Here’s our newest round-up of the featured startups on our site this week. If you have startup tips or story suggestions, feel free to email us or tell us about your startup on this form. Any juicy tech news tips go here. Enjoy this week’s list!
1. AsQme | Japan
AsQme is an AMA-style platform for Japanese music lovers seeks to deepen fan-artist engagement by breaking down the language barrier. The platform allows community members to post and vote on questions aimed at western musicians. The most popular questions are then translated into English and sent to the artist, who replies by video with Japanese subtitles.
2. Ayannah | Philippines
Ayannah is a migrant-focused remittance service based in the Philippines and California. Founded in 2008, the company deploys two main products for unbanked overseas workers: Sendah, a B2C gift remittance service that targets the 12 million Filipinos working overseas, and Sendah Direct, a B2B payment platform that distributes prepaid mobile phone credits, online game credits, and microinsurance products. Ayannah recently closed a pre-series Round A led by GREE.
3. IP Nexus Hong Kong
IP Nexus is a global online marketplace for intellectual property and IP-related services that focuses on the little guys. It seeks to make such information and services easily accessible and affordable for startups. A new range of community features launched recently offer a free Q&A forum, a marketplace for posting jobs, and a searchable directory of lawyers, IP experts, and others working with new ventures. In addition to intellectual property advice and services, startups can also get input on other aspects of implementing their venture – such as business incorporation, taxation, and investment.
4. Pinkoi | Taiwan
Pinkoi, an Etsy of Taiwan, is an ecommerce marketplace that helps designers sell their wares online. The company has launched a Japan-facing Android app this week – marking the company’s official foray into the land of the rising sun. It also recently received a series A round from Japan’s Infinity Venture Partners, a well-connected local VC firm
5. Shufti | Japan
Japan’s Shufti turns housewives into freelancers. It utilizes a crowdsourcing model for its various job listings. Projects include data entry, taking surveys, writing reviews, transcribing audio, and more. The service boasts more than 76,000 registered users. The company has just raised US$5.75 million from Minna no Wedding and Nissay Capital.
6. LittleLives | Singapore
LittleLIves is an education-focused platform with features like attendance taking, a dashboard for higher management, a portfolio to track the progress of kids, and a platform for third-party education apps. The company is now focusing on building tools to enhance the productivity of preschool administrators, and it wants to turn LittleLives into a social platform eventually. It raised US$100,000 from 8Capita last year, then received another six-figures from angel investor Lee Han Shih this year.
7. Grivvy | Indonesia
Grivy, according to the founder, is Indonesia’s “eBay for leisure services”. The site’s auction block is the key ingredient that gives his company the edge in a market that loves discounts. Grivy auctions off deals related to goods and services like holiday getaways, spa packages, kids items, and restaurant reservations.
8. Beritaga | Indonesia
Beritagar is an Indonesian news curator that uses hashtags to link users to related story topics. More than just an aggregator, Beritagar also condenses, summarizes, and rewrites content so as to package each article in no more than five paragraphs
9. Pomelo | Thailand
Pomelo is a Thailand-based online fashion store that distances itself from many other ecommerce ventures by calling itself a “fast fashion brand first and e-tailer second.” It sells Korean fashion only under its own label, and in the sub-US$100 range.
10. Talenta | Indonesia
Talenta is a human resource platform from with a system that helps companies track and manage the workers they already have. It will enable employers to more efficiently monitor payroll and keep tabs on issues like salary increases, employee attendance, taxes, company benefits, and bonuses. This week, the company raised funding of an undisclosed amount from East Ventures with participation from angel investor Grace Tahir of Mayapada Group.
11. Campoint | China
Beijing-based CamPoint promises to be smart in that it avoids giving you false alarms by recognizing objects and learning about your home. The startup launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. With 25 days left, the startup team has already raised US$28,600 of its US$50,000 goal.
12. Yuemei | China
China-based Yuemei is an online marketplace for cosmetic surgery procedures. The site aims to be the starting point for patients, male or female, seeking plastic surgeons, with local listings, prices, and a profile page for each doctor that resembles a personal social media homepage. From there, users can begin a consultation. It has been announced that the company has just secured an unspecified amount of series A funding.
13. Kurio | Indonesia
Launched late 2013, Kurio is a smartphone news reader app from Indonesia that recently received series A investment of an undisclosed amount from Japanese venture capital firm CyberAgent Ventures and an unnamed group of angel investors. The app understands what news to deliver to users based on their preferences, but also recognizes and delivers topics related to their careers. Users can select topics from the start menu and browse articles they find interesting.
14. TinyBeans | Australia
Tinybeans, an Australia-based family-only social network, has announced this week the raising of about US$1.7 million to fund their efforts to help parents chronicle their babies’ lives. The funding came from a consortium of unnamed “high net worth private investors”.
15. Innolight Technologu | China
Founded in 2008, China’s Innolight Techology produces high-speed optical transceivers that facilitate communication between servers, which has become increasingly important as cloud-based services multiply. The company has recently closed a round of Series C funding led by Google Capital and Lightspeed China Partners.
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We’re gearing up to bring you yet another round of our signature conference series with Startup Asia Jakarta 2014, happening 26 – 27 September 2014.
If you’re an entrepreneur, investor, developer or just someone looking to meet and learn from the speakers and companies, get your tickets now. See you there!
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15 startups in Asia that caught our eye
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