Showcase your mobile technology in Silicon Valley on MobileBeat Mission Trip

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) invites Singapore’s promising mobile companies to join in an exciting mission trip. Held during July 8 – 12 2013, this upcoming opportunity will allow companies to showcase your mobile technology in Silicon Valley, USA. All consumer and enterprise mobile companies are welcome to participate.

The mission trip is centered around the MobileBeat Conference, which will take place July 9 – 10. The MobileBeat Conference is Venturebeat’s 6th annual flagship conference. It brings together the top people in the industry to explore all things mobile—the future of mobile, latest trends and the many opportunities surrounding them. The conference will provide great content and quality networking opportunities. A specialized pool of people from the mobile ecosystem, such as major carrier executives, top device makers, developers, mobile startups, analysts, investors, retailers and the media are expected at this conference. Read more

Sprooki and YFind buddy up to bring indoor positioning to Asia’s shopping malls

Indoor positioning is coming to Asia really soon. The technology has received a big push towards commercial viability after today’s announcement of a partnership between Singapore startups Sprooki and YFind that will see closer integration between the two.

The companies complement one another well. Sprooki offers a white-label location-based marketing platform for retailers, while YFind is scaling up its indoor positioning system that promises accurate tracking of a smartphone user’s location to within 3 meters.

Sprooki will begin integrating YFind into its platform, and offer it as a package to customers in Asia. YFind, on its part, will offer Sprooki to merchants outside of the region, particularly in the US. Read more

East Ventures tally: In 26 investments, 2 got acquired, 10 received follow-on funding, 6 died

It’s been three years since East Ventures, an early stage fund based in Jakarta, Singapore, and Tokyo, launched. To mark the milestone, the firm released an infographic detailing its performance so far. It has invested in 8 or 9 startups annually in each of the three years.  A small number of these startups are based in Singapore, with the rest coming from Indonesia. Majority of its investments are in the e-commerce space, followed by online publishing.

Willson Cuaca, co-founder and managing partner at East Ventures, tells me that the firm has invested between USD 50K and USD 500K in each startup. Its accelerator program, East Ventures Alpha, has invested about USD 10K per startup.

He is unable to disclose the firm’s returns for the exits of its portfolio companies. Read more

Babygram could mean less baby photos on Facebook

Babygram lets you share your baby's intimate moments with close family and friends.

There can be too much of a good thing. Baby photos on Facebook certainly qualify in this category. While parents are understandably proud of their kids and want to show them off to their friends, we live in a hyperconnected world where too much is shared. That includes every permutation of a photo, even blurry ones.

Babygram could save us from oversharing hell. Developed by Google Ventures funded startup Stickery, which is based in Singapore and California, Babygram is a private social network centered around babies and their immediate families. It is now available on iOS.

The app is part of a new wave of mobile social networks targeted at niche groups. There’s Path for those yearning more private online interactions, Between and LoveByte for couples, Burpple for food lovers, as well as GetGlue for those oriented towards movies and television.

While creating an “Instagram for _______” is certainly a hot startup idea, none of these companies have attained the breakout success of Dropbox, Airbnb, and yes, Facebook. But that hasn’t stopped Stickery from trying. Read more

South Korean chat app KakaoTalk gets serious about Indonesia, partners with Telkomsel telco

Having just passed its 1000th day of existence just a couple of weeks ago with the release of the support of languages like Vietnamese, South Korean mobile messaging app KakaoTalk, gets even more serious about Southeast Asia this time. KakaoTalk has officially announced its partnership with Indonesia’s biggest telco, Telkomsel, to enable carrier billing for its app.

With carrier billing enabled, Telkomsel customers with KakaoTalk can purchase digital items (stickers, emoticons, and themes) with their Pulsa pre-paid credits.

On the social media front, KaKaoTalk has also localized for the market with Indonesia-specific Facebook page and Twitter account. The app is available across the iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry platforms and now sees more than 70 million registered users, with 27 million daily uniques. Check out a visual history of their 1000 days, released on 11 December: Read more

iCarsclub aims to popularize carsharing in Asia by making it more convenient, less expensive

Asia might make a promising market for carsharing. Depending on where you live, cars are either too expensive or rendered useless by traffic congestion. These problems give carsharing intiatives an invitation to come in, which is why iCarsclub wants to be an early player in this space.

The Singapore startup has been working on their solution for months, and after delays with finalizing their motor insurance terms, it finally launched on 12 December.

Collaborative consumption for motor vehicles is not new in the world or even Asia.  This year, we’ve seen ridesharing apps enter the market, offering users the ability to split costs on a cab fare or find a carpooler to share a ride to work. Governments are particularly supportive of this concept due to its public benefits: Reducing air pollution and traffic congestion. Read more

TradeHero, a fantasy stock trading game with real-world implications, launches for the iPhone

We’re all familiar with fantasy football, where you pick a team, watch how their real-world counterparts perform, and see your team go up or down the rankings. TradeHero, a Singapore-based startup, is doing the same for stock traders.

This is a game that could help you make real money. The iPhone app, which just launched today, gets data from 14 stock exchanges, 45,000 global securities, and has 1,300 currency pairs. Users are given $100,000 in virtual currency, which they can then use to build to virtual portfolio.

From then on, it’s a race to the top. A leaderboard shows who are the most successful traders in the game, and they will be ranked by exchange, sector, monthly, quarterly, and overall returns. These top scorers will be called ‘Heroes’, hence the name of the app.

Here’s where things get interesting. Users can follow their favorite heroes for a small monthly fee, where they can receive stock tips via push notifications on their smartphones. The company will then split the monthly fees equally with the heroes. Read more

New price comparison app PricePinz one of the fastest and easiest to use

PricePinz is a free price comparison iPhone app that launched recently. Developed by a Singapore-based company, it joins a growing number of apps like Save22 (formerly LobangClub) eBay’s RedLaser, Amazon’s PriceCheck, and ShopSavvy, among others.

Since its debut a few days ago, PricePinz has been downloaded over 100 times. It currently offers over 4,000 items in its pricing database — the information is gathered mostly from merchants and in-house data entry.

PricePinz boasts support for both barcode and QR Code scanning, and provides a list of deals available in the vicinity of the user. It leverages social network to allow users to help promote their favorite deal and rate or rank a retailers’ offering based on criteria like customer support, freebies, and after sales service. Read more

Mobile price comparison apps compared

Singapore startups Save22 and PricePinz are facing formidable competition in the mobile price comparison space. How do they stack up? To help you decide, here’s a quick summary about the features and reception of the price comparison apps in the wild.
 

Quick elaboration on two of the variables:

Price Protection: If the prices fall within 30 days from date of shipment, the company will refund the difference as long as you give them notice.

Social: The app’s ability to leverage social networks to promote the product/service.

Edited by Terence Lee

Sprooki goes white-label after funding round, steps up efforts to digitize malls in Asia

Soon after a USD0.48M funding round from Get2Volume, Singapore-based mobile marketing startup Sprooki has gone white label. It launched on 29 November a new location-based marketing app customized just for Singapore shopping mall 313@Somerset,  and will be looking to sell the solution to even more shopping malls and retailers.

The iPhone app, called Tring313, enables users to find deals that are nearby, download coupons, and make redemptions at the store. They can also make purchases directly on the app.

Malls and retailers can use the platform to schedule promotions, offers, and events to appear on the app as targeted messages. They can track and manage coupons as they are being downloaded, purchased or redeemed. Read more