UnicoMarketing: 44 startups in Asia that caught our eye

asian startups weekly list

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. Pembatu | Indonesia

Pembantu is similar to an online marketplace where it brings together information from third-party agencies into one place – in this case for people to find domestic helpers for cleaning, babysitting, or as a live-in nanny.

2. PocketMath | Singapore

PocketMath is a self-serve mobile advertising platform from Singapore which announced earlier this week the raising of a US$10 million series A funding round from Rakuten Ventures.

3. IzumoBase | Japan

Founded in 2012, IzumoBase specializes in a next-gen software-defined storage (SDS) that the founder developed over eight years of research and development. The startup attracted about US$1.35 million worth of funding from Global Brain.

4. Shelfy | Japan

Shelfy, a Japanese startup that matches business owners with interior design companies, received an investment from East Ventures. Through the platform, business owners can browse example designs by category. If the user comes across an example that matches their desired aesthetic, they simply provide details about their place and request an estimate. Users can also select multiple examples to compare quotes and select the most affordable option.

5. Vmoney | Philippines

Vmoney’s founder aims to improve access to public transportation by making payments frictionless for passengers. The company developed TAPnPASS, which is a stored-value card that makes use of near field communication (NFC) technology. Users can also transfer funds to it by tapping it on your mobile phone using the VMoney app.

6. Four Eyes | Philippines

Four Eyes sells affordable prescriptive eyewear online. All frames are designed by the company and delivery is free. There’s a home try-on service where users can pick three frames, try them at home, and then send them back to the company. Users can get their money back if they dislike all of them. This could win over consumers who are hesitant to buy without trying a physical pair. There’s also a fun virtual try-on feature. Users upload a personal photo, and the site fits the frame over the face.

7. Yesterscape | Japan

Japan’s Yesterscape is a self-described photographic time machine. People are already constantly taking photos to preserve their memories. This app takes that tendency a step further by affixing photos to GPS locations so users can revisit the location weeks or years later and relive the moment.

8. Qiandaibao | China

Qiandaibao, a mobile point-of-sales startup similar to Loop and Square, makes a series of mobile POS solutions, including a smartphone fob that plugs into the headphone jack and can read magnetic strip cards. The startup was one of the first companies in China to obtain a license to operate a third-party payment business in the country.

Qiandaibao is aimed at lower-tier cities with poor payment infrastructure, especially among small businesses. It currently supports bank cards, WeChat payment, Alipay, and some bank apps. It is also revealed to have raised “hundreds of millions of RMB” from IDG Capital, Banyan Fund, Haitong Securities, and Jiangxi Copper.

9. Carousell | Singapore

Carousell, a Singapore startup that has developed a mobile app for consumers to buy and sell things, has raised a series A round led by prominent venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Existing investors Rakuten Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, 500 Startups, and serial entrepreneur Darius Cheung also joined.

10. Qraved | Indonesia

Online restaurant booking platform Qraved offers regular discounts for reservations made on its online platform. It currently lets users place bookings for more than 1,500 restaurants in Jakarta, and will roll out partnerships with another 1,000 restaurants in Bali next month. Qraved also provides back-end technology for restaurant partners to manage bookings and build guest profiles online.

The startup announced this week a follow-up investment of US$1.3 million, jointly led by Convergence Accel and M&Y Growth Partners.

11. QLL | Taiwan

Taiwan’s QLL, a mobile app startup that makes language learning apps for children under six years old, revealed it closed a US$450,000 round led by B Dash Ventures, with participation from Taiwan’s Pinehurst Advisors, Singapore’s Coent Venture Partners, and Viling and Incubate Fund from Japan.

12. Baedal Minjeok | South Korea

Seoul-based restaurant delivery app Baedal Minjeok is similar to GrubHub in the US (which Goldman Sachs also owns a stake in) and FoodPanda in Singapore. Almost all of its transactions take place via mobile device.

Users simply browse a list of local restaurant menus and pick out what they want on the app, then the Baedal Minjeok team will order, pick it up, and deliver it to their doorstep. The startup has 145,000 registered restaurants in its database, for which it received about four million orders last month and is the most popular food delivery app in Korea right now.

13. Zikto | South Korea

Arki is a new wearable created by Korean hardware startup Zikto. Its mission is to coach the average person to walk with good posture, thereby exuding confidence. The Arki coaches you by gently vibrating whenever it detects that you are adopting a poor walking posture – but this is subject to your own needs. The device also comes with a companion app that will track your progress, giving you points according to the amount of “Sound Walking” you have done.

14. Scrollback | Singapore and India

Scrollback, a Singapore and India-based startup that’s building a real-time chat widget for online communities, has raised US$500,000 in seed funding. The service consists of rooms that can be embedded on websites and apps. It connects to other channels like IRC and Twitter, creating conversations that span across platforms.

15. Aromajoin | Japan

Aromajoin, just might be the future of movie theaters, interactive advertisements – and maybe even home entertainment. The startup aims to integrate visuals with smells. The company’s Aroma Player software is simple and straightforward – it almost resembles music mixing software a la Garageband. Just upload a video and drag-and-drop scents (or mixtures of scents) at specific times.