The ultimate experience for auto shoppers

• It’s not every day that we shop for a car, so why not make it a memorable one? Carsome PJ Automall — the 500-backed company’s largest experience center in Malaysia to date lets local car buyers feel like a kid in a candy store!
• This new space that’s over 100,000 sq. ft. offers a hassle-free car buying experience under one roof. One can view, select, test drive, and complete their purchase with on-site financial services that can process loans in one day, thanks to Carsome’s banking partners Maybank and Public Bank. It is also the first to come with electric vehicle charging stations!
• With cars, the outside counts too – the Automall can not only accommodate over 200 cars, but offers aesthetic conveniences like car detailing and tinting with partners Ecotint and Glass Auto.
• Co-founder & Group CEO Eric Cheng said, “The launch of the Carsome PJ Automall will strengthen our online-to-offline hybrid offering and raise the bar on our customers’ car buying experience. Our motivation is to make this experience center a lifestyle-centric one, where customers can walk in to enjoy the shopping process, and more importantly, leave the worry and hassle to our dedicated teams.”
• Read the full announcement here.

Moving to save the world

• Around the world, outdoor air pollution kills around 4.2 million people each year. Longer commutes lead to decreased job satisfaction and increased risk of mental health issues. And the list goes on. The case for micromobility is stronger than ever, and 500-backed Neuron Mobility is here to drive the change.
• The company is serving 28 cities with its e-scooters, and 9 cities with its e-bikes. Collectively, users have logged 10M rides, saving 1,555 metric tons of CO2 from avoided car use!
• “As we emerge post-pandemic, micromobility, now embedded within communities across the globe, will continue to transform our cities, reducing our reliance on passenger cars, reviving our high streets, and creating better synergies with public transportation,” said CEO Zachary Wang.
• “We have had some great successes: we were the first provider to use swappable batteries, drastically reducing our environmental footprint; our vertically-integrated approach means we control how our products are built and our supply chain; our modular design allows our devices an extended lifespan of more than five years; and we are prioritizing renewable energy to power our devices,” he added.
• Download the full report here.

Drones that prevent disputes from droning on

• “We are talking about four times reduction in the cost of data collection,” said Vipul Singh, Co-founder & CEO of 500-backed drone company Aarav Unmanned Systems (AUS).
• It’s not just cost savings that result from using drone solutions for land mapping — it also saves time! Vipul said that AUS maps 150-200 villages a day for the government. Compare this to manual efforts where mapping one village alone will take more than 3 days.
• This initiative is especially important in rural India where there is currently no information available for residential areas. Families often end up in long-drawn and costly land disputes. “Drones are being used because they can do this job better, faster, and in a more undisputable manner, where you don’t have to go and measure manually and rely on someone’s judgment,” Vipul added.
• What’s in store for AUS? The company is planning to take its drone solutions to other countries, and also looking to raise funds to scale up its operations.
• Read the full interview here.