Tip for start-ups: Find your footing before raising funds

Otherwise funds will be quickly depleted, says entrepreneur

Mr Darius Cheung (seated) has come up with a new mobile app, Billpin, with partners (from left) Ms Aileen Sim, Mr Saurabh Mandar and Mr Ruiwen Chua. Last week, he received $50,000 from iJam Reload. -- ST FILE PHOTO

By GRACE CHNG
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT

NEW start-ups should be clear about what they want to do before they raise funds, according to experienced entrepreneur Darius Cheung.

After all, business development begins as soon as funds are received. If a start-up is still trying to find its footing, the funds will be quickly depleted, he warned.

Mr Cheung said early funds usually go towards hiring developers to help build a product.

"If you're still trying to find your way, then you're burning cash instead of using it well in product development."

His experience comes from developing his first start-up, TenCube, a mobile security firm which he started in 2007. The company was acquired by global software security giant McAfee in 2010 for an undisclosed sum.

Putting into practice his TenCube's experience, he and three other co-founders of Billpin spent the first four months finding out the best look and feel and features for a phone app which lets people split bills incurred by friends over, say, a dinner.

Feedback received after its first iPhone app was released helped to improve the product. Only then did he apply for funding.

Last week, he received $50,000 from iJam Reload, an initiative for interactive digital media start-ups by the Media Development Authority. It could receive follow-up funding of $100,000 for additional product development.

"There were many things we wanted to do. Ultimately, we focused on making Billpin the best app for the settlement of bills among friends."

Once a Billpin user enters the amount spent, for example, on a bottle of perfume selected as a birthday present, it will split the bill among the number of friends.

The user enters their e-mail addresses and Billpin notifies the people who owe the money.

The funding will be spent to build more features into the app such as letting it calculate GST and to include a payment function to let people pay their portions easily.

An Android Billpin was released last week. Further development could include a payment gateway letting friends pay each other at the click of a button, said Mr Cheung.

START SINGAPORE

Crowdfunding platform launched

SINGAPORE's first reward-based crowfunding website was launched yesterday allowing anyone online to make a donation - in this case, towards cash-hungry local start-ups.

Initially, the site, Crowdonomic, is running six campaigns by start-ups with the aim of raising up to $30,000 for each one, said founder Leo Shimada.

Donations start at $10. In return, supporters are rewarded with digital assets in a game, T-shirts, books or products and services.

Mr Shimada said: "Our ultimate goal is to help entrepreneurs by addressing a key pain point - the funding gap. Since the market, or "crowd", decides who to fund, it offers a more democratic alternative to how capital is allocated."

Pitching session for start-ups

ASPIRING start-up firms from Singapore and Malaysia will get a chance to pitchtheir business ideas to potential investors this Saturday.

The session is being organised by the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) and the National ICT Association of Malaysia (Pikom).

Fifteen start-ups will be pitching their plans to top angel investors and venture capitalists from the two countries.

It will be done in a speed dating format with the start-ups rotating from table to table.

Start-ups interested can e-mail [email protected]. The venue is 23 Church Street, Capital Square #10-01.

Biotech firm raises more funds

A COMPANY spun off from the National University of Singapore (NUS), AyoxxA Biosystems has raised another $600,000 in additional to $4.6 million it raised in September last year.

It also announced a two-year research collaboration with the department of bioengineering at the NUS' Faculty of Engineering to further strengthen its research and development efforts.

The biotech firm, with bases in both Germany and Singapore, has created a bead-based biochip that can identify a large number of different proteins, including markers for diseases, from a very small sample size. It will be useful in areas such as pharmacological screening and diagnostics.

News portal closes financing round

ONLINE tech and start-up news portal TechinAsia has closed a second financing round led by Russian-based angel seed fund Simile Venture. East Ventures, which invested in the first round, also participated.

TechinAsia also runs its business idea competition called Startup Asia. The next event will be held here on April 4 and 5.

Simile Venture Partners' general partner Tatiana Kim said: "South-east Asia is one of the world's most exciting regions today, fast evolving for tech start-ups. Access to trusted tech news and information and quality industry events are very important for the regional ecosystem development."

GRACE CHNG

Technology, Money, The Strait Times, Thursday January 24 2013, Pg B19