Daily Briefing: Security automation startup H3 to close $21.83m funding round in August; Circles.Life eyes expansion in APAC

And here’s why Kampong Bugis could be risky for developers.

From E27:

Automation startup H3 Dynamics is in the process of closing its ongoing $21.83m (US$16m) Series B financing round, led by existing investor SPARX Mirai Creation Fund (a Japanese fund backed by Toyota, SMBC and SPARX), its Group Founder and CEO Taras Wankewycz told e27.

A total of $8.18m (US$6m) has already been secured as part of a first closing, and the final closing of $13.64m (US$10m) is now in progress.

The firm mainly offers two products – a digital micro-services platform called H3 Zoom, and a field-deployable tele-robotics system called DBX – both of which are designed to work with each other in what the company envisions to be the future of industrial drone services.

Read more here.

From Human Resources Online:

Circles.Life is looking to expand its operations across APAC, starting with the launch of Circles.Life Taiwan in June and another service launch in Australia.

In both countries, the telco plans to roll out digital mobile solutions as the first step in creating a platform of personalised digital services.

In that line, the company aims to grow the global team, including expanding the Singapore engineering team by 50% by the end of 2019, making it Circles.Life’s global tech hub. The digital-first telco currently has about 260 employees in Singapore, of which 110 are engineers.

Moving forward, the company plans to launch services in more than five countries in the next 18 months.

Read more here.

From Property Guru:

Kampong Bugis could result in higher risks for developers in light of the hefty taxes (non-remittable tax and ABSD) and weakening market sentiment, said List Sotheby’s International Realty (List SIR).

Despite this, List SIR noted that developers will have a clearer picture of the market and a better idea of what the project entails when the site details are released in December. “The developers would then be in a better position to apply for the release of the site for sale,” it added.

Colliers International commenting on the Kampong Bugis site said, “Kampong Bugis should be attractive to a large developer or a consortium of developers as it offers a rare opportunity to plan and create an urban ecosystem, over a long term.”

Read more here.