Alpha JWC-backed fowl biz could be a golden goose

In On the Rise this week, we look at Pitik’s growing revenues and what the leaders in generative AI have to offer. [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 Nikita Puri Journalist Hello {NAME} We’ve kept the balcony doors closed for a few weeks now, thanks to a family of monkeys who’ve been casually making themselves home in my high-rise building. Neighbors who were unprepared found themselves cleaning up after these uninvited guests rummaged through shelves, smashed eggs, and ate whatever they fancied. My personal nightmare is reliving a vacation to a place known for its simian population. I was barely eight years old and could do little when a monkey yanked the biscuits my younger sister was eating. It then slapped her hard and then strutted off. We stood there quietly for what felt like an eternity before she burst into tears. As the conflict between humans and animals worsens, I am particularly thankful we domesticated chickens thousands of years ago (except for that one rooster at my grandma’s farm who I’m sure had it out for me). According to the latest research, farmers in Southeast Asia domesticated chickens [3,500 years ago](. Cut to the present and we have people running off with others’ chickens without paying. That’s what happened to serial entrepreneur Arief Witjaksono when he wanted to start his own poultry farm in 2018. Realizing the industry’s overall inefficiency, Witjaksono and his co-founder Rymax Joehana started Pitik, a poultry feed firm to bring about transparency in the business. Last October, the Alpha JWC-backed firm reported a 20x revenue growth from the US$600,000 it made during the same period in 2021. In this week’s premium story, Aditya highlights Pitik’s revenue jump and sees how the firm stacks up against East Ventures-backed Chickin. We also have a double scoop of generative AI in this edition: While Shadine highlights how to incorporate the hot new tool into your product, Collin presents a sneak peek into what the future holds for it as tech giants lead the race. More on this in Making Waves. -- Nikita  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORY [Indonesian chicken startup’s 20x revenue jump sees it take off]( Alpha JWC-backed Pitik has seen huge growth in its monthly revenue, but how does it measure up against competition like East Ventures-backed Chickin?  ---------------------------------------------------------------  MAKING WAVES Chinese tech firms to take on Microsoft, Google in AI race Here’s what happened: - Microsoft has integrated its search engine Bing with ChatGPT to compete with Google. - Google launched its own AI chatbot Bard, but errors in the demo cost the company US$100 billion in market value. - Chinese firms Alibaba, Baidu, and JD.com also announced they are working on their own ChatGPT-syle products. Here’s our take: Just like the space race between the US and Russia in the mid-20th century, today we’re in the midst of a generative AI race. But this time around, the competition isn’t between just two countries - instead, it involves the biggest tech giants in the world. The launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has taken us into space, but the race for the moon is still on. After moving quickly to pick up [a 49% stake in OpenAI]( Microsoft is in the lead and has integrated not just [Bing]( but also its [Azure cloud services]( with ChatGPT. The former is a move to take on Google in the search space, [which it has long dominated](. Not to be outdone, Google rushed to introduce its own [generative AI called Bard]( last week. But just like how several failed launches costed US and Russia dearly during the space race, an error in the demo posted by Google resulted in the company losing [over US$100 billion]( last week. China’s tech behemoths have also entered the ring. Search platform Baidu is set to roll out its own ChatGPT-style [AI bot called Ernie Bot in March](. Alibaba is also developing its [own generative AI chatbot tool]( which is currently being tested by the ecommerce major’s employees. Fellow ecommerce player JD.com announced last Friday that an [industrial version of ChatGPT called ChatJD]( will be launched soon. [Other Chinese firms]( such as iFlytek, which specializes in speech recognition and natural language processing, and gaming giant NetEase are also said to be in the generative AI race. The news has driven up the stocks of these companies. Baidu shares jumped by 15% last Tuesday after unveiling its plans while [Alibaba’s shares rose by 3%]( in pre-trade in the US after the announcement. The excitement has soared as shares of several other Chinese AI companies [went up by over 100% on the Shanghai exchange](. This promoted the exchange to issue a warning to investors about the risks of a crash. Even China’s state media stepped in to warn traders how risky it is to buy into concepts that haven't started business operations. It further pointed to hype around 5G, virtual reality, and augmented reality. The risks are quite high. Remember [Galactica]( No? Well, that’s the name of Facebook’s AI chatbot, which was launched two weeks before ChatGPT. Galactica made several errors, however, so Meta pulled the plug on it even though the company has spent billions of dollars on building such products and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in 2013 that it aims to lead in the AI space. Despite the potential pitfalls, the reward could outweigh the risks for many companies as generative AI seems to be the next frontier in the tech space. No one wants to be left behind: Those who can successfully launch their own generative AI bot in the market could be the tech titans of tomorrow. – Collin  --------------------------------------------------------------- AI ODYSSEY Promising AI projects we’re noticing. A tool to help incorporate generative AI into your product I don’t know about you, but since ChatGPT’s launch in November last year, I’ve been finding it hard to keep up with strides in artificial intelligence. This is largely due to the popularity and maturation of [large language models]( (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT-3. Many companies are now looking to incorporate such generative AI tech in their core product and for internal applications. But this can get complex and expensive, and companies face challenges when they try to integrate the AI model into their product. [Vellum]( recently rolled out a product to help companies churn out more refined AI programs faster. The Y Combinator-backed firm helps developers with managing, evaluating, and A/B testing AI models and prompts. It’s particularly good at simplifying the [fine-tuning]( process. In a nutshell, fine-tuning involves training models on a specific dataset to make them perform better at a particular task or use case. Continual fine-tuning means the program will become more and more adept at what it was tweaked to do. Using its operations platform, Vellum streamlines and condenses this process, which would otherwise require multiple tabs and long spreadsheets for side-by-side comparisons. While working together at automated recruitment firm Dover, Vellum’s co-founders Akash Sharma, Noa Flaherty, and Sidd Seethepalli found that the development tools for traditional machine learning didn’t exist for LLMs. After creating these tools, they realized how useful a premade solution could be. Despite having only been established in December 2022, Vellum counts four companies as clients. The firm says it has also decreased a customer’s costs by 94% after fine-tuning. -- Shadine  --------------------------------------------------------------- FYI 1️⃣ [Malaysia budget: Expect fewer goodies for tech and startups]( Founders may be in for an uphill battle in the hunt for opportunities. 2️⃣ [Mapping generative AI startups]( VCs have gone from bearish to bullish on artificial intelligence, thanks to the rise of generative AI startups that serve a plethora of user needs. 3️⃣ [10 predictions for SEA’s healthtech in 2023]( Falling demand for telehealth, pivots to B2B, all sizzle no steak for AI, and medical tourism’s return are all set to happen in the year to come.  --------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Also check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the emerging tech scene [here](. 1️⃣ [Indonesia’s FDA tells healthtech firm to take down listings of restricted drugs]( The regulator has sent Halodoc a recommendation to take down listings of prohibited drugs like Rhinos and Viagra. In December 2022, a Tech in Asia investigation found that the Temasek-backed firm was enabling the sale of at least 11 restricted medicines. 2️⃣ [Betting on demand for design]( PixCap, a web-based 3D design platform, has raised US$2.8 million in a seed round led by Sequoia’s Surge, with participation from Cocoon Capital, Entrepreneur First, and angel investor Michael Gryseels. 3️⃣ [Singapore pharma firm bags US$10 million]( SwipeRx, which connects more than 50,000 pharmacies and over 250,000 industry professionals across Southeast Asia, got a series B top-up from Sanofi Global Health Unit and Cercano Management. Existing investors SIG, Johnson & Johnson, and Patamar Capital also participated in the round. 4️⃣ [Let the children play]( Singapore kidtech firm myFirst has raised US$2.2 million in a seed round to make functional and safe toys for children. While the company already has a kid-safe camera, it also plans to launch headphones, drones, and even a social media network safe for younger users. 5️⃣ [Many more millions for India’s EV sector]( Taiwan-based Gogoro, a Nasdaq-listed battery-swapping company, led the US$25 million series B round of Zypp Electric, an India-based startup focused on electric vehicle services.  --------------------------------------------------------------- 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! [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( | [HIRE]( | [FIND JOBS]( P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Too many emails? 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