14 Asian Startups That Caught Our Eye This Week

startups weekly feature

It is post-conference week but our team has been continuing with our work on the blog. In the last seven days, we have had a couple of Asian tech startups on our radar, specifically from China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines, India, and Singapore.

For folks who are interested in investing or partnering with these startups, drop us an email — hello[at]penn-olson[dot]com – anytime. No promises, but we’ll try our best to be a bridge.

And if you’re a tech startup based in Asia hoping to be featured, kindly send us your pitch here.

1. Jumpsurf | Singapore

For frequent travelers, getting internet access can be a pain in the arse. It just takes way too much time and effort. Some hotels charge ridiculous sums for internet access and the process of getting a local unlimited 3G SIM card can be pretty daunting (Yes, even in Singapore!). Siva Sai, founder of Jumpsurf has a possible solution for the problem. If you have US$148 to spare, you can grab a Jumpsurf mobile modem, which contains a SIM card that automatically detects user’s location and provides them with the relevant Internet …

2. Tabbang | India

Have you ever wanted to have Twitter feeds or customized tabs on your Facebook page? With Tabbang, you now can. This India-based startup has created a suite of applications for small businesses who are having trouble with technical details on Facebook. Hiring a good developer is tough, and often expensive too. In contrast Tabbang, for now, is a free service. To use it, all you have to do is authenticate your Facebook page so Tabbang can provide you with a simple drag and drop creator. Tabbang has a list of interesting …

3. Beepmo | Singapore

Beepmo describes itself as “a location-based social network for business professionals focused on Asia.” All users have to do is to key in their LinkedIn login to start using the mobile app. Beepmo helps professionals to track other professionals who are nearby. If you find someone whom you wish to meet, simply connect with him/her, and then send a message to arrange a meeting/coffee. The app also has an “ice breaker” feature that helps you to find out who are your common friends on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. It could be …

4. IhaveU | China

The luxury e-commerce site IhaveU has announced that it has wrapped up B-round funding, though the full investment sum has not been revealed. The injection of investment was led by the CID Group and JAFCO Asia. IhaveU.com is one of a number of luxury B2C Chinese e-commerce sites that focus on couture brand clothing – along with other independent rivals such as The Luxury Club, as well as high-end fashion stores from web giants such as Sina (NASDAQ:SINA). IhaveU sells both men’s and women’s clothing and pricey accessories, from the likes …

5. Timelinecoverbanner | Indonesia

Ever wonder how some of your friends have created gorgeous Facebook Timeline cover images? You probably need some design skills to create a really good one. But Timelinecoverbanner.com, an Indonesian based startup has a solution for that. At Timelinecoverbanner, you can find plenty of usable cover images ready to be uploaded to your profile page. The cool thing is, it also allows you to add in text, lines, and brushworks. For users who are picky, there is an option to upload your own background and use Timelinecoverbanner’s tool to customize your …

6. Buffet Mania | Singapore

Buffet Mania, as the name suggests, aggregates all the buffets you can find in Singapore and lists them according to the type of cuisine — international, seafood, Japanese, etc. When you select a particular restaurant, it will then list all the relevant information such as the description, opening hours, pricing, and the current promotions …

7. Perx | Singapore

Perx, the stamp card mobile app, has a new feature/campaign called the ‘Chop Mob.’ I first heard about it when it was still a paper plan when I met Andrew Roth, the co-founder of Perx, over coffee. It sounds pretty interesting and works like the group-buying concept. The first campaign trial was rolled out and completed with The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf recently. Within a week, Perx was able to generate over 1,000 ‘chops’ across five Coffee Bean outlets in Singapore. Once the target of 1,000 chops is met, every …

8. Cazbak | India

Cazbak is an e-commerce portal for consumers featuring and aggregating over 90 online stores in India, including Flipkart, Fashion And You, Snapdeal, and MakeMyTrip. Cazbak aggregates all …

9. DropMySite | Singapore

DropMySite.com allows you to back up your websites, databases, and emails in the cloud. DropMySite.com was started last August by a Singapore-based South African, John …

10. VCotton | China

There are a lot of specialist e-commerce sites in China, but VCotton perhaps takes the award for focusing on such a niche area that it’s practically selling only one product: socks. OK, it has leggings and panties/shorts as well, for both men and women, so it’s oriented more towards underwear; the kind of stuff that you (hopefully) throw out and buy afresh pretty often. But its area of expertise, according to its CEO Lin Wei (pictured below), is socks. In an interesting interview today with ChinaVenture, Mr Lin describes how VCotton.com …

11. Agate Studio | Indonesia

Agate Studio is probably one of the few great mobile gaming startups in Indonesia that we haven’t been really able to cover yet. Agate Studio is really good at making games as well as holding events for game developers and gamers themselves. Together with Nokia they have staged Indonesia Bermain, and the Mobile Games Developer War. We got in touch with Arief Widhiyasa, the CEO of Agate Studio, to find out more …

12. EZTABLE | Taiwan

Taiwan-based, online restaurant reservation site, EZTABLE, informed us that it has just raised $1.5 million from lead investor, Rose Park Advisors, (by Clayton Christensen and Matt Christensen), together with NineYi Capital (by Steven Ho), and appWorks (by Jamie Lin). The investment will be primarily used to …

13. Twitmusic | Philippines

Good content goes viral on Twitter. The 2009 Hudson River plane crash news that went viral on the microblog has inspired Philippines-based Twitmusic to re-imagine how artists can leverage Twitter to engage fans. It’s more than than just having a personal Twitter account profile for artists. Rather it is how music and Twitter can combine to give fans an awesome digital experience. Twitmusic, in short, is the ‘Twitpic/Twitvid for music.’ It is a platform where …

14. Makehappy | India

Makehappy is an experiment in charitable and social e-commerce that was created to make people feel good about shopping online. Launched on February 1st by a multi-national startup team, the site gives money to selected charities and NGOs every time someone uses it to search and buy products on its retail partner online stores. It’s focused on …

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