LinkedIn unveiled today (September 28) its annual LinkedIn Top Startups list in Singapore, spotlighting the startups that have navigated uncertain economic times, optimised for stability and long-term growth, while offering employees opportunities to learn new skills and succeed.
To compile the list, LinkedIn analysed data across four pillars: employee growth, jobseeker interest, engagement with the company’s LinkedIn page and of its employees, and how well these startups pulled talent from its flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list.
This year, eight new companies made the list while three companies — Homage, Advance Intelligence and Zenyum — made their third consecutive appearance since the list’s inaugural edition in 2020.
Additionally, out of the 15 startups, more than half hail from the fintech industry. Other industries such as edtech and e-commerce that saw accelerated growth during the pandemic, were also featured prominently throughout the list.
1. Aspire
The folks behind Aspire are entrepreneurs themselves, so they have a first-hand understanding of the personal struggles that business owners face. Andrea Baronchelli, co-founder and CEO, was the chief marketing officer at Lazada Group before starting at Aspire.
Founded in 2018, Aspire is a financial operating system that lets companies pay, manage, and earn through an all-in-one platform.
It serves Southeast Asian entrepreneurs with a suite of services – including bank accounts for cross-border businesses, corporate cards and automated invoice processing.
There are currently 12 available positions at Aspire’s Singapore office, which includes analyst, account executive, engineer, and even intern roles. You can apply for them here.
2. Doctor Anywhere
Doctor Anywhere is a telehealth provider that seeks to make healthcare easy and accessible. Through its mobile app, Doctor Anywhere lets patients consult a doctor quickly and effectively, from anywhere.
Earlier this year, it opened its new penthouse office on the 40th storey of mTower, spanning almost 15,000 sq ft. It also expressed its ambitions to add over 200 roles by end of this year, doubling its current headcount in Singapore.
This expansion comes after the startup raised S$88 million in its Series C round last August, and the acquisition of Thailand’s Doctor Raksa last November. It also announced plans to expand across Southeast Asia, where it currently serves over 2.5 million customers across the region.
Doctor Anywhere is currently hiring for over 50 roles in Singapore. You can apply for them here.
3. Flash Coffee
Flash Coffee is a tech-enabled chain of coffee shops that serves up coffee at affordable prices. Its app allows customers to order and pay for their coffee remotely, and then pick up their order from Flash Coffee outlets or get it delivered.
In April 2021, Flash Coffee closed its Series A round, bringing its total funding raised to US$20 million. According to the company, the funds will be used to expand in 10 markets across Asia Pacific.
Since then, it has more than quadrupled its store presence from 50 to over 200 outlets. It also launched in four new markets last year – Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, while it built on its presence in present markets Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand.
There are currently 34 available positions at Flash Coffee, such as a content writer, social media manager, and head of marketing. Internship positions are also available. You can apply for them here.
4. Endowus
Licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Endowus is a fintech company that provides data-driven wealth portfolios to individual and institutional investors through its robo advisor, giving access to institutional-quality financial products at a low cost.
It is also the first digital advisor to help users invest from their social security savings scheme, otherwise known as the Central Provident Fund.
Last month, it was reported that Endowus has crossed S$2 billion in client assets across its private wealth and public pension (CPF and SRS) offerings.
In the past year, Endowus has also achieved other key growth milestones with an over 120 per cent increase in the number of clients it serves in Singapore, and a 350 per cent increase in assets on its Fund Smart & Private Wealth platforms.
There are currently four available Singapore-based positions at Endowus, though more roles are available for its global offices. You can apply for them here.
5. Pace Enterprise
Pace Enterprise is a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment platform that lets consumers make purchases and pay for them at a future date, or via three split payments. It is available across websites, mobile apps, and at several hundred points-of-sale across the region.
Since its inception in January 2021, Pace has acquired numerous brand partners including Apple, Uniqlo, and Trip.com.
In April this year, Pace launched its first-ever virtual Pace Card in Singapore to help make BNPL payments even simpler and more secure. This news came following its acquisition of BNPL rival Rely for an undisclosed sum to expand its business.
There are currently four available positions at Pace, including brand ambassador, analyst and software engineers. You can apply for them here.
6. Homage
Homage is a care and health services digital platform that brings trained care professionals and smart technology together to provide home-based, on-demand care services to seniors.
These services include disability and care assessments, daily living assistance, nursing and rehabilitation (including physiotherapy, speech therapy, and more).
In September last year, it raised US$30 million in its Series C financing round, led by led by Sheares Healthcare Group, a wholly-owned healthcare enterprise of Temasek. This brings the total funding raised to more than US$45 million.
With these funds, it plans to further accelerate regional expansion and continue to grow its platform with the support of local and regional partners.
There are currently 17 available roles at Homage, including nurses, designers and product managers. You can find them here.
7. ADDX
ADDX is a digital securities trading platform that allows individuals to invest in typically exclusive assets and alternative assets in private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, digital assets, and more.
In May this year, the fully-regulated platform raised another US$58 million in a Pre-Series B funding round from several new shareholders, bringing its total funding to US$120 million.
The new partners joined high-profile names such as the Singapore Exchange, Temasek subsidiary Heliconia, Japan Investment Corporation, and the Development Bank of Japan, which had contributed to the US$50 million Series A funding round in January 2021.
There are currently 20 available roles at ADDX, including writer, analyst, account manager and HR roles. You can apply for them here.
8. Cake DeFi
Cake DeFi is a fintech platform that allows anyone who owns cryptocurrency to partake in DeFi (decentralised finance) services such as liquidity mining, staking and lending, so as to generate cryptocurrency returns.
Earlier in March, the Singapore-based fintech firm announced the launch of its new corporate venture arm.
It has earmarked US$100 million for Web3, gaming, and fintech investments over the next two years, and is particularly interested in projects linked to NFTs, the metaverse, blockchain, and e-sports.
Today, it has more than 1 million users and manages over US$1 billion worth of assets.
There are currently 20 available roles at Cake DeFi. You can apply for them here.
9. Spenmo
Founded in 2019, Spenmo is a unified spend payments platform that aims to capture the small and midsize business (SMBs) market through B2B payment automation and management.
It helps companies have control and visibility over their expenditure, and offers clients corporate card offerings, automated local and overseas invoice payments, and accounting automation. Last month, Spenmo partnered with four other Y Combinator-backed companies to help other startups streamline their workflows.
On the funding front, it raised S$85.35 million in a Series B round led by New York-based investment giant Tiger Global Management in January this year.
There are currently four available positions at Spenmo, particularly product manager and intern roles. You can apply for them here.
10. LingoAce
LingoAce is an edtech company with a focus on advancing language learning for children between the ages of three and 15. With a proprietary online curriculum, they seek to make learning fun and engaging.
In 2021, LingoAce closed Series B and C funding rounds, with a total of US$180 million raised to date. Some of the partners and backers include Sequoia Capital India, Owl Ventures, Tiger Global, Shunwei Capital, SWC Global & Decent Capital.
LingoAce is also named to the GSV EdTech 150, a list of the world’s most transformative growth companies in digital learning. With the new funding, LingoAce is working on growing its business globally, providing new curriculum offerings and expanding into new markets.
Currently, LingoAce has over 4,500 certified teachers and serves learners across 100 countries and regions.
There are currently 12 available positions at LingoAce. You can view them here.
11. Advance Intelligence Group
Advance Intelligence Group is an AI tech startup with various products in its portfolio, including buy-now-pay-later platform Atome, e-commerce intelligence platform Genie, and risk-management platform ADVANCE.AI. Their mission is to create better products for all through the use of AI.
In July this year, the Group announced its acquisition of Jewel Paymentech, which specialises in merchant due diligence, fraud and risk management solutions for the financial services and payments industry.
The acquisition aims to strengthen Advance Intelligence Group’s capabilities in the Web3.0, fraud and risk management space. Jewel’s 30-member team based in Singapore and Malaysia, including its senior leadership team, joined the group following the acquisition.
There are currently five available positions at Advance Intelligence Group, though more roles are available for its global offices. You can apply for them here.
12. Syfe
Syfe is a digital wealth manager (commonly known as a robo advisor) that seeks to make inveting accessible and affordable for all.
Since its inception three years ago, Syfe is now a leading digital wealth platform that is trusted by over 100,000 clients in Singapore alone.
In May this year, it announced its entry into Hong Kong, following the securing of licence from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). This marks the company’s first overseas expansion, as it seeks to accelerate its plans to be present in multiple markets by end of this year.
There are currently eight available roles at Syfe. Internship roles are also available. You can apply for them here.
13. Zenyum
Founded in 2018, Zenyum is a dental cosmetics startup that aims to make invisible braces more accessible with its range of proprietary products and services.
Its range of products include ZenyumSonic electric toothbrushes; Zenyum Clear, or transparent 3D-printed aligners; and ZenyumClear Plus for more complex teeth realignment cases.
Last year, it raised US$40 million in a Series B round, bringing its total funding to US$56 million. The round was led by L Catterton, and other participating investors include Sequoia Capital India, RTP Global, Partech, TNB Aura, Seeds Capital and FEBE Ventures.
There are currently 19 roles available at Zenyum. You can apply for them here.
14. CARRO
Carro is a car marketplace that covers the entire car ownership journey, and is now Southeast Asia’s largest online used car retailer. On top of a proprietary-pricing algorithm for car buying and selling, it offers in-house financing and insurance, after-sales car maintenance, and more.
Most recently, it announced that it more than doubled its revenue and gross profit to a record in its last financial year, achieving more than S$650 million in revenue. It is currently tracking at over S$1.3 billion in run-rate revenue and is poised to deliver another 2x growth in revenue this financial year (FY2023).
The company is also on track to improve its gross profit margins to about 10 per cent by the end of this financial year, thereby tripling its absolute gross profit.
There are currently three available roles at Carro, particularly a Carro ambassador, lead software engineer, and business process analyst. You can apply for them here.
15. Geniebook
Founded in 2017, Geniebook is an edtech company that builds online learning solutions to help accelerate learning for students at primary and secondary school levels.
The platform has features such as live online classes that can host up to 900 students at a time. Group classes have assigned teachers and teaching assistants to facilitate and help in discussions and learnings.
Like many edtech firms, Geniebook saw the number of overseas registered users surge about 1,000 per cent amid the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic. Between 2020 and 2022, the firm’s user base has gone up from 50,000 to 250,000, and that figure is still growing despite the reopening of schools.
Geniebook expanded to Vietnam in early 2021 and to Malaysia this year after over four years of operations.
There are currently 13 available roles at Geniebook. You can apply for them here.
Featured Image Credit: Doctor Anywhere / Carro / Geniebook / Flash Coffee
