Entrepreneurial reality show The Angel’s Gate launches

If you’re a big fan of shows like Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank where venture capitalists gobble up clueless entrepreneurs on TV, then you’ll love this one.

The Angel’s Gate is Asia’s very own version of such entrepreneurial reality shows, and they just launched the show today (19th October).

The format of these shows are similar — entrepreneurs will get a chance to impress the top angel investors in Asia and receive an investment from them. They include the likes of William Klippgen, founder of Tigris Capital; Patrick Grove, ranked one of Asia’s best young entrepreneurs; branding and marketing guru Ken Mandel; and Karan Singh Thakral, a veteran entrepreneur in consumer electronics.

They’re all decked in spiffy white suits — in keeping with the show’s name, but don’t be fooled into thinking that they’ll always be nice and smiley. This is a reality show after all, and the judges are there not just to dispense wisdom, but also to entertain and provoke.

And see which entrepreneur has guts and resolve.

Philippa Lett, the British-accented host of the show, promised that we can expect “more than one Simon Cowell on the program.”

I’m hoping for some fireworks.

Anyway, while the show’s format is familiar, there are some important innovations too. Ash Singh, founder and CEO of InteractiveSG, the company that created the show, says Angel’s Gate is taking a 360 degrees approach. Besides television, the show will come to life on both the web and mobile.

Viewers can expect a total of eight TV episodes, which will launch in January, as well as 30 webisodes.

Another thing that sets the show apart from others is that entrepreneurs can sign up on the website to canvass for votes and source for crowd-funding, which works on an all-or-nothing system. They can even seek team members online.

The most popular entries will then appear on the show, where they’ll to pitch to the Angels, who’ll decide on the spot if they should receive an investment from the AngelFund. Entrepreneurs that get rejected can refine their business idea and resubmit it through the website.

The deadline for this round of submissions is 31st October.

Ash has big dreams for Angel’s Gate. He has set a target of reaching out to over 100 million viewers, including at least 500,000 aspiring entrepreneurs and 10,000 applicants. So far, about 30 percent of participants are Singaporeans, another 30 percent are PRs and expats in Singapore, with the remaining coming from the rest of the world.

“There’s even one guy from Dallas, Texas,” said Ash.

Where ever the participants are from, I’m sure the judges and viewers are looking forward to brilliant pitches that will set the screen on fire. If this show takes off, it could go some way in promoting entrepreneurship in Asia and beyond.

Link to full article

Read More

Chinese LBS Service Digu Sheds 70% of Staff

Digu.com, one of China’s largest LBS service is reducing 70% of its employees due to uncertain Series B round of funding and glimmer profitability prospects, according to people familiar with the matter.

Li Song, founder of Digu.com admitted that the company is restructuring, but denied the funding dilemma. “There’s no clear business model for mobile internet except for mobile gaming, so we’ve geared up for a long march and we’re not giving it up. What we’re doing now is to get as many users as we could.”

One alleged Digu staff disclosed that after the layoff, headcount of the Shenzhen-based company would down to about 40 from more than 110. According to her, Digu which has been been downsizing since July of this year has pivoted several times since its founding, from LBS to photo sharing and now photo printing, lacking of clear positioning leads Digu to the current funding trouble since venture capitals can’t get a clear picture of the company and are hesitating in investing.

Li Song, who also founded Chinese online dating site Zhenai.com, once said during an interview that it’s hard to stick to the end in LBS forefront without at least US$ 30 million to 50 million worth of funding. Back then he’s pretty confident about next round while saying profitability wouldn’t be his primary concern in the next two or three years. However, the drastic market shift has resulted in gloomy raising picture for many Chinese internet companies and even made some of them to postpone IPO till the market gets better.

Li Song said that the company overreached in both online and offline part when it’s trying to reach out to local businesses as well as pull off decent products. Now with the restructure, Digu is retrenching and focusing on the product end. A team of 40 people is enough for product development, he added.

Related posts:

1. Dr. Li Song, Founder of Digu and Zhenai on Entrepreneurship
2. 99 Days Passed, Microblogging Service Digu Is Back With Micro Social Game
3. Digu, When Twitter Meets Entertainment

Link to full article

Read More

Rumor: VANCL Going Public Next Month?

Chinese online apparel site VANCL is planning its initial public offering in next month, according to people familiar with the matter. Couple weeks ago the Beijing-based company was reportedly gearing up to go public this month to raise up to US$ 1 billion.

Earlier reports noted that VANCL has hired CCIC (China International Capital Corporation), Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley for the potential largest Chinese internet listing in the U.S. this year in the fourth quarter.

VANCL isn’t the only Chinese online retailer that wanted to get listed in November of this year, given the current economic turmoil, it seems that China’s ecommerce companies are facing a “now or maybe never” situation. Some pulled their IPO plan due to sluggish market and are waiting for the market to shift in their favor, like Xunlei.com. Some speeded up aggressively trying to catch the last ride, such as 55Tuan and Lashou which all planning their imminent IPO in this month.

Related posts:

1. Dangdang.com Goes Public in Nasdaq Next Month
2. VANCL Filing Prospectus Aiming for Q4 IPO
3. Vancl Plans To Get Listed By Early 2012

Link to full article

Read More

TomTom Buys-out Joint Venture Partner in India, To Focus on In-car Navigation Services

Earlier this month, TomTom launched its VIA range of PNDs in India (personal navigation devices) and the company has now increased its stake in the Indian joint venture from 90% to 100%.

Tomtom PND

The joint venture was formed between industrial group Kalyani in 2008 and the Dutch navigation service provider, TomTom increased its stake from 60% to 90% in November 2010.

“India has a large untapped car navigation market. By owning TomTom India Ltd 100% we have full flexibility to execute our growth strategy. Our recent product introduction of the VIA series of our PND range is a great first step and we look forward to continue to develop bespoke products for the Indian market, like points of interest for landmark navigation” – Jocelyn Vigreux, Managing Director TomTom India.

TomTom PNDs are available in India (online) and at retail stores like Reliance Autozone/Digital, Carnation etc and the starting price of TomTom PNDs in India is Rs. 15,000.

Navigation Business: Industry Outlook

- India has a population of 1.2 billion and 22 million cars on the road. New car sales are forecast to grow to 4 million by 2015.

- Navigation system market in India is expected to be around $158Mn by 2014.

In India, Garmin and MapMyIndia are the 2 biggest players but Both of these are hardware based systems. Though very slowly, but smart phone based navigation apps are gaining popularity as well.

Recent Updates from LBS/Navigation Industry

MapmyIndia Launches CarPad, Android Based Tab For Navigation
`MapmyIndia, in collaboration with Qualcomm launched CarPad, Android based tab for navigation. The price of device is Rs. 22,990.

Zenrin In Talks To Buy 24% Stake In MapMyIndia
Japanese map publisher Zenrin is in advanced talks to invest $30 million for a 24% stake in MapmyIndia, the country’s largest provider of digital-map data and consumer-navigation services

Navteq Launches 3D Maps For India
The latest commercially released version of Navteq map is available for more than 2000 cities throughout India with 1.15 million km of road networks.

Garmin-Asus to Launch Android Smartphone in India [Your Phone is a Navigator]

The product (Garmin-Asus A10) will have 4GB internal storage, 5MP camera and a built-in PoI database as well (the expected price of the device is between Rs. 20,000-22,000).

Also see: Garmin-Asus to capture Indian Smart phone market by giving correct, price to performance ratio

Recommended Video: Interview with Marc Naddell, VP of Developer Programs at Navteq on India opportunity.

Do you think mobile devices will drive the future of navigation business?

---

---

» TomTom Buys-out Joint Venture Partner in India, To Focus on In-car Navigation Services @Pluggd.in.

Link to full article

Read More

Meet the leaner Motorola Solutions

Paul Blinkhorn kicked off the 2011 APAC Developer Conference with a strong and clear message that Motorola Solutions is now “a much more highly focused solutions-based organization”. Blinkhorn, who is VP of Channels for Asia Pacific, is in charge of the channels organization which encompasses three main businesses – professional/commercial radio, enterprise products and the wireless business. “Motorola Solutions feels like a startup company even though we have got a 80-year heritage,” said Blinkhorn.

Motorola Solutions is one of the two spinoffs from the original company, the other being Motorola Mobility which was recently acquired by Google. In the efforts to become a leaner and more focused company, Motorola Solutions has since divested off its networks business to Nokia Siemens Networks and also, lately, its outdoor wireless portfolio to Cambium Networks. Said Blinkhorn, “A lot of work, obviously, over that time but the reason behind it is crystal clear. The reason is to become very much a pure government and enterprise solutions company. That’s our core business and that is what we are all about.”

All these efforts are in line with Motorola Solutions key vision, which is ”To be the leading global provider of mission-critical communications for government and enterprise customers”. Mission critical to the company is a very business one where there is an increasing importance of the provision of data that allows companies or organizations to better serve their customers.

Being in the two-sided market, Motorola Solutions also recognizes the importance of partner applications. With 100,000 customers worldwide and a strong partnership base of 25,000 global partners with more than 2,000 based in the Asia Pacific region, Motorola Solutions is pouring resources into engaging and assisting these partner through programs such as the MOTOTRBO Developer Kitchens and similar developer conferences as this which engaged close to 200 Asian developers.

A simple case study to show the collaborative synergies between Motorola Solutions, their application development partners and end-users was American Apparels. With the help of Motorola Solutions’ hardware and their partners’ applications for inventory management, American Apparels realized a 14 percent increase in sales, 700 percent increase in productivity and double the annual inventory turnovers. As such, Motorola Solutions’ tagline ”Helping customers be their best in the moments that matter” sends a clear message to potential partners and customers who are striving to keep their competitive edge in their businesses.

For developers interested to partner Motorola Solutions, the company recently launched an online developer community to provide the support these developers need. The community has grown to over 200 global developers strong since their launch. With two of Motorola Solutions’ strategic objectives being growing with their partners and achieving combined channel synergies, it looks like the company is providing enterprise tools developers an environment with big opportunities.

Side note, I like this leaner, meaner and greener (all conference attendee information was stored on the badges with a QR code together with the agenda) look of Motorola Solutions.

Link to full article

Read More

The Riskmaster by Tim Draper

This month’s Founders Drinks with Tim Draper which saw an attendance of near to 70 pax, took place right after Techventure where Tim himself was a keynote speaker. For this Founders Drinks, it was a special edition featuring a Silicon Valley style evening mixer with Tim, happening at The Studio Cocktail Bar, a cozy bar downtown. For those who do not know Tim Draper, he is the man behind Draper Fisher Jurvetson and it took one blog post just to list out his important achievements.

While Tim shared many sound advices to the crowd such as “treat your customers as the laziest person” (like how Apple did it by simplifying things), “do things that you believe in, and not for the sake of doing it”, “you won’t get rich thinking how to get rich”, and “get a lot of users and the money will come to you”, if you know Tim, he is also known for the song Riskmaster, lyrics by him personally. Tim presented the song to the crowded at The Studio, which goes like this:

The Riskmaster by Tim Draper

Invested all his mattress money
Divorced his Prom Queen hometown honey
Scraping up his alimony
Friends think he’s a little funny

Needs a “world class CEO.”
Just another million or so
Get him to some real cash flow
So tears and sweat can IPO

For 15 years he’s been out gunned
Bankers demanding blood refund
Company’s looking Moribund
Even Draper will not fund!

Chorus:
He is the Riskmaster
Lives fast drives faster
Skates on the edge of disaster
He is the Riskmaster

He’s got a mission
Company vision
An artist’s ambition
Gut intuition
Fearless and free employee
No guarantee for the Corporate escapee

Team fights on against the trend
Had to lay off his best friend
Called a “recession” seems like “depression.”
Chapter seven. Is this the end?

But then a salesman shouts, “We got it!”
The company’s gonna show a profit
To think the papers rang, “quixotic”
The sky has opened astronautic.

Chorus:
He is the Riskmaster
Lives fast drives faster
Skates on the edge of disaster
He is the Riskmaster

He is on top, on top of the world
At last they see it. Vision unfurled!
Cashflow landslide!
Now everybody wants a piece of his hide.
Court wants him tried. Press wants him fried.
Anyone this rich must have lied.

Chorus:
He is the Riskmaster
Lives fast drives faster
Skates on the edge of disaster
He is the Riskmaster

To the moon!

-End of Lyric-

One more thing, Tim recommends the book “The Startup Game”, written by the Drapers (his family) which helped him a lot. Definitely going to add that book into my collection. Anyone read the book yet?

Link to full article

Read More

Malaysia Digest: Academy to train entrepreneurs, housewives starting biz, and more

Here are some interesting startup news around Malaysia, not only in its capital, Kuala Lumpur, but also other startup hubs such as Penang, Malacca, and many more.

(1) Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) plans to set up an academy to train entrepreneurs about business fundamentals to help them succeed, its chairman Datuk Amir Hamzah Ahmad said.

(2) Servcorp Malaysia, the leading innovator of office services across the world, is giving customers more opportunities to try their virtual offices with a 50% discount in the first month of membership.

(3) Sarawakians should be placed on both Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia’s boards of directors to ensure that the state’s interests are represented and protected. Presently, none sit on either airlines’ boards.

(4) Being housewives has not stopped some Malaysian women from attaining economic success. A group of women entrepreneurs has proven they can earn more than RM5,000 (US$1,595) a month by working at home.

(5) Of the RM2.1bil (US$670 mil) provided by the Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), RM100mil (US$32 mil) each will be allocated to Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs under a micro financing plan.

(6) The proposed initiatives for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) under Budget 2012 will not only strengthen the SMEs as growth drivers but promote the country’s aspiration to become an Islamic financial hub, according to industry players.

(7) The dream to see high-performing Dayak (ethnic) companies listed on Bursa Malaysia (exchange) could come true soon. The Dayak Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) said this could be realised if equal opportunities were given to them under programs and projects proposed in Budget 2012.

(8) Some 500 leading women entrepreneurs from several countries have confirmed their attendance at the inaugural International Women in Business Convention at the Melaka International Trade Centre this month.

We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.

Link to full article

Read More

Social Game Networking Mobage Reported To Own Pro-Baseball Team In Japan

From the first time rumored, Japanese social game network giant Mobage company DeNA has been rumored to buy a Yokohama-based professional baseball team, Yokohama Bay Stars. DeNA side never commented on that. And some media reported the deal went up into air.

Today Nikkei reported [J] that TBS Holdings, a TV broadcast network currently owning the team, is almost agreeing with DeNA on the deal. Nikkei also says that even those two agrees they need to get permission of the deal by owners committee of all 12 teams.

Recently Tsuneo Watanabe, ex-Yomiuri Giants owner who still has a lot of influences on the most popular team's management, the league and even whole Japanese sports business, expressed that he dislikes (without mentioning the name) that the Japan pro-baseball should not accept a company who is running "a dating site", which he likely was explained by his staffs. Last month, when he was asked comment around DeNA/Mobage rumor first, he said "DeNA? I do not know at all.". But yesterday on 18th, he said that he feels that the deal is almost done, with telling "There are no other buyers. (Only DeNA) remained from multiple candidates."

[Update 9:50] DeNA has published a short, likely not-scheduled, release in Japanese. "Today there was a media report that we are considering to purchase a baseball team. Although it is true that we are at the negotiation, nothing has been fixed at this point." So DeNA admits that they are at the table at least.

Social Game Networking Mobage Reported To Own Pro-Baseball Team In Japan

Link to full article

Read More

China Digest: Weibo English version, China.com filed for bankruptcy protection, and more

Here are some startup news snippets from China, not only in its capital, Beijing, but also other startup hubs such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, and many more.

(1) China’s second most popular microblogging service, Tencent Weibo, launched their English version last week to target the international market. For the first time, non-Chinese speaking users can sample a little taste of the Chinese social networking phenomenon.

(2) CDC Corporation, the company behind China.com and many other businesses and the first Nasdaq-listed Chinese internet company has filed for bankruptcy protection, highlighting that the company’s years of struggle has finally accumulated to the extent that it couldn’t deal with them anymore. Stocks have gone down more than 50% on Nasdaq.

(3) Kandian, by Sina, is an online video site that allows users to create their own TV station, like Justin.tv.

(4) In a sure sign that Turntable.fm has made it, it now has its very own Chinese clone, Duomi.fm. The site, currently in closed beta, appears to shamelessly clone every aspect of Turntable.fm.

(5) Xiaomi Tech, the company behind Xiaomi mobile is said to be tapping into the digital reading market through MIUI, a 3rd-party customized Android ROM curated by the mobile-focused company.

(6) Streaming subscription music service Pandora will enter China and is head-hunting a capable CEO. This is definitely great news for music fans in China. But the question you may ask is whether this music streaming service can operate legally in China. After all, the environment here is kinda complex.

(7) Lashou is said to be the first Chinese group buying service to make a profit, according to people close to the site. Lashou refused to comment when approached.

(8) If Tencent’s penguin is hungry, it can be very dangerous and eat everything. When Taobao launched its B2C platform just a month ago, Tencent’s open B2C platform also launched.

(9) Pinju.com, a late-comer to the extremely competitive Chinese ecommerce market, made its debut with several group buying deals. The site is reportedly positioning itself as an online general store with catalogues ranging from cosmetics, clothes, maternity and baby products, electric appliance, home supplies, health products, 3C products to luxurious brands including Hermes, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Armani, Gucci and so on.

(10) Maimaicha.com, a Chinese B2C online vertical which sells tea today announced raising RMB hundreds of millions (US$15 million) in Series A funding from four domestic venture capitals.

(11) In a report by independent market research institute CNZZ, Sogou, the search engine curated by Chinese portal Sohu.com, tops Google China in user adoption.

(12) Who are the prime beneficiaries of the current ecommerce mania in China? To start off, consumers. They now have access to abundant choices with stunning price tags. Portals as well as website aggregators like hao123.com (acquired by Baidu) and hao.360.cn (by Qihoo 360) are also benefitting. Why? They pull in considerable amount of money by promoting these ecommerce services on their virtual properties.

(13) Xunlei, China’s online entertainer which offers a popular download tool and online streaming service filed to withdraw its IPO, citing deteriorating European debt crisis and gloomy U.S. economy as the main causes.

(14) Chinese social gaming vendor Happy Elements announced raising US$30 million in Series B funding from Legend Capital with previous investor DCM participating. The funding, according to its CEO Wang Haining, will go towards beefing up the team and speeding up R&D.

We thank nordicfactory for the flag image.

Link to full article

Read More

Social Game Developer “One Of Them” Raises 300 Million Yen In Funds

ONE of THEM,Inc., [J] from October 5th’s fixed date deposit, has issued third party allocation of shares totaling about 300 million yen, through Globis Capital Partners and Infinity Ventures LLP.

ONE of THEM.Inc is a corporation established in January of 2011.  They offer planning and development of both joint and in-house contents centered on the feature phone and smart phone market.  As well as managing the feature phone social game “Umi No Ue No Kame Nouen” (The Turtle Plantation Over the Sea) for CyberAgent’s Ameba since June, they also have established a marketing center in Singapore from September.

The funds they have accrued at this time will be used for expanding and reinforcing their development for smartphone systems and applications, strengthening their management base, applications and contents M&A, developing their international marketing base, and growing their team of talented individuals.

 

Translation authorized by VSMedia

Social Game Developer “One Of Them” Raises 300 Million Yen In Funds

Link to full article

Read More

[Report] Jobs Remembered At Apple Store Ginza

After the news of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ death was reported on October 6th, there were some happenings at the Apple Store in Ginza.  At the moment there seem to be no plans to hold an official memorial event accordion to Apple Store, but nevertheless many Apple fans came to give flower offerings.  Also in many places sudden memorial events were held.

The state of affairs at the Ginza Apple Store on night of the 6th.  Although it may appear that the number of people was minimal, at that time people had gathered to the point that security guards went onto the sidewalk to regulate.

The situation at 10:00 P.M.  Although the store had been closed for an hour, bouquets were piled up thick.

Not only bouquets but also message cards and apples referencing the logo mark were offered in tribute.  Also in this way, the feeling that people truly love Steve Jobs the man and the Apple Corporation could truly be expressed.

Incidentally when I checked in to the Ginza Apple Store with the location information app “Foursquare,” I saw that some 266 users had also checked in.  Don’t you think that’s probably the first time so many people have ever checked into the Apple Store in one day?

Also, Melting Dots CEO Hiroshi Asaeda made a memorial video of  Steve Jobs and opened them out on YouTube and NicoNico Douga (Smile Video).  Please go ahead and watch it from here too.

Youtube version

watch?v=Nbsi2I0GXPk
NicoNico Douga version

sm15809029

 

Translation authorized by VSMedia

[Report] Jobs Remembered At Apple Store Ginza

Link to full article

Read More

Manta Ray Diving

Manta ray diving is a popular Maldives holiday activity

Over the past few months, we have been swamped with reports of manta ray diving and sightings in the Maldives, with overjoyed divers and dive guides agreeing that it has been a bumper year for manta lovers. Many of our boats, such as Theia and MV Aquarius, have responded by launching special “Manta Madness†cruises, which take guests to be best Manta spots of the Maldives.

It seems that thanks to numerous conservation efforts, the Maldives manta ray population is doing well these days. This is great news, especially considering that manta rays are an endangered species in most parts of the world.

The recovery of the manta ray population in the Maldives appears to be evident in the dive logs of all of the liveaboard diving cruise ships we work with, as well as from anecdotal evidence we’ve received from crew members and guests over the past few months.

Link to full article

Read More

Indian Railways Launches Real Time Train Tracking Service–Simran

We earlier covered Indian Railways’ plans to launch Baby Simran project (SIMRAN stands for Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation) that involves digital mapping of stations.

The Rs. 100 Crore project, in partnership with IIT Kanpur enables passengers to know the exact position of a train by sending an SMS. The GPS device will help tracking down the exact location of the train and also monitor the train’s speed.

The project Simran is now live (http://simran.in/) and user gets train position by send SMS to any of the following mobile numbers.

SIMRAN: Data Available

The data this service offers is:

• Train Speed
• Closest Station , Next Stop.
• Train status (Late/Before Time/Approaching).

SMS Format

You can send SMS to 09415213409 or 09415213493 with the following format:

    T 2004;   {To know the current location of train 2004}

The site is quite buggy to start off (some of the links aren’t working), but is a step in right direction. In fact, this is an interesting project to watch out for, though one would expect Rs. 100 Cr project to have a more robust execution.

---

---

» Indian Railways Launches Real Time Train Tracking Service–Simran @Pluggd.in.

Link to full article

Read More