ahead to 2022, I hope to build on the company’s achievements by implementing our strategic vision, expanding the impact of our brands in the marketplace, and increasing our reach across different territories as we continue to push the boundaries of innovation.”

About Microban International

Part of Barr Brands International (BBI), Microban International is home to the most trusted and well-known global brands in the antimicrobial, odor control, and sanitization/disinfection markets – Microban® and Ultra-Fresh®. Our organization has experienced over 100 collective years of growth and has revolutionized the industry. As the global leader, our proactive systems keep products cleaner, and control odors better by preventing problems before they start. Microban International drives innovation by combining science and creative solutions that enhance high-quality consumer, textile, industrial and medical products around the world. Today, the Microban and Ultra-Fresh brands and our technologies are featured on thousands of products worldwide. The company is headquartered in North Carolina with operations in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.microban.com.

Pickupp received additional funds from Temasek-backed investor to fuel Asia expansion and launch new satellite warehouses.

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 14 October 2021 – Pickupp, the on-demand delivery and tech startup redefining logistics, today announced that it has secured additional investments from Reefknot, a joint venture backed by Temasek Holdings and Kuehne + Nagel, bringing the total value from its series A and A+ funding to approximately US$20 million.

Pickupp has over 100,000 delivery agents across Asia and Singapore.

Along with funds from its initial series A+ round of funding in July 2021, Pickupp will be using the additional injection of funds from Reefknot to strengthen its operational efficiency to accommodate the growing use of online-to-offline (O2O) services in Singapore, along with the other markets that Pickupp operates in – Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia. The funds will enable Pickupp to strengthen its dispatch network with the expansion of new satellite warehouses across different markets. It will go on to further support innovation and developments in Pickupp’s technology to enhance the capabilities and cost-savings of its existing products and introduce new services to meet the evolving demand for last-mile deliveries.

“The e-commerce and last-mile delivery landscape is growing at a fast pace in Singapore, with sales from year-end promotions and delivery orders expected to reach record highs in the coming months,” said Lee Chee Meng, Co-Chief Operating Officer at Pickupp Singapore. “We pride ourselves as an innovative logistics technology company, and with the support of our investors, we aim to further the momentum in improving our technology and offerings in the coming years. We also will continue to invest in the welfare of our delivery partners for them to grow in a productive and conducive environment at Pickupp.”

Pickupp will welcome at least 10 new satellite warehouses across heartland areas in Singapore within the next 6 months. The introduction of these new dispatch points coincides with Pickupp’s push to increase its walker delivery agent pool to improve the efficiency of deliveries during peak traffic hours and decarbonise its operations with sustainable deliveries.

“Heavy road traffic and carbon emissions are major challenges for the logistics industry in today’s day and age, and the spike in e-commerce and delivery orders will worsen the conditions if left ignored,” said Lee. “Sustainability is a long-term goal of ours, and we aim to achieve net-zero operations in the years to come. Therefore, we are taking on a unique approach to tackle these challenges by building and improving our walker network.”

To fulfil the changing delivery needs, Pickupp will be launching its new self-drop off service, which features next day deliveries, no minimum order, at affordable rates where small businesses, online marketplace users, and individuals can benefit from a wider range of options, as well as greater flexibility and convenience. They can simply create an order, drop off their parcel at any of Pickupp’s dispatch points, and enjoy Pickupp’s next day delivery service with real-time GPS tracking.

“We have seen an explosion of e-commerce activities from uptick in terms of year-on-year growth rates resulting from the pandemic. We also see new category players like Grocery chains and F&B rapidly rolling out e-commerce solutions to deliver better convenience to their customers. Traditional e-commerce logistics players are ill-equipped to address the rising demands of these new category players,” said Ervin Lim, Vice President, Reefknot Investments. “Pickupp’s technology and operational model allows for meaningful time compression at a cost efficient price which brings a unique value proposition to the entire e-commerce logistics landscape.”

This investment is an extension of Pickupp’s series A+ round funding, led by Taiwan e-commerce giant PChome and Cornerstone Ventures, with participation from an existing investor, Swire Properties, and new investors, including Cathay Venture Inc. and DRIVE Catalyst (the corporate venture arm of Far Eastern Group) from Taiwan, and the Jardine Matheson Group and Zipx from Hong Kong.

About Pickupp

Pickupp is an on-demand delivery platform redefining logistics with its transparent customer-centric service and technology. Founded in 2016, the company has operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, providing logistics support to 20,000+ businesses spanning MNCs, logistics giants as well as retail and e-commerce. They also have a strong delivery team of over 100,000 delivery agents across all cities.

Pickupp provides flexible, tech-driven logistics solutions that enable businesses of all sizes to scale and thrive. Through highly optimised batching and chaining technology, customers can book a delivery anytime without sacrificing speed and cost, while real-time GPS tracking provides end-to-end transparency. Pickupp’s flexible delivery windows and their handy scheduling feature enable customers to be nimble and capitalise on business opportunities. Pickupp launched Shop On Pickupp, a one-stop e-commerce platform offering all-rounded payment and tech-enabled delivery solutions for businesses in 2020. For more information, please visit our website at https://pickupp.io/en/.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sgpickupp

Instagram: @pickupp.sg

About Reefknot Investments

Reefknot invests in high growth technology companies pushing new frontiers within the supply chain and logistics space. Beyond the pure financial investment, we further leverage our ecosystem of partners to support our portfolio companies with the necessary domain or technical expertise. For more information, please visit: https://www.reefknotinvestments.com/

#Pickupp

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 14 October 2021 – IFS, the leading global enterprise applications company, has announced Andy Watts as a key new member of its team. The new Vice President for Asia (including ASEAN, India, Sri Lanka, Korea and China) has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry and brings a wealth of knowledge and leadership across sales and software as a service.

Andy’s key areas of expertise include building high performance teams that go above and beyond, backed by a great working culture. His focus and customer centricity helps customers across enterprise businesses in both the private and public sectors maximize value and success from their investments.

Andy’s previous roles include Senior Vice President APJ at ServiceMax. He also held sales positions in RightNow and Oracle, and most recently established and launched Sitetracker across Asia Pacific.

“I am very excited about joining IFS and scaling the Asia region further. There is a tremendous opportunity for our existing customers and for those who have not yet joined us, to gain high value from IFS’s excellent single platform of products and deliver exceptional moments of service in a region that is experiencing growth and transformation,” said Andy as he shared his thoughts on his move to IFS.

Andy who is married and has two young daughters both born in Japan, spends most of his spare time with his young family. He loves the sport of boxing and martial arts. His other passion is motorcycles and he plans to own a Harley Davidson in the near future.

For more information about IFS cloud-based field service management visit ifs.com or follow us on Twitter: @ifs.

About IFS

IFS develops and delivers enterprise software for companies around the world who manufacture and distribute goods, build, and maintain assets, and manage service-focused operations. Within our single platform, our industry specific products are innately connected to a single data model and use embedded digital innovation so that our customers can be their best when it really matters to their customers—at the Moment of Service. The industry expertise of our people and of our growing ecosystem, together with a commitment to deliver value at every single step, has made IFS a recognized leader and the most recommended supplier in our sector. Our team of 4,000 employees every day live our values of agility, trustworthiness, and collaboration in how we support our 10,000+ customers. Learn more about how our enterprise software solutions can help your business today at ifs.com.

#IFS

The venture-backed and tech-driven fashion rental platform has seen strong reception since its launch – a 193% increase in number of users shows that the Hong Kong market is ripe for sustainable fashion.

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 13 October 2021 – Style Theory, Southeast Asia’s largest circular fashion subscription platform, is taking deeper roots in Hong Kong come final quarter of 2021 with their flagship rental memberships. Likened to Netflix’s subscription-based business model and its diverse selection of shows, Style Theory similarly provides people with a monthly access to a limitless closet of designer wear at a fraction of the retail price.

Style Theory members can rent from 2,000+ designer bags for $899 per month.
Photo credit: Style Theory

With over 9,000 users locally and more than 100,000 users in Singapore and Indonesia, this proven model has been the cornerstone for the SoftBank-backed enterprise to raise USD30 million since its conception in 2016 by power couple, Chris Halim and Raena Lim.

“We are in the business of innovating practical ways for users to make sustainable choices and normalize it,” says Raena Lim, Co-Founder of Style Theory. “Our business model relates to the universal problem for anyone who wants to enjoy fashion freedom and access designer wear without the guilt of overconsumption or worry about their budget.”

Despite COVID-19 headwinds, Style Theory has grown its Hong Kong users by 193% over the past year, and it continues to amass strong demand in across sharing economy, preloved fashion, and subscription-based rental services. Its membership program offers each user an expertly cleaned and maintained designer bag that can be rented for HKD899 a month.

Style Theory’s Infinite Wardrobe offers members access to designer collections from Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Dior, and more. Photo credit: Style Theory

Style Theory is targeting to reach 3 times growth in Hong Kong by Q1 2022 by leveraging on the already positive reception and its plans to establish an official facility in the city. The next few months will be crucial for them to steadily progress at a comparable scale to its other successful regions.

“We attract strong demand from customers and investors due to our unique subscription business model that makes circular fashion easy to participate in,” says Jennifer Ong, General Manager of Hong Kong Expansion at Style Theory. “Our services re-dress women with an unlimited and new lifestyle choice, and we’re excited for Hongkongers to no longer experience buyer’s remorse or sacrifice wardrobe variety.”

With heavy investments in product and innovation, the Style Theory app harness machine-learning algorithms to capture its members’ browsing and rental history to create an easy and personalized shopping experience. With this data, Style Theory also sustainably sources additions to the inventory from businesses and consignors, building a robust circulation of over 2,000 authenticated bags to choose from. This ultimately extends the lifecycle of each item to combat the impact of overproduction by the fashion industry.

By developing in-house authentication and leather care capabilities in their facility, Style Theory is further equipped to manage and hold every single bag to the highest standard, ensuring that the condition of the used items remains as good as new for thousands of users.

Through this holistic approach and an upcoming warehouse to open in Hong Kong, the business creates a customer experience unmatched with other sustainable fashion brands in local grounds.

About Style Theory

Style Theory is Southeast Asia’s largest circular fashion platform offering women the opportunity to build their Infinite Wardrobe in an affordable, convenient and sustainable manner. Founded in Singapore in 2016 by Raena Lim and Chris Halim, Style Theory operates in the sharing economy as a solution to fashion consumption that is making significant strides towards ending today’s buy-and-throw-away culture. In late 2017, the company launched into the Indonesia market and has recently entered Hong Kong in 2020.

Carrying more than 50,000 high-quality designer apparel and more than 2,000 designer bags for its growing base of over 200,000 users, Style Theory is all set to be the future of fashion where renting is equivalent with – if not better than – buying. In its initial rollout in Hong Kong, Style Theory members will have access to over 2,000 designer bags.

Follow Style Theory socials for latest news and updates:

Facebook: styletheoryhk

Instagram: styletheoryhk

YouTube: Style Theory

#StyleTheory