muru-D Singapore’s First Cohort Leapfrogs Fundraising Expectations before Demo Night
SINGAPORE – 21 March 2016 – Telstra-backed start-up accelerator muru-D today showcased its inaugural class of Singapore start-ups at its first demo day, with nine high-growth businesses across healthcare, consumer applications, financial services, law, mobile payments and advertising on show.
The nine technology start-ups each received S$40,000 in seed capital through the programme, six months’ access to muru-D Singapore’s Amoy Street premise as well as introductions to world-class mentors, coaches and Telstra experts. Since the beginning of the programme, most of muru-D Singapore’s first cohort has raised a significant proportion of their seed rounds, with two teams raising in excess of S$300,000 prior to demo night.
“We joined muru-D because of its deep relationships with, and broad reach into, the corporate sphere, as well as their excellent track record. I am pleased to say they delivered in spades, connecting Apvera with global experts and large channel partners which have helped accelerate our growth,” said Eric Meyer, CEO of Apvera, one of the graduating start-ups.
Together with Telstra, muru-D continues to aspire to attract the region’s best digital talent, foster local technology innovation and grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem across Southeast Asia.
“Through muru-D Singapore, we’ve had the opportunity to work with inspiring entrepreneurs with innovative technology and global ambitions,” said Charlotte Yarkoni, President of Telstra Software Group and muru-D Co-Founder.
“Having watched these teams grow and develop their businesses for the past six months, we are thrilled to see the transformation. We’ll continue to provide ongoing support as they become part of our thriving alumni of 44 start-ups from around the world. Personally, I’m thrilled with the diversity represented in this cohort too – more than half of the graduating teams have female founders.”
Launched in April 2015, muru-D Singapore is part of the Telstra Software Group. A component of its mission is to help build a healthy ecosystem for Telstra to drive software innovation, especially in Southeast Asia.
“The start-up community in Southeast Asia is blossoming, and as a leading technology company in the region, we strongly believe in enabling digital talent to grow and mature. We are particularly pleased to see the geographic spread of these companies, indicating the region’s emerging leadership as a source of digital innovation,” said Charlotte.
The success of the muru-D Singapore Class #1 is also fuelled by support from local organisations, such as the Infocomm Investments Pte Ltd (IIPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA).
Dr Alex Lin, Head of IIPL said: “The fact that Singapore is chosen as the place for a muru-D programme outside of Australia speaks to the abundance of opportunities in our ecosystem. The nine graduating teams reflect the diversity of start-ups and talents in Singapore and around the region. We, at IIPL, are committed to supporting and growing the start-up ecosystem by knowledge-sharing and connecting people and resources. We will continue working with muru-D and any other organisations to help start-ups in our ecosystem flourish.”
muru-D Singapore Class #1 graduating teams are:
- Apvera – Provides security intelligence software for employers to better understand in real time employee behaviour based on the data of network traffic and activities, and prevent insider threats.
- Cardable – Helps Asian cardholders better utilise all their credit card privileges with recommendations and analytics.
- GCall – An e-commerce platform that removes language barriers to enable buyers and sellers to trade, regardless of the country they live in.
- InvestorZ – An online crowdfunding platform for people to learn how to invest, meet new experts and execute investments in a range of opportunities.
- LawCanvas – Contract construction and management application for SMEs
- PrecisionBit – Digital marketing platform for enterprises
- sendhelper – A pair of mobile apps that matches households with professional and reliable cleaners, removing the middleman.
- Stash – Connects healthcare professionals with patients with online appointment scheduling and sharing up to date records via a SaaS platform.
- VENDi – Provides vending operators with a single all-in-one solution for mobile payments, monitoring and marketing via the cloud and allows users to purchase from an app.
muru-D will be opening applications for its second Singapore cohort in June 2016. For more information about muru-D’s accelerator programme, please visit https://muru-d.com/.
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