This profitable firm makes Wall-E for the sea

In On the Rise this week, we dive into Clearbot’s marine robots-as-a-service and why B Capital’s Raj Ganguly sees growth in SEA despite the downturn. [Read from your browser]( On the Rise 🚀 Welcome to On the Rise! Delivered every Tuesday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in emerging tech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](. Written by Shadine Taufik Journalist Hello {NAME} The movie Wall-E had a big impact on me when I was growing up. If you’re not familiar with it, the film is about a lovable trash-compacting robot “living” on a post-apocalyptic Earth in the 22nd century. Thanks to rampant overconsumption, the world has gradually devolved into a huge dumpster, forcing humans to vacate the planet, leaving our titular character behind to pick up the pieces alone. Though it was meant as a heartfelt ode to living minimally, Wall-E was absolutely terrifying to my eight-year-old mind. I’d have nightmares about trash piles as tall as Everest, belts of plastic and tin orbiting the globe, and visions of crumbling, abandoned cities. I guess its sustainability-signaling worked - because it instilled a sense of eco-consciousness in me. I’m older and wiser now, but I still have this irrational (?) fear of climate-driven extinction. But luckily, tech seems to be picking up speed, and we’ve found an early Wall-E of our own to help clean up our trash problems.. In this week’s Big Story, my colleague, Nikita, profiles Clearbot, a Hong Kong-based firm offering robots as a service. Its flagship product is a remote, AI-powered marine electric vehicle, which can collect up to 15 liters of spilled oil and 200 kilograms of garbage - all the while acting as a surveillance system. It can also double as a goods mover. The firm says it is profitable and can provide marine cleaning services at a lower rate than its traditional counterparts. With a fleet of 10 boats operating in India and Hong Kong, the company has around 10 clients in its books. After recently securing funding from an Alibaba fund, Clearbot aims to expand its army of boat-bots to 100. Speaking of expansion, B Capital recently raised its largest fund yet - a whopping US$2.1 billion. I speak with co-founder and partner Raj Ganguly about his views on the broader macroeconomic downturn. More on this in this week’s Making Waves. -- Shadine  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORY  [Trash, cargo, security: a profitable robot firm’s many interests]( Now backed by an Alibaba fund, Clearbot’s founders weren’t taken seriously when they began using robots to take on marine pollution.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  MAKING WAVES   [Recession Run: B Capital’s $2.1b plan for the downturn]( Recession Run is a series of interviews that gives a peek into what investors are betting their money on amid fears of a global slowdown. In this edition, B Capital’s co-founder Raj Ganguly talks about why he remains optimistic about Southeast Asia's long-term growth prospects despite current headwinds.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  AI ODYSSEY Promising AI projects we’re noticing. Dall-E 2, but make it faster Welcome back to AI Odyssey, where we attempt to gauge the spread and variety of projects in the generative AI space. A part of me wonders how much steam this sector really holds, but then human ingenuity always keeps things interesting. Just this week, a friend talked about how her colleagues were using ChatGPT to churn out peer reviews - my first reaction was “yikes.” Ethics aside, this could be efficient when you have a bunch of reviews to write, and efficiency is going to go a long way in the text-to-image race too. “Significantly more efficient” than Imagen and Dall-E 2 - that’s how Google’s researchers described [Muse]( when launching it earlier this January. When tasked with creating various images - from a happy panda making dough to a flamingo reading a book – I think Muse’s interpretations came quite close to the mark in a test that Dall-E 2 and Imagen have previously tried their (virtual) hands at. Here’s the image from [the research](. But right now, the biggest draw is that Muse creates these high-quality images fast, without sacrificing quality for quantity - which is a big win for this project. Muse takes 1.3 seconds to generate an image in 512x512 resolution. Compare this to Stable Diffusion 1.4’s record of 3.7 seconds. PS: Another great thing about these text-to-image experiments? The internet is now more than ever teeming with cute animal pictures doing silly things. – Nikita  ---------------------------------------------------------------  NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Also check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the emerging tech scene [here]( 1️⃣ Indonesia-based Imajin raised [an undisclosed amount]( in a seed funding round led by East Ventures. The B2B startup connects large companies with local manufacturers, focusing on metal and plastic products. 2️⃣ WhyQ, a platform for hawker cuisine, bagged [US$1.1 million in series A2 funding]( led by Kairos Capital Group. The Singapore-based firm also provides digital tools to MSMEs. 3️⃣ Malaysia-based HelloGold has [shut its doors]( in its home country and Thailand. The gold-trading firm’s CEO said the company’s services were “no longer commercially viable.” 4️⃣ AI healthcare firm VinBrain has officially [partnered with Microsoft]( to improve its capabilities and products. With Microsoft’s Azure, VinBrain will be able to enhance data sharing and security for its X-ray diagnostics software. 5️⃣ Point-of-sale startup iSeller has closed its [US$12 million Intudo Ventures-led series B](. The Indonesian firm offers business owners tools to manage sales and operations.  ---------------------------------------------------------------  FYI  1️⃣ [Malaysia can be a global software-as-a-service leader, says this VC]( Indelible Ventures’ Kevin Brockland on hurdles, money, and investments. 2️⃣ [Then call them ‘robots’]( In 2022, global investment in robotics dipped, but this year could signal a turn for the better. 3️⃣ [The world’s next SaaS operating system?]( A robust business model, a wide pool of talent and capital, and a plethora of market spaces present Indian SaaS companies with a unique opportunity.  --------------------------------------------------------------- That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! Do also check out previous issues of the newsletter [here](. Not your cup of tea? You can unsubscribe from this newsletter by going to your “edit profile” page and choosing that option in our preference center. See you next week! 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