Month: December 2016
Malaysian YouthsToday gets US$33,719 grant at Korean startup competition
Malaysian startup YouthsToday.com has received MYR 150,000 (about US$ 33,719) in forms of grants and investement at the K-Statup Grand Challenge, an acceleration program initiated by the Korean government for foreign startups.
One of the biggest success stories was the Malaysian startup, YouthsToday.com which is a platform that connects students to corporate sponsors for events. It is also a portfolio company of the venture capital firm, Gobi Partners.
“We could not be happier to make it through to the final phase of the programme,” said YouthsToday Chief Executive Officer, Jazz Tan. “What is next for us, in a word is expansion. We are hoping to bring more South Korean team members on board and continue networking and reaching out to Korean universities and students.”
The startup has now established in 20 Korean university campuses and is valued at more than US$ 1 million as it serves tens of thousands of university students.
YouthsToday is among the top 20 startups, selected from a pool of 2,400 companies that have also applied for the Korean government’s programme. Others include Fingertips Lab, Prekesh, Traversal and Imagga which occupy the top 4 positions in the Korean startup challenge.
Overall, the top 20 teams originated from 10 different countries and represent industries ranging from custom cosmetics and advance online security to biotech and Internet of Things (IoT).
“These startups will receive the support they need to continue their time in Korea, with free office space for another six months, approximately US$ 30,000 each in additional to government grants, and further investments from VCs and other investors,” YouthsToday said.
These benefits follow suit the advantages received by the teams during their initial acceleration period, which included a contribution of monthly stipends at roughly US$ 4,100 for living expenses, office space, as well as mentorship from major Korean tech companies.
“This was our first acceleration programme bringing international startups to Korea and it’s been an incredible success from start to finish,” said Director from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Dr. Chang-Yong Ahn.
Having launched this year, K-Startup Grand Challenge is the first international acceleration programme by the South Korean government. The government’s intent with the programme was to increase diversity in the South Korean startup ecosystem.
“We need more diversity in South Korean startups, and the K-Startup Grand Challenge proves that international startups can succeed in South Korea if they have the right support,” said Shift director Juno Kwon, one of the four South Korea-based accelerators that took charge of mentoring the startups in the programme.
Among local accelerators involved in the programme were Shift, SparkLabs, DEV Korea and ActnerLab. Each took charge of 10 startups, providing professional mentoring, networking and other support.
Commenting on the event, DEV Korea CEO Rock Oh also said, “I truly believe that South Korea will become an international startup hub, especially with government support, directed through smart programmes like the K-Startup Grand Challenge.”
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
31VENTURES of Japan leads investment in Dronomy, the Israeli construction drone-software startup
Japan venture capital (VC) firm 31VENTURES has recently made an investment with Dronomy Ltd., an Isreali-based construction technology startup that provides a drone-based solution.
Mitsui Fudosan’s 31VENTURES has led the round along with other existing investors which include Battery Ventures, Lool Ventures, and Oryzn Capital which had also participated.
The announcement about the funding came on Friday, December 9 through the corporate VC fund – 31VENTURES Global Innovation Fund, an investment platform which is jointly operated by Global Brain Corporation for speedy investments.
No financial details were disclosed about this funding rounds. Though it is known that this funding round will allow the company to launch its solution into international markets and to ramp up its acquisition, starting Q1 2017.
Founded by two physicists interested in autonomous drone flight, current CEO Ori Aphek and VP of R&D Dr. Guy Raz, the venture identified the gap in the ability of construction companies to frequently and accurately monitor their construction sites.
The Tel Aviv startup leveraged upon this. providing the solution of a software company that builds actionable knowledge into construction projects through the analysis of unique and frequent project data collected by autonomous drones.
These pieces of information collected and analysed are shared via the cloud to relevant construction projects.
Commenting on the investment, Akira Sugawara, the GM of 31Ventures said, “It did not take us long to realise the outstanding business potential of Dronomy, which led us to make our first-ever investment in an Israeli technology company.
“The construction market, its challenges and the opportunities it encapsulates are well known to us. We were impressed to see how Dronomy and its remarkable team understand and address these challenges,” Sugarawa further adds.
Construction companies, developers, and subcontractors are beginning to realise the benefits of incorporating these unique technological solutions as part of their business processes.
With Dronomy, the process of mapping, monitoring, inspecting and sharing site details becomes an autonomous part of the daily site routine, leading to reduce in ever-occurring project delays, exceeding cost budgets, and disputes.
These can account for a significant percentage of a project’s overall costs. Besides, construction companies can also use Dronomy to build a knowledge corpus that can be shared over the cloud to all relevant stakeholders.
“We are consistently receiving extraordinary feedback from customers who experience what our solutions can do for them. This is now ratified by one of the world’s largest players in our market,” said Ori Aphek, the Founder and CEO of Dronomy.
“Our ability to make consumer drones fly low and close to construction sites, capture the right visual data, translate it into knowledge, and appropriately deliver this knowledge is what makes us different,” Aphek adds.
In September 2015, Dronomy has raised US$ 1.5 million funding led by Battery Ventures with participation from other VC fimrs and angel investors.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Singapore Ruvento Ventures raises US$25 million seed funding to invest in hardware startups from Singapore, China, and the United States
Singapore-based venture capital (VC) firm Ruvento has a new US$ 25 million seed fund to invest in hardware startups across Singapore, China, and the United States.
The fund is founded and managed by a Russian team, Vyacheslav Slava Solonitsyn and Alex Toh in 2011, who play the role of the Managing Partner and General Partner at Ruvento respectively.
At the same time, Vyacheslav Solonitsyn also maintains a role as the Managing Partner at EnchantVC, which also serves as an accelerator for consumer hardware startups.
According to the company, about 70 percent of the transactions by the VC firm will be an investment between US$ 100k and US$ 500k. While remaining of the capital will be reserved for follow-on investments with a budget up to US$ 2 million.
In terms of the company’s investment interest, Ruvento is particularly interested in infrastructure hardware, focusing on the Internet of Things (IoT) as well as sensor integrations.
Besides, the VC firm is also interested in the commercial applications of drones and robotics, in addition to creative startups that provide VR/AR solutions.
“Hardware shouldn’t mean gimmicks,” said Slava Solonitsyn, Ruvento Managing Partner. “We are not investing in things you don’t need.”
So far, Ruvento using this fund has already written checks to more than 14 companies.
Some of the startups include a startup developing precise autonomous drones, Prenav which received US$ 6.5 million for its seed round and Naked Labs which designed the world’s first home body scanner.
The company also operates in Russia and other Republics of the former Soviet Union, helping startups from the region to expand into Asian markets.
Ruvento is backed by an undisclosed family office. The firm has an eight-year fund lifecycle with a potential two-year extension.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
JP Morgan Arm to invest US$ 30 million in Assetz Property Group
Global giant JP Morgan Asset Management has invested Rs 200 crore (about US$ 30 million) in Assetz Property Group, a firm that develops residential and commercial properties in Southern India.
“The capital will be given in the form of equity by JP Morgan,” said Akshay Dewani, the director of Assetz Property Group. “The money will then be used to build an 18.5 acre residential project in north Bangalore.”
With this investment, Assetz Property Group has secured about US$ 180 million for its upcoming projects.
Earlier investments include US$ 116 million from venture capital firm Equis Funds Group Pte Ltd as well as private equity (PE) that is intended for its midmarket housing vertical.
Other investors comprise of property consultant Jones Lang, LaSalle’s real estate investment arm – Segregated Funds Group, Avenue Real Estate Fund and Amplus Capital Advisors Pct Ltd.
Headquartered in Singapore, Assetz Property Group for the most part develops residential assets in Bengaluru. But the firm also has plans to set up logistics and warehouse parks on the outskirts of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Nagpur in the near future.
“We will be raising capital for logistics vertical first and plan our steps to have a 10 million square feet portfolio over the next four years,” Dewani added.
The company is diversifying into new segments and is in the process of forming commercial, industrial warehousing, and residential platforms to raise capital and expand its presence.
“We plan to have a multi-development platform as we have a good fundraising setup,” said Dewani.
Previously in March, the company had made an announcement regarding the launch of its township brand “Assetz Lifestyle”, under which it will build the group’s mid-market housing projects in the next decade.
In the next ten years, the group plans to build around 10,000 homes along the growth corridors of Bengaluru which is expected to generate a sum of around Rs 5000 crore in revenue from this business alone.
For more information, please visit http://www.assetzproperty.com/
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Temasek Holdings to take stake in Oxford Sciences Innovation
Singapore’s state investment fund – Temasek Holdings has become a limited partner in Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), which develops and commercialises intellectual properties from Oxford university.
Participating through the means of capital infusion, this is Temasek Holdings’ first investment in the UK-based university fund. The financial terms of the investment were undisclosed.
This is part of a larger £230 million (about US$ 289.9 million) financing round that was announced on December 9, which has boost OSI’s capital base to almost £600 million.
The investment round had both new and existing investors, including some of Asia’s leading technology corporations and sovereign wealth funds such as Singapore’s Temasek and Oman Investment Fund, which are among the new wave of investors.
“We are very excited to be working with new shareholders from across the world, notably from Asia and continental Europe, and also grateful to our original supporters, the 10 largest of which have participated in this funding round,” said the chairman of OSI, Peter Davies.
With the new funding round, OSI’s capital base which previously stood at £350m has now expanded to £580 million (about US$ 731 million), making it the largest private university fund in the United Kingdom.
“Raising this capital reflects our confidence in the breadth and quality of opportunity available to investors to help the University of Oxford develop a world-class commercial ecosystem around its unmatched intellectual capital and heritage,” Davies add.
Founded in 2015, the formation of Oxford Science Innovation (OSI) aims to maintain the university’s position as one of the world’s leading research institution, providing capital and scaling expertise to businesses that are driven by its in-house intellectual property.
To date, the fund has backed approximately 20 spin-out startups based on the technology from university’s labs. Among its track record of developed businesses include Oxford Nanoimaging, Vaccitech and Oxford Flow.
Temasek is reshaping its holdings and bracing for lower returns after in July reporting the first decline in its portfolio in seven years. The value of assets fell 9% to US$ 242 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, according to the firm’s annual review.
Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore’s state-owned investment fund, said it will focus on being an active investor as it increases holdings in overseas companies.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media