PurpleCow is a non-profit organisation that leverages internet and corporate resources to support Taiwanese startups to expand globally

Taiwan-based startup association PurpleCow Startup Association on Friday announced the three startups that have won its pitching competition in Jakarta.

The event was hosted as part of a roadshow to Singapore and Jakarta, where the startups attended workshops and meetings with industry players in the countries.

The three winners are set to receive a one year incubation programme at BLOCK71 Jakarta and a free both at the upcoming Tech In Asia Bootstrap Alley.

The three startups are:

1. UCHANGE2

Founded by Page Deng, UCHANGE2 is a platform built by a company named ADDWEUP.

The platform provides a service that allow travellers to deposit their remaining foreign currency into an e-wallet service when they are leaving the country. It also offers the options for travellers to purchase a coupon or donate their leftovers to a charity.

The platform is available as a desktop site; it partners with money changer companies where travellers can drop by money changer kiosks at airports and deposit their remaining foreign currency into the platform.

Aiming to expand its service in Indonesia and Thailand, UCHANGE2 is currently looking for local partners in the currency exchange and e-payment sectors. It also looking to raise pre-seed funding round.

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2. Fruitpay

Founded by Darren Chang, Fruitpay is a weekly fresh fruit subscription box service that aims to solve the problem of inconvenience, bad quality, and high price that consumers are facing.

It cuts up supply chain by having fruit farmers supply their products directly to its warehouse to be distributed to customers; the startup has logistics startup Lalamove as its third party logistics service provider.

According to Chang, Fruitpay has secured 2,000 users and has delivered 60,000 boxes of fruit in a year. Most of its users are mothers and professionals, and these two segments drive 40 to 50 per cent of the company’s revenue.

3. FundPark

Hong Kong-based FundPark is a P2B trade finance platform that reaches out to untapped small and medium enterprises (SMEs) population.

It provides production-only working capital for SMEs using the viability approach.

As part of its preparation to enter the Indonesian market, it has raised an investment from an undisclosed family office, and is currently in the process of setting up a team on the ground. Considering Indonesia as a mobile-first market, it is also building a mobile app for the market.

The startup partners with credit insurance company Euler Hermes and data analytics company dun&bradstreet to provide protection for its loan.

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The winners were judged by a panel from Convergence Ventures, Coffee Ventures, Kejora Ventures, and Sinarmas Digital Ventures.

Apart from the winners, the event also featured other two Taiwanese startups:

1. StyleUp

StyleUp is a salon booking platform who also operates its own online magazine and TV channel; the startup enables salon featured on their platform to be covered in the media for free.

Some of the most popular services in its platform are tattoo & embroidery, barbershop, and eyelashes treatment.

With a headquarter in Singapore, StyleUp is looking for a seed funding to fuel its expansion to Southeast Asia.

2. LIORS

Founded by Edgar Wang, LIORS built a speech theraphy app named Rephasia.

The company targets patients who are experiencing speech impairment (aphasia) due to illnesses such as stroke; in order to be able to fully recover, patients have to undergo theraphy within six months since the illness.

The Rephasia app enables patients to do self-training with exercises assigned by therapists through the app. The therapists are also able to monitor and review patients’ progress through the mobile app.

Launched in beta version in 2016, the app is currently undergoing clinical trial at NTU Hospital in Taipei.

According to Wang, patients who are using the app are experiencing 40 per cent improvement in their speech ability, as compared to only 15 per cent with traditional speech therapy sessions.

“This is because they are able to practice by themselves,” he said.

LIORS plan to expand its service to Singapore, Malaysia, and China in 2018. Currently only available in Mandarin Chinese, the startup is looking for hospital partners, legal support, and funding to support its effort to localise the product.

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Founded in 2015, PurpleCow is a non-profit organisation that which leverages the resource of internet and corporate to support Taiwanese startups develop globally.

The five Taiwanese startups that are taking part in the programme are the winners of a startup competition hosted by PurpleCow in its home country.

Part of the competition involves a roadshow to global markets that are seen as a promising destination for the startups to expand their business to. In the previous years, participants travelled to Beijing and Silicon Valley, and this year is the first time they went to Southeast Asia.

The event was held with the support from Angel Investor Network (ANGIN), BLOCK71 Jakarta, and Tech In Asia.

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