Waygo is most promising startup; roundup of startup pitches at Echelon 2013

Aligned to the vision of being a regional event, this year’s Echelon traveled to over 10 countries and saw over 300 submissions from the region. Over 100 were chosen to present at various Echelon Satellites, out of which 10 were shortlisted to vie for the title as the region’s next Most Promising Startup.

Most Promising Startup – Waygo

Faced with this year’s strong line-up, Waygo – a visual translation mobile application, emerged to clinch the title. Waygo is a patent-pending real-time computer vision platform on mobile devices. Its first products are a suite of visual translation apps for users on the go. All that is required is a phone camera to instantly translate text — no internet connection needed. Waygo has currently about 40,000 users and is in talks to work with Lonely Planet and American Airlines. Try the app out yourself using their sample menu.

Waygo – Visual mobile translator

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DiscoverMatch is a Singapore jobs portal that spotlights your company’s culture

DiscoverMatch - A visual directory of companies

“To help millions of people make informed and better career decisions” — that was, and still is, the grand goal of IDENTIFI when we covered them a year ago.

Since then, they have expanded into an enterprise software company, dropped the double “II” at the end of their name, and brought on notable companies such as Novartis and British American Tobacco as clients.

IDENTIFI provides a suite of data-driven solutions to help enterprises manage their human resource functions and employee careers. The platform has features like pre-employment assessments, a talent recruitment tool, and a developmental plan builder for existing employees. Read more

OuterEdit: Watch creatives collaborate real-time on an artwork, then buy it as a shirt

Imagine putting five top creative minds in a virtual room, where they go back and forth creating, critiquing, and editing each other’s artwork. Each piece will be submitted to a vote, and the most popular one will be made into a tee that can be bought online.

That’s OuterEdit in a nutshell. Moving beyond the typical vote-for-your-favorite-design tee concept, it aims instead to celebrate the faces and processes behind the names of graphic design.

The founders, Clive Foo and Ryan Tan, hopes that it will reconcile the growing disconnect between designers, retail stores and consumers of graphic tees. Read more

Travel startup Qiito, working quietly behind the scenes, now ready for Primetime

The travel and tourism industry is one of the world’s largest, so it’s inevitable that many startups want to be a part of it. In Singapore, many travel startups have gotten quite a bit of attention too.

But not for one particular company, which had been quietly working the ground for the past few months. Now, however, it seems poised for Primetime.

The Singapore-based startup is ranked 63rd in the country on Alexa – closely behind Agoda and ahead of eBay and Tripadvisor. Its global Alexa ranking of around 20,000 places it in the region of Hipmunk, a highly-touted Silicon Valley travel site.

In additon, it has a partnership with the Taiwan tourism board, secured a seed funding of S$2.2M (US$1.75M) from Lunar Asia Investment, and hired a 15-strong team.

I’m talking about Qiito (pronounced key-tow). What started as a simple product review for me soon grew into an in-depth interview. For those curious about the company, here are some insights from the company’s  founder and CEO, Pei-Han Chuang.

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StartupRootsSG Panel 2: From start up to IPO – Tales by two veterans

On 4th July, StartupRoots kicked off its speaker series, which was held for the second year running. The audience was invited to a friendly debate on “Which language is right for your startup“, between three respected geeks in Singapore, Calvin Cheng (Python), Michael Cheng (PHP) and Sau Sheong (Ruby).

This coming Wednesday, StartupRoots seeks to close the widening gap between fresh blood and the seasoned leaders in Singapore’s startup community. For those venturing into their own business (especially for the first time), here’s an opportunity for you to find out how to build a company that lasts. Read more

Payroll Hero seeks to make Human Resources fun — finally

Punching clocks and employee timesheets — two common but outdated HR systems that are still practiced in businesses.

Payroll Hero, a user-friendly payroll management software for businesses and the winner of the Judges’ Choice Award at Echelon Philippines Satellite, aims to change things around.

Companies sometimes find employees tinkering their reports on the number of work hours they’ve clocked. These bad practices result in ghost employees, time stealers, time wasters, and buddy punchers. Read more

Builk walks where few tech startups tread: Changing the construction industry

Ten years of experience in the construction business and enterprise solutions for the industry — this formed the foundation of the Builk team that today, aims to bring the traditional industry into the Information Age.

Builk Asia is a free management software and professional network for the construction business. With this bold ambition for a traditional industry, coupled with an interesting business model, we had to chat with Patai Padungtin, the company’s principal and co-founder. Read more

TNF Ventures, a new startup incubator in Singapore, knows how to have fun

Efforts made by Singapore government to nurture the nation’s entrepreneurship scene have finally rippled down to the private sector.

With the extension of the National Research Foundation’s Technology Incubator Scheme (NRF-TIS), eight new incubator-funds have emerged last year. Among them is TNF Ventures (TNFV), which held an official launch last Friday.

The fund is founded by several veterans, consisting of a good mix of entrepreneurs, senior corporate executives and venture capitalists, mostly in the IT industry. Read more

Flocations helps budget-conscious travelers discover places they’d like to go

As a student bitten by the wanderlust bug, Flocations sure calls out to me. It is a travel discovery app that aims to help visitors discover new places based on a predetermined budget.

Throughout the JFDI-Innov8 2012 Bootcamp, the Singapore-based team had been iterating their product, with much focus on improving its user experience. They overhauled their entire site last month. Here is a round up of three key features they have:

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FetchFans makes updating 10,000 Facebook Pages easier

Having presented at last year’s Launchpad at Echelon, FetchFans is a familiar name in Singapore’s startup scene. The team has progressed since then, and found themselves amidst the jungle in the JDFI Bootcamp this year.

FetchFans has a single purpose: To fetch fans for franchises worldwide. It achieves this with a SaaS solution that delivers scalable brand control for the franchises.

According to founder and managing director Carmen Benitez, brand franchises are in desperate need to use social media. Within that context, they have two concerns: Read more