Under The Radar

From wheat, sugar, cashew, to cotton and even rice. Today we’re going to take you through a company that specialises in the physical buying and selling of such agri-commodities.  Incorporated in 1990, Agrocorp International is a leading integrated agri-commodities and food solutions provider, with a strong presence in emerging markets like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India.  It also secured...

The insurance industry is in focus today. Chartered in Canada back in 1865, Sun Life is a financial services organisation with over 118,000 advisors and offices in 27 markets. It has also been present in Asia since the 1890s.  The firm has a reputation for serving high net worth insurance markets and has CAD 1.33 trillion in assets under management as at the end of last year. Sun Life now sees str...

What comes to mind when you think of delivering newborn babies? Well, the baby comes out, and the umbilical cord is clamped, cut and discarded. As we know today, cord blood is a very good source of blood stem cells and can be used in transplants to treat blood disorders and cancers.  So instead of throwing the umbilical cord away just like that, more parents are requesting to harvest cord blood fr...

It’s all about digital assets today. Founded on Swiss and Singaporean heritage in 2017, our guest is Singtel-backed startup Sygnum, which touts itself as “the world’s first regulated digital asset bank”.  The company was awarded with its Swiss banking and securities dealer license in 2019 by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority or FINMA.  While the firm is not licensed as a bank here i...

Purpose built workers and student accommodation – that’s what we’re going to talk about on the segment today.  Headquartered in Singapore, our guest Centurion Corporation owns, develops and manages quality specialised accommodation assets.  This includes Purpose Built Worker Accommodation in Singapore and Malaysia, and Purpose Built Student Accommodation across Australia, South Korea, the UK and t...

It is all about art toys and figurines for today. Founded in 2010, our guest POP MART is a culture and entertainment company.  The firm creates art toys and collectible pieces sold through its network of retail stores or vending machines.  POP MART made its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2020 with a market capitalisation of US$12.5 billion at the end of its first trading day. Aside from...

You might have heard of computer coding. But have you heard of low code?  If you haven’t, low code refers to a process of developing software that minimises the lines of computer codes that developers need to write manually. It might be a little hard to visualise, but think of low coding as the pre-fabrication of apartments. Computer codes are packaged into drag and drop icons just like individual...

It’s all about music and concerts today. With a legacy that spans over 200 years, Warner Music Group, brings together songwriters, artists and entrepreneurs that are moving entertainment culture across the world.  The firm has a recorded music division that operates in over 70 countries via a network of affiliate and licensees.  It includes a number of renowned labels including 300 Entertainment a...

It’s that time of the year again where we see and hear fighter jets soar in the skies in celebration of National Day.  But if you want to be a Top Gun fighter in Singapore without leaving the ground – a trip to a retail flight simulator centre may be one of your better bets.  Our guest for today is WingsAcademy.sg, which prides itself as Singapore’s latest retail flight simulator centre offering s...

Nanomaterials that could create, detect and manipulate light – that’s what we’re going to talk about today.  It may sound like a sci-fi movie, but these so-called ‘optical materials’ are widely used in our daily lives.  Think about the nanocrystals used to emit bright and life-like colours in our TV displays, or luminous materials in invisible inks used to mark barrels of oils for tax accounting p...

We’re going to bring you an inside look into a conglomerate investment company with operations and financial interests in resources, property and hospitality.  Founded in the early years of Singapore’s colonial history – we’re talking about 1887 here – The Straits Trading first started out as a company catering to the region’s growing tin smelting industry.  It become renowned for its tin smelting...

Did you know that football star Cristiano Ronaldo is somewhat of an investor himself? Today we’re going to talk to a company that he has recently invested in – and that’s online luxury watch resale marketplace Chrono24.  Founded in 2003, Chrono24 prides itself as the number one address for luxury watches for commercial watch dealers and private sellers from around the world.  It currently has over...

What happens when you have a group of engineers with backgrounds in 3D data processing in an online class studying computer vision?  Well – they form a company that develops software systems for self-driving cars! And that’s the story behind our guest for today Seoul Robotics.  Founded in 2017, Seoul Robotics develops software systems for self-driving cars to determine traffic conditions.  Its sys...

From producing abalones to distributing FMCG products and to offering consultation services, our guest for today Oceanus has its wings spread across business pillars such as food production, innovation and distribution.  The aim here is to leverage what it calls cross-pillar synergies for exponential growth to boost financial performance. But having a diversified portfolio of businesses hasn’t alw...

Today we’re going to look at the oldest form of lending, which dates back to the Ancient Greek and Roman Empires. Make a guess – it was also found in China during the Spring and Autumn Period or between 770 to 476 BCE.  Bingo if you’ve guessed pawn shops! Pawnshops first made their way to modern Singapore back in 1872.There were 25 pawnshops dotted across Singapore from 1920 to 1929, and they gene...

Did you know that Singapore has been home to many foreign banks in the 1800s?  In fact our guest for today is one of them. Having opened its first branch in Singapore in 1877, HSBC Singapore is a qualifying full bank serving the international needs of individual, corporate and institutional clients.  It provides retail banking, wealth management, commercial investment, private banking, insurance a...

Earlier we told you about the world’s largest mining company BHP. Today we are going to take you closer to home by looking into the operations of a Singapore-grown minerals and resource company.  With a global footprint spanning across countries in Southeast Asia and West Africa, TOP International Holding is an integrated producer of bauxite – or a mineral used to produce aluminium – and offers en...

Today we’re going to talk to a German multinational technology conglomerate that set its foot in Singapore 115 years ago.  Bingo if you’ve guessed Siemens. Founded in 1847 as a small workshop in a back courtyard in Berlin, the company’s offerings now span across a wide range of industries such as digital industries, mobility, and smart infrastructure.  The firm first entered in Singapore back in 1...

You’ve probably heard about incubators and accelerators that help startups scale up before they could stand on their own.  But what about a venture platform dubbed as a super incubator?  That’s what we’re going to talk about today. Founded in 2022, VentureBlick is a Singapore headquartered Super Incubator with a presence in countries such as Australia, China, South Korea, India, Germany and the US...

Today we’re going to bring you an inside look into the private education business. Founded in 1907, ESSEC Business school is a major French business school with a tightly knit community of some 62,000 graduates. With the region, ESSEC Business School Asia-Pacific, was established in Singapore in 2005 to offer academic and executive programmes with Asian insights and Western perspectives. It has si...

Mining for minerals used in farming, infrastructure and even in electric vehicles. That’s what we’re going to talk about on the segment today, with the world’s largest mining company BHP.  Founded in 1885, BHP is a leading resources company headquartered in Melbourne, with about 80,000 employees and contractors across 90 locations worldwide.  It produces essential commodities through its assets su...

We told you about the wholesale banking landscape in our conversation with ANEXT Bank a couple of months back. Now this time, we’re going to turn our attention to look at the digital retail banking sector.  Our guest for today is Trust Bank, which is the digital bank backed by Standard Chartered and FairPrice Group.  The bank had breached the S$1 billion mark in deposits in early May, with over 50...

Our guest for today is no stranger to Singaporeans. Founded in 1974, Temasek is a global investment company with 12 offices across eight countries.  The state investor has a long term horizon, where activities are guided by their views on long-term structural trends. It mostly invests in equities though it does not set limits for geographies, sectors or asset classes.  The firm released its latest...

Today we’re going to give you a snippet into a South Korean startup that could rival Nvidia in the race to provide high-end AI-chips.  But not without some context about the AI chip prediction landscape. Currently, Nvidia dominates the AI computing market with analysts predicting a market share of between 80 and 95%. It provides graphics processors known as GPUs for users to run AI applications du...

Have you ever wondered where the meat we eat comes from? That’s exactly what we are going to find out today.  Headquartered in Singapore, our guest Japfa specialises in producing protein staples and packaged food that feeds millions of people.  Put simply, the company produces animal feed such as poultry feed, cattle feed and aquaculture feed. It breeds animals such as chicken, pigs, fish and cows...