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In Singapore, Supply Chain Management

For the Botsync team, collaborative automation will be key to accelerating digitalization in logistics

Digital transformation is playing a big part in the strategy and operations of businesses today. The market size for digital transformation will grow from $1.5 trillion annually this year to $2.8 trillion by 2025. And yet some businesses might find challenges in complexity, manpower, and resources.

In this TechNode Global Q&A with the founding team at Botsync, we learn how collaborative automation is geared toward addressing these challenges. The company is a robotics startup founded in Singapore that specializes in AMR-based (Autonomous Mobile Robot) automation solutions. Botsync has journeyed from seed funding and accelerator programs to securing a co-created innovation project with Bollore Logistics Singapore to transform its conventional warehouse handling with an AMR-based automation solution.

What are the key trends driving innovation in the logistics industry?

  1. Digitalization: Companies more than ever before are looking at digitalizing their entire supply chain starting at the factory floor. Having this level of transparency is key to making quick decisions to respond effectively to severe market conditions and staying competitive
  2. The increasing complexity of logistics: The complexity of logistics has grown significantly with the growth in e-commerce. Faster delivery expectations and every increasing type and size of parts being handled warrant significant growth in the entire logistics process.
  3. Minimizing contact points: In recent times, it is becoming critical to evaluate operations and find ways to ensure minimum human contact. With growing economic opportunities present in today’s digital age, the availability of general workers for manual logistics operations is decreasing all over the world. And with the bulk of logistics operations still dependent on manual labor, automation and digitalization will soon become crucial factors to ensure business continuity.
  4. Collaborative automation: With companies increasingly looking at automation implementations, automation systems need to be able to co-exist with other manual processes on the warehouse and factory. This is critical as most companies cannot afford a complete transition to an automated facility, hence collaborative robotics will be key to ensure a successful transition to automation.

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In Singapore, Supply Chain Management

H3 Dynamics Launches World’s Most Advanced Drone Charging Station

H3 Dynamics announces the launch of DBX-G7, a brand new vertiport system for autonomous drone operations. Smarter, faster, and multi-modal with 5G and 4G, DBX was designed to scale on-going digitization efforts in safety compliance, maintenance and crisis management.

Applications range from smart cities across Asia to various types of industrial sites worldwide.

Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, DBX-G7 is a direct response to the new telepresence and remote work paradigm. DBX performs all the functions of an on-site drone pilot: navigation, docking, stowing, battery charging, data retrieval, transmission, and cloud-based processing. Autonomous systems such as DBX help reduce the need for on-site presence and can help alleviate rising labour shortage pressures.

“With accelerating digitization, the need for structural scans is also growing while pilot availability is limited. We are looking to close the gap with our DBX autonomous drone stations.” Says Samuel Chauffaille, head of H3 Dynamics’ robotics systems division.

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In Singapore, Funding Announcement, Supply Chain Management

NavVis Adds Fresh Funding To Fulfill Its Mission To Digitize Commercial Buildings And Assets

NavVis is a global leader in end-to-end solutions for reality capture and digital twins. The company is on a mission to bridge the gap between the physical and digital world by enabling immediate access to building information, anytime, anywhere. The NavVis product offering includes the world’s most advanced reality capture solution, which allows for rapid digitization of buildings and assets, and cloud-based digital twin software for the manufacturing and construction sector.

NavVis announced that they have received 25€m of fresh equity funding that complements the recent 20€m debt funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB), raising the total investment to 85€m. The round was led by Cipio Partners, with additional capital from previous investors, BayBG, MIG, Target Partners, Digital+ Partners, and Kozo Keikaku Engineering, making NavVis one of the best-funded deep tech startups in Europe.

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In Announcements, Singapore, Featured, Sustainability

SAP.iO Foundry Singapore Launches Sustainability Startup Program in Asia-Pacific and Japan

November 25, 2021 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today launched a sustainability-focused virtual startup program at SAP.iO Foundry Singapore. Six international startups have been selected by a jury of SAP experts and partners to join the program.

New ideas and innovative solutions are essential to uncover the impact of emissions and waste across every facet of a business. The selected startups use next generation technologies to drive sustainability outcomes for companies across Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ), in areas such as climate action, circular economy, and socially responsible supply chains.

Over the next 13 weeks, the startups will have access to curated mentorship from SAP executives, exposure to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers around the world.

“Achieving our sustainability goals will require all of us to work together at pace, as our planet’s time is running out,” says Paul Marriott, President SAP Asia Pacific and Japan. “Initiatives such as this SAP.iO Foundry program are critical in identifying, enabling, and promoting innovative solutions that can change how our customers’ business is run, and ultimately the impact we have on the world. This program not only helps start-ups accelerate their growth, but it’s also one of the quickest ways to bring the latest innovation to thousands of our customers globally.”

The following startups are participating in the sustainability in APJ program:

  • Ambee helps people to breathe clean air using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to analyze air quality, soil, micro weather, pollen, and more.
  • CarbonClick is a carbon credits marketplace that allows customers to purchase audited carbon offsets, as well as measure and reduce their carbon footprint.
  • givvable helps businesses to discover and track sustainability credentials, attributes and initiatives of suppliers.
  • Resync is a cloud energy management company which manages renewable assets, building energy and industrial energy.
  • Unabiz drives data-driven business efficiency through sensors, manufacturing and cloud platform services for smart metering, smart facilities management, smart logistics and supply chain.
  • WePower connects corporate energy buyers and retailers with green energy generators so all businesses, regardless of size, can purchase locally produced green energy at competitive rates with full transparency.

About SAP.iO
SAP.iO delivers new partnerships and products for SAP by accelerating and scaling startup innovation as well as incubating employee ventures. SAP.iO brings together innovators from every region, industry, and line of business to transform how businesses run. Since 2017, SAP.iO has helped 330+ external startups and internal ventures accelerate their growth while enabling thousands of SAP customers to access innovation. For more information, visit https://sap.io/.

In Singapore, Supply Chain Management

H3 Dynamics Launches World’s Most Advanced Drone Charging Station

H3 Dynamics announces the launch of DBX-G7, a brand new vertiport system for autonomous drone operations. Smarter, faster, and multi-modal with 5G and 4G, DBX was designed to scale on-going digitization efforts in safety compliance, maintenance and crisis management. Applications range from smart cities across Asia to various types of industrial sites worldwide.

Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, DBX-G7 is a direct response to the new tele-presence and remote work paradigm. DBX performs all the functions of an on-site drone pilot: navigation, docking, stowing, battery charging, data retrieval, transmission, and cloud-based processing. Autonomous systems such as DBX help reduce the need for on-site presence, and can help alleviate rising labor shortage pressures.

“With accelerating digitization, the need for structural scans is also growing while pilot availability is limited. We are looking to close the gap with our DBX autonomous drone stations.” Says Samuel Chauffaille, head of H3 Dynamics’ robotics systems division.

H3 Dynamics has been deploying its AI-enabled digital inspection solutions to address the many thousands of high-rise buildings that require regular inspections in Singapore, most of which use using piloted drone operations. The company has expanded its solution through strategic partnerships, including on a SAP connectivity to send repair work orders directly from H3 Dynamics’ digital platform (see video). Enterprise software giant SAP and H3 Dynamics are now working together on an increasing number of industrial use cases.

Full Article found at : H3 Dynamics Launches World’s Most Advanced Drone Charging Station – UASweekly.com

 

 

In Funding Announcement, Supply Chain Management, Singapore

H3 Dynamics closes US$26M Series B to introduce long-range hydrogen-air logistics solutions

Singapore-headquartered advanced aerial mobility company, H3 Dynamics Holdings, has completed its US$26 million Series B investment round led by Japan’s SPARX Mirai Creation Fund (backed by Toyota Motor and SMBC).

Singapore’s EDBI, ACA investors, Capital Management Group, the Grosvenor Group, Audacy Ventures, Ascent Hydrogen Fund, and French strategic investors ATEQ also joined the round.

“Our investors recognise that this is a long journey and that we must first address our immediate markets while solving key technical and regulatory challenges before adding more complexity,” said H3 Dynamics founder and CEO Taras Wankewycz.

In June 2019, e27 reported that the startup was in the process of closing a US$16 million Series B round, led by SPARX Mirai Creation Fund.

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In Singapore, Network & Spend Management

Airwallex Named to the 2021 CB Insights Fintech 250 List; Recognized as Top Fintech Startup for Fourth Successive Time

CB Insights today named Airwallex to the fourth annual Fintech 250, a prestigious list of emerging private companies working on groundbreaking financial technology. This year’s list was unveiled on stage at CB Insights’ Future of Fintech conference in New York City.

“This is the fourth class of the Fintech 250, and it’s also the most international, representing 26 countries. These 250 fintech startups are attacking an incredibly diverse array of financial services opportunities across 19 sectors, including digital banking, insurance, payroll, retail investing, and more,” said CB Insights CEO Anand Sanwal. “After being named to the CB Insights Fintech 250 last year, the 2020 class saw 17 companies go public and 25 get acquired. They also went on to raise over $25B in additional financing and forged more than 380 new partnerships after being recognized. The Fintech 250 has a history of spotlighting the very best fintech companies, and this year is no different. We’re excited to see how these fintech startups disrupt and transform financial services in the years ahead.”

Lucy Liu, Co-founder and President of Airwallex said, “As a leading global fintech business, we are delighted to have been recognized by CB insights in all four of their Fintech 250 lists, which is a testament to Airwallex’s tremendous growth since our inception in 2015. This is just the beginning, and as we continue to expand globally, we remain committed to our mission of empowering businesses of all sizes to grow without borders.”

Through an evidence-based approach, the CB Insights Intelligence Unit selected the Fintech 250 from a pool of over 17,000 companies, including applicants and nominees.They were chosen based on several factors, including data submitted by the companies, company business models and momentum in the market, and Mosaic scores, CB Insights’ proprietary algorithm that measures the overall health and growth potential of private companies.

Founded in 2015, Airwallex is one of the fastest-growing global fintech platforms today and has seen significant business growth in the last year, recording a year-over-year revenue growth of nearly 150% for the first half of 2021, and processing more than annualised US$20 billion for a global client portfolio that has quadrupled in size, serving innovative global businesses such as GOAT, Papaya Global and Stake. The company has nearly doubled its headcount in 2021 and employs almost 1,000 employees today in over 20 locations globally. In September 2021, the company announced its US$200 million Series E fundraising round, valuing the company at US$4 billion. This year, Airwallex launched a series of new products and reached major milestones with its global expansion plans, opening for business in the U.S. in August, as well as securing an EMI license in the Netherlands and a Money Services Business license in Malaysia.

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In Singapore, Funding Announcement, Network & Spend Management

Airwallex raises $200M at a $4B valuation to double down on business banking

Business, now more than ever before, is going digital, and today a startup that’s building a vertically integrated solution to meet business banking needs is announcing a big round of funding to tap into the opportunity. Airwallex — which provides business banking services directly to businesses themselves as well as via a set of APIs that power other companies’ fintech products — has raised $200 million, a Series E round of funding that values the Australian startup at $4 billion.

Lone Pine Capital is leading the round, with new backers G Squared and Vetamer Capital Management, and previous backers 1835i Ventures (formerly ANZi), DST Global, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital China also participating.

The funding brings the total raised by Airwallex — which has head offices in Hong Kong and Melbourne, Australia — to $700 million, including a $100 million injection that closed out its Series D just six months ago.

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In Singapore, Funding Announcement, Network & Spend Management

Airwallex Raises Funds at $4 Billion Valuation for Expansion

Airwallex Cayman Ltd. raised $200 million to accelerate its expansion in global payments as it taps investors keen on fast-growing fintechs. The Australian company attracted funding from investors led by Lone Pine Capital, boosting its valuation to $4 billion after the series E round, the company said in a statement on Monday. Other new investors include G Squared and Vetamer Capital Management.

“We want to accelerate our growth in the U.K., Europe and U.S.,” Jack Zhang, chief executive officer of Airwallex, said in a phone interview. He added that the company wants to “become a dominant leader in global payments.”

Airwallex’s fundraising comes just months after a round in March that gave the firm a valuation of $2.6 billion, underscoring the rapid growth in online payments. Last month Square Inc., the digital-payments platform led by Twitter Inc. founder Jack Dorsey, agreed to buy Australian buy-now, pay-later company Afterpay Ltd. for $29 billion.

Airwallex helps businesses set up bank accounts, process multicurrency payments and manage expenses. While the company has numerous Chinese clients including Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat, retailer JD.com Inc. and online learning platform 51Talk, its focus on cross-border payments has kept it clear of a regulatory crackdown on other parts of the country’s financial system.

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In Singapore, Featured, HR & People Engagement, Announcements

SAP.iO Foundry Singapore Kicks-Off “Future of Work” Startup Program

September 14, 2021 — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) launched a virtual startup program focusing on human resources (HR) technology and the future of work solutions at SAP.iO Foundry Singapore in collaboration with SAP SuccessFactors. The six international startups have been selected by a jury of SAP experts and partners to join the program.

Over the next 13 weeks, SAP will accelerate these early-stage startups that are focused on recruiting, talent and team management, and wellbeing solutions. The startups will have access to curated mentorship from SAP executives, exposure to SAP® technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with SAP customers around the world. The program will conclude with the SAP.iO Cohort Demo Day in December 2021.

“We are operating at a time where every industry has been disrupted, and almost every organization is undergoing some kind of transformation. People are at the core of this transformation and the heartbeat of business. We see a continuing trend of leaders looking for innovative ways to empower people with the information and capabilities they need to succeed in a digitized world,” said Aaron Green, Head of SuccessFactors, SAP Asia Pacific & Japan. “By partnering with SAP, these startups are joining an innovative ecosystem, and we look forward to working together to accelerate digital transformation for our customers in the world of Human Experience Management.”

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry Singapore program:

  • Accredify empowers organizations to create, issue, and verify digital credentials like educational certificates and employee records. Employers and third-party verifiers can check if credentials are certified true copies without time consuming manual cross-referencing.
  • Boldly’s platform enables both coaching and mentoring in one place. With the largest global database of professional coaches, Boldly ensures both coaching and mentoring culture can scale with exceptional operations, coaching and mentoring resources.
  • Tagvance’s personnel and asset tracking solution provides real time and high precision location tracking of people and assets in industrial spaces for improved safety and productivity.
  • Talent Games helps companies find and assess top millennial talent using recruitment games. Talent Games’ gamified candidate assessments are scientifically proven to accurately evaluate each candidate’s personality, cognitive ability, aptitude and behavior, all while they play the game.
  • Wagely empowers companies to provide employees with affordable and sustainable financial services, including access to earned wage access (EWA). This allows employees to access already earned but unpaid wages to reduce financial stress and boost their productivity, motivation and retention.
  • Springday is a B2B software-as-a-service platform with wellness programs, assessment tools and content to enable employees to be happier and healthier. 

About SAP.iO
SAP.iO delivers new partnerships and products for SAP by accelerating and scaling startup innovation as well as incubating employee ventures. SAP.iO brings together innovators from every region, industry, and line of business to transform how businesses run. Since 2017, SAP.iO has helped 300+ external startups and internal ventures accelerate their growth while enabling thousands of SAP customers to access innovation. For more information, visit https://sap.io/.

In Supply Chain Management, Sustainability, Singapore

SAP Startup Spotlight: Streamwise D.I.

SAP invests in a lot of promising startups, and it’s sometimes hard to keep track of all of them. E-3 Magazine has selected the most interesting companies to showcase in our SAP Startup Spotlight Series. In this article, we will take a look at Streamwise D.I.

Paul Hatten, CEO of Streamwise D.I., has over 25 years of experience driving corporate strategic international business management roles within the global water and wastewater sectors in high value Australian and U.S. companies. The companies he has managed include BioGill Group and Anue Water Technologies. He holds an Associate of Engineering Applied Science Construction Hydraulics from Technical and Further Education Queensland and is currently completing his Master of Business Administration from La Trobe University Melbourne. In this interview, Paul Hatten will talk about what Streamwise D.I. has to offer, how it is connected to SAP, and what’s next for the startup.

E-3 Magazine: What does Streamwise D.I. offer?

Paul Hatten: Streamwise D.I. is an enterprise-grade artificial intelligence (AI) software solution to drive digital transformation in industrial applications through data automation and decision intelligence. Our target market is the wastewater management of industrial operators across multiple verticals including food and beverage (F&B), mining, chemical distributors, and water authorities. Streamwise D.I. delivers value to enterprise customers by lowering operational costs, improving compliance, reducing operational risk, and increasing data transparency. On average, our solution reduces the operating expenses of wastewater operations by 60 percent through significant savings on chemical, asset management, compliance and energy costs.

How does your solution work?

Hatten: An industrial operator, such as a food and beverage manufacturer, with complex wastewater operations may have high operating costs, overuse of chemicals, and be out of compliance. They engage Streamwise D.I. to improve their operational efficiency and lower costs. The first step is to install sensors and probes on site at the wastewater treatment facility and install the ‘Monitor & Learn’ capability at the client site. The second step is an online analysis and deep dive into the operations data in order to identify inefficiencies and calculate the expected savings across asset management, energy, chemical use, and compliance. The third step is to fully utilize the power of Streamwise D.I.’s artificial intelligence capability to unlock decision intelligence and set optimization targets. The fourth step is reducing operating costs, often by around 60 percent, and to calculate the value-share pricing.

Why was Streamwise D.I. founded?

Hatten: Our founder and Chief Technology Officer, Alastair Lockey, has over 30 years of experience in technology innovation in wastewater management globally, with previous roles at global water giant Ecolab. Alastair saw opportunities to significantly improve data transparency and data analytics in wastewater operations through new software solutions with artificial intelligence capabilities to automate decision-making and reduce operating costs.

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In Singapore, Funding Announcement, Business Technology Platform

Accredify Integrates with SAP SuccessFactors to Assist Companies in Employee COVID-19 Health Verification

Accredify, a Singapore-based firm that creates and issues verifiable documents, today announced that it has signed an agreement with multinational software corporation SAP, to be integrated as an application on its Human Resource Management System, SAP SuccessFactors, which leverages SAP.iO open innovation model to revolutionise the future of work. By integrating Accredify as an app on the SuccessFactors marketplace, clients will be able to verify an employee’s COVID health credentials through Accredify’s verification portal.

The partnership follows concerns raised amongst corporations about the provision of an affordable and efficient method to verify an employee’s COVID health status as businesses prepare to reopen physical office spaces safely.

Employees simply have to upload their COVID medical credentials such as vaccination records or swab test results into Accredify’s verification portal on the SuccessFactors platform. Employers will be notified instantaneously once a COVID medical record has been uploaded and verified, and will be able to keep track of an individual employee’s COVID medical records on the platform.

Accredify’s app will be available to all clients subscribed to the SuccessFactors platform. As Accredify’s verification portal is agnostic to the different COVID medical standards and schema issued globally, enterprises using SuccessFactors will be able to verify medical records that have been issued by healthcare providers around the world. Currently, there are more than 7,400 clients around the globe who utilise SAP’s SuccessFactors platform.

“People are our business and core to the success of any organisations globally. Every employee experience matters, and more so as we are returning to the new normal. Workplace health and safety management measures will be top of mind, and companies who are intending to enhance existing policies or implement new processes will need to leverage technology to enable a seamless, exceptional employee experience,” said Eileen Chua, Managing Director, SAP Asia Pte. Ltd., Singapore.

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In Singapore, Network & Spend Management

SAP Startup Spotlight: Staple

Ben Stein is CEO and cofounder of Staple, a Singapore-headquartered AI company specializing in data capture, processing, and reconciliation in more than 90 languages. He is a chartered accountant with past experience at KPMG, Octopus Investments, and Entrepreneur First. Ben Stein has degrees in law and commerce and is a full stack developer. In this interview, he explains what his company has to offer and what’s next for Staple.

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In Foundries, Singapore, Portfolio News

Beyond Smart Cities: How Drones And Robotics Revolutionize Building Inspections

Underneath the gleaming surface of modern megacities is an archaic patchwork of antiquated building inspection processes long overdue for a 21st Century makeover. Meet H3 Dynamics, a cloud-based inspection services platform that’s using drones and ground robots as the eyes and ears of engineers currently grounded by the pandemic, and long hampered by last century norms.

h a level of safety, efficiency, and accuracy not possible before.”  

Perfecting the human plus machine equation

Headquartered in Singapore, H3 Dynamics’ customers include companies and government agencies worldwide across a long list of sectors such as smart cities, real estate, maritime, oil and gas, utilities, renewable energy, and mining. Customers might be private equity firms that own facilities, insurance companies, site operators, safety inspection and certification organizations, or regulators involved in legislating safety mandates. H3 Dynamics also has clients that resell its digitized visual monitoring services to their own customers. What customers have in common are hard to reach sites, from the tallest skyscrapers to remote industrial outposts that defy the most intrepid human being’s effort to scale. But this isn’t a story about machines replacing people.

Drones and ground robots, as well as people, can capture information from buildings with video and other camera images, bringing this data into the H3 Dynamics platform. The system uses technologies including AI and 3D modeling to create an interactive map that displays defects on the scanned structure surfaces, classifying potential risks, whether aesthetic anomalies or unsafe areas that require repair. Civil engineers or other recognized industry experts review and validate the automated findings. Customers can generate a written report that details safety risks. In addition, the company has created shelter systems where drones and other robots can get batteries recharged, and upload data to the H3 Dynamics cloud.

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In Foundries, Singapore

SAP.iO Startup Feature – Pulsifi

How do HR professionals ensure that they consistently hire and develop talent with the rights skills to lead their organization towards success?

Meet Pulsifi, an AI-driven predictive analytics and people data platform jointly integrated with SAP SuccessFactors, that helps you understand each person’s suitability to a role by harnessing the power of data and organization psychology.

Pulsifi is a graduate of SAP.iO Foundry Singapore: Intelligent Enterprise (2019) Cohort and SAP AppCenter partner.

Watch here for more…