Daily Briefing: SG to deploy network of climate sensors across island; Raena bags $11.98m Series A funding

And registration of new diesel cars, taxis to end in 2025.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

Singapore plans to deploy a network of climate sensors across the country, as part of efforts to mitigate the effect of a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect.

Delivering her speech during the Committee of Supply debate in Parliament on 4 March, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said the move would be one of the three mitigation strategies to tackle the issue.

She also noted that the deployment of these sensors would allow Singapore to measure, gather data and close “knowledge gaps” on the urban heat island effect.

The climate sensors will collect data on ambient temperature, relative humidity and wind speeds, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) in a press release.

As part of that network, the National Parks Board will deploy 40 environmental sensors in western Singapore, said URA and MSE.

Read more here.

From e27:

Raena, a Singapore-based social commerce startup focusing on beauty products, announced that it has raised $11.98m (US$9m) in a Series A funding round co-led by Alpha Wave Incubation and Alpha JWC Ventures.

AC Ventures joined returning investors Beenext, Beenos, and Strive in the investment round. This round of funding comes after the company raised a $2.42m (US$1.82m) seed round in July 2019.

The fresh financing will go towards expanding the startup’s team from 15 employees to over 100 within the next three months.

Founded in 2018, Raena procures beauty products directly from brands and local manufacturers before selling them to micro-entrepreneurs on its platform.

Read more here.

From ChannelNewsAsia:

The registration of new diesel cars and taxis in Singapore will cease from 2025, Minister for Transport Ong Ye Kung announced on 4 March.

This is part of efforts to “further pave the way for greener vehicles,” said Ong.

“As we know, diesel cars emit PM2.5 (particulate matter) and are even more pollutive [than petrol vehicles],” he said.

Whilst diesel vehicles made up about 85% of Singapore's taxi fleet five years ago, their numbers have dropped in recent years and they now comprise about 40% of the country's 15,888 taxis.

As of January, there are 18,081 diesel cars on the roads, making up about 2.8% of Singapore's car population, according to figures from the Land Transport Authority.

Read more here.