Daily Briefing: Singapore to deploy contact-tracing device; TurtleTree raises $4.46m seed round

And public libraries to reopen on 1 July.

From Bloomberg:

Singapore is about a week away from rolling out its portable contact-tracing device, according to a report.

The first batch of the gadget, called TraceTogether Token, will have a battery that can last nine months, said Minister-in-Charge of GovTech Singapore Janil Puthucheary.

Janil, who heads the agency responsible for the development of these contact-tracing devices, said the token will complement a three-month-old phone app to reach the maximum number of residents.

With a goal of reaching 100% of the population, Singapore’s tracing programme is said to be amongst the most ambitious in the world. The island-state is believed to be the first country to roll out a portable device on top of its tracing app to more effectively fight the virus as the economy reopens.

Read more here. 

From DealStreetAsia:

Lab-grown milk startup TurtleTree has raised $4.46m (US$3.2m) in seed funding from investors, including Green Monday Ventures, KBW Ventures, CPT Capital, Artesian, and New Luna Ventures, the Singapore-based company announced.

TurtleTree’s co-founder Max Rye said the fresh funding would be used to scale up the company’s operations and move towards commercialisation of its offerings.

Its seed round follows a pre-seed round announced in January, which was led by Lever LC, with participation from Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud’s KBW Ventures and K2 Global.

The company has also received support from the Singapore government, which is pursuing a “30 by 30” policy of having the city-state produce 30%of its own food by 2030, up from around 10% currently.

TurtleTree said it plans to focus on producing human breast milk first, followed by cow milk later.

Read more here. 

From Channel News Asia:

Public libraries will reopen to the public on 1 July with shorter opening hours, as well as limits on the number of people allowed and duration of visits, according to the National Library Board (NLB).

The National Library, all public libraries, and the National Archives of Singapore will operate from 11am to 7pm daily until further notice.

Libraries will operate on a "borrow and go" basis, said NLB, meaning people will be able to borrow and return physical materials, as well as use reservation and book drop services.

However, all seating and study areas, including newspaper and multimedia stations, will not be available. All programmes, guided tours and events will also continue to be suspended.

"Patrons are encouraged to use the NLB mobile app to scan and borrow physical library materials as a means of contactless borrowing," said NLB.

Read more here.