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RoboWaiter’s crack team consisting of a developer, designer and a robotics expert came together at last night’s Disrupt NY hackathon to create a faster, better, smarter waiter using IBM Watson and robots. Developer Sharon Yang came up with the idea last night before the event when her waiter took a while to take her order. Humans, she pointed out, are often busy and… Read More
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Palo Alto has a bike lock problem, and a pair of software developers and a designer took a shot at trying to solve that problem in 24 hours in New York this weekend. Eugene Tonev, Alexander Sivura and Yuri Dymov — currently at health startup HealthTap — put together a model of the kinds of bike racks you might see on the streets of Palo Alto. But this rack has a connected lock,… Read More
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Here’s our newest round-up of the featured startups on our site this week. If you have startup tips or story suggestions, feel free to email us. Enjoy this week’s list!
Singapore-based ecommerce solutions provider Anchanto operates on a software-as-a-service model, creating ways for retailers to tap into online marketplaces and ecommerce sites. It also serves logistics, fulfilment, and warehousing needs.
Taralite lets individuals and institutions lend money to small businesses. It works with ecommerce platforms like Lazada and Tokopedia. It offers sellers on those sites the chance to scale up their business by taking on a loan.
To address the growing threat of cyber attacks, Tel Aviv-based Team8 nurtures and builds new startups that created innovative security products. The company works like an incubator but only builds one company per year. The 12- to 18-month process involves working with each company founder to do market research, ideation, and validation.
Brief: Garena now calls itself Sea, picks up $550m in new round
A rare peek inside Singapore’s spacetech industry according to 4 local founders
Opinion: Find 1k true fans first before worrying about a technical co-founder
Dating startup Lunch Actually ties the knot with Indonesia’s Setipe
From Reddit to Razer: 3 founders you can’t miss at #tiasg2017
After bike-sharing, this looks like China’s next startup craze
Hewlett Packard Enterprise sets up new 3-year startup program in Singapore
Office supplies firm Bizzy acquires little-known startup for its CEO
Brief: Tencent tunes into Southeast Asia with funding for popular karaoke app
In India, you’ll be seeing more of these 6 items in brick and mortar stores
Brief: Softbank reveals it gave $5b to Didi’s bumper funding round
SoftBank takes a $1.4b hit from loss in value of its investments in Snapdeal, Ola
Brief: Amazon invests millions in a startup, then launches a similar product
Silicon Valley is passe. Indian startups turn to China for inspiration.
CEO of a game startup that treats mental illness scolded for trying something new
With Myanmar launch, Uber treads softly instead of barging in
Brief: Games publisher is South Korea’s largest IPO in years, makes founder a billionaire
HungryGoWhere wades deeper into restaurant space with SmartPOS
Singapore wants to find tomorrow’s star founders with private sector mentorship
2 founders, 2 years, and 20 prototypes show that creating ‘hardware is hard’
Ask TIA: Startups could shut shop anytime. How should I face the risk of losing my job?
Opinion: Slack owes its impressive $4b valuation to these 10 hacks
Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!
This post 14 startups in Asia that caught our eye appeared first on Tech in Asia.
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Around 750 engineers and designers got together to hack something cool, something neat, something clever. All teams have 60 seconds to present what the worked on for the last 24 hours. It’s a great way to experiment and unleash your creativity.
So without further ado, sit back and enjoy the Disrupt NY Hackathon demos. And let’s see who’s going to win… Read More
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Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the leading pan-African multilateral development finance institution and project developer, is pleased to announce that Ian Bremmer, the president and founder of leading global political risk research and consulting firm Eurasia Group, will deliver the keynote speech at AFC Live next week.
AFC Live, Africa’s premier infrastructure summit will bring together some of the industry’s leading experts to identify solutions for addressing Africa’s critical infrastructure needs.
The two-day summit opens on 15th May at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja. Policy makers, government representatives, legal and financial advisers and world-leading investors will be joining AFC and various heads of state, for a programme of workshops, panel discussions and high-level debates around the theme “The Infrastructure Revolution”.
The Summit coincides with AFC’s 10th anniversary, that sees the Corporation celebrating a decade of pioneering infrastructure investment and project development, over which it has invested approximately $4 billion across 30 countries.
Andrew Alli, President and Chief Executive of AFC, said: “Africa’s infrastructure gap remains colossal, requiring approximately US$100 billion every year for the next decade to bridge. Through hosting AFC Live we hope that together we can generate solutions that will increase deal flow and fast track commercial projects in Africa, and address the critical challenge of making projects bankable.
“Since our inaugural Summit three years ago, both the global economic environment and the industry landscape have changed dramatically. Despite the challenging economic headwinds, AFC has thrived and we have continued to promote economic and social development across the continent through our investments. We are well placed to continue this success in the future, and aim to become a $5 billion Corporation by 2019.
“We look forward to welcoming our honourable speakers and attendees to AFC Live, in particular Ian Bremmer as our keynote speaker, and anticipate ground-breaking discussion that goes some way to addressing Africa’s pressing infrastructure needs.”
Once dubbed the “rising guru” in the field of political risk by The Economist, Ian advises leading executives, money managers, diplomats, and heads of state in his role as president of Eurasia Group. He is a prolific thought leader and author, regularly expressing his views on political issues in public speeches, television appearances, and top publications, including Time magazine, where he is the foreign affairs columnist and editor-at-large.
Other confirmed speakers at AFC Live include Olusegun Obasanjo, Former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Charles Soludo, former Central Bank Governor of Nigeria.
Also sharing their insights into Africa’s infrastructure revolution will be: Charles Robertson, Chief Economist at Renaissance Capital, Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings; and Ana Hajduka, CEO of Africa GreenCo.
The summit is sponsored by international law firm Hogan Lovells, consultants professional services company KPMG and the investment banks United Capital and First Bank.
ENDS
About AFC – www.africafc.org
Bell Pottinger
Victoria Geoghegan / Nick Lambert / David Bass / Philip Peck
Tel: +44 20 3772 2500 Email: list-afc@bellpottinger.com
The post Ian Bremmer Confirmed As Keynote Speaker For AFC Live appeared first on African Business Magazine.
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Agriculture startups that raised seed rounds in recent years are blossoming into businesses sought after by later stage investors. Investment in the agtech space is up sharply this year, driven by a spike of rounds at Series B and later stages, according to Crunchbase data. Altogether, agtech startups raised more than $320 million in 2017 so far, a more than three-fold increase over the… Read More
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We want to see you in New York for Disrupt NY 2017, our annual celebration of all things startup. It’s a great time. You get to meet great founders and VCs and I’d love to meet you personally when I run through the alley with our video team. Hardware is my favorite thing in the world and you’re some of my favorite people. Disrupt runs from May 15-17 and will be held on Pier 36… Read More
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Jinen Kamdar has spent more than seven years as Twitter, most recently serving as the director of product for Twitter’s media tools. Now he’s joining an actual media company — namely, BuzzFeed, where he’ll be the new vice president of product. He doesn’t start his new job until Monday, May 15, so he said it’s too early to know exactly what he’ll… Read More
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If your company works with big clients, you might want to be able to predict what’s going to happen with your company’s bank account. YayPay is introducing weather forecasts, but for your unpaid invoices. This way, you know if it’s safe to commit to big projects. YayPay first launched on stage at Disrupt London. The company wants to help accounts receivable teams when it comes… Read More
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A year ago, after closing my first startup, I attended one of those conferences that you’re supposed to attend. There were a lot of old friends there, folks who I hadn’t seen in a while, and there was the usual collection of panels and panelists, Power Points and Pellegrino. As I stood in a sun-full room clutching a coffee someone asked me about my first startup. The reaction… Read More
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