Under The Radar

We’re going to bring you an inside look into a local apparel maker turned investment holding firm. Founded in 1951, Sing Lun started as a textile trading firm along Circular Road and has seen its business transform over the decades.  For one thing, the firm expanded into apparel manufacturing in 1968 when the second generation owners took over. Over the years, Sing Lun evolved to become the manufa...

Today we’re going to talk about a digital bank that is backed by two of Singapore’s technology and telecommunications powerhouses Grab and Singtel.  You might have guessed by now that we’re talking about GXS Bank. Launched in August 2022, GXS was positioned to address the pain points of Singapore’s underserved consumers such as gig economy workers, self-employed entrepreneurs and early jobbers in...

We’re going to talk Mexican today as we speak to the master franchisee of one of the world’s fastest growing fast food chains, Guzman Y Gomez, here in Singapore.  While the brand sells Mexican food, it was actually founded by two New Yorkers who were in Australia back in 2006!  The duo were missing Mexican cuisine they grew up with in the US, and hence decided to build a rest...

Giving used tech-devices a new lease of life while reducing the amount of e-waste that ends up in landfills. That’s what we are going to talk about today.  Founded in 2019, Reebelo is one of the world’s leading marketplaces for refurbished tech devices and lifestyle products like smartphones, laptops and PCs as well as smartwatches.  It enables consumers to save up to 70 per cent on their favourit...

It is all about the concrete that goes into the buildings we live, work and play in today! Founded in 1958, our guest Pan-United Corporation is a Singapore-grown and publicly listed concrete innovation company that aims to catalyse change and promote sustainability in the ready-mix concrete and logistics space.  The company is one the largest producers of concrete here in Asia. The firm has a cata...

This is a conversation you would want to listen to especially if you have an elderly family member at home.  Started as a R&D team consisting of a group of engineers from the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Soundeye is a social enterprise that uses sound recognition and radar sensors to detect abnormal events such as when an elderly member gets up out of bed or stands up f...

Using the power of machine learning to help companies optimise the Return on Investment of their digital marketing strategies – that’s what we are talking about today.  Founded in 2013 by a group of former Google engineers, our guest is Silicon Valley based ad-tech unicorn Moloco. The company offers performance marketing solutions that help businesses maximise their advertising sp...

Improving the safety and security of livestock herds by ensuring traceability across the animal’s lifecycle. That is what we’re talking about.  Founded in 2013, our guest is Chipsafer, an internet-of-things company that offers real-time Cattle tracking solutions that captures useful data such as the current and historic health, the behaviour and the transaction information of livestock. By underst...

We’ve talked in depth about semiconductor makers on the show, and today we want to go one step further to look at the largest manufacturers of semiconductor equipment in the US.  With an annual revenue of US$26.52 billion, our guest Applied Materials is a leader in materials engineering solutions used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world.  The chipmaking tool giant...

Today we’re going to talk about a two-year old startup invested by Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai. Founded by a team of former Google executives, Arta Finance transforms the way people grow, protect and enjoy wealth by helping people gain the financial superpowers that were previously the domain of ultra-high net worth individuals.  It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to enable intell...

The banking sector is in focus as we speak to Singapore’s largest foreign bank serving some 900,000 retail customers in the lion city.  Yes – we’re going to talk about Standard Chartered Bank. Founded over 160 years ago, the bank currently has a presence in 53 of the world’s most dynamic markets and serves clients in a further 64.   The bank opened its first branch in 1859 in Singapore, and became...

One in every six people. That’s the estimated odds of infertility among people of reproductive age worldwide.  But it appears that the fertility services market is highly complex with segments such as egg and embryo banking, frozen non-donor, and fresh donor fertility treatment. Not only that, the market is also highly fragmented, with a large number of small players. In fact, Research and Markets...

Helping tugboats, ferries, pilot boats and other coastal vehicles electrify and ride the green wave – that’s what we are going to talk about today.  Founded in 2022, our guest for today Pyxis is a maritime electrification technology startup that aims to create a more sustainable future at sea by easing mass commercialisation and adoption of electric coastal vehicles. Supported by leading coastal v...

Radium is an element we see in our periodic tables during chemistry lessons. But did you know that it was once used to make watches for naval divers thanks to its self-luminescence quality?  In fact, one luxury firm used to supply such timepieces to the Italian military back in the early 1900s.  And while Radium was banned in the 1960s due to its radioactive properties, the glow-in-the-dark featur...

Cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence – these functions require sophisticated hardware and regular maintenance in order to work seamlessly.  But have you wondered who are the ones managing the lifecycle of the hardware products, from regular maintenance to disposition? That’s exactly what we are going to talk about today.  Listed on the Singapore Exchange since 2016, Procurri Corpo...

Nearly 60,000 people – that’s the number of trade visitors who attended the first four days of the Singapore Airshow 2024.   The number of attendees also dwarfs the previous record set six years ago, by about 10 per cent. That was when the last full scale show was held, before the biennial event was scaled down in 2020 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  While the exact number of deals made an...

Making cables for MRT lines, Jewel Changi Airport and Gardens by the Bay – that’s what we’re going to talk about today.  Founded in 1980, our guest Tai Sin Electric makes cables and wires for a diverse range of industries for both the private and public sectors and in all categories of industrial, commercial, residential and offshore and marine projects.  They include items like low voltage cables...

Have you ever seen a dog tucked in his or her dog bed and napping so well that made you go “I wish I could be like him or her?” Well, that could soon become reality for you, with one startup in the US building and selling what they call the world’s first dog bed, but for humans!  Founded in 2021, Plufl was started by two college students at the University of British Columbia when they were craving...

Put fintech, payments and affiliate marketing together – and you get a company called Fave.  Founded in 2015, Fave prides itself as Southeast Asia’s fastest growing platform that allows users to pay using QR codes and receive cashbacks on their digital transactions. The firm also enables users to buy and redeem restaurant deals, spa, massage, travel and activity offers using its apps. It even prov...

Semiconductors have been the talk of the town for the past two years, have you heard of a new type of chip called chiplets? Think of it this way. According to IBM Research, computer chips today are made using a technique called systems on a chip or SOC, where multiple computer functions such as general processing, data storage are put into a single chip.  While this way of building chips has worke...

Today we’re going to talk about a company that makes scaffolds – not for buildings, but scaffolds that can be implanted into the human body for bones and tissues to grow.  Started in 1992, our guest is Osteopore, an Australian and Singapore based medical technology company commercialising a range of products specifically engineered to facilitate natural bone healing across multiple therapeutic are...

It’s all about salmon and trout today as we talk to one of the suppliers of land-based fish farming facilities.  Founded in 2017, Assentoft Aqua is a Danish aquaculture engineering company.  It provides fish farmers with what’s known as RAS or Recirculatory Aquaculture Systems that save space, pipes and minimises carbon footprint and the amount of investment needed per produced ton of fish.  The f...

Today we’re going to talk about a company that you would have come in contact with on a day to day basis. Make a guess – this is a company that started as a bakery brand making pork floss buns.  Bingo if you’ve guessed Breadtalk. Founded in 2000, Breadtalk Group is now an F&B group with multiple concepts ranging from bakeries, restaurants  and even food atriums.  With close to 700 retail store...

It’s all about helping smaller companies gain access to green financing today.  While companies may think that they need to collect vast amounts of data to track sustainability goals, the fact is that a bulk of that required may have already been tracked in their day-to-day processes. This can be data on their electricity consumption, or carbon emissions, collected automatically through the firm’s...

Today we’re going to bring you an inside look into a luxury brand called Bally. This is a brand that many may have heard about but yet not exactly know about.  Some might think of Bally as a company with a rich heritage in shoemaking, but it was actually founded in 1851 as a family run ribbon factory, three years before Louis Vuitton was born.  The firm expanded rapidly as it industrialised its pr...