Ecomobi and Jupviec are set to boost Vietnam’s app economy and pitch at Echelon Asia 2019!

2019 is shaping up to be the year the Vietnamese dragon wakes from its slumber. It has been a leader in Southeast Asian investment to begin the year and at the end of 2018 enjoyed a US$50 million round from Topica.

This is why TOP100 was so excited to host a qualifying round hosted in Ho Chi Minh City this week.

After an acute afternoon of pitching and on-the-spot questions, Ecomobi Pte Ltd and Jupviec were crowned as the two Judges’ Choice winners! They have been awarded a fully subsidised booth at e27’s Echelon Asia Summit.

On May 23-24, they will stand a chance to compete for over S$100,000 worth of prizes.

Ecomobi Pte Ltd

Empowered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, the platform promises to revolutionise the way everyone sells online.

Ecomobi seeks help e-commerce companies direct sales towards social networks — a golden goose for many e-commerce brands, marketplaces and traditional companies.

Its unique algorithm allows social influencers to monetize their traffic via limitless access to e-commerce inventories and connect with brands instantaneously, optimising both cost-per-acquisition and revenue.

The transparency in performance tracking also enables both parties to monitor transactions and receive personalised suggestions for performance optimisation.

Its pledge to help businesses increase their sales by at least 30 per cent has attracted big-league partners like Shopee, Lazada and Grab.

Currently, Ecomobi’s market is still spreading across the Southeast Asian market, supporting its patrons to garner a diversity of customers from the enormous cross-border community.

While already in cahoots with more than 100 brands and 30,000 social channels, Ecomobi has its sights set on becoming the leading social selling platform in Southeast Asia, setting themselves apart with their big integrated social channels and technology.

Jupviec

Describing themselves as the ‘uber’ for home services, Jupivec aims to become Vietnam’s top home services platform via a ‘for-women-by-women’ approach.

The app offers quality-controlled services like sofa cleaning and hourly cleaning which can be easily tapped on by its many customers seeking to ‘Marie-Kondo’ their space.

Led by CEO Phan Hong Minh, the team of four works hard to ensure a consistent 67 per cent MoM growth rate.

Presently, their services are used in a slew of offices, restaurants and even Airbnbs across eight different cities.

Besides helping out with hygiene, Jupviec also helps impoverished women retain stable jobs to finance their families. They believe that trust, innovation and professionalism are pivotal in establishing a better (not just in terms of hygiene) place for all.

Also Read: Enterprise Singapore sponsors S$100,000 worth of prizes for TOP100!

The qualifiers

Besides the two Judges’ Choices winners, another 10 startups managed to qualify for a partially discounted booth at the same venue. Although they might not have received the regional victory, they still stand a chance at winning the grand prize!

Here they are:

1. Papaya Insurtech
2. KAMEREO
3. 689Cloud, Inc.
4. Buymed Pte. Ltd
5. Compliy
6. GODY.VN
7. AquaGrowGreens
8. Phleek
9. Ferosh
10. Dench Labs

A hearty congratulations to the two Judge’s Choices awardees and the 10 qualifiers! Look out for e27’s next TOP100 event at Hanoi.

Also Read: Singapore TOP100 winners show why Southeast Asian startup scene is the world’s best

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Whatfix helps companies deliver modern on-boarding, training and self-service support to users through contextual content displayed at the time of need

Whatfix, a digital adoption platform that helps companies deliver modern on-boarding, training and self-service support to users through contextual content displayed at the time of need, has raised US$12.5 million in Series B funding led by Eight Roads Ventures India.

US-based F-Prime Capital and Cisco Investments, besides existing investors Stellaris Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners also participated in this round.

Bangalore-based Whatfix plans to use the capital to continue its expansion into the global markets. It will also grow the R&D, marketing, and sales teams in the US and India.

Launched in 2013 by Khadim Batti and Vara Kumar, Whatfix aims to disrupt the way application support and training is delivered to end-users of enterprise applications by providing contextual and real-time guidance. It also allows businesses and individuals to create support for frequently-asked questions (FAQs), training material and interactive tutorials, which can be integrated across all user touch-points inside web applications.

Also Read: This startup could spoil the holiday you obtained by submitting fake medical certificate

The startup aims to solve three critical needs of a business — onboard users to increase conversions and engagement, provide better support to reduce churn, and effective training for employees and customers.

Southeast Asia’s leading e-commerce company Lazada is one of its customers.

“Whatfix is one of the leading vendors of choice for enterprises that are looking at driving digital adoption across all their enterprise software applications (EASs) seamlessly. Soon, there will be widespread automation with AI and machine learning changing the way we work. However, employees will need digital expertise to leverage these technologies to effectively elevate productivity,” Co-founder and CEO Khadim Batti said.​ “​Whatfix is already the simplest and the most effective platform for delivering an engaging and superior employee experience.”

“Accelerating user adoption is a key element of customer experience management, a focus area for Cisco. Whatfix is helping lead a market shift to a new, data-driven approach to user adoption. The Whatfix team is an example of the significant enterprise-tech talent in India, and we are excited to support them in their global journey,” said Sameer Garde, President India and SAARC at Cisco.

In April 2017, Whatfix raised US$3.7 million in Series A, led by Stellaris, with participation from Helion and Powerhouse Ventures. Prior to this, the startup had raised under US$900,000 in seed funding from Helion, preceded by a US$300,000 from Hanwha Group. 

As per Whatfix’s estimates, the digital adoption for enterprise application software is a US$8 billion market and is growing rapidly.

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The city is predicted to see a compound annual growth rate of 7.4 per cent from 2019-2023 for the e-commerce industry

Hong Kong is a city known for its fast-paced lifestyle, upscale fashion and shop-til-you-drop lifestyle. The e-commerce industry is no different.

E-commerce plays a very important role in the economy of Hong Kong (HK). Statista expects local e-commerce revenue of around US$4.8 billion in 2019.

The same report states that the revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2019-2023) of 7.4 per cent, resulting in a market volume of US$6.4 billion by 2023. This indicates an incredible potential in the e-commerce sector in Hong Kong for the next four years.

To find out who are the top e-commerce players in Hong Kong, iPrice recently conducted a market analysis utilising data such as the average total visits (desktop and mobile web) and mobile application rankings (both iOS App Store and Google Play Store).

Top 10 e-commerce platforms in Hong Kong as of Q4 2018

 

 

Total average visits (desktop and mobile web) as of Q4 2018.

To ensure a fair analysis and comparison, our report focuses on e-commerce companies based in Hong Kong, international companies with an official Hong Kong specific domain and selected international platforms that are most popularly used among consumers in Hong Kong.

In Q4 2018, Tmall takes the lead with an average of 7.9 million total monthly visits (desktop and mobile web) compared to DC Fever (5.6 million) and HKTV Mall (4.4 million).

Tmall.hk’s parent company, Alibaba invested heavily in marketing the Singles’ Day sales, this would explain the flare in November 2018 with a whopping 10.1 million total visits (desktop and mobile web) in that month alone.

However, in December 2018 Tmall experienced a drop of total visits by 3.9 million which could indicate that Christmas Sales is not as big compared to the Singles’ Day sales.

Both DC Fever and HKTV Mall displayed the same pattern as Tmall in November compared to December. However, e-commerce platforms are expected to rebound in January 2019 in conjunction with the pre-Chinese New Year festivities. DC Fever and HKTV Mall experienced a 10 per cent increase in total visits in January 2019.

Popular Foreign E-commerce Platforms in Hong Kong

 

 

Estimated total visits (desktop and mobile web) from Hong Kong in January 2019.

Hong Kong consumers are avid shoppers at international e-commerce platforms as well.

Among the most visited international e-commerce platforms are China-based websites Taobao and JD. As of January 2019, Taobao has over 601 million in total worldwide visits (desktop and mobile web) and 3.98 per cent of visitors were from Hong Kong.

This equivalent to 23.95 million visits from Hong Kong in January 2019, which has a population of 7.5 million as of 2019. In that same month, the top five e-commerce platforms in Hong Kong, notably JD.com (5.2 million), Tmall (7.9 million), DC Fever (4.2 million) and HKTV Mall (4.5 million), garnered lesser total visits as compared to the e-commerce platform by Alibaba.

This indicates that Taobao is the most visited e-commerce platform in Hong Kong from the estimation based on SimilarWeb’s data.

According to the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong is now a battlefield for China’s Singles’ Day sales. Alibaba, the parent company of Taobao and Tmall, was the first to popularise the Singles’ Day sales, enjoyed record-breaking US$ 18.26 billion within just 24 hours. Just last year, JD.com had followed the move made by Alibaba Group and had launched their first Singles’ Day sales in 2018.

Jake Yu, head of supply chain from JD.com, said

“Hong Kong consumers are very picky and have an international mindset. If we can win them over, we can win the rest of the world over.”

Within the Singles’ Day sales period which takes place in November, JD.com customers were rewarded with free shipping for shopping on their website and coupons for those new to the online platform. This could explain the rising popularity of JD.com in Hong Kong in recent times and they are most likely to remain as one of the most visited e-commerce platforms in the country.

Top Mobile Shopping Apps in Hong Kong

On the other hand, consumers purchasing behaviour on desktops and mobile phones are very different. This is evident as studies such as the one conducted by KPMG in 2017 shows that mobile strategies had doubled payment transactions compared to 2016.

Therefore, it is vital to analyse the highest-ranking mobile shopping applications to ascertain the top e-commerce players in Hong Kong. This analysis was done by averaging the rankings of the top mobile shopping applications on both Google Play Store and iOS App Store. We ranked the applications according to the highest average rank recorded between 19 November 2018 and 11 February 2019.

 

All applications were ranked according to the highest average rank recorded between 19 November 2018 and 11 February 2019. Data were obtained via AppAnnie.

From our analysis, Taobao is strong in the lead for both their website and applications on both app stores (Google Play Store and iOS App Store). This reaffirms Taobao’s market-leading position in Hong Kong as they are also the most visited (on desktop and mobile web) e-commerce platform according to our estimates.

Supporting this claim is KPMG, who confirms that Taobao has been leading the market since 2017 and 45 per cent of online consumers tend to make purchases on the platform owned by Alibaba.

Our analysis also indicates that Hong Kong consumers have an affinity towards fashion specific applications such as Zalora, ASOS, and Farfetch. This aligns with the survey by KPMG in 2017, where 62 per cent more likely to purchase fashion products online. Amazon remains as one of the top shopping apps in HK as of Q4 2018 in both app stores. In our analysis, the American-based mobile app is more popular on Android as compared to Apple mobile devices.

Predictions for 2019 and Beyond

Given that Taobao is currently leading the e-commerce platform according to our estimates in January 2019, it is likely to see as a continuing trend in the remaining months (February and March) of Q1 2019.

Solidifying Alibaba’s leading position in HK would be Tmall as well. This is evident as Tmall garnered more than 10 million in total visits (desktop and mobile web) in January 2019 while DC Fever obtained 4.2 million total visits (desktop and mobile web) in the same month.

In the long run, it is very possible to see the prominence of either new or mid-field e-commerce players taking over the leading spots.

There is great untapped potential in the Hong Kong e-commerce sector. As stated by Statista, e-commerce revenues are expected to push up to US$6.4 billion by 2023. Moreover, given that the 11.11 sales are still relatively new and increasing rapidly in popularity and demand, this would encourage further participation from new and emerging e-commerce players to gain a big piece of the action.

Methodology

• Data was collected as of February 2019.
• All data on the total visits on desktop and mobile web in this study were taken from global traffic figures from the respective websites except for Taobao and JD.com. Estimates on total visits from desktop and mobile web on Taobao and JD.com from Hong Kong were based on data by SimilarWeb. Insights based on SimilarWeb data.
• App Ranking – Average ranking of mobile app 19th November 2018 – 11th February 2019. Source: AppAnnie.
• The following industries were not included in our analysis: e-ticketing, financial services, rental services, insurance, delivery service, food & beverage, meta-search, couponing, cashback websites and e-commerce platforms who solely provides classified ads/P2P services. E-commerce companies who initiated their business as a physical store were not included in our analysis.

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iPrice Group is a meta-search website operating in Hong Kong and in six countries across South East Asia namely in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam. Currently, iPrice compares and catalogues more than 500 million products and receives more than 15 million monthly visits across the region. iPrice operates three business lines: price comparison for electronics and health & beauty; product discovery for fashion and home & living; and coupons across all verticals.

On a regular basis, iPrice Group releases industry insights on topics pertaining to e-commerce, the tech industry, and startups. Stay tuned to iPrice’s insights here: https://iprice.hk/trends/insights/

Photo by SHUJA ZED on Unsplash

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The acquisition is a nice win for a Singapore company that launched back in 2012

SugarCRM, a company that specialises in Customer Relationship Managment (CRM) software, has acquired Collabspot, a Singaporean startup for email integration.

Collabspot was founded in June, 2012 and built a product that targetted the sales industry and integrated a CRM platform with Gmail and other email providers.

With the acquisition, SugarCRM hopes to use it to provide real-time alerts and insights based on real-time analysis of communications.

On a similar note, SugarCRM launched a product called Hint Insights last month, which gathers data from “multiple channels” to give salespeople signals they can use for decision making.

SugarCRM is driving towards building a CRM system that does not require any data entry.

Collabspot is an alumni of the now-closed JFDI Accelerator programme and in 2013 it raised a US$64,000 seed funding. The company did not raise any further financing, according to Crunchbase.

While the business was incorporated in Singapore, Collabspot was built in the Philippines and had a close connection to the archipelago.

In 2012, Collabspot pitched at an Echelon satellite event in Manila — a predecessor to e27‘s current TOP100 programme.

The acquisition will be considered the first move for new SugarCRM CEO Craig Charlton, who was appointed to the position in early March.

“The acquisition makes great sense for the business and for our users, who told us that they wanted a product like this to be part of our core offering. By maintaining our focus on innovation and listening to our customers’ needs we’ll continue to provide a market-leading CRM experience and grow by adding real value to the many businesses we support around the world,” said Charlton.

In August, 2018 SugarCRM raised funding from Accel-KKR, a technology-focussed private equity firm.

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Also, Enterprise Singapore chooses Penbrothers as Philippine partner, Hong Kong’s CoinFLEX launches loyalty coin to build trading community

Healthtech startup CXA Group secures US$25M funding [e27]

Singapore-based healthtech company CXA Group announced the US$25 million funding it has raised from HSBC, Singtel Innov8, Telkom Indonesia MDI Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation Equity Asia, Muang Thai Fuchsia Ventures, Humanica, and Heritas Venture Fund.

The company said it will use the funding for expansion to Asia Pacific.

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

CXA uses predictive data to help corporates improve their health and wellness offerings for employees.It claims to have over 600 enterprise clients that allows them to serve over 400,000 employees in 20 countries.

In the past, the company has raised US$25 million from B Capital and EDBI back in February 2017. The current round brings CXA’s total fundraising to US$58 million.

Enterprise Singapore’s Plug and Play Network makes Penbrothers its Philippine partner [Press Release]

Penbrothers, the office lease and augmented staff company seeking to facilitate international startups and SMEs in building their team in the Philippines, has entered into a strategic partnership with Enterprise Singapore’s Plug & Play network.

The partnership will see that Singapore-based startups & SMEs expanding in the Philippines can access the quality services, talent, and vibrant office spaces that Penbrothers offers.

“Penbrothers continues to look for various ways to support Singapore companies enter new markets through The Philippines’ pool of talent,”said Josef Werker, Managing Director of Penbrothers International Inc. “We believe that we’re reinventing how Singapore companies scale & build their teams along with Enterprise Singapore’s role in supporting their network.”

Hong Kong’s CoinFLEX launches FLEX Coin to build trading community [Press Release]

CoinFLEX, the physically delivered crypto futures exchange, has launched FLEX Coin in a bid to encourage liquidity and reward for early traders members who trade on the platform.

The mechanism would be a set amount of FLEX Coin to be paid out to traders based on the proportion of the volume they trade as a taker, relative to the total daily volume on the platform. The coins can be exchanged for a discount on the cost of using the platform.

By spending coins, a user can receive back 50% off their total trading fees from the previous 24 hours.

Furthermore, aside from its physically-delivered bitcoin futures, CoinFLEX will also introduce the world’s first stablecoin-to-stablecoin futures contract, and will provide investors with the ability to hedge exposures with zero index or settlement manipulation risk.

CoinFLEX has also announced the addition of investment firm Digital Currency Group and blockchain investment company Polychain as investors. The current existing investors are Trading Technologies, Roger Ver, Mike Komaransky, and Dragonfly Capital Partners, as well as a number of leading market making firms.

WeWork opens first location in Vietnam [Press Release]

Co-working space unicorn WeWork announced its first location opened in E. Town Central in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, right after the first location in the Philippines.

The new location has a Grade-A and Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standard certified building. The WeWork E. Town Central adds to the company’s growing presence in Southeast Asia and it’s ready to welcome over 1,000 members to the community across four floors (22nd to 25th).

To date, WeWork has since grown to 18 locations with more than 13,000 members across Southeast Asia from December 2017.

“With Vietnam’s rapid economic growth in Southeast Asia, we see immense business potential for WeWork to contribute back to its vibrant economy. Our spaces in cities across the region have also greatly proven to be a springboard that enables creator communities to flourish,” said Turochas “T” Fuad, Managing Director, WeWork Southeast Asia.

The space and community are aimed to deliver local materials such as block bricks and rattan were also embodied in tandem with WeWork’s signature aesthetics.

Also Read: Hong Kong e-commerce analysis shows Alibaba is king of the hill

Grounded in WeWork’s mission of supporting its members, WeWork is also growing in tandem with them and is here to connect people through intelligent design by fostering community and opportunities.

WeWork welcomes members ranging from global enterprises to organizations with a presence in Vietnam such as Christina’s, a fully-integrated online-to-offline travel company; UrbanFox, an omnichannel logistics and channel management solutions brand as a subsidiary of Singapore’s conglomerate Keppel Corporation; Vingroup Ventures, a Vingroup company.
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