Farquhar VC (FVC)

𝙎𝙋𝘼𝙍𝙆𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙉𝙀𝙓𝙏 𝘽𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙆𝙏𝙃𝙍𝙊𝙐𝙂𝙃 𝙄𝙉 𝘿𝙄𝙂𝙄𝙏𝘼𝙇 𝘽𝘼𝙉𝙆𝙄𝙉𝙂 Homegrown South East Asian banking stalwart OCBC has been consistently achieving various accolades in recent times, such as the 'Best Digital Bank' by Euromoney and 'FX House of the Year' by FX Markets. It's heartening to know that OCBC has entrusted Spark Systems Pte Ltd (a Farquhar VC (FVC) #Fintech portco that specialises in high-speed FX trading capabilities) to create innovative and scalable features within the bank's FX trading platform. Congrats to founder/CEO Joo Seng Wong and the executive team for this joyous milestone!

𝐅𝐕𝐂 𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐂𝐎𝐒: 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓 𝐍𝐎 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐒 Most of you (our besties!) know that Farquhar VC (FVC) tends to stay out of the limelight, but our portfolio startups should get the #GlowUp that they truly deserve, of which we are immensely proud of their wins and achievements. Without further ado, let's kick off the latest edition of '𝘐𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦' * 𝘾𝙀𝙇𝙀𝘽𝙍𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙒 - British Chamber of Commerce Singapore (BritCham) turns 70 this year, and its 25th edition of the annual business awards is a high-key flagship event that celebrates exceptional businesses with generous support from the Singapore Business Federation, and the economic agencies of Singapore. This year's 'Business Transformation of the Year' award goes to our #Fintech portco Spark Systems Pte Ltd. Congrats Joo Seng Wong, Shi Mei Chin, and colleagues! [1] - SPH Media's Her World Singapore has been championing women achievers annually, and one of the recipients of the Singtel #HelloPossibilities Award is our #BioMedTech #Deeptech portco Roceso Technologies co-founder/CEO Jane Wang [2]! Do check out the writeup too [3]! - The Inno Vietnam-Japan Fast Track Pitch Event is a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry - JETRO - Japan External Trade Organization initiative that encourages #OpenInnovation and #collaboration between #SEA startups and Japanese Mid-Sized and Large-Sized Corporates. Our #AI portco Tictag was one of the finalists, which also won the audience's choice award [4]. Congrats Kevin Quah, Lee Jin, Chloe C. and colleagues! 𝙁𝙇𝙔𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙁𝙇𝘼𝙂 𝙃𝙄𝙂𝙃 - The Blue Earth Summit in London recently played host to thousands of climate-focused delegates, and our #Climatetech portco Roslin Technologies was there to share about their #CellBased technologies [5]! - Las Vegas is playing host to HLTH USA's most high-key #digital #healthtech conferences this week, and our #BioMedTech #Wearable portco Aevice Health will be exhibiting at The Cedars-Sinai Accelerator pavilion [6]!   - Plug and Play APAC is amassing their APAC summit later this week, and our #SmartCities portco Antbuildz.com cofounder/CEO Kek Hean Hooi will be there [7]!  - Our friends at 중소벤처기업진흥공단(Korea SMEs Startups Agency) - K Startup Center Singapore is having a booth/pavilion at Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) next week, and our #Efficiency portco SicPama will be there [8]! * The geeks out there should find this phrase (albeit a bit outdated) to be relevant in the month of October/November #iykyk

Shout-out on behalf of our friends at TUMCREATE , a high-key Technical University of Munich #Deeptech R&D centre supported by National Research Foundation Singapore! Applications are closing soon for the #TFoodS #OtterTank #Startup competition, and perhaps worthy startups from our ecosystem friends across the causeway / in the land of the morning calm / the land down under should be part of it!!!

𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗢𝗚𝗘𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥, 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗜𝗚 𝗗* 𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗥𝗚𝗬 (*D for Daegu, in case your mind is wandering into the gutter! 😉 ) 6 South Korean startups (CHA Robotics / CocoH / Dr.Tail / LemonCloud / Textway / UPROOT COMPANY) recently completed their market-exploration in South East Asia, which happened to coincide with President Yoon's first visit to Singapore [trust us; the K-Govt folks didn't let us in on the news!]. Thank you for entrusting Farquhar VC (FVC) to undertake the Global Investment Capacity Building Program alongside our partner 트윈벤쳐스 (Twin Ventures Korea). Thank you to our longstanding neighbour and partner ACE.SG (Action Community for Entrepreneurship) too, for enabling us to conduct the programme in your premises. Heartfelt appreciation to the various mentors who have equipped our Korean startup founders with the best-in-class advice/insights, which will enable them to sharpen their decision-making process on global expansion: ECOSYSTEM: Felicia (XNode 创极无限) and Felicia (The HANGAR by NUS Enterprise), JIA SHING (Pollinate Incubator), Terry (DIFY), and Will Huang (GoodWhale - Life Investing) INVESTMENT: Audra (First Move), Eugene (Antler), Harry (Korea Investment Partners), Hussein (Jumpstart Disruptive Innovations (JDI)), Jozua (Genting Ventures), Jean (Golden Equator Capital), and Song Yang (MDI Ventures) Shout-out to Julie (Tenity) and Jin (Tictag) for indulging us with the intricate do's and dont's about scaling in South East Asia and South Korea during our Demo Day. Also, it's our greatest honour to have KOTRA Singapore Director-General (Mr InGi Baek) and ACE.sg CEO (Mr Patrick Lim) to grace our Demo Day, to witness the commencement of commercial partnerships between like-minded companies from the two countries: Textway <> Tictag, and LemonCloud <> EMERGE Group (Emplifive) Special thanks to TNGlobal's Yimie Yong for being the first to report on our joyous milestone! https://lnkd.in/gymvUwih

𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗜𝗖 𝗜𝗡𝗩𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗟𝗦 𝗙𝗩𝗖 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗖𝗛 𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗖𝗢 𝗧𝗢𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗦 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗛𝗘𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗦 ATFX (led by Chairman Joe Li) has recently announced a strategic investment into Farquhar VC (FVC) #Fintech portfolio company Spark Systems Pte Ltd Systems (led by Founder & CEO Joo Seng Wong) as part of its Series C round, joining other esteemed investors such as Citi and HSBC. As a leading global fintech broker with regulatory licenses in the UK (Financial Conduct Authority), Australia (ASIC), Hong Kong (Securities and Futures Commission (SFC)) and UAE (Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA)), ATFX clients can look forward to enhanced trading capabilities on their ATFX Connect platform. Special thanks to the media outlets such as Finance Magnates and AsiaOne.com for being among the first to carry the news! https://lnkd.in/gBqevguq https://lnkd.in/gpSY6GYg

It has been a ✨ 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑢𝑟𝑒, 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑓𝑢𝑙 ✨ month for us at Farquhar VC (FVC) ... to the extent that we almost forgot to post anything for this month?! Anyway, on the last day of the calendar year where we can sing/hum-along 🎶 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅...  🎶, here's some of our highlights! 𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 - Well-loved local 🧋 chain Playmade has been winning hearts and minds across the #RedDot [1]! As it commences on its global expansion, the company tried to keep up its social media presence, and plain ol' #ChatGPT aint cutting it. Check out how our 🤖 #AI startup Hypotenuse AI is helping to save time and max out on reach and engagement [2]!   - It's been a few months where the Singapore Food Agency has approved the creepy crawlies for human food [3]; so, what does it take to farm these insects? CNA's Eu Imm Chan recently paid a visit to our 🪱 #Foodtech startup Werms.Inc to find out [4]!  - Hangzhou: first known as "heaven on earth" (at least to Marco Polo)... but it is recently also known as the birthplace of Alibaba Group, that practically wrote the modern playbook for ecommerce. Alibaba Cloud is hosting the annual high-key #Aspara conference, and our 🤖 #AI startup 6Estates - Enterprise AI Solutions made its presence as part of the NVIDIA Inception Pavilion [5]. - MIHAS is a high-key Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) event, which has achieved an impressive 34% surge in sales [6]. We reckon that our 🥔 #foodtech startup The Golden Duck Co.'s presence at MIHAS has helped with the sales [7]! 😋   - Our 🌍 #Climatetech startup Roslin Technologies was selected to represent #Scotland in New York recently [8], and picked as a leading business UK's key earth-tech summit [9]! - Our 🩺 #Healthtech startup Roceso Technologies was a finalist for this year's InnoMatch [10]! Links! [1] https://lnkd.in/gg_UuSG6  [2] https://lnkd.in/gsV44mqb [3] https://lnkd.in/gCh2xhVf [4] https://lnkd.in/g-iBz8hh [5] https://lnkd.in/gCHjsxa2 [6] https://lnkd.in/g9Kkaank [7] https://lnkd.in/gRdh3Xc6 [8] https://lnkd.in/gdbghmU3 [9] https://lnkd.in/gkUfmw5B [10] https://lnkd.in/g2C5ziqf

𝗙𝗩𝗖: 𝗗𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧 𝗪𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗘𝗖𝗛 Here at Farquhar VC (FVC), we are proud of our women startup co-founders who have been rising up the scoreboard at She Loves Tech (the world's largest startup platform for women and tech) in recent years, such as Tash Jamieson (co-founder of #EdTech Lockpick Learning; Australia Finalist 2022) and 💃🏾 Oktorika Mandasari 💃🏾 (co-founder of #MarTech BintanGO Creator Powered Marketing & Live Commerce; Indonesia Winner 2023) [1]. FVC has been gender-blind in our approach of identifying & investing into startups, and 𝘄𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 to shine a light and elevate the amazing women in #tech and #entrepreneurship. Over the past few weeks, our Partnerships/Community go-to person Dr Alvin Ng has been quietly volunteering as a mentor (for the Oceania stage) [2] and a selection-panelist for the Singapore & Hong Kong stages [3] of the #SLT2024 competition. Special thanks to SLT's Leanne Robers, Diana Teoh 张慧凝 and Yohana Parida for the opportunity to give back to this amazing movement. The regional finals will be taking place over the next few weeks, with the #RedDot setting the stage to host the regional winners and to crown the global winners in October. Join us in cheering them on! Links! 1. https://lnkd.in/gKRvWXZE 2. https://lnkd.in/gEUBE47h 3. https://lnkd.in/gf4nteZN

𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗡-𝗪𝗜𝗡 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗔𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗘 & 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗛 𝗞𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗔 Farquhar VC (FVC) 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 to the #startup and #innovation #ecosystem in Singapore & South Korea. Thanks to our long-standing partnerships with Bigbang Angels, Inc. (led by Chairman ByungSun Hwang Ph.D.), we talent-spotted/placed several high-growth #global startups into South Korea (via the National IT Industry Promotion Agency K-Startup Grand Challenge) and subsequently invested into some of them (such as Fairphonic , Tictag / 틱택코리아 TICTAG Korea, myFirst, and Aevice Health). Another of our long-standing partners is the 'Korea's startup factory' Hanyang University, of which we jointly ran an #Acceleration program with HYUH as part of #서울경제진흥원과 (Seoul Business Agency)'s #TryEverything initiative last year [1]. 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝗴𝗲𝗮𝗿! Earlier this year, we signed up to be friends with South Korea's most prolific early-stage investor (KOSDAQ-listed #인포뱅크 infobank) [2] and #BioMedTech #LifeSciences accelerator (IRIS LAB(S&S LAB Co.,Ltd.) 아이리스랩) [3]. In the next half of 2024, we inked our latest partnerships with GIA [4] and Twin Ventures (whom we will be running a joint acceleration program, soon!). 𝗟𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀! We're stoked and privileged to make our first #Korean startup investment into SicPama (led by CEO Jung Suh) earlier this year. And, we've just made our second investment into our latest portfolio Catius (led by CEO Stephanie An) [5, 6, 7, 8]! Both high-growth companies were recent country representatives at International CES - Consumer Electronics Show, and were also alumni of Samsung Electronics C-Lab, the conglomerate's elite startup incubator program. 𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀, which is made possible thanks to our strong relations with government including Enterprise Singapore / EnterpriseSG - Northeast Asia and Oceania and Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Republic of Korea (led by Minister Youngju oh and Deputy Minister Jungwook Lim) and its agencies such as KISED (Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development) / KOTRA Special thanks to e27 (Optimatic) (Mohan / Thaddeus / Sainul) and TechNode.com (Yimie Yong) and Platum / WOW Partners(와우파트너스) (Taehyun Brad Kim) for being among the first to report on our happy occasion! Links! 1. https://lnkd.in/gJm2iJ3z 2. https://lnkd.in/g2wDWGf5 3. https://lnkd.in/gyGJGQ_b 4. https://lnkd.in/gfkcbdbJ 5. https://lnkd.in/gqmx-KgG 6. https://lnkd.in/grB5GFHs 7. https://lnkd.in/g9F6495J 8. https://lnkd.in/g-MMJBRT

𝗙𝗩𝗖 𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗖𝗢 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗨𝗣𝗦 - 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗬 𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦 & 𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗦! - #KidsTech startup myFirst has just launched (what's possibly a #WorldsFirst) an #AI -powered camera, which comes with the right controls/filters to enable kids to have a safe yet creative experience [1]. The company has become one of the few South East Asian representatives as a Semi-Finalist at the Asia Technology Entrepreneurship Conference (ATEC), which is co-organised by the Hong Kong / Greater Bay Area Alumni Clubs of Harvard University/Harvard Business School, Columbia University/Columbia Business School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University [2]. - Organised by Global Trade Review (GTR), The largest #Global #CrossBorderTrade #Tradetech conference (GTR Asia - Trade, treasury, commodities and fintech conference) is coming to Singapore in a few weeks' time. #SupplyChainFinance portfolio Doxa Holdings International co-founder/CEO Edmund Ng 黄麒榮 will be on a #ESG panel alongside leaders representing Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation – SMBC Group / Razer Inc. / MUFG [3], while #AI #Fintech portfolio (also coinvested by Enterprise Singapore - SEEDS Capital) 6Estates - Enterprise AI Solutions Chief of Staff Hart Lestari will be speaking on #Automation and closing the information gap [4]! - Airwallex is ramping up their efforts to dish out their $10K grants, and our #AI #DataTagging portfolio Tictag co-founder/COO Lee Jin is speaking at a panel hosted by Vanessa Ho [5]! - Our #Digtal #HealthTech portfolio MyCLNQ Health has been making great strides in Malaysia, and they were recently in #TheLandBelowTheWind with their partners CelcomDigi to introduce their tech-offerings to the Sabah Malaysian Medical Association team [6]. - Our #ESports #Web3 portfolio EMERGE Group will be co-organising a massive side-event in Seoul as part of the Korea #Blockchain Week. Don't miss out [7]! Links! 1. https://lnkd.in/g2HmzFqA 2. https://lnkd.in/gncMRNR7 3. https://lnkd.in/gvCbfWEE 4. https://lnkd.in/gdqZMg7x 5. https://lnkd.in/gC_EJ37x 6. https://lnkd.in/g7MPA7tm 7. https://lnkd.in/gMK38FQK

𝗙𝗩𝗖 𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗖𝗢 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗨𝗣𝗦 - 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗬 𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗡𝗘𝗦 & 𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗦! - #Enterprise #AI and Enterprise Singapore - SEEDS Capital portco 6Estates - Enterprise AI Solutions was the recent #TechSolutions provider to the recent DBS Bank - Alibaba Cloud Global #GenerativeAI hackathon in Hong Kong [1]. #6Estates also entered into a partnership with fellow Tsinghua University #LLM #spinoff Modelbest (面壁智能) [2], which is co-founded by Assoc Prof Zhiyuan Liu and Mr DaHai Li (former CTO of NYSE -listed Zhihu.com and founding China team-member of Google) - Supermom Business's joint initiative with Kementrian Pariwisata dan Ekonomi Kreatif Republik Indonesia (KEMENKRAF) (on #empowering 1 million Indonesian mothers with #DigitalLiteracy skills) has been attaining great progress, with Project #1MPACT onboarding Zurich Insurance / Zurich Indonesia | Proteksi Lengkap untuk Hidup Anda as its latest partner [3]! - #FoodTech #AlternativeProtein Werms.Inc has embarked on a partnership with Malaysia's YHL Group (a Bioeconomy Corporation portfolio company) to establish a pilot-plant facility as part of the upcoming AruBay Eco Resort in Southern Malaysia [4]! - Tech in Asia has just released a list of the top 50 rising #AI startups in Asia, and Tictag / 틱택코리아 TICTAG Korea is one of the 2 companies based in South East Asia [5]! - #Fintech Spark Systems Pte Ltd is in the running for the 'Fintech of the Year' prize category in this week's Asia FinTech Awards & Conference [6]! Also, #SparkSystems CFO Shi Mei Chin will be speaking as an esteemed #panelist at its affiliated conference [7]! Links! 1. https://lnkd.in/gpPu83zi 2. https://lnkd.in/gnyVdruY 3. https://lnkd.in/gyxUTmXh 4. https://lnkd.in/gUTbqv8E 5. https://lnkd.in/eG42U3Hv 6. https://lnkd.in/g4DHgmv4 7. https://lnkd.in/e-6bVBTP