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anyone invested in this? evergreen business Vibease raises $20,000 in 24 hours for 'world's first smart vibrator' Tiny wonder: Vibease is a Bluetooth-enabled device that communicates with a smartphone app for hands-free or even remotely controlled use. It is compatible with both Apple iPhones and Android smartphones. - PHOTO: VIBEASE A SINGAPORE-BASED sex toy start- up raised $20,000 in crowdfunding within 24 hours of its launch early last Tuesday morning. Vibease, co-founded by Singapore residents Dema Tio and Steven Kik, originally set a funding goal of $15,000 on popular crowdfunding website Indiegogo. By yesterday evening, however, the duo had garnered almost $52,000, with 22 days left before the funding campaign closes. Billed as "the world's first smart vibrator", Vibease is a Bluetooth-enabled device that communicates with a smartphone app for hands-free or even remotely controlled use. It is compatible with both Apple iPhones and Android smartphones. The device is the brainchild of Mr Tio, who was a software engineer with a Boston-based firm until he quit his job two years ago to work full- time on Vibease. While on an overseas posting, he said, he felt concerned about his wife's unfulfilled sexual needs, joking: "I didn't want my wife to become a 'desperate housewife'." He then realised that many couples were in a similar predicament. The electronics enthusiast then roped in Mr Kik, an ex-colleague with a background in software development. The Vibease prototype was rolled out last year, funded by angel investors based in Singapore. However, initial feedback on the prototype showed that users were unimpressed by its unwieldy size, forcing Mr Tio and Mr Kik back to the drawing board. They cut the size of the vibrator by half, to its current length of 3.1 inches (7.9cm), and replaced the ABS plastic material with silicone, which is more durable and easier to clean. Mr Tio said in a phone interview with BT that they had hoped for the Indiegogo campaign to cover the cost of an injection mould to manufacture the new Vibease design, but the unexpectedly positive response they have received so far is spurring them to aim for "enough for us to get the tooling and the production" as well. This is especially urgent because that will give them a large enough stock to start talks with potential distributors. Still, for those in Singapore eager to get their hands on Vibease, a bit of bad news may be a buzzkill: while the team is heartened by local support, Vibease will principally target US consumers, starting with cities like San Francisco - home to famous sex shops such as Good Vibrations, which has expressed interest in the product since the Indiegogo launch. "We feel this project is more suited to the US market, compared to Asia," said Mr Tio, because word-of-mouth marketing is harder to come by in places that are more reticent about sexual matters. This is why he and Mr Kik are reluctant to launch Vibease in their native Indonesia and Malaysia too. Explaining why his company chose Indiegogo to fund the product launch, Mr Tio said that plans to seek traditional private investors and government grants were also hampered by a perception of Vibease as a "hardcore porn product". "We try to market it as a mainstream product, but we understand there is also a sexy element," he said. "Considering Singapore's conservative culture, this is tricky." But he added that the online buzz which Vibease has generated has managed to catch the interest of some local investors as well. Vibease is not the first locally- based start-up to have made waves in the online crowdfunding scene. Earlier this year, Pirate3D used Kickstarter to earn US$1.44 million to manufacture 3D printers for the home market.