The last week of January saw many great moves from some of the biggest tech startups in Indonesia, including Grab, Traveloka, and Telkomsel’s Tcash

Bukalapak launches R&D centre, bike-sharing service in Bandung – Press Release

On February 1, Indonesian e-commerce startup Bukalapak with Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) officially launched the Bukalapak-ITB Artificial Intelligence & Cloud Computing Innovation Center, a research laboratory for Indonesian students, lecturers, and researchers to focus on AI and cloud computing projects.

The R&D centre will be located at ITB campus in Bandung, West Java.

Students who have worked on projects at the R&D centre will have the opportunity to work in Bukalapak following graduation.

“Our greatest challenge at the moment is finding tech talents in the AI sector that is able to contribute for Indonesia. Bukalapak is working together with ITB in building the first AI research laboratory in Indonesia to help empower local talents in building their capacity,” Bukalapak Founder and CEO Achmad Zaky said in a press statement.

In addition to launching the R&D centre, the company also introduced its dockless bike-sharing service BukaBike. Operating since January 7 at ITB campus, the BukaBike service provides 25 bicycles that are available for students and lecturers for free.

To use the bike-sharing service, users only have to download and use the Bukalapak mobile app.

Grab appoints Neneng Goenadi as Managing Director – DailySocial

Also on February 1, Grab Indonesia named Neneng Goenadi as its new Managing Director.

She will replace Ridzki Kramadibrata who is now holding the position of President of Grab Indonesia.

As Managing Director, Goenadi will be in charge of improving and developing corporate services, particularly in the transportation sector.

Meanwhile, as President, Kramadibrata will focus on bridging the relationship between the company and the government, as well as arranging security and social impact strategy.

Prior to her appointment, Goenadi was the Country Managing Director of Accenture Indonesia.

Also Read: Happened in Indonesia: Tokopedia launches new app, Sikumis raises follow-on funding

Tcash rebrands to LinkAja – DailySocial

Telkomsel’s e-wallet app Tcash is set to rebrand to LinkAja starting on February 21.

LinkAja is a state-owned fintech company that is the result of a joint venture between telco operator Telkom, oil and gas company Pertamina, as well as four major banks Bank Mandiri, BRI, BNI, dan BTN.

The joint venture was set up as part of an effort to compete in Indonesia’s increasingly competitive cashless payment sector. It has also been rumoured to work with WeChat Pay and Alipay, and will be led by Tcash CEO Danu Wicaksana.

Tcash users will be automatically converted into LinkAja users starting on February 21.

Traveloka opens R&D centre in Bangalore – DailySocial

Indonesian traveltech giant Traveloka opened its new R&D centre in Bangalore, India, on January 28.

The R&D centre will be the company’s second one after the one it operates in Singapore, marking its first expansion outside of Southeast Asia.

Prior to this, outside of Indonesia, Traveloka already has presence in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

During the launch event, Traveloka Bangalore VP Engineering Prashant Verma stated that in the new centre, the team will work to prepare platforms and products which capable to provide experience and engagement for Traveloka users.

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Image Credit: Bukalapak

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Southeast Asia is a region that has both the richest, and poorest, people in the world, Insurance offerings rarely are tailored to the specific person

This article was written by Keith Lim, the CEO of Hearti. If you would like to contribute, click here. 

Scoot has not had the best of times in recent months.  Lengthy consecutive flight delays in November and December have not only earned the airline the ire of thousands of passengers and their families but has also cast an uncomfortable spotlight on passenger rights when it comes to air travel; specifically, their rights to recompense and restitution.

The problem with compensatory models is that inconvenience is difficult to measure, and agreements on how much a passenger’s time is worth not only varies from carrier to carrier and person to person, but is also at best arbitrary, and at its worst, a downright insult to those affected.

Take for example, the 29-hour delay to flight TR869 on November 26. Based on the airline’s Guest Promise, all passengers were given accommodation and meals, but is it arguable that a person who had to take two extra days of leave as a result should be entitled to the same as a student travelling on vacation? From the airline’s perspective all is fair, but to those actually in the situation, the inequity is obvious.

This is where micro-insurance comes in.

The very principle of a consumer determining their own value of objects, time, and opportunity and apportioning monetary premiums accordingly is rooted in the fundamentals of financial inclusion. The reason why microinsurance has enjoyed a rapid surge across Southeast Asia in the last decade is precisely because traditional bundled insurance policies are also inherently unfair.

In the earlier example, the working adult would have logically purchased a travel policy, say AIG’s Travel Guard Classic plan for instance, and would have been entitled to claim up to US$1000 for flight delays.

However, at a premium of US$500 per annum, such an option is usually out of reach for the student on the same flight, and these passengers end up not simply not purchasing, which serves them well until the precise moment peril strikes.

This situation is a reflection of the 80 per cent under-represented by insurance policies – who will inevitably find themselves the most caught off-guard when a crisis hits.

Micro-insurance sits in between the domains of insurance and financial inclusion. While it is a relatively young sector, micro-insurance has experienced exponential growth due to the proliferation of technologies and an equally young customer base that makes this possible.

This growth is driven by the twin forces of geography and demographics. As an emerging market, most of Southeast Asia has come to quickly embrace technology, and its largely cash-driven economy now eschews traditional finance in favour of mobile payments and the like.

Also Read: Vietnam stars in January as e27 data tracks US$1.5B in deals

The population of Southeast Asia continues to grow, and as a result it is now one of the largest markets for insurance products due to sheer population size and to some extent, its advanced insurance regulations.

In a landscape study, over 500 insurance products were identified across the markets, with life insurance being the most ubiquitous at 48.5 per cent.

Yet while the number of people covered by micro-insurance policies is substantially higher in Southeast Asia, the total percentage of its population covered (18.1 per cent) is still smaller than the equivalents in Europe and the Americas, again owing to population density.

Hence, more needs to be done to increase representation. Additionally, Southeast Asia alone houses some of the world’s richest, and a lot of the world’s poorest – catering to both is a challenge for traditional finance and insurance models, which is why companies just simply exclude the latter, most of whom have no access to banking and financial services with which to service their insurance premiums anyway.

With mobile payments and other alternative finance methods gaining prominence and popularity, traditional insurance companies have themselves adapted their policies and updated their platforms.

While ten to twenty years ago it was common to see insurance salespersons approaching prospective clients in a mall and talking them through lengthy policies and contracts, most insurance products these days are sold online, through a website or even a mobile application.

Far from being a step backwards, it is actually a clear sign of a progressive march, even sprint, towards financial inclusion. As in the airline example, customers determine the value of their time, luggage, and various other components and purchase coverage for the specific items they want.

On a basic level, customers have much more choice as opposed to the old dichotomy of having insurance versus having no insurance.

In addition to being able to say, “I will only want to claim the basic minimum of daily compensation for flight delays, but I don’t want to pay extra for baggage coverage because I don’t have checked-in luggage”, customers are also able to do that on their mobile devices right before arriving at the airport. It is not only convenient, they also avoid paying a day’s more for premiums when it is not necessary to.

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

Since micro-insurance protects against “specific perils”, we see how it is fundamentally a key step towards financial inclusion across Southeast Asian markets.

Travel is one matter – statistically apart from life insurance, the top microinsurance policies in force are those for health (18.4 per cent), accident (21 per cent), property (1.5 per cent), and agriculture (14.9 per cent).

Evidently, there is not just a demand in specific sectors but also much room to grow still.

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The city is set for a major O2O event, and same-day e-commerce is right around the corner (maybe)

2018 was a whirlwind year for the e-commerce scene in Singapore, many startups expanded across SEA seamlessly and Alibaba continued its takeover of Lazada.

This week marks the start of a new Lunar Year, one that should continue the remarkable growth within the industry over the next few years. After all, Singapore has one of the highest internet penetration rate in Southeast Asia with 4.83 million online users. Its overseas purchase rate is second highest in Asia-Pacific.  

Whether it is retailers, manufacturers or consumers, if to stay ahead of the pack they need to be vigilant of these predicted trends for the rest of the year.

Online-offline shopping mall is the new omni-channel

Omni-channel retail — a type of experience that integrates shopping experiences across online and offline — seems to be an ongoing trend. The big event in Singapore will be Funan taking it up a notch by introducing an online-and-offline shopping mall, a first of its kind in Singapore. It will feature a true omni-channel experience that combines online, offline, data, and logistics.  

This trend will be beneficial for many e-tailers, as it does not only allow them to do more business but also increase consumer touch points. Funan aims to leverage e-commerce players through their omnichannel retail infrastructure empowered by their newest technology.   

Solution for same-day shipping is via crowdsourced delivery

From GrabFood to Honestbee, everyone has seen the food delivery scooters swerving through traffic to get to their destination as quickly as possible. Over the years, Singaporeans have learnt to embrace online food deliveries as it is not only convenient but also efficient.   

Although food deliveries can be easily delivered on the same day, e-commerce offering same-day shipping can be costly and might not work in the long run for small e-tailers. However, the future of same-day shipping will not be so bleak if crowdsourced delivery takes off, especially with the recent launch of Go-Jek.  

Just last September, various companies have taken steps to improve the efficiency of same-day delivery through a dedicated smartphone app that offers AI-driven recommendations to its delivery partners.

Mr. Toshiya Sato, VP of Co-Creation Business Group of Fujitsu Limited said,

“In light of the drastic expansion of sharing economy business models and the ongoing growth of e-commerce in recent years, we see crowdsourced delivery as a new business opportunity that will spread all over the world. In this field trial, we are very excited to collaborate with UrbanFox, which is one of the pioneers of crowdsourced delivery, and advanced research & development institute A Star and SMU. We anticipate that in the future Fujitsu will make significant contributions to logistics industry by improving productivity of crowdsourced delivery.” 

Deployment of enterprises from overseas

Singapore is an ideal country for e-commerce to flourish as it has one of the best data centre hubs in Asia Pacific. It is a gateway that connects Southeast Asia and Asia to the rest of the world and at the same time attracting oversea consumers and enterprises.  

Dan Thompson from 451 Research said, “Singapore’s ever-increasing undersea bandwidth and diversity of providers means that there are good options available to get just about anywhere an enterprise would need to reach via network communications, at decent rates.” 

Due to its competitive pricing, Thompson also added that there will be possible deployment of data centres in Singapore that will operate both workloads from Southeast Asia and China.  

Embracing niche markets

To continuously improve consumer’s experience, it is important for the e-commerce businesses to embrace niche markets. Currently, the biggest niche market in Singapore is the government sector. Nevertheless, this online marketplace should be improved in terms of usability and flexibility in terms of procurement processes.

Other than B2G, the e-commerce industry in Singapore should explore other niche markets to become more feasible commercially. One example would be United Nations initiative of selecting Arcadier as a marketplace for their non-communicable disease medicine and supplies that will be accessible to over 100 countries.

In the final year of the Lunar cycle, use these trends to drive strategy and stay ahead of the game.

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Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash

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Fenox plans to introduce and invest in top startup businesses for Sojitz through this fund

Fenox Venture Capital, a Silicon Valley fund with significant investments in Southeast Asia, has announced a partnership with Japanese trading company Sojitz Corporation to launch a US$30 million fund, which will be managed by the VC firm.

“We are very happy to announce that top Japanese trading company Sojitz just opened a US$30 million fund that will be managed by our Fenox VC team,” Fenox’s Founding Partner and CEO Anis Uzzaman announced in a Facebook post.

Sojitz’s goal is to target and invest in startups using Fenox’s global network. With seven direct branches and employees/partners in more than 40 countries today, Fenox plans to introduce and invest in top startup businesses for Sojitz through this fund. “This will hopefully help accelerate Sojitz’s business as well. Fenox team is fully committed to work with the Sojitz team,” he added.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Fenox VC enters Vietnam with investment in mobile wallet startup OnOnPay

Based in Tokyo, the Sojitz Group consists of approximately 400 subsidiaries and affiliates located in Japan and throughout the world, developing wide-ranging general trading company operations in a multitude of countries and regions. It is engaged in a wide range of businesses globally, including buying, selling, importing, and exporting goods, manufacturing and selling products, providing services, and planning and coordinating projects, in Japan and overseas.

The group also invests in various sectors and conducts financing activities. The broad range of sectors in which Sojitz operates includes those related to automobiles, plants, energy, mineral resources, chemicals, foodstuff resources, agricultural and forestry resources, consumer goods, and industrial parks.

Started in 2011, Fenox works with emerging technology companies across the world. Its 60-plus person team operates out of offices across eight different countries, including Japan, Indonesia, and South Korea, and offers a wide range of domain expertise. It invests between US$250,000 and US$10 million in companies across segments.

Fenox currently manages 18 funds across these markets, and has several multi-million dollar funds under management.

To date, Fenox has invested in close to 120 companies, including 99.co, TechInAsia, Alodokter, Ahlijasa, and Hijup.com, Pomelo Fashion and Moka POS.

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We asked Echelon’s insider and previous TOP100 finalists, and they answered

Counting weeks to Echelon Asia Summit 2019 this coming May, you may have heard about our TOP100 startup pitching competition (of course), the culmination of our two days event where new and promising startups get center stage. This year, it could be your ideas and your business that experience its own TOP100 journey, as e27’s mission of empowering startups in Southeast Asia gives you the chance of a lifetime.

As e27 always support aspiring startups in whatever stage they are in, this one should give you -the hopefuls- a sense of control. This one would be the cheat sheet of how you can increase your chances to make it into TOP100 Echelon this year.

The first one is from Ashleigh, one of our own and the person who belongs to the team that makes Echelon happens. So you can count on his tips to get the attention of the investors that will open the door for you.

Startups should prepare their pitch decks for a 3-minute pitch and prepare questions that investors would typically ask

There will be about five minutes long Q&A after presentation so you better come lock and loaded with any possible questions that would be raised. From inspiration, business model, revenue stream, margins, technical issues, to founders background, anything is possible. Leave no blind spots.

Be able to show what makes you THE startup above your competitors and bring your industry knowledge as well as your salesman skills

Two skills highlighted here by Ash. Your knowledge of the industry must include how many people will be using your solution and what pain points does it solve. Who are the competitors and how are you different from them. Sell it in a convincing way backed by numbers and tested markets.

Ash’s wise reminder: It’s not of the startup/founder that matters, it’s how much passion you have and how you are able to convince others that yours is a business worth investing in. If you don’t make it, ask why from the investors and learn from it. And if needed, pivot. Pivot fast.

Also Read: We are on the way to the first 8 cities of Echelon Roadshow 2019

Next, we also spoke to the previous TOP100 of last year’s Echelon, William Suryawan, Co-founder of MyClinicalPro, a health tech startup based in Indonesia. William gave his side of the experience and what he and his startup did in order to secure a seat at TOP100.

Startups need to prepare a clear and visionary purpose of why they built their startup

William shared that once he was asked about his purpose in building MyClinicalPro and he couldn’t answer him well. Since the encounter, he got to think through his real purpose of building his startups, and it involves the solving element that brings value and tackles an ongoing problem that will have a significant impact to the nations.

“Well, long story short, after figuring out what the big purpose in building my startup was, I defined the long-term vision that was not only from one specific problem, but also from what we want to see how digital technology could improve the health, beauty, and wellness of Indonesia people,” he added.

Now ask yourself the same question and begin with a kickass why.

Bring a clear business model and uniqueness to the stage

“For me at that time, I needed to be able to breakdown the purpose of my startup with a clear statement of what problems I wanted to solve, how would I solve it, and the impact it has brought so far,” William recalled.

Also Read: Meet 15 of the top-notch investors who will be judging TOP100!

There’s a connection between a clear purpose of why you want to develop your startup and how will you improve your startup in the future that needs to be presented. This should be the basis of your business model.

In regards to uniqueness, William emphasised the importance of delivering the unique element of your company as your startup will be compared with others that offer similar products or services. “By the end of your explanation, the investors should be able to think that your startup is bringing something different and valuable enough for them to want to know more,” said William.

William’s wise reminder: You may have a long answer to each question because you are the founder and you know inside out about your startup. But aim to make your answers concise and clear to avoid distraction and undelivered message. You need to ensure the investors can discern your message precisely within the limited time provided by Echelon.

William then shared the questions he prepared to answer for the Q&A stage during his TOP100 moment:

• What problems are you trying to solve?
• What is your solution to the problems?
• What is the impact you have made so far?
• What is your business growth or traction so far?
• What is your revenue structure?
• What is your plan for your startup?
• How will you execute?
• Who will execute?
• What do you expect from the one who listens to you at this moment?

“Crucial thing to do during Q&A is to bring your partner to stage. You might not understand everything in detail and you never expect what question will be asked and how detailed it can get. Good teamwork also plays a role here,” said William.

Now with both sides have given their tips, it could really be your year!

William further added, “The good thing about TOP100 is that it can open your startup to new opportunities because the one who listens to you might be potential investors, strategic partners, or even big customers.”

This year’s TOP100 will be played differently as the pitching sessions will be private, meaning that the only audience is the investors.

The startups will also need to stick around (or come back) for the event in the evening called ‘Echelon Roadshow’ as that’s where the announcement of the startups that qualify for TOP100 at Echelon Asia Summit 2019 will be made.

If you haven’t registered, please do your startup a favor here.
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