Daily Briefing: Sea-air freight an opportunity for Singapore as a transport hub; Biofourmis snags $136.39m led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2

And YouthTech programme to equip 1,000 youths with digital skills, offer work experience.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

The aviation and maritime industries in Singapore are looking to develop their sea-air transshipment abilities, in order to capitalise on growth areas that have emerged from the global pandemic. This method of shipping is a multimodal approach, where part of the journey is undertaken by sea, and the other by air.

Industry players say it may be an opportunity for Singapore to retain its hub status, which has taken a massive hit with the COVID-19 pandemic closing international borders.

Minister for Transport Ong Ye Kung said in late July that the country cannot take “for granted” that Singapore will remain an aviation hub when COVID-19 is over.

In his ministry's addendum to the President’s Address on Aug 27, Mr Ong said that while the maritime sector has stayed “relatively resilient” during the pandemic, air travel has been “decimated”. 

Read more here. 

From DealStreetAsia:

Singapore-based health analytics platform Biofourmis has raised $136.39m (US$100m) in a Series C financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, per an announcement.

The round also saw the participation of existing investors namely Openspace Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and EDBI.

“With this new funding, we will accelerate our global expansion, advance our digital therapeutics pipeline, develop additional care pathways and drive deeper integration with our health system, hospital, pharmaceutical and clinical research clients and partners,” said Biofourmis CEO Kuldeep Singh Rajput.

In addition, Biofourmis will use the funding for developing, validating, and commercializing several released and unreleased digital therapeutics solutions across cardiology, respiratory, oncology and pain, with a focus on the United States and key Asian markets, including Asia Pacific, China and Japan.

Read more here. 

From ChannelNewsAsia:

Up to 1,000 young people will soon have a chance to learn digital skills and gain placement opportunities to support digitalisation in the community and social sector organisations under a new programme, according to an announcement by Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong

The YouthTech programme is jointly set up by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and the National Youth Council (NYC).

It will “equip 1,000 youths, in the first instance, with digital skills and training, and then deploy them into the community and the social service sector to help in these sectors to upskill and to digitalise”, said Tong in Parliament.

The programme aims to provide young people with the opportunity to upskill and gain work experience in the digital field.

At the same time, it will also seek to tap on youths to support businesses and organisations in the digital media, arts, sports, community and social sectors, including social service agencies, charities and religious and youth sector organisations, to go digital.

Read more here.