Singapore, the perfect starting point to tap into Asian Travel & Mobility tech ecosystem

Joined by over 100 distinguished guests from the Asian Travel & Mobility tech (T&MT) ecosystem, international media representatives, and top executives from the Lufthansa Group (LG), the Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH) opened its first foreign office in Singapore on Monday, January 28.

The expansion of the aviation group’s innovation unit is a strategic response to the growing importance of Asia’s T&MT sector.

It aims to expand LG’s footprint along the travel chain to systematically create and capture value beyond flying.

While the speed of innovation is accelerating on a global scale, Asia emerged as the most VC-funded T&MT market in the world, capturing 59 per cent of global deal flow in 2018, according to LIH.

Furthermore, 17 out of 34 unicorns in global Travel & Mobility Tech are based in Asia.

Singapore is LIH’s chosen location to settle in.

The initial focus here would be on an in-depth exploration of specific market developments in digitalization of travel and mobility plus establishing a network of relevant tech players forming the first strategic partners on site.

The local team is currently being set up in Singapore, and LIH’s three strategic 2019 goals are:

1. Understanding the specifics of Asian T&MT ecosystem by systematically focussing on trend & market research.
2. Exploring concrete opportunities and validating first projects in Asia with local partners.
3. Leveraging expertise of local Lufthansa Group colleagues in the digital context.

Investing in Asia through strategic partnerships

While the LIH headquarters in Berlin are focused on digitizing the core business through building their own ventures, the LIH Singapore office will be focused on partnerships and investments as key activities to leverage on existing footprint.

In other words, its main aim is to understand the market and source for investment opportunities.

LIH has already begun screening Asian deal flows prior to their official set up in Singapore.

The move to Asia with a focus on new, digital business models is part of the LG’s digital strategy: envisioning a decisive expansion of digital activities along the travel and mobility chain and building a sustainable network with leading technology players.

Also Read: Grab partners with micro retail tech startup Warung Pintar to champion digital inclusion

Dr Christian Langer, vice president of Digital Strategy Lufthansa Group and managing director at Lufthansa Innovation Hub, echoed:

“More than ever, Asian startups, but also digital enterprises, are the driving force behind fundamental changes along the travel chain. With the expansion of the Lufthansa Innovation Hub, we want to become a serious part of this emerging ecosystem.”

In an effort to understand Asia’s T&MT ecosystem through systematic research, an alliance with INSEAD has already been launched on the topic: “The Future of Work” and its explicit relevance for the transformation of business travel.

The aim is to publish key findings in a whitepaper and to implement them a test project, which will be validated in conjunction with LG’s real-world conditions.

In this context, LIH is in discussions with WeWork, Singapore’s Changi Airport and also the Munich Airport.

According to Gleb Tritus, managing director of LIH:

“We look forward to exploiting the unparalleled dynamism of the Asian technology ecosystem even more consistently in the future and to leveraging the established position of the Lufthansa Group. Singapore is clearly a pioneer of mobility innovation and our first collaboration with INSEAD and other players strongly attests to how eager established local players are to experiment and explore,”.

The opening of an additional office in Shanghai, China is planned over the course of the year.

About The Lufthansa Innovation Hub

The Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH) was established in Berlin at the end of 2014 in response to the rapid development of the global T&MT scene.

Thousands of startups along the travel chain have subsequently emerged over the last few years. Furthermore, the volume of venture capital invested in the T&MT context globally reached a record high of US$43.89 billion in 2018.

In short, the entire travel chain is undergoing a fundamental process charge.

Also Read: How apps help seniors with better mobility, safety, and quality of life

To keep up with these developments, a team consisting of serial founders, startup experts and long-term Lufthansa employees was established in Berlin to act as the interface between LG and the global startup ecosystem.

Focus Areas:

1. Discover – The LIH’s Trend & Market Intelligence specialist systematically research and analyze developments in the global T&MT ecosystem, to identify interesting opportunities for the Lufthansa group.
2. Build – The LIH uses its own entrepreneurial mindset and methodological competence to develop and validate business model innovations, using prototype developed in-house.
3. Partner – The LIH initiates partnerships between the Lufthansa Group and startups, whose technological solutions have the potential to make travelling with Lufthansa even more convenient.
4. Invest – The LIH supports the Lufthansa Group by strategically investing in tech players in the global startup scene.

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GOJEK’s ongoing Series F funding round confirmed its first closing from the three behemoths, accompanied by investment from Mitsubishi Corporation and Provident Capital among other investors

Ride-hailing unicorn-turned-on-demand service and payment platform GOJEK has confirmed the first closing of the ongoing Series F fundraising, with Google, JD.com, and Tencent leading the round. Joining the three are Mitsubishi Corporation and Provident Capital, among other investors.

The company said that the proceeds will be used to enhance GOJEK’s market leadership in Indonesia across transport, food delivery, logistics, mobile payments, and merchant services. Plus, it will be used to drive continued expansion across other markets in Southeast Asia. Its regional footprint includes the recent introduction of GOJEK in Singapore, GO-VIET in Vietnam, and GET in Thailand.

Also Read: Startup of the Month, January: Vietnamese e-wallet service MoMo

Leading the market with its digital payment GO-PAY and food delivery GO-FOOD, it is reported that GOJEK’s current gross transaction value (GTV) across all markets amounting to more than US$9 billion with transaction volumes of two billion at the end of 2018.

“By focusing on solving problems for our users and partners, GOJEK has introduced the multi-sided platform model where millions of people can consume services that address their most frequent daily needs and where businesses and entrepreneurs can access those consumers, grow their incomes and at the same time gain access to crucial financial services,” said Nadiem Makarim, GOJEK Group CEO.

With the investment from JD.com, GOJEK has cemented its strategic partnership with JD.com’s Indonesia e-commerce joint venture, JD.id and its last mile delivery logistics joint venture, J-Express (JX) to enhance end-to-end logistical capabilities and e-commerce services in Indonesia.

“With a dedicated JD.id entry point on GOJEK’s mobile app, 27 million monthly active GOJEK users will have direct access to JD.id’s high-quality e-commerce offering. As JD.com expands its presence in the region, we look forward to working together with GOJEK to deliver innovative retail, logistics and consumer solutions across the region,” said Jon Liao, JD.com Chief Strategy Officer.

Also Read: AI-predictive maintenance startup Avanseus secures US$1.3m funding from TNB Aura

“Our investment in GOJEK is an important milestone for Tencent in Southeast Asia. GOJEK has maintained leading market share and high growth in its core businesses, while making meaningful progress in new verticals. This additional investment will strengthen our alliance with GOJEK in fast-growing Southeast Asia and enable Tencent to broaden its partner cooperation more globally,” said Martin Lau, President of Tencent on Tencent’s investment.
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Simply hiring more women will not solve the problem

The significant underrepresentation of women within the tech sector is impacting the functionality of businesses in Singapore and across the globe.

Despite positive moves to implement effective solutions that will bridge both gender diversity and skills gap, women are still struggling to break the glass ceiling and challenge for high-profile roles in this industry.

The representation of women in the boardroom

Introducing more female talent to the tech sector has seen significant industry-wide improvements.

A study from the Peterson Institute of International Economics found that organisations with greater gender diversity are actually more profitable.

This concludes that gender diversity enhances work-place performance and increases the rate of success.

However, in spite of this positive outlook, there is still a noticeable underrepresentation of women across the wider tech sector.

Globally, less than one in 10 women work as a developer. A startling figure that only further sparks the argument surrounding gender bias within IT.

Singapore has been identified as a global leader in the IT industry.

Quick to adopt the newest technological trends, the Lion City is a thriving base for startups looking to grow their profit and productivity.

19 per cent of these startups are founded by women — which you might think would translate to a high number of female CEOs running the show.

This, unfortunately, isn’t the case as only 12 per cent of C-suite roles across the South East Asia tech scene are held by women.

Start your battle against gender diversity

Finding the perfect solution to gender diversity is not something businesses have the capacity to come up with overnight.

You can’t simply hire more women to close the deficit as this will continue to increase the problem and only further dilute the sector.

Research indicates that worldwide, 41 per cent of women are twice as likely to quit their role within the tech sector compared to only 17 per cent of men, a number that only further depletes the handful of new developers choosing to stick out a career in IT.

For female developers who want to make it to the top of the career ladder, it can be very difficult in a male-dominated sector.

Every developer across the industry will have similar skills and expertise, but there is an unconscious bias against women; a well-known stigma that needs to be removed from the industry.

Also Read: To fix the gender divide, the crypto world needs more female heroes to look up to

Recent reports have identified that one of four science and tech professionals in Singapore are female, with the number of those working in the IT sector growing by only 10 per cent since 2011.

These figures further highlight the fact that the tech sector remains a ‘boys club,’ and for that categorisation to be removed, the entire industry needs to perform a massive U-turn to help fix this age-old problem.

Bridge the skills gap and you could solve both issues

For a conclusive solution that can solve both problems, the global IT industry needs to rethink its outlook.

Only after these discussions happen and businesses are equipped with the plans to face the gender gap problem, will they then be able to bridge the skills gap.

Sadly, businesses won’t be able to pick the best solution out of thin air.

Although hiring more women seems to be the simple answer to the predicament of both problems, it will only add to the mass exodus of women leaving the sector.

That is unless organizations can up come with a positive solution.

Also Read: Women in tech, and a competitive advantage

To overcome the gap of gender diversity, women working in the Singapore business sector have rallied around each other to launch women-focused workspaces and training opportunities in an attempt to remove the statistical anomaly of female professionals in IT.

The path to encourage women and young girls into IT needs to begin much earlier.

STEM subjects within Singapore have been placed at the top of the priorities list by educational establishments and the government as they help provide economic growth and technological development throughout the country.

But with Microsoft research identifying that post “16 STEM subjects suffer from a considerable gender imbalance”, it only provides a small window of opportunity between the ages of 11-16 for parents and teachers to influence the decision-making process.

There needs to be a more comprehensive offering of STEM subjects in school, as well as more inspirational talks and extra-curricular activities providing guidance on the route of a successful tech career and the benefits of working in the sector.

Businesses also need to set an example; they might already have women in high-powered roles, so they should promote their success and give them the recognition they deserve on visible platforms.

The more top-performing IT professionals young girls see, the more likely they are to aspire and apply for similar roles.

Working together, this industry has the chance to alter the trajectory of women entering the sector, promoting it as inclusive for everyone.

By solving this part of the problem first, we can effectively narrow the skills gap and shed a more favourable light on the sector from which all businesses can experience benefits.

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Atap.co is a platform for interior designer sourcing and hiring, as well as a digital publisher for interior design and home and living content

Malaysia-based private investment firm RHL Ventures has announced that it has agreed to invest an undisclosed sum in Atap.co, an online marketplace for interior designer sourcing and hiring.

Atap.co will use the money to solidify its market presence in Malaysia. With assistance from RHL, the company plans to launch a physical experience centre in Petaling Jaya to raise the level of immersion for prospective interior design customers.

Atap.co was founded in 2015 by Shen Maosheng and Seow Yao Han, both are tech entrepreneurs who have earlier created the automotive review website Live Life Drive (acquired by iCar Asia in 2013). It is a platform for interior designer sourcing and hiring in Malaysia, as well as a digital publisher for interior design and home and living content. It was created with an aim to help consolidate the fragmented interior designer and architect market in Malaysia via a proprietary online platform that links them to customers (home- and office-owners).

With a team of 16 people, the company claims that 1,580 interior designers have been utilising the Atap.co platform, with project and photo listings numbered at 2,481 and 26,911, respectively.

Also Read: Meet the VC: RHL Ventures on sniffing out a good deal and why VCs need to work together

Over the past two years, Atap.co – via its Leads Marketplace – has listed nearly 3,000 renovation jobs which have carried a budget value of MYR415 million. During this period, the website has drawn in 480,000 average monthly site visitors.

“In today’s market, those in need of interior design work would typically look to the internet only to find that their search lists are dominated by large and expensive firms that can afford to maintain an online presence,” said Maosheng, Co-founder of Atap.co. “We therefore created Atap.co to match up-and-coming interior design businesses in Malaysia with prospective clients leads, which our in-house technologies help verify to ensure that the leads are genuine and not automated.”

Since 2014, it is estimated that the building sector in Malaysia has experienced an 8.7 per cent growth, with 70 per cent of projects being carried out by the private sector. This has helped to foster the tremendous growth of interior design and decorators in the naLon, however the sector’s potential has not been fully realised as many designers – especially those in the B2C segment – still rely on word-of-mouth to land projects.

“We decided to back Atap.co as they are helping to bring in much-need innovation in Malaysia’s interior design market,” said Rachel Lau, Managing Partner of RHL Ventures. “Maosheng, Yao Han and their team are helping to highlight the breadth of talent possessed by our homegrown designers — which we consider as having the potential to stand toe-to-toe with their international peers.”

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In this case, getting judged is a good thing

With TOP100 just around the corner, here’s an exclusive sneak peek behind the judges’ table.

Meet 15 of the many investors we have lined up for the TOP100 pitching qualifiers!

Leck Ting Yan

TRIVE
Partner

Ting Yan was a judge last year during the Singapore qualifiers. He spends most of his time working with TRIVE’s portfolio companies on their next steps, looking for partnerships as well as good teams to invest in.
His four personal areas of interests in tech are: off-grid renewable energy, water, food, and education.

Mohd Ridzwan (Reez) Nordin

Monk’s Hill Ventures
Venture Partner

Reez has led several initiatives to nurture and unearth entrepreneurial talents within corporates and the public at large through angel matching funding and pre-accelerator programs. Reez was previously the Vice President at Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia’s strategic investment fund. Over there, he helped to invest in startups in the enterprise software space, as well as fund investments across the world.

Zoë Ng

Raintree Development
Co-founder and Managing Director

Zoë started her entrepreneurial career as a founding team member at Charlotte Tilbury Beauty, leading business development and digital. She has since moved back to Southeast Asia to work on multiple ventures in Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia. Her latest project – Raintree, is Cambodia’s first creative office development that supports the tech, education and entrepreneurship sectors through programmes in the space.

Christopher Quek

TRIVE
Managing Partner

Christopher is Managing Partner at TRIVE, an early-stage VC based in Singapore that focuses on SEA. He is a 4th generation serial entrepreneur-turned-VC with 20 years of experience in various industries of eCommerce and deep technologies. With TRIVE, he has invested in over 13 startups. A prior experience running a pro-bono incubator saw him help 38 Singapore startups raise US$5.6 million in angel funding. He has also provided over 1000 one-to-one advisories to startup entrepreneurs. His current pay-it-forward program has helped 22 Singaporean startups obtain the Startup SG Founder Grant.

Joshua Agusta

MDI Ventures
Vice President of Investment (Chief Investment Officer)

Joshua is currently serving as the Vice President of Investments in MDI Ventures, leading all MDI Ventures’ investment, divestment, portfolio management and post-deal integration activities. Joshua is highly experienced in corporate innovation with a demonstrated history of leading multi-stage tech investments, starting from seed stage up to pre-IPO and M&A activities of Telkom Group. Besides investing activities, Joshua is also highly involved in industry and market research where he co-led MDI Ventures’ two whitepaper publications.

RJ Balmater

Monk’s Hill Ventures
Investments

RJ was previously a consultant at Balmater Consulting Company, where he led a small team to advise family-owned SME’s in Indonesia. Prior to that, he was a financial analyst at Fortman Cline Capital Markets in Manila focusing on local sell-side deals in the region. RJ holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from California State University of Fullerton (CSUF).

Khairu Rejal

Rekanext
Managing Partner

Khairu has more than 10 years of experience in the venture capital and startup incubation space, initially at the Nanyang Technopreneurship Center (NTC) and later at Majuven, a Singapore-based venture capital firm focused on early growth and high tech companies in Biotechnology, Healthcare, Clean-Sustainable Solutions and Dynamic Digital Convergences. In 2017, Khairu along with other like-minded angel investors came together to launch Rekanext Capital Partners.

Nadia Fonny

Gobi Partners
Investment Manager

Nadia was a judge during our TOP100 qualifiers last year where she judged in Manila, Thailand as well as at Echelon Asia Summit 2018. Nadia has four years of working experience in the chemical industry, and more recently as a Citibusiness Associate at Citibank, where she spearheaded the FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) implementation with 100 per cent High Priority Completion in CitiBusiness Indonesia.

Low Zhen Hui

Captii Ventures
Associate Director

ZhenHui does quite a bit of research and analysis on markets and industry verticals, on top of participating in investment origination and processing at Captii Ventures. ZhenHui travels extensively to Indonesia and Singapore to meet with new start-ups.

Ruui Wong

Captii Ventures
Investment Manager

Ruui is active in engaging with startups and researching on various opportunities besides pursuing investments from origination to execution at Captii Ventures. Ruui travels extensively in this region to meet with new start-ups.

Katrina Chan

QBO
Director

As director of QBO, Katrina leads the team’s overall operations, strategy and partnerships. In addition to managing their stakeholders, growth and fund-raising, She also works with and advises start-ups directly.

June Chen

Monk’s Hill Ventures
Associate

June was a project manager, managing an engineering services company in Thailand where she led planning and executions of projects focusing on maximizing resource utilization and process efficiency. Earlier, June has worked in the investment banking industry primarily advising large corporate clients on IPOs, local and cross-border M&A transactions in Southeast Asia. June’s experience spans across multiple segments including consumer, real estate, telecommunication and energy sectors. June has an MBA from Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Thammasat University.

Khiem Tran

Expara
Vietnam Associate

Khiem joined Expara in early 2017. He holds both Bachelor of Corporate Finance and Master of Business Administration (Finance focused) degree with 100 per cent scholarship from Vietnam National University where he contributed research papers about Vietnam venture capital market to Southeast Asia (Singapore Management University) and local journals (Vietnam Trade and Industry Review). Before joining Expara, Khiem had experience in Vietnam ecosystem since 2014 as Investment Representative from ESP Ventures (formerly Alpha Vision Ventures) and Senior Investment/Innovation Officer at Asia Commercial Bank.

Albert Shyy

Burda Principal Investments
Principal

Albert joined Burda in 2017 and heads Burda Principal Investments’ Singapore office. Previously he was at GREE Ventures from 2014 to 2017, where he led the fund’s investment team in Southeast Asia and India as Principal while working closely with many of its portfolio companies including Kudo, Berrybenka, and Bukalapak. Prior to this, he served as a Director at Lazada Group, Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce retailer, helping build the company’s Marketplace business across the region. He completed his MBA at the University of California, Berkeley and studied at the University of Pennsylvania with dual degrees in economics and systems engineering. He currently sits on the board of Priceza, Zilingo, and Carsome.

Nat Wittayatanaseth

Beacon VC
Investment Manager

Nat is a VC Investor interested in utilizing fintech to improve financial inclusion in emerging markets and disrupt traditional banking models. My background is in central banking, capital market business, fintech and cryptocurrency having worked at the Bank of Thailand, KBank, Digital Ventures, Pantera Capital and 500 Startups.

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Keen on meeting the pool of investors? Sign up today for TOP100!

Stand a chance to be chosen as the ‘Judges Choice’ which will land you a spot in Echelon Asia Summit 2019 where you can pitch and exhibit your innovative idea. (free of charge!)

If you’re an investor interested in being a part of our pool of judges, here’s the link to sign up!

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