Kevin Osmond, CEO of Printerous

Finance

On-demand digital printing platform Printerous raises Series A Funding to support national expansion

Printerous​, Indonesian online printing and packaging platform announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by ​BAce Capital​, ​AddVentures​, ​GDP Venture​, and ​Gobi Agung​. Existing investor ​Sovereign’s Capital also joined in this round.

The company said it will use the funding to deploy its technology infrastructure and expand its presence to 30 cities in Indonesia. It also plans to further grow the business in a sustainable way.

“Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia face difficulties in designing, ordering, as well as distributing the prints and packaging supplies. Printerous’ way of aggregating printing & logistic service providers help solve those problems by making the entire process more cost-efficient, convenient, and transparent for MSMEs,” said Kevin Osmond, Founder and CEO Printerous.

Printerous currently partners with more than 250 printing and logistic service providers and claims to have been used by more than 35,000 businesses.

Business

Vietnam cancels plans to cap foreign e-payment firms, stating risky effects on the activities

Vietnam, who has seen foreign ownership exceeding 49 per cent in some digital payment firms, announced that its central bank has put a stop to its plan to limit foreign ownership of such.

According to VNExpress‘ article, it initially released a draft of its foreign ownership cap proposal in November for consultation, seeking to “balance the ease of attracting foreign capital with ensuring an active role for local firms in the fintech sector”.

According to the consulted experts, a change in regulations could affect the activities of some digital payment firms.

Also Read: Cash is still king in Vietnam, but two fintech firms look to bring a drastic change

The central bank said that by the end of the first quarter this year, there were 27 e-wallets in the market through five parent companies owned 90 per cent of them. The five, which the State Bank of Vietnam did not name, have foreign ownership of 30-90 per cent.

Growing middle class and the rapid improvement of telecom infrastructure have both contributed to Vietnam becoming the breeding ground of cashless payment. The government has expressed the plan to make 90 per cent of all transactions cashless by the end of this year, despite heavy reliance on cash, which still accounts for 80 per cent of Vietnamese.

Edutech accelerator EduSpaze introduces first cohort of startups, kicking off a 100-day programme

EduSpaze, a Singapore-based edutech accelerator, has announced its inaugural cohort of startups of nine early-stage edutech companies from Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia. All companies cover the categories of Pre-K, K-12, higher education, and corporate learning.

They are:

  • Makers Empire, Australia. It is an Australian edutech company helping K-8 educators harness the power of 3D design and 3D printing technology to teach STEM, Design Thinking, and Project-Based Learning skills.
  • FutureLab, Malaysia. It is a corporate learning platform that provides a SaaS mentorship platform that allows universities, companies, and accelerators to manage, track and scale their mentoring programmes.
  • Vere360, Singapore. It is an edutech startup that utilises the immersive capabilities of Virtual Reality (VR) to increase access to quality education in the Southeast Asian region.
  • HARDSKILLS, Singapore. It is an online learning platform and framework for enterprises to train and coach teams in the hard-to-teach behavioural skills such as critical thinking, and influence.

Also Read: Just launched: Edtech accelerator by Spaze Ventures to focus on customised grooming for startups

  • Practicle, Singapore. The company uses data analytics and AI to augment teachers’ skills by automating personalised formative assessment for mathematics subject, to help students practice effectively and improve faster.
  • Yumcha Studios, Singapore. It is a content and education technology company that helps children learn fearlessly through lovable characters and stories and a unique translingual learning system that bridges home languages and target languages.
  • Flying Cape, Singapore. It is an edutech company that seeks to shape the future of education through a Global Distribution System built specifically for the industry.
  • ACKTEC Technologie, Singapore. It is a pioneer in the development of digital interactive content that uses AR, VR, and 3D animation to deliver immersive and authentic learning experiences for corporate and training institutions.
  • ArcLab, Singapore, Corporate Learning. It is a mobile learning L&D SaaS platform – empowering organisations to deliver training efficiently to workers directly on their mobile phones with no app to download and no fuss.

All participating companies will present their solutions at a demo day in Singapore on May 20.

EduSpaze is managed by seed capital firm and startup incubator, Spaze Ventures and supported by Enterprise Singapore, the enterprise development agency.

EduSpaze aims to nurture a vibrant edutech startup ecosystem that serves the education sector in Singapore and Southeast Asia by supporting early-stage edutech companies with up to S$500,000 (US$360,000) funding, providing a unique and custom accelerator programme, mentor support and a live sandbox environment in the region for proof-of-concept implementations.

AstraZeneca-Singapore establishes three strategic partnerships to improve digital health innovation

The founding partner of AI Innovation of Sweden,  AstraZeneca, announced today that it is entering into strategic partnerships with three healthcare innovators and organisations in Singapore, using artificial intelligence (AI), big data and genomics to step up the development of life-changing biomedical science.

AstraZeneca signed partnerships with homegrown AI startups eko.ai, the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC) and the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR).

Also Read: Sequoia India, EDBI co-lead US$4M funding in eko.ai

The partnership aims to build on government initiatives such as the National AI Strategy and the Healthcare Industry Transformation Map. It also aims to speed up the deployment of digital healthcare technology to identify risk factors for disease prevention, enable earlier diagnosis, and to improve the treatment and management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. It plans to accelerate scientific talent and skills development, and advance Singapore’s position as a global hub for health science innovation.

With eko.ai, AstraZeneca will work to accelerate the development and deployment of AI-technology that speeds up the diagnosis of heart disease.

With A*STAR, AstraZeneca will work to advance Singapore’s research capabilities in genomics and precision medicine. It aims to achieve that by combining AstraZeneca’s bioinformatics and genomics expertise with Asia’s largest genetic databank, spearheaded by the A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore.

With the SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC, AstraZeneca will be exploring collaboration on the acceleration of open innovation, real-world evidence generation, and development of new health technologies to enhance patient-centric care and improve care outcomes.

Through these strategic partnerships, AstraZeneca will specifically have its research expertise in Sweden, the UK and the US built in Singapore. AstraZeneca will also be providing opportunities for local and overseas training on genetic counselling through their partnership with A*STAR.

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Image Credit: Printerous

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