Next up? The fast-growing data analytics startup will enter Indonesia and China
Having already established a wide-ranging customer base in Singapore, Arcstone Inc., which provides data analytics-based solution systems for the manufacturing and industrial sector, is venturing into three new markets.
The three-year-old startup will set up its first overseas office in Vietnam next month, and has already begun exploring the Indonesian and Chinese markets, according to Founder Willson Deng.
He also shared that the company has secured deals with clients in the three countries, including a deal with engineering company Siemens in China.
Just last week, Arcstone signed a memorandum of understanding with local precision engineering firm Meiban, partnering with the firm to develop solutions. This collaboration is supported by Singapore’s Economic Development Board’s initiative to groom digital champions, under the newly announced precision engineering Industry Map.
Arcstone was also awarded the IoT in Manufacturing Entrepreneurial Company of the Year title at the Frost and Sullivan Singapore Excellence Awards last week.
The company’s systems collect data in manufacturing plants, keeping track of products through their manufacturing stages. This data is then uploaded onto platforms where it is analysed, helping companies spot and address production problems.
“Traditional software can’t keep up. It is a very costly kind of situation [in which] for any adjustment you have to fly someone in and call a consultant and programmers – it becomes a huge mess,” said Deng, 29, who was named in Forbes’s 30 under 30 list this year.
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While there are other similar software systems in the market, what sets Arcstone apart is the flexibility of its systems, said Deng. Its solutions can be easily reconfigured by customers themselves to suit their own needs.
“So we’re turning this model around, there’s a very big focus on the Software as a Service (SaaS) concept [in which] the in-house person has the ability to configure [the system] with a little training.”
Founded in 2013, the company’s clientele now ranges from Fortune 500 companies like Unilever, to small and medium enterprises. Deng noted that this diverse customer base helped the startup further develop its internal systems.
“Singapore is a fantastic market, and it has been very kind to us in terms of not only finding the test beds for us to deploy our solution sets, but also to build up a presence,” said Deng.
Arcstone is not alone in providing data-analytics solutions to the manufacturing sector in Singapore. Another home-grown start-up, Evercomm, provides data-analytics solutions too, although it does so specifically for optimising energy efficiency.
Both companies are well placed to capitalise on the growing demand for data analytics in manufacturing. A recent study by manufacturing conglomerate Honeywell showed that 67 per cent of its 200 manufacturing executives surveyed are planning to invest in data analytics.
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Deng said the current overseas expansion was facilitated by a Series AA funding round Arcstone secured late last year for an undisclosed amount. Tokyo-based venture capital firm Global Brain, whose previous investments includes Luxola, was the lead investor of this round.
While a common exit route for promising startups is to be acquired by a bigger company, Deng stressed that the company is in it for the long run and that he would not consider selling the company.
“When this company was formed, it was designed to last for the next 50 years, there is no way that we would sell it,” said Deng.
“We’re building a legacy here.”
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