Friday, July 31, 2015

Woomentum launches Asia’s first women’s crowdfunding platform

Founder of Woomentum, Mouna Aouri Langendorf, wants to empower women-led startups through crowdfunding and community support Singapore-based women entrepreneur community platform, Woomentum, announced yesterday that it has launched its crowdfunding platform, Woomentum*Fund, which is purportedly the first women-centric crowdfunding platform in Asia. In 2014, founder of Woomentum, Mouna Aouri Langendorf, who spent 13 years building...
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India’s TripFactory raises Series A funding led by Aarin Capital

Started by Via Founders, TripFactory offers tour packages curated by experts and travel operators Bangalore-based online customised holiday store TripFactory*has raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding led by Aarin Capital Partners (founded by Mohandas Pai and Ranjan Pai). Launched last year by Vinay Gupta and Amit Aggarwal, Founders of online travel agency Via.com,...
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An e-wallet defeats its very purpose; won’t work in India: Mswipe Founder

Mobile wallet companies will face serious challenges once Android Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay become mainstream, says Manish Patel A digital/mobile wallet defeats the very purpose of money, and hence, it is not going to work in India, states Manish Patel, Founder and CEO of mobile point of sale (mPoS) company Mswipe. E-wallet companies...
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28 tools to maximise your startup’s user acquisition

Startups have limited resources. Growth hack your company with these free tools! Every new venture initially faces the same challenge of how to acquire its first customers. It is relatively easy to “waste” a lot of money and time in the early stages. Of course, getting those first users is crucial, however, many startups have...
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Your mobile data will now be paid by this startup

Gigato reimburses users for data spent on partner apps and provides additional data for free The adoption of mobile Internet is rapidly increasing in India due to a decrease in the price of smartphones. However, the cost of data is still a hindrance for users in emerging markets. Consumer behaviour shows that the average Indian...
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Singapore-based PandaBed wants to make home-sharing like OkCupid

PandaBed aims to create a more personalised homestay experience by matching homeowners and guests based on their compatibility Singapore-based home-sharing platform*PandaBed*has announced the launch of its new PeerMatch feature. It aims to “empower Asian holiday goers to find trustworthy accommodations and like-minded homeowners that match their lifestyle needs,” shared an official statement. PeerMatch works by...
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Uber to invest US$1 billion in India over next nine months

The investment will help Uber expand operations to new cities and meet its goal of reaching over one million trips per day in the near future San Francisco-based Uber has committed to invest US$1 billion in India over the next nine months. The investment will help Uber expand operations to new cities and develop new...
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Japanese investors back Indian m-commerce startup LazyLad

The startup will use the US$500,000 raised to expand in India and foreign markets such as Indonesia, Singapore LazyLad, a mobile app that connects customers with their neighbourhood retailers, has raised US$500,000 in pre-Series A funding from Silicon Valley-based VC investor Jai Choi, with participation from Kiyohiro Sugashita (a prominent financial expert in Japan) and...
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Thursday, July 30, 2015

2 essentials of a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem

Understanding how ecosystems evolve can provide policymakers, VCs and entrepreneurs with valuable insight into market conditions and opportunities If you search for ‘business ecosystem’ on e27, you’ll get 671 hits. You’ll also get over 11 million hits Googling it. So what is an entrepreneurship ecosystem? And why does it matter? Originally used to describe a...
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3 secrets of successful coupon strategy revealed

Both ‘coupon’ and ‘voucher’ have been used regularly in online and offline retailing, so which term should you use as a merchant? Coupon vs voucher Coupon is generally applied to get a discount off the purchase, while voucher is generally applied to get complete waiver off the purchase (i.e. get it for free). For example:...
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4 pieces of conventional hiring wisdom you should ignore

There are certain hiring practices that are better left ignored if you want to find a good culture fit My business partner Jeff and I recently hired our first full-time employee, and we were nervous. We knew that choosing the wrong employee could be a devastating hit to our business. Before extending an offer, we...
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AngelPrime is now Prime Venture Partners; forms new US$47M fund

While the key focus is fintech companies, the fund will also back startups in healthcare, consumer Internet and education sectors AngelPrime, a seed-stage venture capital firm, has rebranded as Prime Venture Partners, and launched a new INR 300 crore (approximately US$47 million) fund. The Bangalore-based fund will continue to make early-stage investments in technology startups,...
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India’s Droom raises US$16M in Series A funding led by Lightbox

The online automobile marketplace will be expanding operations to add 20 automobile, 12 service categories in the next 18-24 months Droom, the online automobile marketplace has raised US$16 million in Series A funding led by Lightbox. With the new investment, Droom will be expanding operations to add 20 automobile and 12 service categories hosting over...
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Startupbootcamp’s first Demo Day in Singapore showcases 11 startups

Applications for next year’s Singapore Startupbootcamp FinTech accelerator close in October and the*programme starts April 16, 2016 Fintech accelerator company*Startupbootcamp FinTech*held its first annual Singapore Demo Day on July 3o, 2015. It featured 11 teams and more than 450 guests from the financial industry. The Demo Day was the culmination of a 100-day programme launched...
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From a high-paying job in Nigeria to launching Bangladeshi beauty site

Nazmul Sheik quit his job and came back to Bangladesh to fill a gap, aims for Shajgoj to be the Sephora of the region On his way back from Nigeria to Bangladesh, this telecom executive had a stopover in Dubai for three days. He went to a Dubai shopping mall with his wife and to...
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Startup in Spotlight: Allstay most confident about speed & customisation

e27 visited Allstay in Korea to understand why the startup is choosing to fight big competitors such as Trivago and HotelsCombined Just last week, Korea-based travel search startup Allstay announced that it has received US$432,000 from Japanese firm Venture Republic, which operates travel sites Travel.jp and Hotel.jp, and local online travel agency TideSquare. The startup,...
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You ignore Asia at your own peril: Web Summit Founder

Paddy Cosgrave gives a bird’s eye view on what makes Asia the go-to destination when it comes to tech innovation Recently I visited seven cities in seven days across Asia, meeting incredible entrepreneurs, investors and the next wave of unicorns. But who should I meet as I checked into my hotel in Shanghai? Peter Thiel,...
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Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Zovi Founders’ O2O fashion marketplace app Little nabs US$50M

Little is building a large O2O (online-to-offline) supply-side infrastructure and will offer 50,000-plus live deals across 11 cities by March 2016 Little, an app-only marketplace for deals in the online to offline space (O2O) — launched by Manish Chopra and Satish Mani, founders of online fashion brand Zovi — has raised US$50 million, led by...
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How do you become a global fitness franchise?

Anytime Fitness expands in Hong Kong, aims at staking its claim, one branch at a time “In Asia Pacific, just four per cent of the population has gym memberships,” says John Phillips, Director of Anytime Fitness in Hong Kong. What this numbers signals, for any entrepreneur, is a business opportunity. This is especially true in...
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Co-working: a great option for startups (self-funded or otherwise)

Operating your startup*out of a shared co-working space provides you with creative benefits not offered in a traditional office environment When my Co-founder and I launched ZinePak in January 2011, we made the decision to keep the company self-funded for as long as possible. It was (and still is!) important for us to maintain control...
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25 most downloaded apps in Southeast Asia and India: Aptoide

With 144k stores and 1.6 billion downloads to date, Portuguese indie Android app marketplace Aptoide shares their data and their plans to open a Singapore office Although Google Play is the conventional mega store for Android apps, there are alternative options for those that are after a more curated experience. Aptoide, a four-year-old startup from...
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Hong Kong fashion startup Goxip launches m-commerce app for celeb news lovers

The app uses social media, newsfeeds and photo recognition technology to connect fashion enthusiasts with the world’s online retailers Fashionistas may want that sexy KauffmanFranco dress Taylor Swift rocked on the red carpet, but the average shopper can’t overlook the US$4k price tag. Many retailers can offer something similar, but brick and mortar stores have...
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We are trying to make the wallet as good as cash: Paytm

The company is aggressively betting on the payments business, along with focussing on e-commerce and its new bus ticket marketplace The 6000-km distance between Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou and Paytm in Noida doesn’t seem to deter the spirit of this rapidly growing Indian mobile commerce and payments platform. This long distance relationship started blooming after...
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Alibaba’s injects US$1 billion into cloud computing arm Aliyun

The move may signal Alibaba’s desire to compete with Amazon Web Services Alibaba Group*today announced it will invest US$1 billion in its cloud computing division Aliyun in an effort to set up data centres in Singapore, the Middle East, Japan and Europe, as*first reported on TechCrunch. The international expansion puts Aliyun in direct competition with...
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Debt funding complements venture capital: Experts

Debt funding is a way to connect old economy with the new one, explain leaders in the institutional funding space Debt venture funding is becoming an important component of the*overall change in India, experts feel. Although debt funding as a product tends to lag venture capital by 10-15 years in all markets, it is fast...
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