (MindX currently has over 300 hiring partners). For example, it offers real-life projects, career talks and mock interviews. It also holds Demo Days, where students’ projects are judged by businesses.

For students in longer courses, MindX hosts an entrepreneurial program with classes on marketing, fundraising and other business skills. At the end of the course, students apply their new skills to projects like websites, mobile apps and games. Then they can pitch their ideas for funding to a panel that includes MindX’s co-founders and representatives from venture firms.

The new funding will be used to develop MindX’s product portfolio, its hybrid model and tech tools to increase Vietnam’s digital talent pool. TK said MindX will focus on developing accredited programs and promoting gender equality in its courses with scholarships for female students.

In a statement about its investment in MindX, Kaizenvest founder and managing partner Sandeep Aneja said, “The company (MindX) is well-positioned to lead the coding and digital skills space in Vietnam. We are delighted to associate with the founding team as they have consistently delivered high quality learning outcomes. We believe this investment fits within  the future of learning themes and is a testament to our confidence in the growing demand of technology courses across Southeast Asia during the long term.”

Edtech MindX wants to build “little Silicon Valleys” across Vietnam by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch