After e-bikes & tennis apps, this entrepreneur bets on AI cameras

He walked away from his father’s profitable agency to launch his AI good digital camera enterprise

Ivan Mun has at all times been tinkering with new concepts and completely different ventures.

Even whereas climbing the ranks in his father’s success SGX-listed firm, Aztech World, a worldwide design and manufacturing options supplier, he has spent years experimenting with facet hustles from promoting titanium components for foldable bikes to constructing a tennis matchmaking app.

Some ventures took off, others fizzled out, however the drive to create by no means left him. Now, at 44, Ivan has gone all-in. In Could 2025, he invested his personal cash to begin Whats up Ello, an AI good dwelling digital camera enterprise he believes has a lot potential that he walked away from his function as Vice President of Enterprise Improvement at Aztech.

We spoke to Ivan to search out out extra about his entrepreneurial journey, and why he determined to step out of a cushty, safe job for his newest enterprise.

A serial entrepreneur

Ivan’s very first facet hustle was conceived in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the time, he observed a surge in curiosity for foldable bicycles, notably Bromptons.

House owners wished titanium upgrades, however the unique components had been prohibitively costly. Recognizing a market hole, Ivan launched Wheely Good, an e-commerce website specialising in aftermarket components. He sourced parts from China and equipment from Japan, realized to navigate customs and delivery logistics, constructed its e-commerce webstore, and even taught himself to disassemble and rebuild Bromptons from his basement workshop.

“I by no means imagined I’d spend months in my basement taking aside bikes throughout my free time,” he recalled. “But it surely was satisfying to see one thing folks cherished, and figuring out I used to be delivering actual worth by fixing an issue for them.”

The facet hustle was unexpectedly profitable, bringing in near S$40,000 in simply 4 months. Nevertheless, when the pandemic ended, extra folks returned to work and Wheely Good slowly pale into the background—however the entrepreneurial spark it ignited by no means did.

One other enterprise sprang from Ivan’s love of tennis. He observed that informal gamers usually struggled to search out companions who matched their talent stage or had appropriate court docket availability. The answer was Athletix, an app that matches gamers primarily based on talent and schedule. The app continues to be lively immediately, and Ivan continues to replace it in his free time.

He then went on to arrange The Founders Company, a consultancy geared toward serving to startups navigate connections with dependable Asian producers and distributors. Whereas the enterprise by no means absolutely launched, largely as a result of Ivan was balancing different commitments, it gave him precious insights into operations, provide chains, and the challenges startups face when scaling internationally.

Constructing on these experiences, Ivan turned his consideration to what would grow to be his greatest enterprise but: Whats up Ello.

Making a system that doesn’t want babysitting

Ivan was impressed to begin Whats up Ello in early 2025, simply as Aztech was rolling out its line of economic safety cameras. He thought that he might take the trendy good digital camera additional by leveraging AI know-how.

I wished to construct a system that was good sufficient to work while not having to babysit it or mute its notifications.

Ivan Mun

A key downside he wished to deal with was notification overload. Most good cameras bombard customers with alerts, lots of that are irrelevant, inflicting folks to disregard them or flip them off solely. That inaction can depart houses weak, with incidents solely found too late throughout a autopsy assessment of video footage.

Decided to convey this imaginative and prescient to life, Ivan left his job to create a ‘smarter’ doorbell referred to as Ello. The system was designed to supply a wider subject of view and extra clever notifications than current shopper merchandise.

A number of Ello cameras might be positioned all through a house, making a digital map of the structure. Utilizing this method, Ello can establish people, observe their actions, and construct a “household tree” of identified customers.

The digital camera solely alerts customers when one thing pressing or suspicious happens, similar to an unfamiliar particular person exterior. For routine updates, customers can work together with the system by an app that capabilities like a chatbot.

Much like texting on WhatsApp or ChatGPT, customers can ask what the cameras have seen, request summaries, or set monitoring durations in plain language.

When prompted, Ello gives a video snippet together with a textual content description of the particular person’s actions inside the dwelling, and may even recommend additional actions, similar to notifying safety.

The early prototype at the moment operates on Telegram, however Ivan plans emigrate it to Ello’s personal proprietary app for added safety.

When requested in regards to the accuracy of Ello cameras, Ivan defined that the system has been skilled on a spread of Imaginative and prescient-Language Fashions (VLMs) and Massive Language Fashions (LLMs). This, he claims, permits the chatbot to shortly analyse motion captured on digital camera and supply important info as precisely as attainable.

Customers can even give suggestions to Ello, permitting the AI to repeatedly study and enhance—identical to every other machine studying system.

Testing his product on the world stage

Not like his earlier facet initiatives, Ivan went all-in on this enterprise. He has excessive confidence within the product, having invested vital time, effort, and a considerable quantity of his personal cash to convey it to life.

In Sept 2025, Ivan took Ello to IFA (Innovation For All) Berlin, one of many world’s largest shopper electronics commerce reveals. Regardless of not having a working prototype and relying solely on demo movies, Ivan determined to showcase the idea to collect suggestions and check curiosity on the worldwide stage.

Whereas many attendees ignored the sales space, those that stopped by supplied invaluable insights. A Londoner defined she usually ignored her digital camera’s alerts as a result of they had been overwhelming and normally irrelevant—there could be a notification that everytime there was somebody who walked previous her townhouse in a busy avenue—till it was too late.

That dialog validated Ivan’s strategy and highlighted the markets the place Ello would have essentially the most influence. Many advised Ivan that Ello was “precisely what they wanted.”

That stated, Ivan had recognized from the beginning that Singapore shouldn’t be its goal market. With its low housebreaking price, dwelling safety was not a urgent concern for many households.

“Cameras listed below are primarily used to observe youngsters, helpers, and the aged, not a lot for dwelling security and safety, the place there’s a continuing danger,” he famous. As a substitute, Ello is aimed on the UK, US, and EU, the place excessive charges of housebreaks drive demand. 

Stepping out of the consolation zone

As a small startup, Ivan acknowledged that discovering native buyers was difficult, notably since Ello’s focus is exterior Singapore.

Hiring can also be difficult—discovering the appropriate expertise is an ongoing impediment for the startup.

Operating lean with a staff of simply three, Ivan takes each small success as motivation—from opening Whats up Ello’s new workplace to securing approval for considered one of his employees’s Employment Cross.

“It’s about celebrating the little issues,” Ivan stated. “It builds tradition and morale. And it jogs my memory why I do that.”

Transferring ahead, beta testing for Ello is scheduled for Dec, with an official launch deliberate in early 2026. Though leaving the consolation of a family-run empire introduced uncertainty, Ivan is glad he did—the journey to date has introduced function and the satisfaction of making one thing actually his personal.

“Stepping out of the consolation zone was scary. There’s simply a lot uncertainty, particularly when your loved ones is at stake,” he mirrored. “However I’ve by no means been extra satisfied I made the appropriate selection, and I’m very blessed and grateful for the assist I’ve gotten from my household and pals.”

The serial entrepreneur’s message to different founders is obvious:

“Know the issue you are attempting to resolve. Don’t justify it by arising with an imaginary downside after which an answer. Discuss to as many individuals as you may to validate your thought.”

Each enterprise he undertook, whether or not profitable or not, strengthened this philosophy and was a studying journey in itself. And it’s why he selected to construct Ello for markets that want it, slightly than chasing simple success at dwelling.

• Discover extra about Whats up Ello right here.
• Learn extra tales we’ve written on Singaporean companies right here.

Featured Picture Credit score: Whats up Ello