Ghazi also admitted there was some intention at the government level to shut down MaGIC, in order to avoid overlapping, as well as to streamline things

Ashran Ghazi, who stepped down as the CEO of Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) in November last year, feels that the country has all the ingredients to turn it into a startup hub, but what it lacks is the “Michelin Star Chefs” who can mix these ingredients in the right proportion.

Ghazi, who is currently serving as the CEO of Dattel Asia, a home-grown consumer intelligence company, also believes that the local market is the perfect test bed for a Southeast Asia’s startups.

In an interview with e27 (the full text of which will be published in the coming days), Ghazi said that Malaysia has a great potential and is quite ripe for growth within Southeast Asia. However, it needs to still churn new ways of thinking from the bottom up.

“We need to have raw entrepreneurial spirit that is resilient in the open market and also need to build more creative and innovative thinking people. People who cannot stand status quo. We have the ingredients, but sometimes what we lack is enough “Michelin Star Chefs” who can mix these ingredients in right proportion,” he commented.

Ghazi joined MaGIC in April 2016 after its founding CEO Cheryl Yeoh departed in January that year. During his tenure, Ghazi brought in several initiatives, including the Corporate Entrepreneurship Responsibility Program (designed to bring startups and corporates for mutual benefits), Impact Driven Enterprise, Global Entrepreneurship Community Summit, PUSH (Great Social Entrepreneurship Programme), Corporate Open Innovation Program, and Mentorship Platform.

Towards the end of his period, MaGIC went through a controversy when the newly-elected Mahathir Mohamad government intended to wind up the agency in May 2018. Talking about this, Ghazi admitted there was some intention at the government level to shut down several agencies, including MaGIC, in order to avoid overlapping, as well as to streamline things.

Also Read: MaGIC or no MaGIC, Malaysia’s startup ecosystem is bound to flourish!

“MaGIC, like many other agencies, was in a pretty unique situation then. True there was some intent as a whole to tighten the ship within the government. In most conversations happened around that time, there was a sentiment that many agencies were overlapping. This seemed to be the case at a macro level, but if you closely analysed things, you will get a different picture. Indeed, all these organisations are doing different activities,” he clarified.

He went on to say that there were naturally many views during that time. So, before MaGIC stabilised and landed as an agency under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development (MED), Ghazi had to educate and inform relevant stakeholders about the work MaGIC has done, its impact, as well as its future aspirations. “We were meeting with different people in the new government. Finally, we got an audience in the form of the Minister of Entrepreneurship Development. He immediately saw the value of the organisation and thought about how MaGIC fits in his aspirations in driving the entrepreneurial community to be future ready.”

As soon as the Minister got convinced and appreciated the context, he decided to move MaGIC to the MED family. It was indeed an exciting time for the agency, he added. “So it wasn’t so much about the government changing mind but, from my perspective, various ministries needed to get clarity on what they wanted to do and ensure that they had the right agencies under them. But I must say that we had a nerve-wrecking experience during those four to five months due to the uncertainties.”

Ghazi also added that MaGIC, under the new leadership, is getting ready to execute big things in 2019. It is tuned towards working closely with private sector and is designing programmes in a strategic manner to scale new heights.

“I cannot agree with the opinion of several people that MaGIC has not done much. I think we have done quite a bit and we wish we had done more. I feel there are naturally certain things that the agency can be done well, but there are certain things that can be done better as a private entity. MaGIC is in a transition to scale its impact, and this is what I have been instilling since day one of joining MaGIC. I think MaGIC under the new leadership will be able to see the results of this as the seeds of scale has been planted over the last 2.5 years,” he noted.

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Indonesia-based Jojonomic secures the new undisclosed round of funding led by the fintech VC fund Finch Capital

Southeast Asia-operated expense and business management platform Jojonomic has announced an undisclosed amount of funding raised led Finch Capital. Participating in the round are Jojonomic’s existing investors East Ventures and Golden Gate Ventures.

This round makes for Jojonomic’s shareholder base, which now covers Europe, the US, Japan, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia.

Jojonomic had said it intends to use the funding for completing Jojonomic’s portfolio of business solutions, integrating external data, expanding its customer base across Indonesia, and beyond, and developing further Jojonomic’s use of machine learning.

Also Read: Singapore’s Travelstop officially expands to seven markets in Asia

With the investment, Finch Capital brings its financial technology and will put Hans De Back, partner of Finch Capital on the company’s board.

“Jojonomic addresses the inefficiencies businesses often face by providing an expense and business management platform to managers and employees. We are look forward to working together in facilitating the daily activities of Southeast Asian businesses and creating the future of work,” said De Back.

Jojonomic first introduced JojoExpense to be the digital expense management platform in Southeast Asia with the aim to help employees achieve work by automating and bringing transparency to manual processes such as expense reports.

“By using Jojonomic, professionals hopefully will increase their productivity, focus on the things they are passionate about, and let the platform handle time-consuming administrative tasks,” said Jojonomic’s CEO and founder Indrasto Budisantoso.

Jojonomic offers a cloud-based business suite that helps companies manage business expenses with JojoExpense, enhance employee productivity with JojoTimes, manage procurement with JojoProcure, create a cashless ecosystem with JojoCashCard, and handle digital documents with approval flows. These applications can all be accessed under its Saas platform called JojonomicPro that target SMEs and enterprises.

Currently, Jojonomic is integrated with cloud-based accounting and business platforms such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Xero, and OpenBravo. The system is integrated with Indonesia’s five largest banks to enable direct account payment and reimbursement, allowing end-to-end expense and cash management.

Also Read: Mobile is the US$120B future of tech business, report by App Annie

Jojonomic claims that it has tens of thousands of active users and support corporations and SMEs across sectors.
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Image Credit: Jojonomic

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Following the funding round, Motorist plans to open a new office in Thailand

Singapore-based auto-concierge platform Motorist today announced that it has raised an undisclosed seed funding round from JobsCentral co-founders Der Shing Lim and Shao-Ning Huang as well as Zopim co-founder Royston Tay.

The company plans to launch a new office in Thailand, complementing its existing offices in Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

“The next six months will be very exciting for the Motorist team,” Motorist Founder Damian Sia said in a press statement.

“We will focus primarily on marketing and supercharging our products and services to show future investors the scalability of our business model,” he continued.

Sia also added that the company plans to have another round of fundraising in 2019.

Also Read: How much can technology actually help Singaporeans save on car insurance?

It will also launch a nation-wide campaign in February to promote the launch of its new app.

Founded in 2015 by Sia, Motorist started off as a vehicle transaction platform. The company is now looking at the “car management aspect of vehicle ownership.”

Having been bootstrapped since its launch, Motorist claimed to have been profitable since the beginning.

The company said it has transacted more than 9,200 vehicles worth over S$176 million (US$129 million).

“I chose to invest in Motorist.sg because it has enormous growth potential in not only Singapore, but also
the ASEAN region,” said investor Royston Tay.

“The company offers a unique service to car owners, disrupting the usual automotive model we have grown accustomed to,” he added.

 

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The Vietnam-based startup operates a time-based discount solution for local service booking

JAMJA, a local service booking platform from Vietnam that offers time-based discount as its competitive edge, announces a US$1M total investment from Bon Angels and CyberAgent Capital. JAMJA offers its users discounted price when they book service like restaurants and beauty store on its platform.

“This bridge round investment capital will help JAMJA keep the momentum in the past, launch new services like a movie ticket, spa, healthcare, and karaoke, as well as to prepare for the upcoming official Series A round,” said Le Hung Viet, JAMJA’s CEO.

Also Read: Gobi Partners-Core Capital JV invests in Filipino startups MariaHealth, Edukasyon

In 2017, JAMJA has successfully raised seed round capital from ESP Capital. After that, just last year, JAMJA raised a pre-A round from Nextrans, Framgia, Bon Angles, and KB Investment with a total fund of US$850,000.

In this round, Bon Angels continues to invest in JAMJA, joined by new investor CyberAgent Capital.

With the new funding, the company plans to deploy applications in other major cities of Vietnam besides Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, while developing an in-depth solution that will be integrated into partner’s business activities.

JAMJA brings its users “time-based discount for booking” experience that allows them to find various service with competitive prices in comparison to the market in some special hour of the day.

On the merchants side, they can leverage this approach by controlling the number of guests, reducing the number of empty tables during peak and off-peak hours, setting appropriate discount rates through flash-sale deals, and changing the discount rates every hour, every minute, all available for integration in the standard POS system to manage orders.

“With the aim of utilising idle resources effectively and economically, the sharing economy model brought by JAMJA is becoming an inevitable trend in the global business environment. JAMJA helps merchants in the field of restaurant, beauty, and entertainment to optimise operating hours, especially the off-peak hours, from that brings value to customers and the whole community,” said Dzung Nguyen, Managing Director in Vietnam and Thailand at CyberAgent Capital.

Also Read: The e27 Southeast Asia Startup Ecosystem Report 2018 is here

JAMJA shared that it leverages on trends, with Generation Z (people who were born in 1995 and up with tech savviness) being its main target market for the application.

To date, JAMJA said it has cooperated with more than 3000 stores that have brought in 1.5 million monthly active users and more than 500,000 visitors to the store through the platform.
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Image Credit: JAMJA

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Neuron Mobility develops a new e-scooter based on the principles of automotive engineering, the company said

E-scooter startup Neuron Mobility takes the urban commute experience to another level with its new development of e-scooter. Neuron Mobility claims to put a spin in a basic two wheels, a board, and a handlebar -the scooter’s shape that public knows.

The company, that operates its fleet in big cities in Singapore, Thailand, and just recently in Malaysia, introduces an in-house designed platform based on the company’s operational experience.

Also Read: The e27 Southeast Asia Startup Ecosystem Report 2018 is here

“An e-scooter is no longer a novelty item or a toy; rather it has become a real alternative to urban transportation. Supporting new roles on an old platform is no longer sustainable, and we need to rethink how to maximise operational efficiency in order to be a viable mode of mobility for the public,” said Zachary Wang, CEO of Neuron Mobility.

The new model is said to focus on the ease of maintenance as well as tamper-proofing. It has improved structural integrity made out of aluminum chassis frame that joins two 12-inch wheels together – using a construction method that is more commonly seen in automotive applications – to give commuters an overall smoother and safer ride.

The e-scooter has a modular design that allows damaged modules to be replaced within minutes instead of spending days in the repair shop.

“All of the new e-scooter components may make the scooter seems oversized, but it allows riders to clear curbs, cross potholes, and sustain bumps without throwing their balance off, which is a common problem in many Southeast Asian cities,” said Mohammed Abdoolcarim, Neuron Mobility’s new Head of Product, who’s also the ex-product lead of Apple’s Siri.

Seeking to integrate this new form of mobility service into various cities, Neuron Mobility also developed proprietary software built into the scooter. Riders can use GPS-enabled parking indicator on the scooter’s handlebar display, allowing them to be easily guided to designated parking zones.

Also Read: Gobi Partners-Core Capital JV invests in Filipino startups MariaHealth, Edukasyon

Neuron Mobility calls their new platform a commercial grade e-scooter, designed to comply with PMD laws across Southeast Asia. The new scooter is also built to be adaptable to various road conditions – from paved streets in dense cities, to rougher roads in emerging markets.
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Image Credit: Neuron Mobility

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