Philippines startup Parallax removes the friction from cross-border payments

Sending money across borders is filled with friction, like long wait times, high transaction costs and markups on currency exchange. A Philippines-based startup called Parallax wants to make the process faster and cheaper with a cross-border payments system that can be used for stablecoin, crypto or traditional currencies. Parallax has raised $4.5 million in seed […]

English learning platform ELSA lands $22.5M Series C

ELSA, the English language learning platform, announced today it has raised $22.5 million in Series C funding. It also launched ELSA AI Tutor, which draws on years of speech recognition data collected by the app and reproduces conversations through generative AI to help learners correct their pronunciation, grammar and tone. This brings ELSA’s total raised […]

Indian consumers’ rising appetite for premium

Indian consumers, traditionally seen as price-conscious, are showing a growing appetite for premium items across a range of sectors, from real estate to smartphones and luxury hotels. The trend, documented by AllianceBernstein analysts in a note to clients this week, signals a shift in the spending habits in the world’s most populated nation that has […]

Coinbase to discontinue services in India later this month

Coinbase plans to cease all exchange services for users in India, it has warned some customers in email, over a year after the company’s debut in the South Asian market faced regulatory challenges. The global crypto exchange is warning customers that it will be discontinuing services for them after September 25 and advising them to […]

Dunzo, backed by Reliance and Google, delays employee salaries again

Dunzo informed its employees on Wednesday that it would not be able to meet the postponed deadline for their monthly wages as trouble mounts at the hyperlocal delivery startup that expended over $150 million in the last 18 months trying, unsuccessfully, to emulate the model of its younger competitor, Zepto. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, backed by […]

Backed by Peak XV and Jungle, Neurowyzr puts the focus on brain health

The rate of dementia is expected to double every 20 years, but many tools for early detection, like MRI scans, are difficult for patients to access. Neurowyzr wants to help more people get brain healthcare through tools like its online Digital Brain Function Screen (DBFS). The startup, which has offices in Singapore and India, announced today it has raised $2.1 million in seed funding. The oversubscribed round was led by Jungle Ventures and Peak XV’s (formerly Sequoia India and Southeast Asia) Surge program, with participation from angel investors.

Neurowyzr has now raised $3.3 million since it was founded in 2019 by Nav Vij and Pang Sze Yunn. It will participate in 2023 Medtech Innovator Asia Pacific, the world’s largest medtech accelerator program.

Vij, Neurowyzr’s chief digital neuroscientist, became interested in early brain decline and related therapies while studying for his neuroscience degree at the University of Melbourne. One of his family members was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease at a young age, which motivated Vij to remove obstacles to brain healthcare. Pang, who has worked on pioneering health initiatives including Asia’s first heart failure monitoring project, got interested in brain healthcare because she saw the impact brain conditions can have on family members, especially women caregivers.

Pang told TechCrunch that a lot of work in neurology currently focuses on treatment for serious brain conditions. But brain decline can start 20 to 40 years before a condition like dementia, mental illness or stroke emerges. As a result, early detection is crucial.

Neurowyzr co-founders Pang Sze Yunn (CEO) and Nav Vij (chief digital neuroscientist)

Neurowyzr co-founders Pang Sze Yunn (CEO) and Nav Vij (chief digital neuroscientist)

Traditional brain tests like pen-and-paper tests can be affected by tester bias, while MRI and CT scans are expensive and inaccessible to many patients. Neurowyzr wants to address the gap with its digital neuroscience assessment tool, the Digital Brain Function Screen (DBFS). Meant to be faster and less costly than traditional cognitive testing. DBFS is currently used by healthcare organizations like Parkway Shenton, SATA Commhealth, Farrer Park Hospital, MHC Medical Centre (Amara) and O’Joy in Singapore. It has also completed a pilot with a large private hospital chain in India and is registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Singapore Health Sciences Authority and Australia Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Pang said the DBFS can be completed in 15 to 20 minutes. It assesses a patient’s immediate memory, working memory, attention and executive brain function through a series of gamified neuroscience puzzles. For example, one puzzle has dots with a number on each scattered across the screen, and asks the users to connect them in order. Another shows a series of numbers that users need to memorize and then write in order. DBFS is hosted online, so patients can access it through a web browser link at home, though it was designed for primary care settings.

Neurowyzr’s new funding will be used on product development and regional expansion in Southeast Asia and India. The startup is currently working with academic organizations like the NTU Lee Kong Chian School Medicine’s Dementia Research Centre to develop more digital brain health solutions, with the goal of decreasing undetected cases of early brain decline.

In a statement, Jungle Ventures healthcare partner Seemant Jauhari said, “Projected numbers tell a stark story for Asia: over the next two decades, more than 66 million individuals could face dementia, while mild cognitive impairment could affect over 400 million. Neurowyzr is a direct response to this challenge. By assessing brain and mental health promptly, we’re building a proactive defense against potential epidemic.”

Jobs platform CakeResume gets $5 million in fresh funding

CakeResume, used by tech companies like Google, Nvidia and TSMC to find new talent, announced today it has raised $5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by returning investor Mynavi, one of Japan’s largest human resources companies, and will be used to expand in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and India. Based in Taipei, Taiwan, CakeResume currently has five million users around the world, and more than 7,000 clients who use it to source job candidates.

Since TechCrunch last covered CakeResume in August 2020, it has grown from 20 employees to more than 100. The platform has seen a lot of traction in Indonesia, where it now has 1.8 million users, and also has significant user bases in Taiwan and India. It focuses on tech jobs, but covers other industries like fast-moving consumer goods and design.

Founder Trantor Liu told TechCrunch that one of the ways CakeResume differentiates from other job sites like LinkedIn is the ability to build multimedia resumes, so people like software engineers and designers can show off their work. Job seekers are able to customize images, videos and fonts and embed iframes. Some examples of how users take advantage of the multimedia resume builder are software engineers embedding projects from GitHub and designers embedding data visualizations.

Part of the funding will be used to add networking tools, including a new feature on CakeResume’s mobile app called “Talent Network” that lets users swipe on the profiles of people they want to meet. This is intended to make it easier for people to meet headhunters, job seekers and mentors.

CakeResume has also been working on a AI talent recommendation engine for the past couple of years. It is meant to reduce the amount of time companies and recruiters spend sourcing candidates by 40% to 50%. For example, a recruiter can tell the engine they want to hire a senior Java engineer in Indonesia for a salary of $60,000 to $70,000, and it will return potential candidates.

The funding will also be used to support CakeResume’s growth in Southeast Asia, with a focus on onboarding more companies from Indonesia.