It was an exciting day for Asian startup community. Some has raised funds, some has acquired a local company … While some has to call it quits

Black Garlic ceases operation

 

Indonesian food ingredients and seasonings subscription service Black Garlic announced on Thursday night that it is shutting down operations.

In a company newsletter, Black Garlic stated that Saturday, July 15, will be the last day for delivery.

As for the startup’s Black Garlic Express service, which was a result of a collaboration with celebrity chef William Wongso, it will be handed over to Wongso’s team as the creator of the products which consists of ready-to-cook seasonings and rendang meal.

The Black Garlic team will continue to serve customers’ queries until Wednesday, July 19.

In his statement, co-founder Michael Saputra expressed his gratitude to all Black Garlic customers and employees, and stressed the co-founders’ commitment to help the employees “find the next opportunity more easily.”

Black Garlic was founded in 2015 by Saputra and Olivia Wongso. Before founding the company, the co-founders had successfully get their other startup Klik-Eat acquired by Japanese company Yume No Machi.

Prior to shutting down, the startup claimed to have served 10,000 customers, have delivered more than 80,000 portions of meal with 1,000 different menu every day.

It has raised funding from Convergence Ventures, Skystar Capital, and some undisclosed angel investors.

LINE Thailand acquires local software house DGM59

 

The Thailand operations of Japanese-Korean chat messenger platform LINE has acquired local software development company DGM59 for an undisclosed amount, according to a Bangkok Post report.

The acquisition process has been finalised since mid-June.

LINE Thailand aims to turn DGM59 into its engineering development sources; turning the startup into its fourth engineering development team since Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

It plans to “double of triple” the size of its engineering team “as soon as possible,” and believes that the DGM59 team will be able to attract talents into working at the company.

Founded in 2010, DGM59 is run by a team of 20 people. Before the acquisition, it was a LINE’s Business Connects partner and has developed a social customer relationship management platform for the messenger app giant.

With 41 million users by July 2017, Thailand is the company’s second largest user base.

Also Read: News Capsule: The 5 stories that rocked the Asian tech community today

Indonesia’s creative economy agency Bekraf launches SMEs and startup financing scheme

 

The Indonesian state creative economy agency Bekraf on Thursday launched a new financing scheme for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups, called the Bantuan Intensif Penambahan Modal 2017 (BIP), according to a DailySocial report.

The financing scheme will focus on gaming and app development sector, as well as the culinary sector. Bekraf will give up to IDR200 million (US$14,900) for selected SME and startup.

Though the programme is open for public, priority will be given to startups and SMEs that had participated in Bekraf-hosted training and workshops, and those had not receive any form of funding from the government in the same year.

Registration for the programme is now open and will be closed on Monday, July 24.

SPRING Seeds Capital calls for co-investment partners

 

SPRING Singapore investment arm SPRING SEEDS Capital (SSC) has called for co-investment partners for its S$100 million (US$72 million) fund.

Together with SSC, the partners will identify and co-invest in Singapore-based deep tech startups in advanced manufacturing and engineering (AME); health and biomedical sciences (HBMS); as well as urban solutions and sustainability (USS). The sector are domain areas under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 (RIE2020).

To be eligible, potential partners have to be local and foreign parties with operations based in Singapore.

They will need to demonstrate financial commitment, resources, domain expertise, and experience to nurture Singapore-based innovative startups.

They will also be selected based on criteria including the capability and experience of the team, adequacy of facilities and resources, and fund management processes. They must also have a strong track record of nurturing and investing in early-stage startups, as well as access to investment capital and follow-on investors.

Interested partners are invited to attend briefings on July 19 and 21, and should submit their proposals by August 25 2017 (5PM SGT) to cfp_sse@spring.gov.sg.

Bottr raises funding from 500 Startups, Google MD Rajan Anandan, and others

 

Indian artificial intelligence startup Bottr announced that it has raised undisclosed funding round from 500 Startups, Purvi Capital, Google MD Rajan Anandan, and Abhishek Gupta from TLabs.

A chatbot creation tool, Bottr.me was launched in private beta version earlier this year.

In addition to the funding, Bottr also announced the addition of new features such as live chat and office hour management.

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