muru-D Singapore’s Startups Poised for Success with a Strong Focus on Emerging Tech

muru-D Singapore last week (10th May, 2018) announced that 10 startups from across Asia, including four from Singapore, have successfully completed their six-month program in Singapore. The third cohort has collectively secured more than 100,000 customers, amassed over S$500,000 in revenues, and raised approximately S$2 million in funding, more than doubling the amount raised by those who graduated last year.

The graduating startups showcased their variety of services to an audience of potential investors and industry experts at Demo Day. From artificial intelligence and virtual reality, to digital solutions for real estate, hospitality and advertising industries, these startups have a focus on addressing needs and concerns of businesses and consumers, and more specifically, students, musicians and pet-lovers.

As part of the six-month muru-D accelerator program, each startup receives S$75,000 in funding, mentorship, training and international networking opportunities. muru-D’s expert network helped the startups refine their business models, solutions and go-to-market strategies.

“We are pleased to continue to foster innovation and entrepreneurism, and support the startup ecosystem across Asia-Pacific. The potential of startups represent the ability to solve real problems faced by people globally and we are proud to play an integral role in making it happen through our muru-D programs,” commented Julie Trell, Head of muru-D.

“It’s been so exciting to see the growth of the ten companies in this cohort,” said Paul Meyers, Head of muru-D Singapore. “The founders put in many hours of hard work to refine and improve their business models – resulting in real commercial success.  With the strong foundations built in the muru-D program, I am eager to see their future progress and success.”

muru-D Singapore’s third graduating cohort:

• CarePod, Singapore – CarePod provides a range of premium travel solutions to make pet air travel safer – from first class ‘pods’ for pets to travel in, to live tracking for pet owners’ additional peace of mind, and a specialised logistics software solution for airlines to help manage their entire pet business.
• Ohana, Vietnam – Ohana is an accommodation platform for students and transient professionals. The Ohana community has grown to over 40,000 students and more than 10,000 rooms shared in the past 12 months.
• Idem Hospitality, Singapore – Idem helps hotels manage and market their Group reservations business through Idem’s cloud-based-software.
• InsightzClub, Malaysia – InsightzClub is an AI-driven insights platform for consumer brands and agencies. InsightzClub’s programmatic technology & machine learning offers higher quality results in real time, saving weeks per project.
• Jambro, Pakistan – Jambro is a market network for live music that puts musicians at the center of the live music ecosystem. The platform enables musicians, event organizers, music venues and fans to collaborate and create opportunities like never before.
• KNOW, Singapore – KNOW is a mobile communications and productivity platform specifically built for the 2+ billion newly connected workers in “desk-less” frontline jobs. Companies use KNOW to better inform their workers, share tasks and receive live updates, manage attendance, collect field data, train in real-time, and more.
• ShopUp, Bangladesh – ShopUp is a credit appraisal platform for social media-based small businesses with the mission to make capital more affordable and accessible for micro entrepreneurs.
• Vybes, Singapore – Vybes is a platform for millions of Instagrammers to sell products and services they create directly to their fans. Vybes provides marketplace tools and the opportunity for Instagrammers to reach a wider audience, thus doubling their income.
• Vokabee, Thailand – VokaBee is a digital teaching assistant that increases the efficiency and engagement of learning a new language. The app uses AI to create personalised language exercises, automates marking and tracks student progress. It helps school teachers save the time taken on their reading assignments by 50% and increase vocabulary uptake for students by 22%.
• V-prop by VR Lab Bhd, Malaysia – V-prop by VR-Labs is a Property Sales Platform in Virtual Reality that connects buyers and sellers anywhere in the world to Interact, View and Buy properties in Real-time. V-prop has facilitated US$120 Million property sales in the last quarter alone.