Author: vivian
Backed by Chinese Rock Star Wang Feng, China’s FIIL to be the next Beats by Dr. Dre
Chinese rock star Wang Feng is recreating a Dr. Dre phenomenon with his headphones brands – FIIL. Like Beats, the Beijing-based FIIL designs are fashionable but still high-fidelity.
Rising to fame in China in the late 1990s, Wang Feng is a rock veteran who is involved in a lot of trades, from working on his headphone startup, launched last year to holding the position as one of the panelists on China’s version ofThe Voice.
Leon Wu, FIIL’s CTO with a decade of experience in audio engineering, name-checks Beats and Bose as brands that the startup admires and model after. “We try to absorb good things from both,” he said.
“The Beats marketing strategy,” Wu adds, “…is also one of the things FIIL would like to emulate.”
Looking at Dr. Dre’s array of product placement, indeed FIIL has its own version, as Wu told, “During the 24th birthday celebration of Hong Kong singer G.E.M., Wang gave her a pair of FIIL headphones. She put the headphones on in front of a bunch of reporters, and it attracted a lot of attention and a boost in sales.”
Since then, FIIL has been in the hype, benefiting from a ton of free and glamorous publicity from Wang Feng’s celebrity friends when they wear them in front of paparazzi or when the company’s first product, the FIIL Wireless, won design awards from Red Dot.
A majority of FIIL’s users are from mainland China, but like a number of young startups across the nation, the audio equipment maker is also looking to advance onto the international platform in the hope of replicating the success of DJI, Xiaomi, and One Plus.
A step to accomplish the feat, FIIL has recently launched itself on Kickstarter on December weekend, testing the waters with Carat Pro, a set of wireless headphones that comes with some sporty features.
The wireless buds do real-time heart-rate monitoring, audio coaching, and tracking of distance, steps and workout duration – a first for the startup to blend a fitness tracker with its earphones.
“We want to go above and beyond the scope of traditional earbuds with the FIIL Carat Pro earbuds,” said FIIL president and Rock Star Wang Feng.
FIIL Carat Pro earbuds also include Valencell’s PerformTek biometrics, to create a high-tech sports earbud that is said to be not only fashionable but even more accurate and advanced than smartwatches and fitness trackers.
The earbuds are also modeled by actress Zhang Ziyi, star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon who was married to Wang Feng last year.
As per details of the project, the Kickstarter project targets a pledge to raise US$50,000 in 40 days and will end on Jan 15, next year. To date, the project has reached half the funds backed by 189 backers.
At present, there are only five types of FIIL headphones on the market: FIIL, FIIL Wireless Bluetooth, FIIL Bestie headphones, FIIL Diva Pro Headphone and FIIL’s Carat Pro. The headphones cost between 599 and 1,999 yuan (about US$ 86.20 and US$ 287.80).
In 2015, FIIL has received a US$10 million seed funding. Looking into the future, FIIL’s plan to cover not just headphone, but to extend its reach to speakers and even smartphones as well.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
IdeaSpace launches 2017 Philippines startup competition
IdeaSpace Foundation, an early-stage technology incubator and accelerator in the Philippines has formally launched its National Startup Competition for 2017 and has begun accepting innovative technology ideas.
IdeaSpace is a non-profit foundation backed by First Pacific, Metro Pacific Investments Corp (MPIC), Metro Pacific Tollways Corp (MPTC), MPIC hospital group, PLDT, Meralco, Smart Communications, Maynilad, Voyager Innovations, and PayMaya Philippines.
On its fifth year, the 2017 IdeaSpace National Startup Competition will be increasing its finalist quota, accepting 15 startups instead of the usual 10, into the final acceleration process.
The acceptance of more startups is part of IdeaSpace’s efforts to expand and accommodate the local startup ecosystem, which it noted has seen robust growth over the past four years.
“We’ve seen very inspiring stories of startup founders joining IdeaSpace over the years, from husband-and-wife tandems to students looking to make their own mark in the world,” said the Executive Director of IdeaSpace, Diane Eustaquio.
“This year, we’re looking to extend our support to more startup founders with burning passion for starting up their own business and helping the country progress with the help of technology and innovation,” she adds.
All 15 startups that make it to the finals next year will receive an equity fee funding of PHP 500,000, which translates to an approximate amount of US$ 10,000.
Besides, the teams will also receive support for housing, transportation, incorporation, office space, communication, software, classes and training, as well as mentorship from executives under First Pacific companies, the total value of which amounts to more than PHP 1 million.
However, IdeaSpace will not have a stake in their early-stage startups.
Newly appointed IdeaSpace president Butch Meily said the foundation has been extending its capacity into a – full ecosystem support. This is to ensure that most of the startups are guided every step of the way.
“We’ve realized over the years that startups need as much support as they can get in every step of the process, from bringing their ideas to life to launching them into the market, and even to making their startups grow further,” Meily explains.
But aside from incubation and acceleration programs, IdeaSpace has also been an avid supporter of startup community events in the country and overseas, such as the annual Geeks on a Beach conference, the Slingshot MNL programme by the Department of Trade & Industry, as well as the DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival.
Since launching in 2012, IdeaSpace has incubated and funded a total of 52 startups, some of which have grown and evolved into large businesses and enterprises such as PinoyTravel and TimeFree Innovations.
Interested individuals or groups may submit their unique startup ideas by logging on to apply.ideaspacefoundation.org. Deadline for submission of ideas is on January 12, 2017.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Indonesia-based reinsurer Marein to raise US$41 rights issue in 2017
Maskapai Reinsurance Indonesia (Marein), one of only four local reinsurance companies in the country, has made plans to raise US$41 million from a rights offering in 2017.
The company said it will sell up to 130 million new shares in a right issue by June 2017 in order to strengthen its existing capital.
Reinsurers provide insurance for other insurance companies, Marein along with Reasuransi Indonesia Utama, Reasuransi Nasional Indonesia, and Tugu Reasuransi Indonesia are the only four local reinsurance companies in Indonesia.
Local firms often lack capital compared to their larger foreign reinsurance peers, forcing Indonesian insurance firms to seek coverage for big insurance policies abroad.
However, when local insurance firms pay for premium overseas coverage, it will complicate government efforts to balance the country’s current account.
Hence, Financial Services Authority (OJK) has requested the four reinsurers, Marein and its rivals to increase their capacity to cover more clients.
“In order to increase the capacity, we have to raise capital,” said Marein president director Robby Loho to Jakarta Globe.
“The company is expected to reap IDR 1.5 trillion in premium income this year, with an increment of 40 percent from last year’s IND 1.07 trillion”, said Yanto J. Wibisono, Marein’s finance director.
Besides, the premium income at Marein has also reached IDR 907 billion in the first nine months this year, increasing by 29 percent from the same period in 2015. This was driven by a double-digit growth in life and general reinsurance segments this year.
Fitch Ratings, one of the big three credit rating agencies affirmed Marein’s national insurer financial strength with an A+, as well as its international IFS rating of BB back in August.
Fitch said that the rating reflects Marein’s high business concentration in catastrophe-prone Indonesia, its modest market position, and despite its long operating record, small asset size compared with some of its local and regional peers.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media.
Singapore-based e-commerce enabler Shopmatic buys technology consulting firm 5X Ruby
Singapore-based e-commerce enabler Shopmatic has announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Taiwan-based technology consulting firm, 5X Ruby on Thursday.
According to the details of the agreement, Shopmatic has acquired 51% stake in 5X Ruby in a mixed cash-and-stock deal for an undisclosed amount. The latter’s valuation was also not disclosed.
The move on Shopmatic’s part is aimed at strengthening its platform development team, in order to provide its customers a streamlined experience backed by the latest technology stack.
“We plan on developing value-added services for our customers including inventory management service, integrate payments on the platform, aggregation, and taxation. For these services, we will be using the technology from 5X Ruby. Some of the 20-member team of the company will be working with Shopmatic’s lab to design these solutions.” Anurag Avula, the co-founder of Shopmatic said.
Founded in December 2014 by Anurag Avula, Yen Ti Lim, and Kris Chen, Shopmatic is an international e-commerce platform, launched with the intent to help anyone wanting to sell online.
In other words, it aims to help merchants and individuals manage everything that is required for them to grow their business in the virtual world, that is from assisting managing merchants to develop their own unique web-store to aiding them with insights on how to sell online.
Besides building websites, Shopmatic also helps integrate payment gateways, establish partnerships with logistics companies, and facilitate listings in marketplaces and social media. The service also includes a backend analytics platform.
On the other end, 5X Ruby has been the at the forefront of technical consultation and training. The firm has built a vibrant and growing Ruby developer community in Taiwan catering to high-tech clients from Japan, Hong Kong & Taiwan developing web and mobile applications.
The technology company in-house software Ruby on Rails is a server-side web application development format written in Ruby 5X held under the MIT License. The system acts as a model-view-controller framework which uses less code and provides default structures for a database, a web service, and web pages.
The Taiwanese firm, in turn, lies in sync with Shopmatic’s aspirations to deploy the latest technologies and simplify the process for those who intends to take their business online, without the requirement for technical knowledge.
Besides, the acquisition will also facilitate the company’s international market expansion plans, which aims to target markets outside Singapore by early 2017, particularly to strengthen its presence in other South Asian markets such as Japan.
“This acquisition will not only enable us to strengthen our stance as the leading platform that enables businesses to go online but also to scale and enter new markets at a faster pace. We welcome the 5xRuby team into the Shopmatic family and are excited about the opportunity of working with a world-class development team,” said Anurag Avula.
In 2015, Singapore-headquartered Shopmatic has launched its operations in Gurgaon and Bangalore in India. The company has also launched a mobile app, earlier last month for Indian Sellers called Go, which is an easy tool to create an e-commerce website in less than two minutes with three easy steps. Reportedly 85-90% of Shopmatic’s business comes from India.
By Vivian Foo, Unicron Media
Japan’s Outsourcing Inc acquires German Orizon Holding for US$85.2 million
Japanese Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firm Outsourcing Inc. has announced the acquisition of German staffing company Orizon Holding for an estimated €81.6 million (about US$ 85.2 million).
Outsourcing has acquired the full stake of the business through the Japanese group’s German subsidiary OSI Holding in a move to safeguard its business operations amid a highly unpredictable and volatile market.
The closing of the transaction is expected to occur by June 30, 2017. This deal will also see an exit for private equity firm Silverfleet Capital Partners after almost ten years in portfolio.
The acquisition of Orizon Holding is part of Outsourcing’s latest plan – VISION 2020: Tackling New Frontiers, in which the Tokyo-headquartered firm aims to grow in the direction of Lehman-class environmental change.
However, the BPO firm also noted that it has been conventionally engaged in manufacturing outsourcing business and confronted volatility risks since the collapse of Lehman Bros in 2008.
Thus, with this acquisition, Outsourcing Inc. can leverage on the strategic location of Germany, one of Europe’s leading industrialized countries for the overseas expansion of their manufacturing businesses.
Besides, Orizon Holding is also the eight largest staffing company in Germany with its strengths in mechanical engineering, aviation, and medical sectors.
“Orizon surpasses its peers in profitability and is expected to achieve ongoing growth,” Outsourcing Holdings said in a statement.”This transaction will provide the group with a strong foothold to develop into the European industrial nations, including those in Eastern Europe.”
The company has kickstarted some medium-term management initiatives to scale globally into the sectors with less susceptibility of fluctuations.
The plans call for outsourcing business to convenience stores industry and the U.S. military bases in Japan, while undertaking the public services contracted to the private sectors in Australia and the UK.
In August 2016, Outsourcing Inc. has earlier strengthen its Europe footprint by acquiring British BPO business Liberata for 43 million pounds (about US$ 53.4 million).
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media