PriyoShop wins Tech in Asia’s Pitch Night

On April 28, Tech in Asia held its first virtual Pitch Night in partnership with human resources software-as-a-service company HReasily.

It was a bustling evening with over 400 attendees conversing, handing out virtual name cards, and voting for their favorite startup.

Based in different regions of Southeast Asia, the six finalists gave their best five-minute pitch in front of three investor-judges: Pieter Kemps from Sequoia Capital, Shannon Kalayanamitr of Gobi Partners, and Robert Lomnitz from Xpdite Capital Partners.

The startups were then judged based on their clarity of pitch, idea, business model, and investment worthiness. Up for grabs for the night’s winner was full coverage on Tech in Asia and a 30-day subscription to Tech in Asia Jobs. Meanwhile, the top three startups received Amazon Web Services credits worth US$100, and all the finalists bagged a 30-day subscription to Tech in Asia premium news.

Here’s an overview of the six startups and their business models.

PriyoShop (Winner)

Micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) often have less capital, limited access to brands, and lower stock quantities. But PriyoShop aims to solve this by matching small retailers with big brands and helping them manage end-to-end fulfillment – from payments to logistics.

Located in Bangladesh, PriyoShop is a marketplace platform that brings ecommerce to the rural parts of India. With its retail-facing app, it enables MSMEs to sell a wide range of products from brands like Asus, Philips, and Samsung directly to their customers. On the other end, its marketplace app allows individual merchants to sell products such as clothing, electronics, and books for its online shoppers.

ManyOption

In Jakarta, people who live in apartments and residential communities face several pain points. Often, building management still bills its residents manually, important information is either incorrectly passed down or not conveyed to tenants entirely; and communication with the front desk when it comes to handling services like deliveries is lacking.

ManyOption wants to be the app for everyone’s residential needs. It connects building management with its residents, and its platform can facilitate payment and communication as well. And since ecommerce has become increasingly important in the country, ManyOption also connects residents to nearby merchants where people can manage their own orders and deliveries.

Ento

Alternative protein is on the rise as people become more concerned about nutrition and sustainability. But is this just a fad or is the trend here to stay?

Looking at the booming valuations of alternative meat players like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, it might just be the latter.

Ento, an alternative protein company, specializes in creating protein from a source that many might find creepy: insects. The company sells products like roasted crickets in Texas-style barbecue flavor and protein powder that’s made from crickets.

Qiq

In many cities worldwide, public transport systems are often overburdened. That’s why Qiq’s mission is to give commuters the freedom to move around affordably and sustainably.

In order to achieve this, Qiq designed its own ecosystem of shared electric vehicles such as bicycles, scooters, and two-seater vehicles. The company has already launched its electric bicycle-sharing program in Vietnam, Japan, and Singapore, as well as its electric scooters in certain parts of Vietnam.

Peak

For many small businesses, accounting is a major concern mainly because of a lack of proper bookkeeping.

Peak wants to help these firms by equipping them with an automated accounting software. Some of the platform’s features include allowing MSMEs to pay invoices electronically and enabling them to automatically reconcile bank items and prepare tax documents.

Besides these, the company also partners with accounting firms to provide accounting and tax services to its users.

Vechnology

Vending machines are great – they work 24 hours a day and are fully operational without much human input. However, most of these machines still have technological challenges and face a difficult time retaining recurring customers.

To combat these issues, Vechnology designed and manufactured smart vending machines that accept cashless payments and enable real-time inventory and sales data tracking. The company is also working on a mobile application that will allow users to locate vending machines, top up e-wallets, capture purchase behavioral data, and collect loyalty points.

Upcoming events

Pitch Night isn’t the last of our virtual events – we’ve got our first-ever virtual product development conference in July. With over 30 hours of practical and applicable content, the conference will reveal how startups can scale and grow their products during critical times like a pandemic. Get your limited-time special offer here.

If you want to participate in our next Pitch Night or just want to watch founders give their pitch live, our next Pitch Night will be happening in Q2 2020. Do keep an eye out for it! You can find out more here or sign up for our newsletter for updates.