Also, on-demand t-shirt printing platform raises funding, Techstars expands to South Korea, and Yoopies acquires HelpersChoice

Speedoc launches ambulance-booking app in Singapore [Press Release]

Speedoc, house-call doctor app based in Singapore, announces that it has launched ambulance-booking app in collaboration with Comfort Ambulance.

Speedoc adds ambulance-hailing feature to its app in response to rising demand for private ambulances and cessation of non-emergency ambulance services by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

Usually, users who need a private ambulance can now either contact over 20 operators individually or call the 1777 hotline but sometimes have to wait a long time for an ambulance to be confirmed. Speedoc app users can call on Comfort Ambulance’s fleet of 25 ambulances for transport from anywhere in Singapore to more than 100 healthcare institutions island-wide, including hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices.

The launch is a response to the announcement made In April by SCDF, when it said that it would no longer dispatch ambulances to cover non-emergency cases so that it can better focus on the serious and life-threatening cases.

Dr Shravan Verma, chief executive officer of Speedoc said: “With our app, users requiring
a private ambulance can now get an ambulance response typically within minutes. The
app is available round the clock and users will be informed of the charges before they
confirm their bookings.”

T-shirt and merchandise print-on-demand platform raises US$145K

Famsy, the print-on-demand t-shirts and merchandise platform based in Malaysia, announced that it has raised a total of US$145,000 600, in seed funding from Commerce DotAsia Ventures Sdn Bhd. The company plans to use the funding to fulfill all types of customisation needs as well as providing the opportunity to design and market users’ apparel collection through FamsyMall and FamsyStores respectively.

FamsyMall is an online apparel marketplace which allows customers to personalise their own apparel and gifts, while FamsyStores is an A-Z fulfilment platform which helps businesses and entrepreneurs build their own t-shirt and merchandise brand online via Famsy’s web app.

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Famsy aims to lead the custom t-shirt printing in Southeast Asia by integrating technology into a traditional t-shirt print process, and equip users the ability to create a t-shirt selling websites within a day. For end users, FamsyMall allows affordable, fully customized prints without any minimum order.

“We differentiate by providing fully integrated systems for better user experience, and you no longer need to buy t-shirts in bulk to get affordable pricing,” said CEO and Founder, Ms. Fong Chai Lee.

Techstars seeks to support Korean startups through expansion [Press Release]

Global entrepreneur network Techstars announced its partnership with startup-dedicated consultancy firm Hillstone Partners to launch accelerator program in Pangyo, Korea.

It will be the first foray to Korea by Techstars, offering a three-month for 10 top performing startups per year. The accelerator will support the Korean startup ecosystem and is open to startups focussed on digital and tech innovation across a variety of business verticals.

The accelerator will be hosted at the Pangyo Techno Valley campus (PTV), a business and innovation hub dedicated for information technology, biotech, cultural tech, and fusion tech. PTV is located in the metropolitan area of Pangyo, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, also known as the Silicon Valley of Korea, approximately 30 minutes from downtown Seoul.

With the expansion, Techstars will join the ranks of other US-based tech companies such as Google and Facebook that have set up shop in past years.

Applications for Techstars Korea in partnership with Hillstone Partners will open in December of 2019, with the program running from June 2020 through September 2020.

Global domestic job recruitment Yoopies buys HelperChoice [Press Release]

Singapore and Hong Kong-based ethical domestic help services platform HelperChoice announced that it has been acquired by Yoopies. Saying that it seeks to boost ethical domestic help services as well as its presence in Asia.

HelperChoice​ is an online platform connecting foreign domestic workers and families that was launched in Hong Kong in 2012 by two French investment bankers, with the aim of helping foreign domestic workers find jobs without paying extortionate illegal fees to recruitment agencies and loan sharks.

Currently, the company claims to have more than 390,000 foreign domestic workers employed.

HelperChoice facilitated more than 50,000 recruitments and estimates that more than 60 million euros of illegal placement fees were saved. Yoopies​ plans to keep operations in Hong Kong and grow its Asian business from there.

Tinder to release Tinder Lite for APAC market [The Jakarta Post]

Dating app Tinder has introduced a Lite version of the app aimed at emerging markets on Wednesday at the 2019 Rise Tech conference at the Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition, Hong Kong, The Jakarta Post reported.

According to Tinder CEO Elie Seidman, Tinder Lite would be rolled out first in Vietnam in the coming weeks. Seidman mentioned Tinder Lite would run faster, consume less battery, and reduce network usage by about 20 per cent, to adjust with majority slow internet networks and limited space in the smartphone in emerging markets.

Tinder Lite would come with the full features of regular Tinder and available as a separate app for Android users via Google’s Play Store,

KPMG Digital Village, Kuehne + Nagel to launch logistics platform etrucKNow [Press Release]

KPMG Digital Village announced today that it has collaborated with global logistics companies Kuehne + Nagel, to launch etrucKNow, a single platform that’s designed to connect shippers and carriers to facilitate land trade. The partnership, the official statement said, marked a business model innovation for Kuehne + Nagel that changes the way logistics is being carried out by the company.

With the etrucKNow platform, shippers just need to put in their job requirements and the platform will show them an immediate spot rate that can be booked for a shipment.

For carriers, the platform will provide them with access to shippers presenting new business opportunities. The job matching and bidding capabilities on the platform mean that carriers can fill empty or under-utilised trucks to turn space within the trucks into revenue.

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On the road, carriers and shippers have real-time visibility of the whereabouts of all shipments and the ability to track successful pick-ups and completed trips. The platform further creates a way to connect, collaborate, and partner with the freight ecosystem players together allowing paper documentation and processing that are easy to upload and download of required documents.

etrucKNow will be piloted in Thailand before deployment in other markets.

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