In the last seven days, we have had a couple of Asian tech startups on our radar, specifically from China, Indonesia, Japan, 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. iSheHui | China
Back in December of last year we predicted that social video apps would be big in China in 2012, led by a fun one called iSheHui (pictured above). And the Japanese investment firm CyberAgent Ventures seems to agree, having this week confirmed that it has invested 10 million RMB (US$1.59 million) in the startup that makes it. iSheHui is sort of an Instagram for videos, allowing users to add funky filters to an iPhone or Android smartphone vid and then easily share it with friends on Weibo. The startups two founders…
2. Vibease | Singapore
We’ve received news from Vibease that its smartphone-controlled vibrators are now available for pre-order. Each vibrator costs $99.99 but pre-ordering it can get you up to $45 in savings, which is pretty neat. The product will ship in July. The Singapore-based vibrator product is unique in the sense that it is controllable remotely, even from the other side of the world, via a mobile app, which could certainly help…
3. ISGLOVES | Singapore
We understand how annoying it is trying to pick up a call or replying to a message during winter with gloves on. There are many specialized gloves that try to address this problem. ISGLOVES is one of the latest. It’s a touchscreen-capable snow mitten, which consists of…
4. Wonderful Day | India
Wonderful Day an app shouldering the duty to remind you about routine tasks and make sure you do them. The user will mark green if he does it and red …
5. Fokado | Indonesia
Fokado is one of the startups that has just graduated from the Jakarta Founders Institute two weeks ago. Fokado is trying to provide an alternative way for you to give someone a gift. So, rather than giving a physical item, the site encourages people to gift fun activities that will last longer in your friend’s memory.
6. The Special Forces (TSF) | China
An amazing 3D homescreen interface experience is about to hit Android phones, and it’s thanks to a team of Chinese engineers who call themselves The Special Forces (TSF). The crew’s upcoming first app is, essentially, a third-party launcher app that gives Android users a new way to interact with their phones. From the demo video (embedded within article), the UI is certainly something to look forward to. The main feature of TSF Shell Pro – which is the launcher app’s name, which will launch in the Android Market on February 29th – …
7. Chocoarts | Indonesia
Jakarta-based game studio, Chocoarts, just raised a round of seed funding from several independent angels. The investment sum and the angels are undisclosed. With the new cash injection, Chocoarts’ co-founder Mega Denditya wants to hire more digital artists to make their games more visually appealing. He is also looking out for…
8. AppSEO | Japan
A new search optimization service for apps, AppSEO, is available in public beta today. The service is a web-based tool from the folks over at Japan-based AppGrooves, which some of our readers might be familiar with as a sort of democratic app recommendation application. But while that service was for consumers, AppSEO is targeting the market of app developers, helping to improve their “Mobile App Store SEO.”…
9. B5M | China
The Chinese product search engine B5M.com has attracted and secured a significant US$7.1 million in series A funding that was led by Oak Investment Partners and Giosis Holdings. It will strengthen the site in its aim to be a leading, independent product search engine in China. B5M – which is a clever pun on ‘help me buy’ in Chinese – said…
10. GamesMadeMe | Singapore
At our Startups in Asia conference I briefly met up with Juha Paananen, who heads up GamesMadeMe, a Finnish-Singaporean gaming company which focuses on ‘cross-browser’ HTML5 games. Juha told me a little about the company’s goals in the gaming space: Our main focus is uniting gamers from different devices and platforms. So far too many games are just divided into silos in terms of devices (like iPhone) or social networks (Facebook). Just take a look at all the disclaimers Zynga has on their Cityville game for iPhone; gamers are frustrated they …
Other startup related stories in Asia
- Golden Gate Ventures: $10 Million Fund for SEA Startups Launches Today
- Startups in Asia (Singapore) 2012 in an Infographic
- Startup Arena (Singapore): All 19 Startup Pitches
- Singapore, Indonesia, and Lazy Founders