21 startups in Asia that caught our eye

Emily Goh

2 February 2014 at 5:00 am

Here’s our newest round-up of the featured startups on our site this week. If you have startup tips or story suggestions, feel free to email us or tell us about your startup on this form. Any juicy tech news tips go here. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. Wongnai | Thailand

Founded in 2010, Thailand-based restaurant review startup Wongnai has revealed this week to have grown to one million registered users. The Yelp-like site received series A financing from Japan’s Recruit Strategic Partners (RSP) back in May 2013.

2. Foody | Vietnam

Similar to Singapore’s Hungry Go Where, Foody mainly focuses on providing good restaurant recommendations for its users, and at the same time allowing them to comment and rate the quality of those restaurants. This week, the startup announced it has reached over one million monthly unique visits since its founding in August 2013.

The company also received investment from CyberAgent Ventures back in November last year.

3. TinyBox | Philippines

Developed by Philippines-based startup Scrambled Eggs, Tinybox is a fun and simple iOS app to send a surprise photo gift to anybody via SMS. Users can pick from the designed digital gift boxes, and upload personal photos to put inside. This can be matched with personalized voice messages for the receiver.

4. Baolau.vn | Vietnam

Vietnma’s Baolau.vn is a “multimodal travel search engine”, which allows travelers to search for multiple routes and methods to get to their destination. Currently, the company covers domestic flights, trains, and ferries in Vietnam.

5. Clickdrive | Singapore

Singapore-based startup Clickdrive recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to for its first product, a computer that can be plugged into your car’s dashboard to give it a second brain.

The device aims to extend the functionality of your car and change the way you interact with it, like what Apple did to mobile phones. It already has several apps in the pipeline, including customizable dashboards, a fuel saver, performance monitoring, and a blackbox data recorder.

6. OurHealthMate | Singapore and India

OurHealthMate is a Singapore and India-based startup with an electronic health record (EMR) system for doctors and an online marketplace for medical checkups. The platform also enables people to search, book, and pay for health checkups on behalf of their families through the website. They can also receive feedback directly from the health practitioner.

The company has come a long way since it was an incubatee called MyFitnessWallet at startup accelerator JFDI last year, and has gain sufficient traction to secure a seed round led by Bimal Shah, along with participation from Benjamin Tsai, Ben Ball, and other angel investors.

7. Yton.vn | Vietnam

Yton.vn is a appointment booking platform for patients and doctors allowing patients to log on and book an appointment with their favorite doctors.

Sources near Yton.vn have stated that the unnamed financial backers of the startup are a medical company, and they may also be opening up a healthcare startup accelerator in the near future.

8. Lancers | Japan

Founded in 2008, Lancers claims to be Japan’s largest freelancing site, producing over $200 million worth of accumulated freelancing gigs to date. The startup revealed that it is now profitable every year despite having no external financing until recently.

It was only in May 2013 when the founder accepted an investment from GMO Ventures Partners and Globis Capital

9. SnapTee | Hong Kong

SnapTee is a fashion e-commerce startup from Hong Kong, which has an iPhone app where users can customize and create their own T-shirts – then get the finished garment delivered to their door anywhere in the world. The startup has neighboring Asian countries very much on the team’s radar, and has just updated its app with the Thai and Indonesian languages, plus support for the Simplified Chinese text used in mainland China.

Back in February 2013, the startup had a seed funding to help it grow.

10. Terra Motors | Japan

Japan’s Terra Motors released this week, its Kiwami electric bikes in India. With a $28,730 price tag, Terra Motors wants to attract affluent youths in India looking for an eco-friendly solution for their day-to-day transportation.

11. 2C2P | Singapore

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Singapore, 2C2P is an online payment processing company that aims to solve online payment problems in Southeast Asia, a tough market for e-commerce since many consumers don’t own credit cards.

The company is revealed to have concluded a $2 million Series B financing round, led by an undisclosed investor and Japan-based GMO Payment Gateway six months ago.

12. Smatoos | South Korea

Korean educational startup Smatoos, known for its BeNative apps, has just launched an iOS app called Formula for English Conversation (our translation) for people in Japan and Korea, which focuses on improving English speaking skills. It’s free, and the Android version will be released within the first quarter of this year.

This app is available only in Japan and Korea now, but Smatoos is planning China and Taiwan releases by the end of February.

13. Abraresto | Indonesia and Singapore

Abraresto is a food discovery and review site that lets users browse food based on the kinds of venue, cuisine, and location by mall and neighborhood. It was built by the same team behind Singapore-based restaurant booking site Abratable. This week, the company announced it has closed an investment from Indonesian investors made up of “Indonesian families associated with some of the largest privately held companies” in the country.

14. iQon | Japan

Founded in 2010, iQon is a Japanese mobile app that allows users to mix, match, and buy items on their smartphones. More specifically, it’s actually mobile-first fashion social network where users can follow others for ideas on what to wear.

iQon raised a round from Itochu, Globis, and GMO Ventures Partners back in 2011 and is in the process of finalizing its next financing round.

15. 11Beep | Nepal

Nepal’s 11Beep launches into private beta today with an app for Android. It’s a mobile-only social network that doesn’t keep your digital history. The company’s tagline is “Freedom of expression”, so you don’t have to worry about anything you post.

16. Salarium | Philippines

Philippine-based Salarium helps businesses improve efficiency and accuracy by letting its cloud-based software do payroll processing, government form processing and payslip generation.

Following its official launch, Salarium will soon release its mobile optimized site next month. A mobile app is also set to be released in March.