Daily Briefing: Government partners with Fitbit to encourage healthier lifestyles; VC firm Tin Men Capital leads $6.93m funding round of RateIt

And Singapore is urged to accelerate rail transport expansion.

From Channel News Asia:

The Health and Promotion Board (HPB) has partnered with US fitness wearables company Fitbit in a new initiative to encourage Singaporeans towards better habits in physical activity, sleep, nutrition and emotional wellbeing, an announcement revealed.

Named Live Healthy SG, the initiative will allow Singaporeans to sign up for a year-long subscription to Fitbit Premium at $10 a month, or $120 in total. In return, the company is giving participants an Inspire HR health tracker worth $158 free.

Fitbit Premium offers users a digital coach that will guide them with video workouts and audio coaching, the company’s website stated.

The joint collaboration is part of a healthy population project that uses technology, behavioural insights and analytics to nudge Singaporeans to get healthier through meaningful and sustained behaviour change, the press release said.

Read more here. 

From DealStreetAsia:

Tin Men Capital, a Singapore-based venture capital firm focused on B2B tech startups, led a $6.93m (US$5m) Series A funding round in RateIt, a real-time customer experience management platform.

In a statement, RateIt said the funding round was also backed by other prominent investors such as Wavemaker Partners, Koh Boon Hwee, PropertyGuru co-founder Steve Melhuish, and principals from Alto Partners and TPG.

Founded in Australia in 2016 and now headquartered in Singapore, RateIt provides a real-time customer experience management platform for different global brands, including Adidas, UOB, and Fitness First. RateIt said its platform combines dynamic, omnichannel MicroSurveys, with real-time sentiment analysis tools, to provide businesses the insights they need to improve their customer experience.

“RateIt’s unique in-the-moment offering is a quick and easy way to listen to customers in a whole new way without the need for long annoying surveys that inevitably end up as long annoying powerpoint decks,” said Michael Momsen, the company’s founder and CEO.

Read more here.

From Channel News Asia:

The Government needs to move decisively to accelerate the rail industry's transformation, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Dr. Janil Puthucheary, citing the "unprecedented pace" in which the MRT network is expanding.

With several new rail lines including the Thomson-East Coast and Jurong Region Lines coming over the next decade or so, the authorities are working with rail operators and the National Transport Workers' Union on manpower development plans, which will be finalised later this year.

“Over the next 10 years, as a result of all these new lines and all these new services, and these new service standards, we will need more than 2,000 new engineers and technicians … As we build this more extensive rail network to serve Singaporeans, we will need to equip rail workers with the skills to help them excel in their role,” he said.

He said the close partnership the Government has with the labour movement and industry partners has laid a strong foundation for transformation efforts.

Read more here.