Bitcoin hits the futures exchange and a volunteer bike patrol for those bike-sharing disasters
Busy day for funding
Singapore healthtech startup Biofourmis inks deal with Mayo Clinic, raises US$5M Series A [e27]
Biofourmis has built and IoT wearable device that it hopes will help people stay out of the hospital after being discharged with serious health concerns. The hope is that by aggregating personal data, it can alert a medical professional if the patient’s health is deteriorating and intervene days before a crisis.
If it takes off, Biofourmis thinks it can save the healthcare industry millions of dollars on expenses paid for emergency treatment. The investment was made by NSI Ventures and Aviva Ventures.
ZAP provides businesses with a white-label solution to help businesses integrate digital loyalty programmes into their companies. The company has over 800,000 customers and more than 800 clients and part of the reason the company is succeeding is because it doesn’t require an app. Customers simply enter their mobile number to rack up loyalty points.
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The money is going to be used to make a play into the payments space as well as boosting its sales and marketing team.
Singaporean water-waste startup raises US$740,000 [e27]
A Singaporean startup that wants to clean up industrial waste water has raised US$740,000 in seed funding from Budding Innovations. EcoWorth Tech also raised US$300,000 of the round from the equity crowdfunding platform FundedHere.
The company is building a solution to turn waste-water into viable drinking water and hopefully help solve the problem of water shortage by providing another source.
News from around tech
Bitcoin posts strong debut on futures exchange [Reuters]
The ability to trade futures contracts for Bitcoin debuted on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) today and led to a massive price spike and possibly crashed of the bourse’s website. The debut was highly anticipated because it was viewed as a legitimisation of the cryptocurrency; a seal of approval from the financial serves industry.
A 0ne-month futures contract started the day priced at US$15,460 and at the time Reuters went to press had risen 17 per cent to US$18,700.
Meet the man from Bulgaria picking up Singapore’s bike-sharing litter [Mothership]
Some people love bike-sharing, others hate it, but most people agree a major problem is the bikes that are destroyed, thrown into ravines or strewn about public spaces like litter. One man, a Bulgarian named Zhivko Girginov has taken matters into his own hands.
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He started a group called Volunteer Bike Patrol and they essentially clean up the city’s destroyed bikes. Community members take a photo of a broken bike and upload it to the Facebook group. Girginov will then do his best to track it down, put it in a lorry and take it to the companies’ connection points.
Not all heroes wear capes.
Chinese video-sharing sites criticised after death of stuntman [Weibo]
A man in China died in early-November after attempting a death-defying stunt in Changsa, China. Last week, video of the incident emerged in local media and police confirmed the death of Wu Yongning was the result of the filmed fall.
The incident fueled criticism of the live-streaming industry in China that financially incentivises people to perform for financial rewards. Wu had made US$8,300 performing similar stunts and, according to Coconuts was meant to make US$15,000 for the stunt. As a response, notable streaming services Meipai, Kuaishou and huoshan.com said they would update their regulations.
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