page 1 of 4startupnewsasia.com/monthly

in february 2017E Australia: Australia: AgriDigital blockchain startup

could revolutionize agricultural industry

E Japan: Japanese megabanks bet on fintech with

bitcoin exchange investment

E Thailand: Thailand: Startup sector tipped to double

in value as support grows

STARTUP NEWS ASIATODAY / MONTHLY / QUARTERLY

FEBRUARY 2017 IN BRIEF

CHINA:

How Chinese mobile payments

are quietly conquering the world

LAOS:

A look at Vientiane’s

fledgeling startup scene

JAPAN:

Bitcoin will be legal currency

starting in April

THE FINAL QUARTER OF 2016

In terms of Southeast Asia’s tech news, 2016’s fourth quarter was a strange beast.

Where in Q3 we saw an increase in tech news for Indonesia, for example, in Q4 this fell away. Similarly, where we saw relatively high levels of Philippines-specific activity in the third quarter, in the fourth quarter this was noticeably muted.

A word on ‘why Startup News Asia?’

The aim in this is to provide what we view as ‘thin’ research: • at-a-glance information on developments, funding and trends; and• the specific headline patterns around loca-tions and areas of technology...

startup news asia: february 2017

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Vietnam: A look at Triip.me, connecting tour-

ists with locals

Australia: 7 projects gain from $4.9M Launch-

Vic grants

5 startups making a social impact in South-

east Asia

India: How mobile banking, wallet & card

transactions fared after demonetisation

A look at Samsung's new $150M startups

fund

New Zealand: Fintech startup LatiPay raises

US$3M for Singapore, US growth

India: TimeMyTask on-demand cleaning

startup acquired

News app usage rising worldwide; 1/3 'net

users

Vietnam: A look back at 2016, Vietnam's

"year of startups"

A quick look at startup venture debt funding

in Southeast Asia

Singapore: EU fintechs invited to apply for

The FinLab

Global NGO Online Technology Report: pdf

download

Singapore: IoT Asia Conference and Exhibi-

tion, late March

Cambodia: Startups&Angels event set for

23rd Feb, Phnom Penh

Australia: Report identifies fintech & cy-

ber-security collaboration opportunities

Thai e-wallet startup T2P aims to help Myan-

mar go cashless

Australia: Girl Geek Academy lands $1.3M;

sets female-founded startup hackathon

New Zealand: Berlin's online lender Spotcap

starts lending ops in NZ

Australia: A look at the agenda for Sydney's

ad:tech conference in March

Australia: Intelligent Communities 2017

smart cities event - Melbourne, March

How Australia can create new businesses

with fintech, cybersecurity industry collabo-

ration (pdf)

India: News Corp VCCircle Startup Summit,

Mumbai Edition

South Korea: AIM lands US$1.6M for mobile

trading service

NBAD first Middle East bank to go live on

Ripple blockchain network

SRI LANKA / #STARTUPLKPOP: 20.7M (2015)

TAIWAN / #STARTUPTWPOP: 23.3M (2015)

VIETNAM / #STARTUPVNPOP: 93.4M (2015)

THAILAND / #STARTUPTHPOP: 67.9M (2015)

startup news asia: february 2017

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Singapore: Polytechnics to build student fin-

tech skills with Fintech Association

In China, social media means shopping as

much as sharing

Singapore: CXA employers insurance & well-

ness marketplace lands $25M

China: Over 95% of 'net users go online via

mobile

Singapore: The Projector cinema partners to

launch coworking space

Barclaycard partners VocaLink for mobile

payments

Singapore: Mediapreneur incubator raises

$1.4M; opens applications

Wall Street Blockchain Alliance launches

Blockchain Assets Working Group

China: Toutiao news app buys Flipagram

platform for video growth

Is 2017 set to be the year fintech shifts its

focus to Africa?

Pakistan maps out startup ambitions as

country's middle class booms

Singapore: Jules startup aims to give pre-

schoolers computational thinking

AUSTRALIA / #STARTUPAUSPOP: 23.9M (2015)

BANGLADESH / #STARTUPBDPOP: 161M (2015)

CAMBODIA / #STARTUPKHPOP: 15.5M (2015)

CHINA / #STARTUPCNPOP: 1.37B (2015)

HONG KONG / #STARTUPHKPOP: 7.2M (2015)

INDIA / #STARTUPINPOP: 1.3B (2015)

INDONESIA / #STARTUPIDPOP: 257.5M (2015)

JAPAN / #STARTUPJPPOP: 126.5M (2015)

LAOS / #STARTUPLAPOP: 6.9M (2015)

MALAYSIA / #STARTUPMYPOP: 30.3M (2015)

MYANMAR / #STARTUPMMPOP: 53.9M (2015)

NEW ZEALAND / #STARTUPNZPOP: 4.5M (2015)

PAKISTAN / #STARTUPPKPOP: 188.9M (2015)

PHILIPPINES / #STARTUPPHPOP: 100.7M (2015)

SOUTH KOREA / #STARTUPKRPOP: 25.1M (2015)

SINGAPORE / #STARTUPSGPOP: 5.6M (2015)

startup news asia: february 2017

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Population size and market values

I’ve included population sizes to the left and for each country in the quarterly round-up for reasons beyond simple page design.

In part, the intention is to prompt thought around current and likely future market values, whilst also indicating - as in the case of Singapore, most notably - those locations which punch far above their population’s apparent weight.

Also for consideration in this context are the simple facts of geographic location:

• which countries have which neighbours; and• do the relationships between these countries allow for an easy expansion from one market to another?

I’m seeing Startup News Asia developing into the go-to source for trends, patterns and ‘headline’ research for an audience more interested in what is being invested in than in the capital market trends in play - an at-a-glance reference, if you will, for the overall movements, rather than the detail behind those movements, an audience that:

• doesn’t need capital market knowledge;• doesn’t need to know, or even look for, the founder’s name or pedigree;• needs only to know if <country x> has done more this month/quarter/year than either it or <country y> did comparitively; and• that formulates local policy with an eye on wider trends, but doesn’t need in-depth knowledge of players, individuals or funds.

For more information, email talktous@startupnewsasia.com.