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Photo Credit: Pascal

Startups that operate in important sectors such as healthcare, analytics, and small business lending found funding today. And then there was news of an investment by industry honcho Ratan Tata. Here are the six on our list today:

UrbanClap

Local services marketplace UrbanClap has just found an investor in industrialist Ratan Tata, who has put in money in his personal capacity, the company said in a statement.

UrbanClap is a marketplace for hiring professionals for local services such as plumbing, yoga training, tutoring and wedding photography. It provides over 80 services and operates in NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, and Hyderabad. The company has a network of over 25,000 professionals.

OmiX Labs

Social enterprise incubator Villgro Innovations Foundation has pumped US$74,000 into Bangalore-based healthcare company OmiX Labs, VCCircle reported today. It will use the funds to set up a tech platform for cost-effective DNA testing.

The company says its handheld portable device can help diagnose vector-borne infections – something that can reduce the time and cost of detecting infectious disease pathogens.

“This platform allows for cost-effective DNA testing for pathogens, outside of laboratory settings, to address this stark gap in our healthcare systems,” said Sudeshna Adak, co-founder and CEO of OmiX.

The company was launched last year by Adak and her husband Abhinanda Sarkar. She is an alumnus of Stanford University.

Villgro’s chief investment officer Mukesh Sharma said the startup has great potential to save lives through early diagnosis and treatment.

PropheSee

PropheSee, a Delhi-based digital analytics platform, today said it has raised an investment of US$516,000 from Indian Angel Network, Stanfod Angels and Entrepreneurs India.

The service provides data-driven insights to brands so that they can take more informed decisions. Since its launch a year ago, the startup has worked with over 15 brands across six industries in India as well as abroad.

The funding will be used to scale technology and build core talent. The key focus areas for the next six months will be the development of more industry-specific analytics and modules, and investing in predictive algorithms and data visualization methods.

Ajay Lavakare led the round on behalf of IAN and SA&E India. “With its affordable cost to small and medium businesses and its focus on empowering companies to understand and act upon their social/digital performance, PropheSee has the potential to scale rapidly,” he said.

The data analytics market is expected to surpass US$42 billion through 2018, at a growth rate that is almost six times that of the overall IT market.

“With this investment, PropheSee will be able to leverage the Silicon Valley and Stanford University connections of the Stanford Angels members,” Paula Mariwala, president of SA&E India, said in a statement.

Aye Finance​

Photo Credit: Peter Rivera

Financial services startup Aye Finance, which focuses on lending to small businesses, today announced it had received INR 200 million (US$3 million) in follow-on investment from Accion and SAIF Partners.

The fresh cash will help Aye Finance give micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) greater access to financing. India’s small business sector represents nearly 58 million businesses, creates 150 million jobs, and accounts for 45 percent of industrial output.

But these businesses are often too complex for traditional microfinance lenders and too small for traditional banks, resulting in a funding gap of INR 5 trillion (US$74.9 billion) that impedes entrepreneurs from launching or expanding businesses.

Aye Finance helps India’s small businesses using tech, credit assessments, and a new ‘Industry Cluster Enablement’ (ICE) model of lending. The startup is based in north India where the concentration of MSMEs in need of finance is high.

“Aye Finance’s industry cluster approach is an exciting innovation that can help open up great opportunity for those small businesses unlikely to get bank financing. We are excited to deepen our partnership,” said Accion president and CEO Michael Schlein.

Paynear

Payment solutions provider Paynear has raised US$2.5 million in a pre-series A round from seasoned investor Mitesh Majithia, VCCircle reported today.

The Hyderabad-based startup said it will use the funds to expand, increase its technical capabilities, and boost sales.

Founded in 2013, the company claims to have over 4,000 active devices in 20 cities across India. Its products enable merchants to engage customers. For instance, mPay allows merchants to accept credit or debit cards through smartphones, tablets, and PCs.

Paynear said also that it is looking to raise US$10 million in a series A round.

i2e1

Early stage investor GrowX Ventures today led a US$500,000 seed round for i2e1, a smart network layer platform that aims to provide low cost or free internet to consumers and actionable analytics to providers.

Angel investors like T.V. Mohandas Pai, Rajan Pandhare, Debasish Mitter, and Singapore

Angels also took part in the funding. IIT-Delhi, where i2e1 was incubated, is a shareholder in the company.

The fresh funds will be used for ramping up operations, its analytics platform, and the company’s team.

“We believe information asymmetry causes inequality. At i2e1, we are challenging ourselves to create a model which will bridge the information gap for at least 500 million people over the next five to seven years,” Satyam Darmora, co-founder, i2e1, said in a statement.

Satyam is an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and IIM-Bangalore. The other founding members include Ashutosh Mishra, Anugrah Adams, Gaurav Bansal, and Maanas Dwivedi.

i2e1 has more than 100 paying clients, including retail outlets, ISPs, and organizations in the hospitality industry. It dramatically reduces the cost of network delivery through cloud-based, remotely manageable plug-and-play devices.

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Indonesia’s vast and young population sounds like a great market opportunity. But there is one catch. The majority of Indonesians don’t have the financial freedom to purchase goods and services beyond bare necessities.

Out of a population of 252 million, 28.6 million Indonesians currently live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank. Approximately 40 percent of all people remain clustered around the national poverty line set at IDR 330,776 per person per month ($22.6).

People at the “bottom of the pyramid” have a hard time getting access to loans because classic financial institutions don’t have much incentive to serve this segment – and they don’t offer the right products.

So-called microfinance institutions have sprung up to fill that gap. But some of their lending schemes, especially in Indonesia’s rural areas, have earned a bad rap. They might ask for high interest rates and have shady debt collecting methods.

Increasingly, young, technology-driven fintech startups have taken it upon themselves to address the issue, and they like to say they offer a better, fairer solution than “loan sharky” microfinancers.

Here’s a breakdown of three such microfinance sites in Indonesia. The first two give cash without collateral, while the third demands collateral, such as a motorbike or car.

UangTeman

UangTeman (Indonesian for “friend’s money”) offers loans from IDR 1.5 million to IDR 2 million (US$108 to $143) for 10 to 30 days, with an interest rate of 1 percent a day. It also has additional fees for extending the payback deadline (IDR 180,000; US$13), a fine for delays of IDR 50,000 (US$3.57), plus IDR 100,000 (US$7.10) for each day it’s delayed. On top of that, a late-paying debtor is asked to pay a fee of 10 percent of the total loaned to the debt collector.

UangTeman has been the subject of controversy due to its high interest rate. One percent may sound low, but here’s an example of how much a loan on UangTeman would cost you. Let’s say you take a loan of IDR 2 million for ten days – to get you through a rough time until the next payday. On the first day, you will pay IDR 2,000,000 x 1 percent, which means IDR 20,000. On day two, expect to pay IDR 20,020,000 x 1 percent, which makes your total loan on day two come out to be IDR 2.040.200. And so on until day 10. The total sum you will have to pay back is IDR 2,209,000 (US$158), over 10 percent more than what you borrowed.

Tunaiku

Tunaiku is the money lending service of Bank Amar Indonesia. It gives out loans starting at IDR 2 million (US$143) up to IDR 10 million (US$713) for a period of time between 6 and 12 months. It takes an interest of 3 percent from the original loan. This means the interest will stay the same no matter when you pay back the loan.

But Tunaiku also asks for an administration fee of IDR 540,000 (US$39) and imposes a fine of IDR 100,000 (US$7.10) if you can’t pay back on time. In addition, there’s a 0.16 percent interest rate for each day you’re late. So the longer you delay paying back, the more you’ll eventually have to cough up.

Taralite

Taralite offers loans depending on occasion, such as for a wedding, for education, or house renovation. The startup started out under the name Wedlite and only offered loans for weddings, but has since extended its range.

Let’s look more closely at the education loan it offers, which allows someone to borrow as much as IDR 300 million (US$21,390). The interest rate and duration of the loan depend on the type of collateral you put in. If your car or house is at stake, the interest rate will be 1 percent per month. If it’s your motorbike, the interest will be 2 percent. You can choose to pay back in monthly installments spread across a duration of one to three years. If your collateral is a house, you can take up to 5 years to pay back.

Other fees that Taralite slaps on are a bit sneaky. For example, if you want to pay back your outstanding loan before your loan period ends, that will cost you 5 percent of the remaining loan – think of it as a fine because you’re not paying the full interest rate Taralite could expect if you stay indebted for the full loan period.

Getting a Taralite loan isn’t as easy as with UangTeman or Tunaiku because you need to provide documents like an income slip, tax number, not to mention the documents needed to prove ownership of your collateral.

One metric to compare them all

Each of these three online lending services targets a different need. UangTeman’s mini-loans are meant to help people make it through a drought until the next payday. This category of loans is widely known as a payday loan, and it’s pretty controversial in Europe. UangTeman’s startup story on Tech in Asia also attracted comments from critics.

Tunaiku sounds like a better deal, but its high administration fee makes it unattractive, especially if the loan you need is comparatively small.

Taralite’s loans, especially the larger ones for education or starting a small business, perhaps fall into a separate category altogether because they address more sophisticated needs and require a number of documents people from very low income groups probably wouldn’t be able to provide.

It’s no wonder that the boom in lending options and insurances has spurred the rise of comparison sites like CekAja and HaloMoney. They claim to help consumers make smarter decisions when shopping for loans.

Still, a huge problem remains when comparing the wealth of offers, according to J.P. Ellis, founder of CekAja.

“The only true way to measure the cost of the interest is an annualized percentage rate (APR),” he told Tech in Asia. The APR also factors in additional fees. If all lenders state interest in terms of APR it’s much easier to compare offers accurately. In the US and the Philippines, lenders are required to state APR, J.P. says. He’s calling for a similar rule to be introduced in Indonesia. “It’s time Indonesian consumers are allowed this same level of transparency,” he said.

This article originally appeared in Indonesian, written by Ketut Krisna Wijaya. Information for this story was translated and modified.

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The SaaS startup tracks a brand and its competitors across digital channels, runs analytics and reports, and allows it to take data-driven decisions

Delhi-based Big Data analytics startup Prophesee has raised US$516,000 in angel funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs India (SA&E India).

Bikky Khosla, CEO of TradeIndia.com, and Satveer Thakral, CEO of Singapore Angel Network, also participated.

The startup will use the funds to build core talent and scale technology, as per an official statement.

As per the deal, Ajay Lavakare, Co-president of Standford Angels who led the round will be joining the Board of Prophesee.

The venture was founded in November 2014 by Ishaan Sethi, Harshil Gurha and Jitesh Luthra. PropheSee is a SaaS platform that tracks a brand and its competitors across digital channels, runs analytics and reports, and allows it to take data-driven decisions.

Also Read: This Indian startup wants to rocQ the mobile app analytics space

PropheSee has provided analytics to various companies and political parties in India and abroad, including Faith Connexion, Rock N Shop, NDTV’s Indian Roots, Miss Malini and PVR.

“While the primary focus thus far has been on descriptive analytics with the goal to help brands take control of their data, the platform will soon be capable of running predictive analytics to model consumer behaviour (among other trends) based on digital data,” said Co-founder and CEO Ishaan Sethi.

This is Stanford Angels’s first investment in India, which seeks to strengthen Stanford University’s startup community by fostering relationships among entrepreneurs and alumni investors.

Paula Mariwala, Founder and Co-president of SA&E India, said: “With this investment, PropheSee will be able to leverage the Silicon Valley and Stanford University connections of the Stanford Angels members and also attract great talent.”

Also Read: Indian Big Data firm IntelligenceNODE gets US$4M from NEA, Orios

IAN has an overall portfolio of 100-odd companies across 16 sectors in seven countries, including Stayzilla and Druva.

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The peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace concept has shown it has some strong legs in Southeast Asia. Startups like Carousell, Shopee, Tokopedia, and more are taking advantage of widespread smartphone usage and internet connectivity to open the door to ecommerce for thousands of individual buyers and sellers.

Swapit from Hong Kong threw its mobile gauntlet in the fight this year, and now it’s armed with some seed funding, it announced today. The startup has raised an undisclosed amount by Aria Ventures, a division of Hong Kong-based Aria Group.

Co-founder and CEO Patrick Kosiol is a veteran founder with a decade of experience. His previous ventures include visual media production company Slate Takes and data analytics services startup TreeCrunch. “As someone who has raised funding before, I know it’s time to raise money when you do not need it yet,” he tells Tech in Asia. “So while we already had sufficient funds, we were in the position of taking our time and selecting the right investor for us, with the right conditions.”

The startup will put the funding toward further development of its tech, solidify its presence in its home market of Hong Kong, and expand to new markets. Patrick does not reveal the funding amount, but says that the full amount is immediately available to the startup, and it will all be used for growing the company. “I have been brought up with the mindset of not incurring debt,” he says. “Thus, for over a decade in the mobile app industry, I have always applied that principle and am making sure to spend wisely and only within the capabilities of our business.”

Buying and selling locally

Swapit is described as a hyper-local mobile marketplace connecting buyers and sellers by location. Its expansion plans in the region would bring it head to head with a lot of the startups mentioned above. Patrick claims Swapit thinks of expansion in terms of cities in Asia-Pacific, rather than countries, as the app is meant for densely populated areas. The startup has identified about two dozen such cities, but Patrick won’t specify which ones take precedence.

Swapit is currently focused solely on Hong Kong, where it’s been gaining traction. Patrick says the company has seen 100 percent growth in traders month-on-month during the last quarter, and its gross merchandise volume (GMV) is at US$1.6 million, growing 50 percent month-on-month. “With the just-announced funding, we are looking at accelerating that significantly,” he says. He adds that Swapit doesn’t shy away from publicizing its metrics and growth, which can be seen on its app and its website.

Team players

Swapit has been accepted in accelerator programs like SoftLayer Catalyst, Microsoft BizSpark, and Facebook’s FbStart. It was also part of Tech in Asia’s Road to Tech in Asia Tokyo 2015 tour. The Facebook connection is especially interesting since it’s this exact space the social network could seek to take with its potential P2P marketplace features. Like Swapit’s competitors, Patrick isn’t too worried about that for now.

“Inherently, there are some challenges Facebook still needs to overcome when P2P trading can be done with a joy on their platform,” he says. “We believe our proactive buyer outreach combined with location information of items, sellers, and buyers, is unique and will be very hard for a social platform like Facebook to integrate without jeopardizing their core user experience.”

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In a virtual world where buyers and sellers never meet, field expert CY Tan gives us a step-by-step guide to a safe and happy online shopping experience

Before e-commerce, everyone used to do face-to-face offline retail purchases. But e-commerce is all about trusting the unknown.

Have you met Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos? Clearly not. The buyers and sellers on e-commerce sites are two involved parties who probably have never met each other.

However, transactions in this industry totalled US$840 billion in 2014 and it is expected to touch a cool trillion by 2016. It has also brought convenience, cost-saving and easy access to goods to billions of people worldwide.

But without the continued trust and support from buyers, it is impossible to keep up this upswing. Here is a short list of e-commerce hacks that you, the buyer, can adopt to make your online experience valuable:

1. Trust the right seller

When shopping online, be on the lookout for contact information on the page so that you know you can reach out if there is a problem. If you are extremely cautious, write to them to test if the response is fast and accurate. Remember to social proof the site through their Facebook and Twitter profiles to see what other users are talking about the site.

Also, there are third-party online review communities such as TrustedCompany and Trustpilot where you can look at reviews of e-commerce sites.

On the checkout page, make sure there is no hidden cost. The pricing should be clear with a breakdown. Hidden costs at the last moment show that the site is dishonest and post-sale experience wouldn’t be that far off.

When in doubt, always go for well-known sites such as Amazon, Rakuten and eBay.

Also Read: Indonesian e-commerce startups need to take visitors’ privacy seriously

2. Delivery and return policies

A delivery policy is the formulated rules of delivery as agreed between the buyer and seller for goods/services purchased for a date in the future. You should know what the basic shipping time is, and by when the item will be delivered to your doorstep.

For overseas shipping, go for an affordable speed upgrade to reduce wait time and do not forget tracking information and delivery signature.

So what happens after the item is delivered and you don’t like it? It is testing, that moment when a customer tries to return the item, effectively cancelling the sales transaction.

This could be due to multiple reasons such as the customer finding something better, a lower price, or realising that it was a mismatch. As these returns have been increasing, many retailers have shortened the time period on the policy.

You should look out for the return policy especially on return window and its conditions (for example, discounted items normally can’t be returned).

3. Protect your confidential financial information 

Given the creativity of fraudsters now, you have to be careful who you disclose your information to, especially with regard to payments. Not all sites are equal. Do some due diligence to confirm the site’s authenticity and security.

Or use a third-party payment processor instead of giving your payment information directly to the online site via its form. Most accept payments from trusted third-party processors, such as PayPal or Google Wallet. This limits the risk of your payment details getting into the wrong hands, because confidential data such as card numbers do not go to the merchant.

In addition, check for security seals such as Norton Secured on the site. If you are providing confidential information, do make sure the site is on a secure channel (HTTPS) and has a valid SSL certificate.

4. Coupons, rebates and vouchers

A coupon code is used to get discounts off the purchase and make your final amount cheaper. Discount sites such as Slickdeals and Dealmoon in the US are abundant; you just have to find the ones that suit your purchase needs.

At times merchants embed these codes in their regular newsletters/loyalty programmes that they send out to consumers, so don’t forget to subscribe.

A voucher can be sold by other retailers or the merchants themselves as a ‘prepaid’ value to products/services and is normally cheaper than the original value. In contrast to coupons, vouchers have to be purchased by consumers.

A rebate is a partial refund of the purchase and takes place post-sale. Merchants might provide store only rebate value as part of a promotional campaign.

Alternatively, affiliate networks such as Ebates and Shopback are given commissions to refer you to shop on their site. Instead of keeping all the commission, they will share part of it as rebates with you.

Also Read: Indian e-commerce facing crunch time. Can it survive?

5. Be rewarded through engagement

Follow the brands on social media and look out for their announcements and marketing campaigns on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook or any related platforms. Brands are quite generous sometimes and give out discounts codes to attract more followers.

Social media-powered flash sales have been become a trend, especially during festive occasions. You can expect exclusive access to new products and huge discounts/freebies within the specific time frame.

Congratulations, you have just aced Online Shopping 101!

If you also happen to be an online merchant, you now know that we live in a world that is well-informed and customers are spoilt for choice and will switch to other sellers in no time. The future belongs to the merchants who engage them by providing value, thereby earning their trust.

The views expressed here are of the author’s, and e27 may not necessarily subscribe to them. e27 invites members from Asia’s tech industry and startup community to share their honest opinions and expert knowledge with our readers. If you are interested in sharing your point of view, please send us an email at writers[at]e27[dot]co

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With a plethora of online doctor-booking apps such as Practo, Guahao and Konsula, why is there still a disconnect in finding the right medical practitioner and service?

The author Woon Shung Toon served as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Cornerstone Asia Tech. He founded The Analytics Company in 2003 and served as the MD for overall activities and Business Intelligence Practice until 2007. With over 20 years of experience, he is also a technology entrepreneur and serial investor.

We have managed to incorporate IT to help streamline how we approach businesses and services. In the realm of medtech, we have made many remarkable pushes to bring better healthcare to the world around us.

To find a doctor nowadays, there are a handful of apps such as Practo, Guahao, Konsula etc. in every market that will easily make recommendations. However, there is a lapse and disconnect in the simple but often overlooked matter of finding the right medical practitioner.

A study done a few years back found that a significant number of patients, who weren’t receiving as much quality care as they should, rated the doctors they were seeing based on other factors. Factors that, alongside more pressing issues (for example, a higher mortality rate) paled in comparison to bedside manner and service. These had been the deciding factors to mitigate whether or not negligent medical procedures were met with legal action by the patients.

Also Read: Don’t start a company just to start a company: Practo’s Prashant ND

There is no one-size-fits-all approach

For treating a common cold, you can do a walk-in without making an appointment. But, what if there is a more specific medical condition that needs to be addressed and requires follow up treatments to resolve? With such extended care, there might come a time when the doctor would need more tests conducted, and referrals to another specialist would incur additional costs which might or might not be justified.

Looking at the study side by side with the logistical requirements needed, we can see that there is a discrepancy for what people would consider to be good service that lets the patient feel good about the consultation and experience, compared to what would be good for them from an objective medical standpoint.

The combination of logistics, tangibles and intangibles in a person’s medical consultation and treatment experience means there isn’t really a ‘one-size-fits-all” approach to matching a patient with the right health care provider.

How medtech helps

The relationship between a medical practitioner and patient has many intricacies that go beyond a service rendered. The level of care, expertise and experience each patient needs is varied.

As mentioned, there are plenty of medtech apps that help match the perfect doctor to your needs through your mobile. With search criteria matching location and specialisation and available time slots, getting medical care and checkups now fit into your schedule much more easily.

Also Read: China healthcare startup Guahao completes US$394M funding round

Beyond that, what users really need is to be given critical information on the level of experience the doctor has and more insight to the procedures and processes that will follow, as well as information via ratings done by other patients to find the perfect fit. Besides that, it is also important to find the insurance company that is covered by the doctor in the app.

Essentially, the goal of medtech is to bridge the lapse of not just the nearest doctor but also the best one — it should, in fact, be an industry standard. All doctor matchmaking apps should aim to bring greater ease and accessibility to the way patients get in touch with their doctors to find the best match for their needs.

The views expressed here are of the author’s, and e27 may not necessarily subscribe to them. e27 invites members from Asia’s tech industry and startup community to share their honest opinions and expert knowledge with our readers. If you are interested in sharing your point of view, please send us an email at writers[at]e27[dot]co

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