Cafebond.com to launch offline store, Samsung eyes release of smart home speaker next year, and more

New launches

Cafebond.com to open offline store in Singapore [press release]

Singapore-based coffee beans e-tailer Cafebond,com is set to open its first offline store in the country, at level 1 of the Millenia Walk shopping mall.

Called The Bean Shop, the shop will feature a curated selection of freshly roasted coffee beans from across the globe. These include Melbourne’s Seven Seeds Coffee, Tokyo’s Fuglen Coffee, Taipei’s Simple Kaffa Coffee, Kuala Lumpur’s VCR Coffee, and more.

“Enjoying specialty coffee is a sensory journey and as an e-commerce platform, we are excited and for the first time, we will be bringing it into a real life, physical experience for our customers,” said Keyis Ng, CEO and Co-Founder of Cafebond.com.

Besides coffee beans, the e-commerce platform also offers coffee-brewing equipment.

Schroders launches chatbot [press release]

Global investment manager Schroders has partnered with Singapore startup panda.ai to launch a chatbot on the Facebook Messenger.

Called Schroders GO, the chatbot allows clients to access information on any fund as well as market information, without needing to download an app.

Schroders GO also allows users to track and get the latest information on their preferred funds with a ‘Watchlist’ function. In addition, to cater to the local market, the chatbot can understand the Singlish, which is the colloquial form of English in the country.

Samsung to launch smart home speaker next year [Bloomberg]

Samsung is throw its hat into the smart home speaker ring; by next year, it aims to release one that will focus on audio quality as well as the ability to control smart home IoT devices.

Samsung’s smart home speaker will be powered by its digital assistant Bixby. It will reportedly retail in the range of US$200.

When it launches, Samsung will be competing against Amazon’s Echo speaker and Apple’s HomePod.

Ride-hailing news

Go-Jek acquires three fintech companies [e27]

Indonesia’s leading mobile on-demand services and payment platform Go-Jek has acquired three fintech companies: offline payments processing firm Kartuku, payments gateway provider Midtrans, and local community-based saving and lending network Mapan.

These deals will help Go-Jek expand the usage of its digital wallet unit Go-Pay and strengthen its position as an inclusive payment ecosystem.

Post-deal, the CEOs of each of the three acquired businesses will take senior management positions at the Go-Jek group, with Aldi Haryopratomo of Mapan leading Go-Pay, Ryu Suliawan of Midtrans leading the group’s merchant platform, and Thomas Husted of Kartuku taking on the role of Go-Jek Group CFO.

Grab users in Indonesia can resume topping up GrabPay credits [DailySocial]

After a period of hiatus, Grab users in Indonesia can finally start topping up credits to its in-app e-wallet feature GrabPay again on Thursday.

Also Read: Grab receives e-money license for payments services in stores, restaurants in Malaysia

The service was made available through the company’s strategic partnership with Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Group, which owns and operates e-wallet service OVO. The top-up feature in GrabPay was temporarily frozen in October as part of Grab’s process in applying for e-money license.”

Hello Cabs suing Grab [DealStreetAsia]

Myanmar-based ride-hailing startup Hello Cabs is suing its rival Grab. The lawsuit was filed in April 2017 and is still pending.

Aung Win, the Managing director of Dagon Logistics Co Ltd, which owns Hello Cabs, claimed that Grab had used their company’s confidential business information without permission.

Hello Cabs and Grab reportedly entered into a business co-operation partnership last year. After signing a non-disclosure agreement, Hello Cabs started providing Grab with documents regarding its strategic and market expansion plans.

But Grab ceased contact with Hello Cabs after the signing, and decided to launch in Myanmar by themselves instead.

Grab said that the lawsuit has no merit.

Crypto news

South Korea to make cryptocurrency trading more transparent [Reuters]

The Korea Blockchain Industry Association is introducing non-compulsory measures that would make cryptocurrency trading in the country more transparent.

Backed by 14 exchanges in the country, the initiatives state that each trader needs to have their identity verified by a traditional financial institution before they can start trading.

In addition, cryptocurrency exchanges need to have KRW 2 billion (US$1.83 million) in assets before they can operate.

The measures will be introduced at the start of next year.

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Image Credit: Cafebond.com

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