CXA Group uses predictive data to help corporates improve their health and wellness offerings for employees

CXA Group, a Singaporean healthtech company, announced today it has raised US$25 million from a host of new strategic investors.

The money will be used to fuel expansion across APAC.

The strategic investors were HSBC, Singtel Innov8, Telkom Indonesia MDI Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Muang Thai Fuchsia Ventures, Humanica and Heritas Venture Fund.

According to TechCrunch, there are other strategic investors that are not listed.

CXA is a healthcare company that uses big data to help companies provide personalised health and wellness services to their employees. It has also grown into one of Singapore’s startup success stories, having raised US$25 million from B Capital and EDBI back in February 2017.

It claims to have over 600 enterprise clients that allows them to serve over 400,000 employees in 20 countries.

The choice of targetting investors was not an accident. The hope is that this partnership can be leveraged to integrate CXA services into the B2B offerings for these companies.

“CXA is today the leading health ecosystem platform that enables individuals across Asia to make better choices for healthier living, starting from the workplace, thereby empowering a shift in spend from treatment to prevention. We have seen overwhelming interest from global strategic investors who are excited to work with us to advance our business and vision,” said CEO Rosaline Chow Koo in a statement.

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The company highlighted a statistic that chronic disease hits Asians 10 years earlier than people in the West. Because of that, a one-size-fits-all approach to corporate healthcare is inadequate.

Three separate quotes from Singtel Innov8, HSBC and Heritas all pointed to a platform that allows employers improve their internal healthcare policies as the reason for their investment.

The current round brings CXA’s total fundraising to US$58 million.

Also Read: ‘I feel naked without my phone’ should be a good thing

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Edmicro creates a smart self-learning ecosystem that allows Vietnamese students to learn, practice and master the subjects being taught in classrooms

Edmicro, a Hanoi-based edtech startup that is building a smart self-learning ecosystem for Vietnamese students, has been selected for the March 2019 cohort of GMC Calibrator, a programme run by US-based impact investment firm Gray Matters Capital (GMC).

The selection of Edmicro also marks GMC’s foray into Southeast Asia. It will look at funding high-growth high-impact for-profit enterprises from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia for its gender lens portfolio – coLABS.

Edmicro will join eight other startups, including Dcoder, InnerHour, Lal10, Matrubharti, Quest Alliance and Skipy (all from India), along with two African startups — Sierra Leone based Mosabi and Kenya’s MumsVillage — for the programme.

Also Read: How edtech is changing the landscape of education in Asia

Founded by Que Nguyen, Dang Bao Linh and Linh Pham, Edmicro aims to create a smart self-learning ecosystem, called Onluyen.vn, for Vietnamese students that adapts to the needs of every learner and allows them to learn, practice and master the subjects being taught in their classrooms.

A cloud-computing platform, it was designed by learning scientists to measure and predict performance and progress in any digital learning product, and uses advanced machine-learning algorithms to analyse learner data and illuminate underlying patterns and relationships.

“75 per cent of Vietnamese students attend extra classes to understand lessons. They lack a good learning tool for complementing classroom learning through self-study. Teachers lack the teaching tools which enable them to record capabilities of each student, and support them in customising the teaching materials to personal student capabilities. Edmicro is filling in this gap,” said Nguyen, CEO and CTO, Edmicro.

“Our participation in the GMC Calibrator will help us in fine-tuning our personalised learning solutions and make our micro learning offerings more effective in improving learning outcomes by analysing learner data better,” he added.

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“We wish to replicate the success of optimising the performance of India’s leading test-prep solutions such as MadGuy Labs and SarkariPariksha with Edmicro to make it the self-learning platform of choice for students through the GMC Calibrator intervention,” said Omkar Kulkarni, Programme Head, GMC Calibrator.

GMC Calibrator is a digital programme launched in April 2018 with an aim to make the mobile phone a device to promote ‘self learning to earning’ by improving user engagement, monetisation and optimisation of mobile learning platforms. This is done by understanding and implementing the principles of behavioural science and data-driven decision making.

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“From an engagement point of view, we saw impact on the lines of 30 per cent increase in monthly retention and 20 per cent average increase in revenue across the first cohort we ran from June to December 2018. Three companies of the cohort raised funding during the six-month engagement while two made it to Google Launchpad and Reliance’s Jio GenNext Accelerator. We are confident of calibrating more such success stories with our March 2019 cohort,” Kulkarni noted.

Gray Matters Capital (GMC) is an Atlanta-based impact investor with a gender lens that is on a mission to support “an education leading to a more purposeful life for 100 million women by 2036.” In India, it is focused on making investments in for-profit enterprises providing access to affordable quality education and employability leading to a future job ready workforce with 21st century skills.

Globally, GMC makes sector agnostic investments in for-profit enterprises whose products or services benefit women and girls at scale through its gender lens portfolio coLABS.

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WeWork lets you find your Southeast Asia innovation partner

It’s all about proximity.

Humans are social creatures; we tend to trust people we have close proximity with or those who move in the same social landscape as we do. It’s not being snobbish (though sometimes it is perceived to be) but merely logical — if we know what they’re up to on a daily basis, it’s easier for us to understand them and see how they fit in our lives.

The same can be said for businesses.

Companies tend to collaborate with other companies who move around the same community. How many times have you asked a startup how they ended up collaborating with another company and their answer was somehow related to being aware of the other’s existence because they are part of the same community?

But in today’s world of great connectivity, communities go beyond visual and geographical proximity. So, a more accurate phrase would be: it’s all about community.

Take WeWork, for example.

WeWork prides itself as a builder of community. Not just hundreds of communities in their spaces, but a single global community that acts as a platform for borderless collaboration.

Shared workspaces are a bed of collaboration opportunities

In a typical WeWork location, an enterprise will have over 160 potential companies to collaborate with. That means over 160 companies across different industries that could help an enterprise innovate its product or improve its service, or even create more efficient internal processes.

Hiring platform Wantedly is one such example. With the goal of helping corporates and startups with their hiring needs, Wantedly has had several collaborations simply by being a part of the WeWork community.

“Through the network of WeWork, we were connected with Zilingo,” said Gerald Koh Zong Wei, Business Development at Wantedly. “We were able to form a partnership that resulted in them being part of our recent successful Halloween Hiring Fest that saw over 400 attendees.”

The partnerships that Wantedly formed were not limited just to the companies they share workspace with. They were also invited to join events and work with companies in other WeWork locations.

That is the idea behind shared work spaces that WeWork is cultivating in to a culture; that collaboration is the key to better, quicker innovation, and that your next partner just might be sitting across from you in that communal space.

Communities beyond borders mean more collaboration opportunities

WeWork’s global network of over 400,000 members found in more than 425 locations globally is a massive community. What does this mean? Massive opportunities for collaboration.

Imagine that you’re a large enterprise in Singapore that wants to expand in an emerging market like the Philippines. Who best to help you possibly develop your business or product than someone in the Philippines, who understands the market and business landscape?

And it goes beyond that.

You don’t need to limit it to expansion opportunities. Corporates can develop new products, improve their services, and make their internal processes efficient by collaborating on innovation projects with startups from across the region.

Community is central to innovation. Corporates who want to confront the threat of becoming obsolete can open their innovation strategy to increased exchanges with the ecosystem, beginning with the WeWork network.

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WeWork offers more than just shared workspaces – they create environments that increase productivity, innovation, and collaboration. For enquiries on WeWork membership, visit their website or schedule a visit at a WeWork location near you.

Image credit: 123rf.com / 83598913 / Katarzyna Bialasiewicz

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Much like Uber in the US, Didi and Ola suddenly find themselves losing market share to other companies in their market

Since Lyft publicly released its much anticipated IPO filings on March 1, many pundits have weighed in on its growth rates, heavy losses and future prospects.

There are a number of insights hidden between the lines that we can find from Lyft’s filings.

Here, we dive more deeply beyond Lyft’s financials to delve into the true motivation behind Lyft’s IPO that potential investors should heed, and subsequently lessons for other ride-sharing companies like Uber, Didi Chuxing in China and Ola in India.

IPO to cash out, not to raise capital to compete

Typically, companies list their stocks publicly in order to raise more capital to finance growth.

This in turn creates opportunities for investors, as public companies can use their newly raised funds to execute on projects that can take them to the next level and accelerate their growth.

However, this does not seem to be the true motivation behind Lyft’s IPO. First, Lyft is losing almost a billion dollars every year. In comparison, their financing goal is a mere US$100 million, barely enough to make a difference in their growth plan.

Even by a more conservative measure of operating cash flow (which was about US$280 million in 2018), that extra $100mn of cash won’t be able to make that big of a difference.

What this implies is that the end-goal of this IPO is actually to open a venue for its investors to cash out on their investments.

Although most of Lyft’s significant investors will be “locked-up” and won’t be allowed to sell their shares for 180 days after Lyft’s listing, this is a rather standard practice for most IPOs. It also creates more impetus to pull forward their listing date before their rival Uber raises even more money to compete.

Signal to reach profitability by lowering subsidies?

If our reading of Lyft’s IPO is correct, another important implication is that Lyft might be willing to start lowering its driver and rider subsidies to reach profitability, especially if Uber does the same.

The competitive dynamic in the ride-sharing industry has been that of a typical prisoner’s dilemma. Ride-sharing companies’ primary mode of competition has been subsidizing drivers and riders.

Although they could make profit more easily if they both stopped this strategy, the prospect of losing market share if only one of them stops forces them into a bitter knife fight where both are constantly burning money to compete.

Check out this Decision Matrix for Uber vs Lyft Prisoner’s Dilemma:

In such a scenario, usually the bigger player with more money ends up winning as it is able to outlast its competition.

However, Lyft was able to grow rapidly on the back of Uber’s PR disasters in 2017, evidenced clearly by a massive acceleration in its growth rate in Q1-Q2 of 2017. By leveraging this opportunity, Lyft raised $600 million and grew its market share massively while Uber has been busy with its reorganization for the past year.

However, now that Lyft’s growth rate is slowing and Uber also has had more than a year of restructuring, Lyft’s small financing goal could be a signal to Uber that Lyft is willing to play ball.

Ahead of Uber’s imminent IPO, Lyft is raising a relatively small sum of capital, which means it is willing to be a consistent number two player in North America with substantially less resources. In such a situation, Lyft has an outsized incentive to follow Uber if Uber decides to decrease rider and driver subsidies to make a profit.

Cautionary tale for Didi Chuxing

While a path to profit could a be positive news for both Uber and Lyft, that Uber lost so much market share in the US since 2017 serves as a cautionary tale, especially for Didi Chuxing in China, which is currently going through a similar problem.

After all, just how much value did 15 per cent of market share in the US cost Uber?

After a series of murders of its passengers in 2018, Didi Chuxing has been facing an uphill battle in China in trying to recover consumer’s trust. At the same time, a competitor called DiDa Chuxing has been exploiting this opportunity to grow massively, and has been even outranking Didi in Apple App Store’s download rankings for the past several months.

Also Read: This Singapore healthtech company just raised US$25 million for APAC expansion

If Dida is able to continue this growth and even raise a massive amount of capital to continue doing so, Didi could face a similar consequence as Uber did in the US.

Ola in India: Still not out of the water

The ripple effect of Lyft’s IPO could reach India as well. Unlike China or Southeast Asia, India is the only market that Uber hasn’t yet exited despite having a very strong local rival.

As we’ve written previously, Uber is now the undisputed leader in most of its markets except India. If the competition in the US calms down and Uber finds itself in a much healthier financial situation after its IPO, it could be well positioned to grow more aggressively in India.

Also Read: Singapore-based fintech company Sygnum to build tokenised, smart financial infrastructure

Not only that, the latest news that Uber may sell its India UberEats business in exchange for a stake in Swiggy, a local food delivery company, rather than to Ola (or its investee Foodpanda) may suggest that Uber isn’t ready to quit on India just yet, though the possibility still exists.

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The Singapore-based company has just launched its hostels in Bali and Yangon

Tribe Theory, a hostel startup from Singapore, announced today that it has raised a total of S$1 million (US$739,165) seed funding from Superangel, Aurum Investments, and REAPRA. The company has just launched its physical hostels in Bali and Yangon.

Also Read: This Singapore healthtech company just raised US$25 million for APAC expansion

The company said that the fresh funding will be used to expand their footprints physically, especially in targeted places like Tallinn Estonia, Kuala Lumpur, and the Philippines, launch new business offerings and hires new senior-level team member.

As for the new business offerings, Tribe Theory said that it recently launched Tribe Theory Academy. The academy offers a learning and upskilling concept, which will run its Digital Marketing and Web Development programs at Tribe Theory’s Startup Village in Bali in upcoming May.

The 80 hours-programs will be run by experts within in-person classes alongside creative assignments. People who register will get accommodation in the Startup Village and three healthy meals a day.

“We believe that our concept appeals to the next generation of entrepreneurs and startups. Not just a place to stay, people also want a place where they can meet likeminded people from around the world who are on the same entrepreneurial journey. We provide a place where people can get that, and leave the place feeling empowered as part of our global community,” said Vikram Bharati, Founder of Tribe Theory.

Tribe Theory was founded last year with the focus to bring together the startup community by providing an affordable place to stay with the specific needs of traveling entrepreneurs in mind.

With the approach, Tribe Theory’s spaces combine the communal atmosphere of a hostel with the environment of a co-working space.

The company said that in its first year, it has welcomed over 4,000 entrepreneurs from all parts of the world to its locations in Singapore, Bali, Bangalore, Hong Kong, and Yangon.

Tribe Theory Academy, the mentioned offering of the company, will be rolled out at locations around the world, with the plans to offer these courses on the most sought-after new skills, tailored for entrepreneurs, as a means of networking while upskilling.

Also Read: Silicon Valley customer service company acquires Singaporean startup Collabspot

Tribe Theory aims to be in 25 countries across the globe within the next four year. The next move, it said, would be launching initiatives for talent management and exchange, content creation, professional services, and investments and funding.
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Image Credit: Tribe Theory

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