The inaugural Optus-Innov8 Seed Program has announced on 12th November its first two pre-series A investments. SingTel Innov8 led a AUD250k (USD260k) round by 121cast, which offers a free, personalized, and mobile digital audio feed.
It also fronted a AUD450k (USD468k) round by Venuemob, a provider of party and function locations in Melbourne.
Both startups, which are registered in Australia, stood out from the Winter Pitch Event held on 31st July. 10 startups pitched at that event with the hopes of securing funding.
Moving ahead, Venuemob and 121cast will have 3 to 6 months to refine their strategy and business model, all the while taking advantage of the free venue and mentorship provided by the accelerator program.
Optus will come in to lend a hand with their communications technology, network services, and know-how. Both companies could also use the time to raise their next round of funding, which would be in the AUD1M and above range.
The Program will reopen applications once again in January 2013 for their summer intake.
Optus is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SingTel Group.
Company
SingTel Innov8, the venture capital subsidiary of SingTel (view profile), manages a fund size of USD158M. It invests in technologies in the fields of network capabilities, next generation devices, digital content services, and customer service enhancers. Read more
SingTel Innov8, the wholly-owned subsidiary of SingTel, has participated in a AUD 11M (USD 11.2M) Series B round by Australia’s Brandscreen, a startup that provides the technology for online ad exchange platforms.
The Sydney-based company, founded in 2006, processes 200,000 bids a second on its real-time media trading products. The startup expects that automated trading systems and advertising exchanges will dramatically increase ad spend in the digital space to around 40%. Read more
SingTel Innov8, the wholly-owned corporate venture arm of SingTel, and Mitsui & Co, have jointly invested US$5M in General Mobile, a Cayman-based startup dedicated to providing mobile internet services to emerging markets with its proprietary content management and app store hosting platform. Read more
Filed under Funding, Innovation & Technology, Mobile, News, Technology, Venture Capital & Private EquityTags: cayman, general mobile, Innov8, mediatek, mitsui, SingTel, Singtel Innov8
SingTel Innov8, the venture capital arm of SingTel, has joined forces with Australian telco Optus to start an Australian Seed Program to take young digital startups to the next stage and help them expand into Asia.
This Optus-Innov8 Seed Program will provide Australian startups with seed funding, mentoring, networking and co-working spaces. It will invest up to A$250,000 per startup.
Optus, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SingTel, is also partnering with Fishburners in Sydney and York Butter Factory in Melbourne to provide the co-working spaces, which will hold regular events to connect budding entrepreneurs with industry experts and potential investors. Read more
Mobile ad exchange Nexage has received US$10 million of Series B funding led by SingTel Innov8, the venture capital investment arm of SingTel.
Prior investors Relay Ventures and GrandBanks Capital also joined this round, bringing the total raised by Nexage to US$14.5M so far.
Nexage will use the investment to build its products and technology, add sales staff and possibly expand its ecosystem of buyers and sellers. More than 300 publications and developers, as well as 150 ad buyers user Nexage’s real time bidding system to secure mobile display inventory. Read more
Filed under Funding, Innovation & Technology, Mobile, News, Technology, Venture Capital & Private EquityTags: grandbanks capital, Innov8, nexage, relay ventures, SingTel, Singtel Innov8
Flocations and ShopSpot, two of the incubatee startups at the JFDI-Innov8 2012 Bootcamp, have received investment offers from SingTel Innov8, the telco company’s investment arm.
While ShopSpot has indicated that they will accept the offer, Flocations has not made a final decision as they are still in talks with other investors.
SGE was told of the news during an exclusive interview today with SingTel Innov8 CEO Edgar Hardless, who took over as the new head just under two months ago.
Singapore-based Flocations has built a web app that enables travelers to search for destinations by price, using a highly-visual interface. Users would then be redirected to partner sites to book their plane tickets and hotel rooms.
For now, they are monetizing using a hotel affiliate program with Agoda. They plan to monetize on flight ticket purchases soon, and even move towards travel insurance, flights, e-guides, flash deals and packages. Read more
Filed under Featured, Funding, Innovation & Technology, News, Technology, Venture Capital & Private Equity, WebTags: echelon 2012 marketplace, echelon marketplace, Edgar Hardless, flocations, Indonesia, Innov8, jfdi, JFDI Innov8 Bootcamp 2012, JFDI.asia, Philippines, shopspot, Singapore, Singtel Innov8, Southeast Asia, Thailand
Edgar Hardless has replaced Yvonne Kwek as the new CEO of SingTel Innov8, the venture capital subsidiary of SingTel, Singapore’s largest telecomms company.
Edgar was formerly the vice-president of strategic investments for Singtel, overseeing the company’s M&A activities.
Yvonne had been Innov8′s CEO since its inception in 2010. She will be moving on to retirement.
Innov8 manages a fund size of S$200M (US$158M), investing in technologies in the fields of network capabilities, next generation devices, digital content services, and customer service enhancers.
Its portfolio includes Bubble Motion, Stream Media, ViVOtech, and 2359 Media.
Innov8 provides ventures with access to SingTel Group’s mobile customer base in both developed and emerging markets in 25 countries and enterprise customers through its network of 36 offices in 19 countries and territories throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and the USA.
In addition, the SingTel Group’s assets, including subject matter experts and infrastructure are available to any venture it invests in.
SG Geek Girls, a Singapore-based initiative by our writer, Joyce Huang, to connect females in the tech scene together, is organising a casual meet-and-pitch session called Let’s Go Innovate!
The event is centered around innovation. It’s about bringing great ideas to life and getting help along the way. Ladies will get the chance to share about their ideas.
Monica Tsai, Director of Investments at Singtel Innov8, will also shed light on the funding process and share about what it takes to make a great idea a reality.
Ladies will be given priority to pitch. Gentlemen are welcome to attend with the company of another lady.
Event Details
When: 18th April, Wednesday, 7pm – 10pm,
Where: Plugin@Blk71, 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent #02-18 (Map)
Register here
SingTel, Southeast Asia’s largest phone company, has announced this week that it has agreed to purchase US-based digital ads company Amobee for US$321M. Singtel aims to introduce products from Amobee to its customers within a year.
Amobee’s flagship product is an end-to-end advertising platform for publishers, advertisers, and operators. They’ve recently made a push into Asia, announcing partnerships with advertising companies in Vietnam and Indonesia. Read more
Share this: