10 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Every week, we dive into the rabbit hole of Asian startups and see which ones we get. This week, observe our spoils below! For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us at Editors[at]techinasia[dot].com. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy!

1. Australian Entrepreneurs Aim to Reinvent the Light Bulb With LIFX

Have you ever wanted to control the lights with your smartphone? No? Well shut up, because that would be awesome, and it’s exactly what LIFX is working on: a lightblub that works with your smartphone and (obviously) the lights you already own.

2. What’s Whatsapp? India’s Hike App Aims for Global Launch in October

Messaging apps are huge, but everybody seems to have their own. China’s WeChat is going global, but India’s Hike looks to make the international plunge soon, too.

3. PixaRoll Offers Fast Prints of Your iPhone Photos (If You’re in Singapore)

Digital photos are great, but can you hang them on your wall? You cannot, so don’t even try. Well, I guess you can, but you have to buy a screen of some kind, and that gets expensive, so why not just print them? PixaRoll is a convenient iPhone app that lets you do just that.

4. Travelmob Aims to be Asia’s Airbnb, Snags $1 Million in Seed Funding

The title pretty much tells you what you need to know about this one. Just read the title, then click the title to read the article. It’s not rocket science, people.

5. Chinese Sex Toys Site Nails Year’s Biggest E-Commerce Funding Round

Sex! Sex sells. Sex apparently sells so well, in fact, that an obscure Chinese e-commerce site selling sex toys somehow managed to nab the year’s biggest fundraising round.

6. QLearnChinese: A Chinese Skype Teaching Service

Want to learn Chinese in a way that’s properly structured and offers qualified teachers, but don’t have time to access to an actual classroom? As long as you can fire up Skype, try QLearnChinese instead!