In addition to the two Judge’s Choice winners, the e27 TOP100 competition also named eight other qualifying startups

The Jakarta round of the TOP100 competition closed on Thursday, April 4, with Mussy.co and Yuna & Co being crowned as winners of the Judge’s Choice award.

The two startups are set to get:

• A free exhibition booth space in the TOP100 Zone at Echelon
• A pitching slot on the TOP100 stage on day one of Echelon
• Intimate investor meetings and inclusion to Corporate business matching
• Five starter tickets to Echelon Asia Summit
• Access to the TOP100 Tour in Singapore

Mussy.co is musicians marketplace platform that aims to help customers find and book quality musicians for events, while empowering local musicians at the same time.

Started out in 2017, the platform initially targeted lower class cafes but expanded to middle class markets with lower volume but higher transaction value a year later. Most of its users are in the B2B segment, thought it has also begun to enter the B2C segment.

The service is run through revenue-sharing scheme with 30 per cent of fee going to Mussy.co.

By 2022, the platform aims to develop into becoming its own indie artists management. Before that, it also wants to provide a streaming and online advertising platform for the musicians.

Also Read: Our TOP100 Taiwan champion says let’s bring chatbots to real estate!

The startup’s milestones include clocking in IDR900 million (US$63,500) transaction value and having 2,500 musicians on the platform. It has also won accolades such as the second winner of Indonesia Startup Insight in Singapore on November 2018 and the top nine list of Startup Turkey Competition in 2018.

It is currently looking for a US$300,000 funding round to reach 238,000 transactions in 2023.

Yuna & Co is a fashion platform that aims to make it easier for customers to find and wear clothing that suits their personal style best, by offering a digital personal stylist service.

The platform works by users entering their style profile on the Yuna & Co platform. Users then choose among the available boxes, with prices ranging from IDR599,000 (US$42) to IDR999,000 (US$70). Once the box is delivered to the user, they get to try the contents on and give feedback to the platform.

By 2020, Yuna & Co aims to have their fashion recommendation service to be run by 80 per cent machine.

The company is currently raising a US$500,000 funding round to build inventory and scale its market reach until December 2019.

Also Read: Yangon’s TOP100 champ sees itself spearheading the future of freelance

In the Indonesian e-commerce sector itself, fashion continues to be the biggest revenue driver with the category taking over more than 25 per cent of total e-commerce revenue. In 2018, total e-commerce revenue in the country has reached US$12 billion, and it is expected to reach US$53 billion by 2025.

In addition to the two startups, the TOP100 competition also named eight other qualifying startups:

• AMREN
• Crewdible
• Giladiskon
• Indexa Law
• Pay OK
• PT Piniship Logistik Indonesia
• PT Spark Integrated Solutions
• temandokter

Congratulations for all the winners and stay tuned for more updates from TOP100 competitions!

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Jingle Magic is a Beijing-based education tech startup that provides a Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and AI-powered educational software

MyEG Capital, the investment arm of e-government service provider MyEG Services Bhd, announced that it has invested a total of US$1.5 million into Chinese edtech company Jingle Magic, as reported by Deal Street Asia.

Joining the investment are Zhejiang ZHongdi Investment Management, which is an education sector-focused investment fund affiliated with Tsinghua Holdings Group’s Muhua Education Fund, and VC firm Beijing Dianjing Zhiyuan Investment Center.

The company said that it will use the funding to continue tapping into disruptive technologies to benefits to society.

“We believe that schools in the future will extensively deploy AR systems to enhance the learning experience,” said MyEG managing director TS Wong commenting on the investment.

Jingle Magic was established in 2016 and it develops Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based educational equipment and software. The products of the edtech company are AI-based AR smart desk, AI smart board, as well as diversified Internet system infrastructure solutions for schools.

Also Read: Six Singapore-based IoT companies sign deal with Thailand’s depa

The startup has a host of backers since its last financing round in 2016 that includes Anhui Kexun Venture Capital, a venture capital firm under iFlytek Co Ltd; Nantong Muhua Equity Investment Center, a part of Muhua Education; and Beijing Yifan Taihe Venture Capital Center.

Other portfolio companies under MyEG Capital include FashionValet, Agmo Studio and Stampede Solutions. This investment in the edtech company would be the second investment in AR/VR/AI space by MyEG Capital having done so for US$2.4 million in Ximmerse last year for 3.13 per cent interest exchange.
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Go-Jek, with US$10B valuation, is in 19th position on the CB Insights list, just below its bigger rival Grab, which is valued US$11B

Ride-hailing firm Go-Jek is now a decacorn, a company with over US$10 billion valuation, according to a CB Insights listing.

It is the first Indonesian company to achieve this feat.

Go-Jek is in 19th position on the list, just below its bigger rival Grab, which is valued over US$11 billion.
Their global competitor Uber is on the top, with a valuation of over US$72 billion.

Tokopedia and Traveloka, two other tech companies from the archipelago with valuations of US$7 billion and US$2 billion, respectively, have also got a mention on the report, which has listed all the 335 unicorn companies across the globe.

Filipino company Revolution Precrafted, which offers a collection of limited edition, pre-crafted properties, including homes and pavilions, has also found place on the list.

Also Read: Fashion and music take centre stage at Jakarta’s TOP100 announcement

Go-Jek is a all-in-one convenience service, with different business units including Go-Ride, Go-Send, Go-Food, and Go-Mart. It has also recently expanded with Go-Box, Go-Glam, Go-Clean and Go-Massage.

The company is backed by a number of investors, including Google Capital, Tencent Holdings, KKR and Sequoia Capital. Go-Jek is reportedly continuing its fundraising push, setting its goal at raising US$2 billion. As per a TechCrunch report, its existing investors, including Google, Tencent, and JD.com, have agreed to invest around US$920 million into the latest round.

 

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Oops and sorrys won’t rectify colossal slip-ups

According to a PwC report, 97 per cent of organisations believe that project management is critical for the performance and success of a business. However, despite the astounding statistic, all is not hunky dory in the project management landscape.

Let me tell you why:

• Most businesses experience a project failure rate of 70 per cent. [com]
• Only 2.5 per cent of organizations can complete 100 per cent of their projects successfully. [Gallup]
• Over one in three projects (33.3 per cent) have no baseline or direction. [Wellingtone]
• Only 56 per cent of project managers hold the certification to do their job. Even the specialists at corporates such as IBM are no exception. [Wrike]

Therefore, it isn’t surprising to witness a majority of organisations being unable to complete a project within a specific timeframe and budget. These mistakes lead to reduced performance, cause delays in delivery and in worst cases lead to major failures thereby hampering the growth of a business.

Although each project has its own separate set of issues, why do so many projects fail? There are certain predictable and recurring sinkholes to watch out for before they doom your client projects. They can either make or break your business.

1. Lack of a clear business objective

68 per cent of projects are devoid of active business leaders who can provide direction or address bottlenecks. [Wrike]

The primary requirement for a project to succeed is setting clear goals. How can you start your journey when you’re clueless about the destination?

Similarly, if you haven’t found answers to critical questions like “What is the purpose of this project” or “What is its importance to the brand”, the chances of your project seeing the light of the day are minimal.

A Pulse of Profession survey found “inadequate vision” to be the fourth common cause of project failure. Although the leadership has the desired outcome fixed, they fail to pinpoint the exact goal they’d want to achieve and the KPI’s to be used to measure the objective. How can you come up with an effective roadmap in this situation?

Poor goal setting is a result of a lack of consensus among the leaders regarding the direction of the progress or the success criteria. A drastic change in the requirements can also lead to unclear goals.

Some effective tips to identify and establish clear goals for a project are:

• Your goals follow the SMART criteria – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.
• The stakeholders’ expectations must be in sync from the time the project is started.
• While evaluating the timelines, research the historical data available to calibrate the goals. If your company has managed such a project in the past, check the data to validate if your goals are manageable or irrational.
• Involve your team members in goal setting and planning. Research proves that collaborative goal-setting makes the team feel more involved, accountable and satisfied.

Successful project management thrives on predefined goals. And without those goals, it’s challenging for a project manager and his or her team to work in the right direction.

Tip

Sit with your senior management team and chalk out business objectives. A lack of clear goals is the reason why 37 per cent of projects fail. Don’t let that happen to your business.

2. Undefined team responsibilities

It’s crucial for teams across an organisation to be clear about their responsibilities and KPIs. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen most of the time. That’s where holding a “kickoff meeting” before the beginning of a project makes a difference.

By the end of that meeting, every single team member should have an understanding of what they are supposed to do in the project as an individual and how their contribution is going to fuel the project’s goals.

Also Read: Go-Jek becomes Indonesia’s first ‘decacorn’ company

“We were confused with where to start” is the last thing you want to hear from your project managers. Defining team responsibilities indirectly boosts employee morale because they are made aware of how their work is adding value to the organisation.

Tip

Make your project managers use Gantt charts so that the team members are always aware of their responsibilities and they stay on schedule.

3. Lack of project prioritisation

Only 20 per cent of project managers have their projects aligned with their organisation’s business strategy. [Changepoint]

It is humanly impossible for your project managers to take a dive into a humongous project and immediately start breezing through the deadlines. And before you know, they start dragging their feet to finish the job; thus, affecting your organization’s overall goals.

Break down the project into smaller and doable tasks. The assigned team can then work in steps and checkpoints that help them better to remain on track.

The core of project management relies on deciding attainable and realistic goals which are easily achievable. The project should be segmented in such a way that the assigned team makes progress every day.

The two effective ways to deal with this, to save additional headache and hassle is to:

• Categorize the tasks as – critical, important and good-to-do. This helps the team to be more productive.
• Follow the 80-20 rule. 20 per cent of the tasks will lead to 80 per cent of productivity. Identify that 20 per cent of the tasks and assign a high-level of urgency to them.

Tip

Manage your projects in the structure of a portfolio to identify the high-priority tasks.

4. Hiring the wrong project manager

A project cannot be successful if the resources are not properly allocated. The reason why the project manager is indispensable in this process is because he/she identifies the objective, the problem to be solved, gathers inputs from the management and team members decides the objectives and chalks a pathway of activities to deliver the expected results.

The next step for the project manager is to plan and schedule daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly tasks, supervise the execution, monitor the progress, evaluate the team’s performance, bring the project to a successful end and capture the learnings.

The modern-day manager performs tasks similar to the traditional manager including:

• Creating a framework for activities involved in the project
• Identifying the resources needed
• Recruiting more members as and when needed
• Setting milestones
• Coordinating with various teams
• Keeping the work on a track and setting a clear vision
• Ensuring that everyone in the team participates and benefits
• Mediating conflicts
• Ensuring that the milestones are delivered on time and within the decided budget

Tip

A good project manager can make or break a business. Therefore, take your time and decide on strong profiles so that your output isn’t affected, and your employees can tap into their potential to the fullest.

5. Faulty communication

59 per cent of project managers feel that communication is the biggest obstacle to business success. [Atlassian]

Communication plays a huge role in making sure the project remains on the right track. While it is essential to conduct a “kickoff meeting” at the start of a project, it is equally necessary to have sprint planning meetings, either on a daily or weekly basis.

This helps the project manager stay informed about the progress of the project and resolve the bottlenecks as soon as they arise for quicker completion.

You can then get your project managers to give you a status report of the work periodically, thus maintaining transparent communication across the organization.

Tip

Implement collaboration and web conferencing tools such as Slack, Wimi, WebEx, GoToMeeting and others within the company to ensure your employees are well connected – irrespective of location or time.

6. Overlooking the importance of a project management tool

The global project management software market is predicted to grow steadily between 2017-2020. [Technavio]

Signs that your business should adopt a project management tool:

• The projects are delayed due to unnecessary email correspondences, with the important messages getting buried in the team member’s inboxes.
• Confusion arising from non-easy-to-decipher spreadsheets.
• Missed timelines and deadlines due to a failure of accountability, poor planning and non-transparency in the project.
• Poor communication between the team members and various stakeholders due to failure to generate regular reports on the project as well as individual tasks.
• Overlapping or confusion in the division of work due to failure to establish clear roles of each team member.

When selecting a project management tool, here are some of the most important features you should look for:

• Creating, assigning and tracking tasks
• Resource planning and tracking
• Dashboards for project performance
• Graphical and detailed project performance reports
• Team collaboration
• Integrations with additional tools such as Dropbox, Zappier, Google Drive, Google Sheets and Google Calendar to name some

Also Read: Malaysian MyEG Capital injects US$1.5m in edtech startup Jingle Magic

SmartTask, online project management and collaboration tools are used by freelancers, startups, small and medium businesses and enterprises to improve their productivity by almost 40 per cent.

Tip

Sit for a couple of demos before choosing your project management tool. A number of features, pricing, and customer support are the three main factors that will influence your decision.

If you are confused between two or more software, sign up for a trial version to pick the project management tool most suitable for your company. Customer reviews on G2Crowd and Capterra help you understand the problems users face with such tools as well as their benefits over competitors.

Wrapping up

Project management is not a static agenda, but an ever-evolving element of every organization.
When assembling your team of project managers, make sure they are analytical, people-oriented and flexible in the way they operate.

Don’t forget to pick the right project management software for the teams. That’s going to make all the difference to your business!

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We also have updates from the Chinese government, Market Kurly, and the Indonesian central bank

Go-Jek becomes Indonesia’s first ‘decacorn’ company – e27

A listing by CBInsights has put Indonesian ride-hailing giant Go-Jek in the decacorn list for having over US$10 billion valuation.

As the first Indonesian company to achieve this status, Go-Jek is in 19th position on the list, just below its bigger rival Grab, which is valued over US$11 billion.

Their global competitor Uber is on the top, with a valuation of over US$72 billion.

The company has not commented on the report.

China recognises 13 new tech jobs – South China Morning Post

China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on Wednesday published a list of 13 new job titles in the tech sector, South China Morning Post reported.

The job titles include professional gamers, drone pilots, robotics operators and software engineers in areas like AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and cloud computing.

The new additions were approved on April 1 by three government bodies, following a draft notice seeking public opinions in January. It marks the first time since 2015 that authorities have included new jobs into a list of nearly 19,000 official professions in China.

While not conferring any direct financial benefit, being added to the list does signal that such professions could receive more government support such as vocational training and regulatory protection.

Also Read: The Philippines rejects Go-Jek’s appeal for ride-hailing licence

South Korea’s Market Kurly raises US$88M in Series D funding round – Dealstreet Asia

Kurly Inc., the South Korean company behind online premium grocery service Market Kurly, has raised a KRW100 billion (US$88 million) Series D funding round led by existing investors and international investor Global Venture Partners, Dealstreet Asia wrote.

Existing investor Sequoia China also participated in the funding round.

“With this latest investment, we can secure internal processes and build a talent pool so that we can continue to increase our grocery market share, while maintaining quality,” said CEO Sophie Kim.

Launched in May 2015, Market Kurly offers what is claimed to be “the fastest and freshest delivery system” available to consumers in the market. All orders placed by 11AM are delivered by 7AM the next day, including fresh produce harvested in that same day.

Indonesia performs second test for QR code standardisation – Tirto

The Indonesian central bank has begun the second test for a nation-wide QR code standardisation this month, following a first test that was run between September and November 2018, Tirto reported.

“In this second stage, we are testing dispute [resolution]. For example, what happens when the fee has been transferred but the merchants fail to receive it. Also how transactions are being run in blank spot areas,” said Ricky Satria, deputy director of payments system policy and monitoring at the central bank.

The nation-wide programme, which is referred as QR Indonesia Standard (QRIS), aims to expand interconnectivity in order to support digital finances.

Satria gave an example of LinkAja users being able to transact on Go-Jek ecosystem once the standardisation is finalised on the second semester of 2019.

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Image Credit: Boudewijn Huysmans on Unsplash

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