10 Innovative and Interesting Local Startups You Should Look Out For In 2016
More startup solutions for your everyday problems!
By John Lim — 12 Jan 2016, 05:39 PM
1. PostoExpress. The startup is trying to revolutionise the delivery industry by providing fast and reliable delivery services - with dispatch riders.
PostoExpress is an on-demand dispatch platform that connects customers with thousands of dispatch riders with customers that are looking to send parcels, documents and literally anything that can fit on a bike, from anywhere and anytime.
Customers can simply request a pickup through the mobile app that’s available on both the App Store and the Google Play Store, and they’ll be able to find a dispatch rider in less than 3 minutes on average and PostoExpress will ensure that your package and/or parcel is delivered within 3 hours within the same territory.
vulcanpost.com
Started by two friends, PostoExpress promises to deliver your goods within Klang Valley, they use demand-dispatch riders will deliver your documents and parcels within Klang Valley and we pledge that the items will reach your destination within three hours from the pickup time.
Check out PostoExpress here. Alternatively, you could download their Android app or iOS app.
2. The Lorry. A booking service that connects transporters with customers. Think Uber, but for moving your stuff from one place to another.
Aiming to revolutionise the industry, two former logistics executives have developed a platform to connect lorry owners to clients. TheLorry.com (The Lorry) is an on-demand delivery service that uses lorries for transportation, helping users to compare prices before they pick the lorry they want to use.
"We see this as a win-win situation for both lorry owners and customers," says Goh Chee Hau, one of the co-founders of The Lorry. Both Goh and his partner, Nadhir Ashafiq, developed The Lorry, having worked in the traditional logistics industry for many years.
With an initial investment of RM20,000, The Lorry was launched with three companies that owned 10 lorries. Currently, the startup is servicing up to 80 trucks in a day!
Check out The Lorry here.
3. Yumcious. If you've always wanted home-cooked food delivered to you, this startup is worth checking out! Yumcious is a community for foodies to show and sell what they've cooked.
The general idea of Yumcious is to be a platform for home cooks to showcase and sell their cook, or if you're missing home and would die for a bowl of Penang laksa, Yumcious is your go-to. Foodies who have registered on the platform can get home cooked meals delivered to them by registered transporters.
Apart from being a community for foodies, Yumcious also provides a lot more job opportunities to those who are at home most of the time. They can choose to be their own boss, whether by cooking or delivering. For instance, chefs could operate an F&B business under their own roof effortlessly without owning a physical restaurant.
vulcanpost.com
Check out Yumcious here.
4. GiveReceipt. The startup aims to provide small businesses with a cheap, easy, and tech-enabled way to sort out their paperwork, and it’s proving popular throughout Southeast Asia.
As its name suggests, GiveReceipt lets business owners – big or small, offline or online – to issue official receipts to buyers. This is useful not just for the business owner because it automates and digitises the process of issuing a receipt, but also for the customer who now has a proof of purchase that can be used for warranty issues or any customer-related disputes(exchanges, faulty products, etc).
lowyat.net
Based in Kuala Lumpur, the startup has customers throughout SouthEast Asia. It has been doing well, considering it has attracted attention from several investment firms, including an undisclosed seed funding from Malaysia angel firm Qeerad.
Check out GiveReceipt here.
5. ParkEasy. Fighting for a parking spot is an everyday thing for Malaysians. With that first world problem in mind, ParkEasy is allowing motorists to book their parking spots via an app.
ParkEasy can help you to scout available bays remotely, get a bird’s eye view of the parking floor, use intelligent navigation to find the designated spot and not worry about where the vehicle is parked as the app will remember the location.
thestar.com.my
Chan and three friends – Eric Tan, who serves as chief technology officer, Winnie Mah, the engineering vice-president, and senior developer Yong Shung Jiu – then started working intensively on such an app in August last year.
The innovation has also caught the attention of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Mah Siew Keong, who cited the app as an example of Malaysian innovation and creativity in his speech at the Innovating Malaysia Conference 2016 in Kuala Lumpur recently.
6. Hello Roaming. The newly launched startup provides travellers to plan ahead by purchasing SIM cards for five Asian countries.
Swapping SIM cards is one of the biggest pain points for the connected traveller. Either you’re sick of getting ripped off at the airport or hate allocating time to card registration.
Malaysian startup Hello Roaming wants to help you get ahead (of the taxi queue) by sending out the relevant SIM card to you days before your trip. This eliminates long registration processes at the airport, the possibility of losing your original SIM card and the hassle of hunting down the cheapest tourist plan.
e27.co
Come the first quarter of 2016, Hello Roaming will expand to another six countries — but that will require partnerships with local telcos to build inventory. Also in the works, which seems like the major value-add here, are plans to launch a top-up feature so users can keep the same SIM card per destination. Through the Hello Roaming platform, users simply fill in the denomination of what they’d like to top up, which will keep the card (which usually expire after a certain duration) active.
e27.co
Check out Hello Roaming here.
7. AisKosong. With students in mind, the app compiles and lists stores in the Klang Valley that have a student-specific discount or deal, to make it easy for students to find and claim.
Launched back in October last year, the app right now has more than a hundred locations listed with 1200 users. Response from students so far has been amazing, with user base growing at an average of 30% week-on-week since the first week of December!
Users can browse through many discounts from different categories like food and apparel. Aside from that, users can locate new places to enjoy student discounts.
Check out AisKosong here. Alternatively, you could download their Google app or iOS app.
8. Gigfairy. Hiring musicians for events just became a whole lot easier with Gigfairy, which serves as a platform for anyone to book musicians.
Gigfairy prides itself on being a simple go-to place to book musicians. There are only two steps that need to be taken to get a rocking live band: browse through the profiles of local musicians, and book them right from their profile page. “We have also just secured a partnership with a sound system rental company, so we’ll be able to provide that as an option as well,” co-founder Brian Foo adds.
techinasia.com
The startup's effort to improve the music scene in Malaysia has caught the eye of investors. It has secured RM100,000 (approximately US$28,000) in pre-seed funding in a round led by Endeavor Capitals, an investment company based in Kuala Lumpur.
Check out Gigfairy here.
9. Pott Glasses. Imagine traditional glasses with a local twist, that's what this startup is trying to do - to create optical glasses and sunglasses for the Asian fit.
Pott Glasses prides itself in its handcrafted creations that look stylish and sturdy. Frames are set at a standard price of RM265. The affordable pricing means customers could easily purchase a second pair to match different oufits.
Pott Glasses also provides Door-to-Door Try On, a service which allows customers to choose up to 16 pairs from the website and arrange for a meeting to try on the glasses—all for free. On top of that, Pott Glasses will bring an additional 20 pairs of glasses that they think will suit the customer as well as offer advice on matching their face-shape with the right glasses.
vulcanpost.com
Check out Pott Glasses here.
10. Shoppr. Drawing inspiration from apps like Tinder, Shoppr uses the swipe-to-discover method, allowing users to purchase products based on pages they like.
Shoppr draws heavily from dating app Tinder’s swipe-to-discover methodology. Once you have logged in via Facebook, the app uses “a social clustering algorithm” to show you the products you might like based on your page likes and personal bio. Thereafter, it’s a simple matter of swiping left if you like it, and right if you don’t, a la Tinder.
Users are also able to search and buy whatever they want directly via the app, which means no more time wasted being re-directed to the respective brands’ stores to checkout. Notifications whenever any discounts are released by brands also mean that users will never miss out on a good deal.
techinasia.com
Earlier last year, Shoppr has raised close to USD400,000 in seed funding! The investment comes from different companies like 500 Startups and East Ventures. The funds will be used for “increasing in-app engagement, and hiring several more developers to improve our recommendation engine and increase the number of brands.” For now, the Shoppr team’s focus will remain on Malaysia, though Wong admits that he is looking to other parts of Asia in the long run.
Check out Shoppr here. Alternatively, you could download their Google app or iOS app.