Innovating for the future

• 500-backed Transcelestial has been featured on Great Big Story, the media brand with over 5 million subscribers on YouTube.
• Transcelestial joins four other companies in the video, documenting their innovative approaches to solving everyday problems.
• For Transcelestial, that means bringing affordable and fast internet connectivity to the masses through laser technology.

• “There’s a lot of areas in the world that don’t have good access to internet simply because building infrastructure in those places is too expensive. We believe everyone, regardless of where they’re living, should have access to internet,” said Mohammad Danesh, co-founder of the company.
• To make this vision a reality, the team is using Centauri — a device that uses laser communication to create a wireless distribution network between buildings, traditional cell towers, street-level poles, and other physical infrastructure.
• The Centauri is lightweight and can be easily installed at building rooftops. Using lasers, it connects between an internet source to another location with ease.
• “Our ultimate goal is to build a global network of satellites using lasers to connect every single place on the planet to each other.”
• Transcelestial, which had raised a Series A round in July, delved deeper into the reasons why they’re making the internet accessible for everyone.

• One of the reasons include reaching the 3.6 billion people in least developed countries who are still unconnected. This staggering number comes from an ITU report released last year.

To fight Covid-19

• 500-backed Prenetics is at the forefront of Covid-19 testing. It has assisted the Premier League to resume matches and is also working with hotel groups, airlines, and local governments for the same.
• To further scale this global effort, the Hong Kong-based digital company has received a US$15 million investment led by Apis Partners and existing investor Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund.
• The new funding will specifically be used to continue to invest in R&D with a specific focus on further advancing COVID-19 testing technologies on a global basis.

• “We are proud to be playing such a major role in the fight against Covid-19. Rapid, accurate, and frequent testing could be one of our most important interventions as fall approaches to prevent large outbreaks and for the global economy,” said Danny Yeung, co-founder and Group CEO of Prenetics.
• In Q4 this year, Prenetics is planning to launch a rapid Covid-19 test kit that promises results in 15–30 minutes. Affordable and capable of frequent testing, Prenetics is in talks with governments globally to introduce this product.

Fintech acceleration

• The AMTD Singapore Solidarity Fund is part of a wider Southeast Asian fund aiming to support fintech startups in the region amidst the coronavirus crisis.
• The Singapore fund has since made its first round of investments into five startups, including 500-backed insurtech company PolicyPal.
• A total of S$11.5 million has been deployed into these companies.

• Apart from financial support, AMTD will also offer these fintech startups access to its digital platform and tap into the SpiderNet ecosystem, allowing them to maximise their user experience and digital offerings to Asian consumers and SMEs.
• In June, AMTD Digital, which is the digital arm of AMTD Group, acquired PolicyPal for an undisclosed sum and served as the “key operating vehicle” to develop and expand in Southeast Asia’s insurtech sector.

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500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. In Southeast Asia, 500 Startups invests through the pioneering 500 Southeast Asia family of funds. The 500 Southeast Asia funds have backed over 240 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed.

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