Arogga wins Tech in Asia’s latest Pitch Night

On March 25, Tech in Asia held its first virtual Pitch Night for 2021, which featured six startups from Singapore, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, and Thailand.

These startups made their pitches in front of over 200 attendees and three investor-judges: Gavin Teo, general partner at Altara Ventures; Shiyan Koh, managing partner at Hustle Fund; and Shuyin Tang, partner at Patamar Capital.

Judged based on the clarity of their ideas and business models, as well as their investment-worthiness, the startups were given five minutes to make their best pitches and another five minutes to answer questions.

At the end of the night, the healthtech startup Arogga won the top prize, which consists of a full coverage on Tech in Asia and a 30-day subscription to Tech in Asia Jobs. The other finalists, meanwhile, walked away with a 30-day subscription to Tech in Asia Premium News.

Let’s dive into the business models of the six participating startups:

Danabijak

Indonesia has a really low credit card penetration, with only 6% of its population having a credit card account. It’s quite a stark contrast when compared to its neighboring countries such as Singapore, where 85% of the population are credit card users.

This issue is mostly caused by the Indonesian credit bureau’s lack of data on the creditworthiness of its low-income citizens, which then affects them, when they aren’t able to apply for loans they need.

Indonesian fintech startup Danabijak is trying to change that. The lending-as-a-service startup aims to provide fast, reliable, and transparent working capital to millennials who work as part-time or contractual employees and aren’t eligible for bank loans.

Although Danabijak is up against giants such Bank BRI and other rising startups like GajiGesa, which is also a fintech startup serving underbanked Indonesian workers, Danabijak is confident that its online presence and partnership with a state-owned bank are to its advantage.

Fig

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common cause of infertility for women. In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 3.4% of women – or as many as 116 million women worldwide – were impacted by this disorder.

The number could be a lot higher currently as a large percentage of women, estimated to be as high as 75%, remain undiagnosed even after multiple visits to their doctors. And unmanaged PCOS could negatively impact a woman’s long-term health because it not only affects fertility, it also increases the risks for endometrial cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, among others.

To help women around the world understand their health and fertility, Singapore-based healthtech startup Fig launched a platform that allows users to take a hormone health-screening test from the comfort of their homes; connect to doctors, OB-GYNs, and fertility advisors; and purchase supplements that are clinically shown to support reproductive health.

Launched in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia in January 2021, Fig has over 43,000 MAUs on its app and plans to expand to India next.

Finema

Thanks to graphics editing software, it has become all too easy for someone to alter paper credentials such as a certificate. It’s also too much of a hassle verifying it with the issuing authority every time someone submits a paper credential.

This is where Thailand-based Finema comes in. The company aims to build a digital identity infrastructure that could disrupt the use of usernames and passwords with a range of products: a passwordless authentication API that can be integrated with software from other enterprises such as Microsoft, AWS, and Zoom, and allows users to log in without using a password; a digital certification platform that uses blockchain to allow organizations to issue credentials to users; and a signing platform that is similar to DocuSign but with the added feature of decentralized Public Key Infrastructure (dKPI).

Founded in 2017, the company works with clients including Thailand’s Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), and Digital Government Development Agency (DGA).

Crust Group

Singapore has a food wastage problem: The amount of food waste in the country has increased by about 20% over the last 10 years, with 744,000kg of food wasted in 2019.

To solve this issue, foodtech startup Crust Group is upcycling food waste to create beverages and products that are then sold by its food service and retail partners.

It uses food waste such as bread from its restaurant and hotel partners to brew artisanal beers with interesting flavors, such as Kaya Toast Stout and Beerguette. Besides alcoholic drinks, Crust also has a non-alcoholic beverage line called Crop that uses fruit and vegetable waste to make sparkling fruit water with natural essences.

Launched in 2019, the company says it has saved 600kg of food waste – which translates to a reduction of 13,500kg of carbon dioxide emissions – to date. It is also working with Alba Group, one of the world’s leading recycling and environmental services companies, and Redmart, Singapore’s prominent online supermarket platform.

Khaalisisi

In Nepal, “waste entrepreneurs” are making money by collecting waste and selling recyclables.

One startup that’s helping to digitize this practice is waste management startup Khaalisisi. The company is building a network that makes it easy to connect waste sellers who want to sell or donate their recyclable trash to waste entrepreneurs who want to buy then resell them to a recycler for a profit.

Founded in 2017, Khaalisisi has recycled over 2,500,000kg of waste with the help of more than 13,000 waste entrepreneurs. The company also partners with more than 80 B2B clients, 300 B2C businesses, and hundreds of households on a regular basis.

The company says that its waste entrepreneurs are found to earn 32% more than what they had earned previously. It also sees a 75% retention rate among its waste entrepreneurs.

Winning startup: Arogga

Controlling counterfeit medicine is a constant battle in Bangladesh where 20% of the country’s annual sales in medicine goes to fake or low-standard drugs.

To improve this situation, healthtech startup Arogga is delivering genuine medicine to users at an affordable price. The user will simply have to log on to the app, upload a photo of their prescription, and make the payment to receive their medicine right at their doorstep.

Founded in 2020, Arogga has had over 50,000 downloads for its app and delivered more than 2,600 orders to date. The company plans to launch features such as online doctor appointments, specialist consultations, lab testing, and healthcare insurance.

Join us for more cool events

Pitch Night isn’t the last of our virtual events as we’ve got a lot more happening every month. If you want to get an idea on what a Tech in Asia event is like, watch the playback of this workshop on building a cap table that attracts investors and this expert-led discussion on what founders need to know about exit strategies.

Our events are crafted to present attendees quality content, valuable business lessons, practical working templates, and the chance to get acquainted with fellow founders from the region.

If you’d love to connect with like-minded people and learn all the tips and tricks from experts in the region’s tech ecosystem, then you’ve got to subscribe to Tech in Asia Live. At just US$0.16 per day, this subscription gives you access to all of our masterful workshops, private meetups, and Tech in Asia’s annual signature conferences.