Category: Startup
The Apothecary, A Malaysian Company Offering A Solid Scent For The Modern Man
From working in the e-commerce site, Groupon to being a business manager for Kakiseni where he made his own cheese from scratch. Adrian Cheong is now making his own scent, crafting a solid cologne for the modern man known as the Apothecary.
With the launch of the Apothecary last November. Adrian Cheong aims to fill the gap in the market for locally-made men’s solid cologne for those that appreciate artisan goods and personal grooming. Moreover, the ingredients used in the making were all natural and from local sources.
Having the experience of spilling a full bottle of cologne in his bag, Adrian decided to reinvent a cologne that was portable and can become a natural alternative to the traditional spray cologne, In the end, he came up with a solid cologne is conveniently designed to be small enough to fit in pockets without being an excessive weigh.
There is a wide range of products from Apothecary where each scent has its own story and project different personalities. With the most notable ones being Cornerstone, a scent meant for a leader; Hotshot, a fresh cooling scent which displays confidence; as well as Maverick, the signature rebel scent that a badass would wear.
The Apothecary’s solid colognes are currently available at The Yard Backdoor Dry Goods Supply, Amplitude Barbershop, The Offday, Pestle and Mortar Clothing, and Major Drop at the retail price of RM59.90. The solid colognes are also available online.
But ultimately, Adrian’s goal is not just to be in Malaysia but to be a global brand “E-commerce is the way to go, and I plan to sell in them Taiwan and Singapore too,” said Cheong.
About Apothecary
Apothecary is a cologne crafted to create a new lifestyle specifically for the modern men. Each cologne is made with different mixture of assorted blends of premium and natural ingredients including herbs, spices, beans and plant extracts where each scent represents a distinct personality.
For more information, please visit https://www.theapothecarymalaysia.com/
Contact Info
Name: Vivian
Organization: Unicorn Media
Finding Success In The Most Unlikeliest Place – Talking Toes
Spreading positivity with socks, Talking Toes found success in the most unlikeliest of place – yes, a pair of socks. Founded in April 2015, this company was started up by Singaporeans Nison Chan and Lucas Saw as the pair quit their jobs to pursue this startup dream.
The two has now found success with their socks being stocked in 17 stores both locally and worldwide, among which 14 are in Singapore and one international stockist each in South Korea, Myanmar, and San Francisco.
Looking back, founder Nison Chan says that he always had an affinity with socks since he was a teenager, his favorite being an international socks brand called Happy Socks. Since his first pair, his fancy socks collection has grown to now filled up three bags.
Placing what they love to work, the founders said that “Talking Toes aren’t simply socks, they sell inspiration.”
True to that, the pair of socks with vibrant colors and snippets of inspiration printed onto them can lift anyone’s spirit when they put it on and start their day. Most of the quotes are short, sweet and concise such as “Celebrate Life”, “Be Yourself” and “Dream Big”.
It’s not just that, the socks are also of premium quality, woven from combed cotton, which is different from regular cotton, being finer, stronger and more compact. This material allows the socks to have a gentler and softer feel on the feet while maintaining durability and design quality.
Besides that, seeking to expand their business to more international audiences, Talking Toes has also placed a project on popular crowdfunding site Kickstarter last month. Promoting itself as the world’s first inspirational label, Talking Toes to date, with 20 days to go has already achieved the support of 83 backers and also exceeded its goal of S$3000 with a surplus of $1366.
About Talking Toes
Talking Toes offer premium quality socks with inspirational quotes on them. It currently has 9 inspiring designs with the most popular being, “Blessed”, “Be Yourself” and “Be Confident”. Their socks can be purchased online or bought from 14 stores in Singapore.
For more information, please visit https://talkingtoes.com.sg/
Contact Info
Name: Vivian
Organization: Unicorn Media
Singapore-based Startup, Refash Raises US$ 294K In Seed Funding Round
A startup enterprise based in Singapore, Refash has recently announced that it has raised S$400,000 (approximately US$294K) worth of fundings for its starting seed round. The funding round was led by Singapore’s Tri5 Ventures and Malaysia’s Tinkbig Ventures.
For those uninitiated, Refash was named after the concept of “refashioning” which means the reinvention of a new type of fashion trend where people can still spot a different outfit daily without burning a hole in their wallet.
The idea was also borne out of the alarming environmental consequences of trending fashion where 41.5 million kilogram of clothings were being disposed by Singaporeans annually.
Hence, Refash hopes to hone and grow the acceptance of Singaporeans in the practice of buying and using second-hand clothings by mediating the process and provide a solution to resell clothing surplus efficiently, easily and quickly.
In other words, Refash aims to help women clear their wardrobe through providing a retail platform for women to buy and sell their clothing items efficiently. The startup also look forward to refashion the concept of “buying” for shoppers, enforcing the idea that they do not have to hold on to the clothes forever.
“The disposing of so much clothing is a real waste, literally. Rather than just throwing away, I believe in the immense potential in the problems we are solving – bursting closets, clothes wastage and rising landfills to dispose these clothes”, said Refash CEO and Founder, Aloysius Sng in e27.
Hence, by creating a system which facilitates fashion resell, users who wish to clean out their closets just have to pack their unwanted items and the rest is handled by the Refash team where the team will then sell the items on their platform and outlets.
“People who want to clear their closets of unwanted clothes just need to pack and have them picked up by Refash. We will do the rest,” Aloysius Sng adds.
Since its launch in January 2016, the idea has been proven profitable as the six-months old enterprise has already earned a revenue of S$250,000. Selling more than half of the 40,000 “looking-brand new” clothing items which it has processed. Additionally, the startup has also successfully cashed out at least S$150,000 to its sellers.
Reportedly on e27, Refash plans to use the fundings on enhancing its technology, both on the front-end platform as well as their back-end inventory system. It also plans to build on its business networking group of resellers to facilitate quicker movement of the items.
Besides that, Refash with Tinkbig Venture on board. also has the ambition to expand its market to Malaysia by the end of the year.
About Refash:
Refash is a Singaporean-based fashion portal that sells second-hand fashion, helping women get rid of clothes they no longer want to keep. Refash collects clothes from sellers and processes them which includes taking snapshots of the item before listing them on the website for sale.
UniFa Wins Japan Regional Championship And Is Now On Road To Startup World Cup For US$1 Million
Ten Japanese startups go head-to-head in the regional round of Startup World Cup, participating in a series of pitch contest as they fight for the chance to be their national representative in order to participate in the grand finale which will be held in Silicon Valley, San Francisco next year.
In the end, the regional champion turned out to be UniFa, a startup enterprise providing an Internet of Things (IoT) solution for parenting and child development which has won the judges’ votes amidst other competition. The panel of well-known judges was from Japan’s own technology and startup’s system, that is SNS founder Takafumi Horie, ABBA Lab CEO Osamu Ogasahara, and Gumi CE0 Hironao Kunimitsu.
Some of the competition that UniFa has headed up against includes Alpaca, a fintech startup based in Japan and US which leverages on artificial intelligence to create an automated trading platform, and D Free, a medical wearable that detects the user’s intestinal tract activity and alerts the user that it’s time for them to use the restroom.
UniFa, on the other hand, offers the solution of a small robot called Meebo, an application that is designed to track kindergarteners’ physical and mental growth. It functions as a smart thermometer, and a smart bed collecting data from kindergarteners in order to provide parents with a better idea of their child’s feelings and experiences. The robot is also said to be able to cut down the unnecessary workload of handling paperwork for kindergarten teachers, which thus would allow them to concentrate on the child’s education.
With this, UniFa will be able to bring their company mission, that is to lessen the communication gap between children and their parents to the global platform as UniFa has withheld a place as one of the top 16 startups from 14 countries that will go head-to-head on March 24, 2017, in San Francisco where the next wave of entrepreneurs will be born and the winner takes all.
About Startup World Cup:
Looking for the world’s brightest mind across the globe and groundbreaking solutions that will move ecosystems forward, Startup World Cup is an event organized by Fenox Venture Capital that is dedicated to launching and advising the world’s next wave of leading entrepreneurs.
For more information, please visit: http://www.startupworldcup.io/
Contact Info:
Name: Vivian
Organization: Unicorn Media
India-based SaaS firm, CloudCherry raises US$6 million In Series A Round Funding
After raising US$1 million in their seed funding round, CloudCherry, an enterprise startup based in Chennai, India has raised to new heights as they recently closed their Series A funding with a six-fold increase of US$6 million.
The funding was led by prominent venture capitals – Vertex Ventures and Cisco Investments plus existing investor IDG Ventures, which now only holds a minority stake in the corporation. This amount by far has made a record for the highest 2016 Series A funding raised by a SaaS startup.
Understanding that a quick, genuine response can always be a game changer to secure a happy customer, CloudCherry was established to help companies by providing a way to act fast on customer feedback.
Thus, CloudCherry set out to provide a platform for companies where companies can apply key metrics to gauge customer experience, capture customer feedback as well as get notified about customer insights in real-time to intervene and fix issues.
The startup enterprise currently works with companies in sectors of banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), hospitality, healthcare, retail, manufacturing as well as e-commerce whereby their clients include brand names such as World of Titan, HDFC Bank, Caratlane and Central Voonik.
According to Deal Street Asia, CEO and co-founder of CloudCherry, Vinod Muthukrishnan said that “With this funding and their support, we are many steps closer to making our presence globally and becoming the name synonymous with Customer Experience.”
In a separate statement, the CloudCherry co-founder has also expressed his ambitions for the company, as they are looking to expand their business outside of India, targeting the markets of United States, Southeast Asia, and West Asia.
About CloudCherry:
Founded in 2013, CloudCherry is a SaaS firm formed with the coming together of a group of management gurus, business leaders and experts in mobility, analytics and technology sectors. The company based in Chennai, India specializes in customer analytics technology whereby it collaborates with brands to provide real-time analytics of the company’s products as well as to help them track, measure and improve user satisfaction.