In Vietnam, carwash chain Vietwash has bagged $1.7 million in fresh funding from South Korea’s GS Caltex. Meanwhile, in Singapore, deeptech startup Reality Detector has secured a S$500,000 investment.
Vietnam-based carwash chain Vietwash raises $1.7m
Vietnam-based carwash chain Vietwash has bagged $1.7 million in fresh funding from GS Caltex in lieu of 11.56 per cent stake.
GS Caltex is an energy business run by Korean chaebol GS Group.
Nguyen Thanh Duong, co-founder of Vietwash, announcement that the company seeks to expand its network to 100 outlets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as well as 20 more in tier-1 and tier-2 cities across Vietnam by 2022.
The company currently operates over 50 outlets in Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietwash earlier received a $1 million funding from local private equity firm Vietnam Investment Group in 2016.
Its new investor, GS Caltex, is the operator of the autoOasis car maintenance chain with more than 1,000 stores in Korea.
Founded in 2016, Vietwash offers washing and maintenance services for cars and motorbikes. It claims to receive 1.3 million customers every year.
Draper Associates backs SG’s Reality Detector
US-based early-stage venture capital firm Draper Associates has invested S$500,000 ($367,000) in Reality Detector, a Singapore deep-tech startup that delivers video-based deception detection software.
The startup claims it is “the first of its kind in Singapore”, that allows people to access undistorted reality, restoring authenticity, realism and credibility in human interactions.
Prior to the investment by Draper Associates, Reality Detector raised a pre-seed round with the support of Draper Startup House, a startup ecosystem builder and global hospitality chain for travelling entrepreneurs.
“Thanks to the connecting, inspiring and empowering from Vikram (founder of Draper Startup House), we managed to raise our angel round from Aaron Lim of Dymon Asia and Saif Farooqui of Facebook Startup Station,” said Dennis Ye, who founded Reality Detector in 2019.
Conventional methods for deception detection such as polygraphic use are inaccurate, time-inefficient and restrictive; while other existing methods are also quantitatively and qualitatively inferior, requiring hardware, contact and control, according to the startup.
Reality Detector detects deception cues by analysing live or recorded videos, through behavioural science, AI, deep-learning and computer vision methods, to eliminate the need for physical contact.
