Thanks to our very own Startup Arena Competition, we have a list of Asian tech startups on our radar this week, specifically from China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, India, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore for this week.
For folks who are interested in investing or partnering with these startups, drop us an email — hello[at]penn-olson[dot]com – anytime. No promises, but we’ll try our best to be a bridge. And if you’re a tech startup founder in Asia hoping to be featured, kindly send us your pitch here.
When we chatted with the Indian startup PlayCez last summer, one co-founder promised that the social venue recommendation service would soon get a mobile app. And here it is. The new PlayCez app for Android now joins its HTML5 mobile website in providing listings of nearby restaurants or shops, filtered by how strongly they’re recommended by your Facebook buddies. Along with the newly-released app for Android – with an iPhone version still in the works – PlayCez’s Ashwani Gaur has other bits of good news about the progress of the service…
The Indian startup Freecharge.in has announced this afternoon that its has secured funding worth Rs. 20 crores (US$4 million) from Sequoia Capital – the second time it has been given a cash boost by the same VC firm. Freecharge allows users in major cities in India to get free coupons – either by mail, or in the form of e-coupons – when they pay via the website to top-up their mobile, data, or TV credit accounts. It’s similar to the group-buying/daily deals model – as pioneered by the likes of Groupon…
3. Mandarin Madness | Australia
Chinese characters can look like arcane codes, cryptic communiqué, that conspire to obscure the meanings of an ancient culture. But new, hi-tech tools can help anyone wrap their ears, eyes, and tongues around those swoops and shapes. The Mandarin Madness app, from the Australian startup Native Tongue, is one such tool, which aims to help total beginners grasp the simple sound and meaning behind many common characters. Plus, the app – now newly launched on iPhone and iPad – has game-ified the activity of learning, with points, flash cards, and…
Philippines-based Infinite.ly is an application built for brands and marketing managers to track social buzz about their companies (on Facebook and Twitter) all in one page. Co-founder Luis Buenaventura describes his startup as “a central hub for everything a small business owner needs to get started with their social presence.” The functions are very basic. Businesses can add in their Facebook and Twitter links and find all related @mentions on a single page. Users can also track conversations via search terms within the social sphere. I gave the product a try…
We often see vertical e-commerce sites popping up, specializing in things like bags, lingerie, or household products for example. But e-commerce startup, FlowerAdvisor.com, is going back to the basics by sells flowers online. And surprisingly it is an international venture with 24/7 service, partnering with thousands of local florists all around the world. It promises the customers that the flowers ordered will be delivered on the very same day, which is an impressive fact considering its geographic scope. Willy Thomas, the founder of FlowerAdvisor revealed that the company is functioning across 111…
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