10 Asian Startups That Caught Our Eye This Week
In the last seven days, we have covered a couple of startups on Tech in Asia, specifically from Indonesia, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. This week, we also saw the first batch of JFDI startups graduating from its 100-day accelerator program. Congrats!
For folks who are interested in investing or partnering with these startups, drop us an email — editors[at]techinasia[dot]com – anytime. No promises, but we’ll try our best to be the bridge.
And if you’re a tech startup based in Asia hoping to get featured, please send us your pitch here.
One of our few females entrepreneurs or female-centric startups which we have covered here. It has quite an interesting story behind it, worth a read.
ShopSpot, which was covered by my colleague Vanessa last week, has received seed funding from a group of angels and business entrepreneurs in Thailand, led by Kris Nalamlieng for an undisclosed sum. It also recently officially graduated from JFDI’s accelerator program on Friday.
The Chinese startup behind the popular photographic app Camera360 has secured nearly US$10 million in series A funding, led by Singapore-based Gobi Partners and US-based Matrix Partners.
Some of you guys might recall Gastro Couture, a startup which aimed to help restaurant owners fill up empty tables by providing discounts for folks who reserve spare tables online. The startup has ceased working on that model, as co-founder Lester Chia explained that the idea didn’t really have much traction. But that didn’t end the team’s journey as entrepreneurs as it pivoted to launch Happybox.
Thai startup iamtrend.com wants to connect like-minded folks across cultures and language barriers, giving them a social site where some simple tags and searches enable people to explore the kinds of ideas, photos, and videos that are shared by people with similar interests to yourself.
Tiket has officially launched its site this week. Soft-launched six months ago with movie tickets, concert tickets, and hotel bookings available, now it has added flight ticketing to complete its tagline of being a “One Stop Travel and Entertainment Gateway.”
Singaporean online reservation site Chope has recently launched its new iPhone app. It looks beautiful and sleek, designed and developed by social food journal startup Burpple.
If you need a fun app to entertain yourself, try Brain Lab 2, a quiz-like IQ game developed by Hong Kong-based startup Asia App Limited. Try beating my score of 133 and 134 on the left and right brain, respectively.
It’s hard to believe that less than a year ago, Xiaomi hadn’t even released its phone onto the market. Now, it is a company with more than $158 million in monthly revenue. And it is certainly a billion dollar startup based on revenue multiples.
Zaarly, the American startup that helps people outsource simple errands and tasks, has launched in China with the Chinese name Jieqoo, and separate mobile apps for iPhone and Android for its new audience. Will it succeed?
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