Do-gooding team from Singapore gets acquired to form online volunteer network

(From L to R:) Keith Tan, Darren Yong, Ivan Chang

Singapore-based social enterprise and civic technology startup Start Now, which was featured in Tech in Asia’s very first Startup Arena in Singapore back in 2012, started out as a way to help people find ways to volunteer for various causes and organizations.

Founded in 2011 by Keith Tan, a graduate of the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Ivan Chang, a graduate of Singapore Management University (SMU), it was incubated at NUS Enterprise Social Venture Lab, which provides seed funding, mentorship, and support to social enterprises.

Down the line, the startup began offering a suite of software tools for NGOs and other social impact organizations. It combined its volunteer platform with management software for events, donations, and pro bono services, as well as with community engagement tools. It also manages corporate social responsibility programs, and has worked with clients like Citibank, ING Bank, and Singapore’s Mediacorp and the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

Between angel investors, grants, and competition awards, Start Now had raised S$93,000 (US$67,000) in funding before announcing it has been acquired this week.

The startup was bought by local company Goodtizens Technologies. The deal is valued at S$530,000 (US$381,000). Hardly a case of Dell-EMC, but the acquisition is a first for Singapore’s social entrepreneurship space.

Through the deal, Goodtizens will use Start Now’s software on a planned community website that will indicate points of interest for social action around the world. People traveling abroad looking to volunteer for something will be able to find places where they might be needed by using the platform. It will enter beta in early 2016.

“The journey over the past four years, juggling school and running our start-up, was incredibly challenging,” Keith says. “When this acquisition offer came, Ivan and myself saw the opportunity to pass the baton onto a partner that has the resources and network to take our mission further and to a larger audience.”

Darren Yong, CEO of Goodtizens Technologies says, “Start Now has been around for four years and has built an impressive suite of social technologies to great effect. Goodtizens will leverage these technologies to bring social actions at your fingertips to a global audience.”

The greater good

Goodtizens Technologies is a spin-off of The GoodWater Company, a Singaporean medium-sized business that provides various types of social and environmental services. Its activities include education, ecotourism, and corporate events. Its Good Innovations estore features products such as solar-powered mobile power banks and water purifiers.

Perhaps the most exciting item there is the Bracer watch, a wearable gadget created by staff and students at the School of Engineering of Singapore’s Nanyang Polytechnic. The watch picks up loud noises such as a fire alarm or a car horn and notifies its deaf or hard of hearing wearer of possible danger, using vibration and flashing lights.

The social entrepreneurship space in the city state isn’t the most lucrative of industries, but nevertheless there is ample support and encouragement from various parties to go down that path.

Singapore’s Center for Social Enterprise, or Raise, encourages social entrepreneurs with grants of up to S$20,000 (US$14,300) through its Venture For Good initiative, while Singaporean bank DBS works with NUS Enterprise to organize the Social Venture Challenge, a pitch competition for social enterprises, where entrepreneurs have the chance to network with investors, partners, and government agencies.