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 or tell us about your startup on this form. Any juicy tech news tips go here. Enjoy this week’s list!
1. Lovesprk | Malaysia
Malaysia-based Lovesprk was launched this week through a partnership with Korea-based couples app Between. Through Lovesprk, couples have access to an array of fully packaged date ideas, ranging from luxurious to fun to quirky. The startup received an undisclosed amount of funding from Start Up Nation after participating in the MAD-SUN Business Challenge 2.0
2. Mana.bo | Japan
Tokyo-based online education startup Mana.bo is aiming to disrupt Japan’s deeply entrenched juku (cram school) market by moving lessons online. Students simply take a photo of a problem and send it to available tutors, who receive a notification on their mobile device. Tutors check the problem and let the student know they’re available to help. Once the student selects a tutor, they can can then initiate a voice or text chat with a virtual whiteboard. The startup just raised series A funding from Bennesse Holdings, Nissay Capital, and MUFJ Capital.
3. Flexiroam | Malaysia
Founded in 2010, Malaysia-based Flexiroam’s Buzz Sim is a SIM card that can be used in multiple countries over a certain time period. Thus far, the startup has inked partnerships with about 580 telcos around the world so that no matter which country you go to, you will always be able to access the local networks for data and voice calls. Many of the startup’s customers come from the corporate sector, including big names like Toyota, AirAsiaX, and Malaysia Airlines. The team has also formed many strategic alliances with travel industry players.
4. Hipwee | Indonesia
Started in April, Hipwee is an Indonesian social news site that focuses on producing list articles with the country’s young urbanites as its main readership. Hipwee’s content covers entertainment, relationships, travel, and inspirational articles. Just like much of BuzzFeed’s posts, each article on Hipwee is presented as a list with pictures or GIFs. Occasionally, the Hipwee team also produces deep and serious opinion pieces.
5. Huizhuche | China
Car rental portal HuiZuChe specializes in overseas car rental listings, partnering with more than 10 well-known auto rental services – such as Hertz and Avis – to cover about 180 countries and areas that support drivers with Chinese licenses hitting the roads. The portal’s main pulling point is that it’s all in Chinese, meaning that local holiday-makers don’t have to grapple with websites in English or some other language in order to make a booking. The startup also provides an easy, one-stop way to evaluate rental prices and lots of other options across all the major services.
6. eJiaJie | China
eJiaJie is a location-based service that helps customers find hourly-paid workers to clean their homes. The online-to-offline service for hiring house cleaners ensures customers that all of the workers on its network are vetted and covered by liability insurance should they break or steal anything in a customer’s home. This week, the company announced that it raised a series A round of fudning from Tencent and Shanda.
7. Kelase | Indonesia
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