If the industry you are in is always about the “good ol’days”, it can get a bit frustrating when you’re on the frontline trying to turn the wheels of tech innovation.
Cyberview Living Lab Accelerator (CLLA) has been working to change that perception with all their cohorts, so their newest and latest batch is no different.
The startups under their wing are looking at or already impacting their industries with their innovative solutions.
We had a chat with the 4 startups and got the details on how they’re working with Cyberview to further enhance their businesses to impact their “traditional” industries.
1) AppCable (JomParking)
AppCable started in 2012 and offers mobile applications development as well as consultation services for the iOS and Android platform.
The company has already published 5 apps including ticketonline, an app that simplifies the process of buying tickets online for events, and their latest venture called JomParking.
Launched in 2015, JomParking looks at using IoT technology to make paying for street parking a lot more convenient, using your smartphone.
Everyone knows the pain of hunting down parking machines only to find out they’re faulty. Or you just can’t seem to locate the nearest shop that sells those parking coupons.
So JomParking is a logical advancement from the more traditional means.
It seems Malaysians can agree; the app’s user base grew from just 1,800 users to 44,000 now.
The app can currently be used in areas covered by DBKL and they’re looking on expanding to Sabah and Cyberjaya soon. To help with that, Cyberview’s help through this accelerator was crucial.
Cyberview provided space and the right equipment for them to test out their first off-street parking system.
“CLLA helped expose us to many things, especially about various topics like finance, laws, business development, and all. This helps us gain more experience and knowledge that could help us go to the next level,” said Muhamad Nasir Habizar, founder of AppCable.
After graduating from the program, Nasir shared that they’re looking to get more parking operators and town councils involved so they can roll out to more sites in the near future.
2) Techcare Innovation
The robotics scene is quite large in Asia. including in Malaysia where we’re always proud of the bright young minds who use their talent to represent our country and come back home with internationally acclaimed awards.
However, robotics in healthcare is still quite unheard of even to this day. The lack of innovation in this field is what sparked these young engineers to come up with their company called Techcare Innovation.
Techcare Innovation is a company focusing on building smart rehab and fitness devices so patients with immobility issues can train and have therapy sessions conducted in a more fun and engaging way: video game style.
The company launched in 2015 and the CEO, Khor Kang Xiang, said that they have already produced several products that are now being used in various hospital centres.
They currently have 3 products in their range:
- CR2-Haptic, a robot that helps stroke patients move their rehab training by controlling a game.
- Fibod, a smart fitness balance board that allows people to train their balance skill.
- A software called Instant Feedback which allows people to view and record your performance instantly without the need of others.
After spending a year working in hospitals and rehab centres, Kang Xiang noticed how stroke patients can feel downhearted and frustrated when they don’t see any improvement in their mobility.
To make their training sessions more engaging, Techcare incorporates virtual reality games and objective assessment programmes so that the patients can have fun while seeing with their own eyes how much they’re improving with just 1 session.
“We’re working with the National Stroke Association of Malaysia (NASAM) where our robots have been used there for the past 2 years. We’re quite proud as it is one of the largest NGO stroke centres in Malaysia,” said Kang Xiang.
“Seeing that really motivates us to do better. We want to let the tech be available for people worldwide, which is what Techcare is all about.”
– Kang Xiang
Now with CLLA, Techcare’s looking on growing their business further by providing the correct branding.
“During one of our mentoring sessions, we were told to not just focus on building a product, we need to build a concept which can be a smart city for healthcare. We started out with our fitness bot, now we’re looking at preparing a prevention program package for elder people to go through in 6 months so they can recover and improve their health.”
“So it’s more of a solution that can be implemented at a national level rather than just giving one product,” he said.
3) MHub
MHub is a real estate fintech platform that helps to speed up and simplify the property sales cycle. They launched their beta in June 2016 which constitutes of 3 modules:
- Showroom: Helps property developers and real estate agents manage their sales gallery, booking & inventory systems.
- Credit Check: Allows property developers and real estate agents to run a credit check on buyers based on real time information provided by Bank Negara.
- Loan Tracker: Allows property developers to track and monitor loan applications.
Using these features, MHub claims they’re able to cut down the traditional process of property loan approval that usually takes up to 3 months down to minutes.
“We’ve been working with 10 property developers since last year and have about 4 to 5 active ones using our service which are our paid users. In our database, we have 2.5 billion worth of property for sale in value inventories. We have managed to process about 600 million worth of bookings,” said Quek Wee Siong, CEO of MHub.
The team wanted to emphasise that they’re not really replacing the role of the banks. They’re just extracting the buyers’ data and with their smart automated calculator, developers can get a clearer picture on which buyers are qualified for the loan by filtering out those who are unable to meet the basic criteria.
“The property industry is an old industry. How the transactions work have been the same for the past 20 years or so,” said Wee Siong.
“We’re hoping to start a mindset change. Proptech can revamp how the entire sales transaction works in this industry and we’re proud to say we’re part of this change.”
– Wee Siong
To further this change along, Cyberview has helped open doors to key property developers in the market.
“Cyberjaya is one of the main digital cities in Malaysia and Cyberview is the tech hub enabler. To be a part of this ecosystem is a must, it’s an added value to what we’re building and achieving. We think this opens a lot of doors to not only private parties but government ones as well,” said Wee Siong.
4) LuxTag
The latest buzzword to hit the digital market is blockchain, so it’s no surprise that Cyberview was looking to nurture more startups incorporating this technology into their business.
LuxTag is one of them, but their twist on it is quite different. They use it for their holistic system which aims to solve counterfeit and theft problems with luxury items.
Some of us are probably familiar with the idea that when you buy a luxury item, whether it be a fancy watch or handbag, it usually comes with a form of certificate showing its authenticity. Think of it like a small ownership card or warranty card.
Well, this startup creates digital versions of that. This can also help manufacturers or buyers keep track or trace where their products go.
“When these items are sold, the manufacturers usually don’t know where it goes after it’s bought. We solve this via our digital certification of authenticity,” said Rene F. Bernard, CEO of LuxTag.
Many things can be done with this digital certificate. Since it is uploaded onto a digital ledger using blockchain, the system can live without a central database in the background. So it exists in the digital realm instead of just on a company server which could one day disappear.
As long as the internet exists, the certificate will exist too.
Traditionally when it comes to second hand shopping, there are a lot of problems when it comes to transferring ownership. LuxTag’s system links the digital certificate to one that exists in the real world (like a warranty card) so that it can be accounted for by the network and it’s easier to prove you’re the original owner when selling the luxury item off or pawning it.
“This way, we’re creating big data for manufacturers and brands by giving them a visualisation of how their merchandise is moving throughout its lifetime. They can see if it’s being sold to other countries, the demographic it attracts, and so forth.”
– Rene
In the future, LuxTag is looking at incorporating this to cars where through this digital certificate, you could find out the customisation and maintenance done online rather than just relying on a traditional warranty book.
This article was written in collaboration with Cyberview.
Feature Image Credit: CyberviewMY @ twitter.com
