YFind Technologies Raises $1.5 Million to Create Location-Intelligent Cities

PRESS RELEASE

Indoor Positioning Company Raises $1.5 Million to Create Location-Intelligent Cities
YFind Technologies accelerates development of innovative indoor positioning solutions

Singapore, 18 June 2012 – YFind Technologies Private Limited (YFind), a Singapore-based company, has raised S$1.5 Million in a Series A funding round led by Walden International (Walden) and Innosight Ventures (Innosight).

YFind has developed patent-pending technology that creates an “indoor GPS” environment in buildings and densely-built urban areas, providing location information with up to less than three meters accuracy.  The technology, called the YFind Positioning System™ (YPS™), is WiFi-based, low-cost, and works on all mobile computing platforms including iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry.  Along with YFind’s ongoing research, this positions the company as a leader in Indoor Positioning and Location-Aware Technology – fields that are of growing interest for mobile advertising, business intelligence, asset management, and other applications.

According to Co-founder and Managing Director, Dr. Ting See Ho, “this investment will accelerate our development of innovative business applications including retail intelligence, location based services and advertising.”

Yong Soo Ping, Director at Walden International Singapore, believes that “YFind is a very promising company with tremendous potential.  Almost everyone in cities like Singapore carries a smartphone today.  Increasingly, people, businesses and governments will take advantage of location-aware services.  We are very impressed by the accuracy and reliability of YFind’s indoor positioning system and we believe this technology will generate waves of innovation in the future.”

Pete Bonee, Partner at Innosight Ventures, said, “As YFind technology is deployed indoors, where people spend most of their time, it will unlock all kinds of disruptive innovation in mobile apps, social networking, retail management, advertising, and other areas.  We are excited to be working with YFind to help them realize their vision of creating Location-Intelligent cities, starting with Singapore.

Both Yong and Bonee will join the YFind Board.

YFind was incorporated in October 2010 by Co-founders Dr. Ting See Ho, Melvin Yuan and Dr. Han Yang.  Dr. Ting was an Assistant Professor at the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore (NTU), specialising in wireless communications. Yuan is a digital marketing strategist, formerly Vice President of Digital Strategies at a leading global PR consultancy. Dr. Han is a researcher in wireless technology. They are joined by founding partner – Hoo Shao Pin, a seasoned technopreneur.

The company had a very successful first year in 2011. They received significant support in the form of government grants for research and development. This included SPRING Singapore’s Technology Enterprise Commercialisation Scheme (TECS) Proof-of-Concept & Proof-of-Value grants, and co-funding support from IDA’s Digital Concierge Programme to develop a high-accuracy indoor location detection technology at a shopping mall and airport terminal. YFind was also recognised by the Singapore IT Federation (SITF) as Start-up of the Year 2011.

With this initial round of investment, YFind will continue its research and development activities and scale its business development activities in 2012.

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About YFind Technologies

YFind Technologies Pte Ltd creates Location-Intelligent cities and buildings, with its YFind Positioning System™ (YPS™), which can be deployed on WiFi networking infrastructure and is compatible with all major mobile smartphones.  YFind’s solutions are used in a range of environments including retail malls and airports.  By enabling location-aware services, YFind is making the world a more intelligent place, one building at a time.  For more information, visit YFind at www.y-find.com

About Walden International (“WI”)
WI is a leading international venture capital firm that provides investors access to crossborder, IT opportunities with the advantage of an unrivalled pan-Asia network since 1987.  The firm’s funds total over US$1.9 billion in committed capital. WI’s investments include AutoNavi (NASDAQ: AMAP), Creative Technology (SGX: CREAF SP), DangDang (NYSE:  DANG), JobStreet (KLSE: JOBST), Mindtree Consulting (BSE: MTCLIN), SINA (NASDAQ: SINA), Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (NYSE.SMI and HKSE: 0981.HK), and WebEx (acquired by Cisco).  Over the past 23 years, WI has been an active player in the Singapore venture capital scene and has invested in approximately 60 Singapore companies. For more information, please visit www.waldenintl.com.

About Innosight Ventures

Innosight Ventures is the venture investing arm of Innosight, a global innovation and strategy consulting firm, co-founded by Harvard Professor and innovation thought-leader Clayton Christensen in 2000.  Innosight Ventures, based in Singapore, identifies ventures that fit the patterns of Disruptive Innovation and supports them with funding and strategic assistance.  More information on the Web at www.innosightventures.com

About Digital Concierge

Digital Concierge is one of the key programmes in IDA’s 10-year Intelligent Nation 2015 Masterplan (iN2015) to help transform the Tourism, Hospitality & Retail sector.

The Digital Concierge Programme aims to catalyse the growth of the mobile services ecosystem and encourage the development of transactional and innovative mobile services in Singapore, in particular location-based and mobile commerce services. More information on the Web at www.digitalconcierge.com.sg

About SPRING Technology Enterprise Commercialisation Scheme (TECS)

SPRING Technology Enterprise Commercialisation Scheme (TECS) aims to catalyse the formation and growth of technologically innovative startups with strong Intellectual Property (IP) and scalable business models. By addressing early-stage funding gaps, TECS can help technology startups and entrepreneurs in Singapore grow past their embryonic phase, secure third-party funding and achieve growing revenues.