In 2016, Emanuele Faja (known as Manny among friends and in the tech industry) started a UI/UX and development agency, called Mäd, in his home country Cambodia. As the business grew, the number of software tools used in the company also grew. They were not just expensive but also complex to use.

“I had to spend a lot of time teaching both our team and clients on how to use and familiarise with various tools/platforms. I wanted to develop a simple tool, which would not just be easy to use but also powerful enough to run complex projects. This led me to create Bloo.io,” he tells e27.

Bloo.io, a product of Bloo Inc., a startup based out of Phnom Penh, is a project management tool. The product was developed and launched in April 2018 by Manny, who was later joined by Dong Truong, former CTO at Nam Kim Steel, a large steel company in Vietnam.

Beat the Bloo

An online platform, Bloo enables businesses (large and small) to manage all their team communications, files, ‘to-do’s, and processes. Business can sign up for an account on Bloo, create projects corresponding to each main functional divisions (sales, marketing, finance, web, brand, etc.), start building their processes, and track ‘to-do’ lists. All data and files uploaded are taggable, searchable, and can be accessed by web, Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android applications.

“Your teams can find all the information needed to do their jobs on Bloo, instead of using multiple disconnected tools,” he explains.

One of the critical features of Bloo is its user-friendliness, claims Manny. The product was tested for almost two years with employees that have little-to-no computer literacy, and they were able to pick up and use Bloo quickly, he says.

“Our apps follow Google Material design to ensure that anyone who has used any Google app (for example, Gmail) feels right at home. Our iOS app follows Apple’s Human Interface guidelines closely to ensure a familiar experience,” he continues.

A cost-effective and multi-lingual platform

Unlike its bigger competitors such as Trello, Asana, Basecamp, which charge clients on a pay-per-use basis, Bloo charges a flat fee of US$50 per month per organisation, irrespective of the number of users. Manny claims a 100-person organisation is likely to spend between US$25,000 and US$80,000 on similar software, but Bloo costs them just US$500 per year.

The Bloo platform also supports unlimited file hosting with files up to 2GB in size, whereas companies like Trello limit usage to 20MB on their free version, and only 250MB on premium accounts. According to Manny, this is a deterrent for companies, like architecture and design studios, that regularly deal with large file sizes. Bloo also claims to have built-in file management across all projects.

“Finally, the way we handle notifications is different from other tools. We give users complete control over notifications they want to receive. It is often a big issue on other platforms, where you either get spammed with lots of emails/push notifications or you receive no notifications about what’s important for you,” he asserts.

Manny believes that hundreds of millions of people in Asia, who are becoming knowledge workers, will need tools that are simpler to use and less intimidating than what Silicon Valley provides. Bloo aims to be one with its multi-lingual platform. It, however, doesn’t want to restrict itself to Asia.

Also Read: Cambodia to embrace tech future with the upcoming BarCamp ASEAN 2019

“Asia is a fast-growing market and is under-served. We have added many languages from this geography to our platform. Apart from English, the platform is available in Khmer and Vietnamese. We plan to eventually roll out in other languages such as Thai and Chinese and even Spanish,” he shares.

Besides, the company plans to take advantage of the changing tech landscape to differentiate itself from its competitors. “We have been able to use the latest technologies such as VueJS and GraphQL, which enable us to quickly ship features to customers. Besides, because of our smaller size, we can stay much closer to our customers.”

He also claims that many customers of Dropbox, Trello, Basecamp, Asana, and Briefcase have already switched to Bloo. “Our lower cost base may also make a lot of companies consider switching to us, especially if there is a recession in the future and budgets tighten up.”

Bloo, which underwent the Stripe Atlas startup programme in the US, has already integrated a payment feature to its platform, and has paying customers since day one, he says. “NGOs, banks, design agencies, schools, retail locations, and even a large multinational construction are already using Bloo,”

While it is a highly-competitive industry, Manny doesn’t see this as a ‘winner-takes-all’ market. It is always going to be very fragmented, he says. “There are over 30 million SMEs in the US alone, and several hundred million worldwide. Even a small share of this market is enough to build an extremely healthy business that provides great service to customers,” he concludes.

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There is more than one type of investor to fundraise from, in fact, there are eight types of investors. So, how are they different? Which may be a good match and when?

Below is a list with the different types of investors that you could approach for your startup. Once you know who to pitch, it is all about the pitch deck to close your round of funding. For a winning deck, take a look at the pitch deck analysis web site created by nfinitiv advisors. When it comes to pitch decks analysis, we pride ourselves in our understanding of what VCs expect and demand because all our team are made up of advisers, angel investors and VCs.

Friends and family

The first type of investor entrepreneurs should be approaching at the very beginning are friends and family and close personal contacts.

At this stage, there is very little hard evidence and proof to base a real investment or funding on. They are essentially investing in the idea, and far more importantly – you. These are the people that already know you, like and trust you and believe in you the most.

This type of investor may not provide a lot of money. It could be in the range of US$1,000 to US$200,000. Though if you cannot raise money from this group, other investors are probably going to ask themselves why.

Also Read: Chatbot developer startup Pand.ai takes home US$1M seed funding, eyeing scaleups

Banks and government agencies

These are not true investors like the others on this list, but they can be sources of capital. Traditional banks are generally not an easy source of capital for early-stage startups and small businesses. However, as you gain traction, they may offer business credit cards, lines of credit, and business advance loans.

There may also be government programmes providing grants for certain types of projects. That does not mean that bringing in this type of capital will be any easier, and loans require repayment, often when you really need as much liquidity and slack as possible. They will not require giving up equity in your company, but they can impact your profitability, which may show up when you try to raise money from other investors later.

One thing to note about government programmes is that in many instances the come with certain restrictions and limitations which may be burdensome for startups. Founders should review very carefully what those expectations are.

Angel investors

Professional angel investors are normally approached when it comes to the seed round and beyond. They are willing to fund smaller operations than VCs, may be more flexible in terms, and can offer a lot of value in wisdom and connections.

Angel investors can be approached directly online, at live pitch events, and through introductions from other startup founders.

Angel groups

Angel groups have been increasing. They have become more popular and more organised. These are groups of angel investors who band together to make investments in startups. This enables them to invest with more confidence, with larger check sizes, and with lower exposure to risk.

Also Read: Funding news is not public relations: Building your startup’s story world

Accelerators and incubators

These vehicles can ultimately be a gateway to a variety of the types of investors on this list. If accepted into one of these programmes you may receive anywhere from US$10,000 to US$120,000 in seed money to cultivate your idea and gain traction, while benefiting from additional knowledge and resources. If everything is going well, you will be pitching larger investors and be introduced to funding sources during their demo days that can help take you to the next level. Just be ready to hustle, these programmes want to speed you on the way to the next stage quickly.

Family offices

Family offices are increasingly being drawn to the advantages of investing in startups. However, as some of the most successful entrepreneurs have pointed out, as investors, family offices can have quite different interests and game plans. Each can be very different.

Working with them can be very different depending on who is managing the decisions and process. Taxes, long term multigenerational investing, prestige and income may be more important for these investors than others on this list who are pushing to an earlier exit.

Venture Capital firms

VCs are the holy grail of investors for fundraising entrepreneurs. They come with the biggest checks, the most power to fuel success and gaining market share, and most juice when it comes to achieving more credibility and visibility.

More venture capital firms are looking at and are participating in earlier funding rounds. Though it is much more likely these investors will show up and be secured in Series A, B and C fundraising rounds than earlier.

Do note that not all of these firms are created equal. The best match can be influenced by location, the timeline of their funds, their interest and expertise in a certain field, their power to help you get to the next stage and of course, how they treat their founders.

Also Read: Tickled media’s theAsianparent closes a seven-figure Series C funding to expand its baby products business

Corporate investors

Investing in startups carries a variety of benefits for big corporations. Including supporting their own growth numbers, diversifying assets, and identifying talent and technology which can help them fend off industry changes and fuel revenues and profits. Some have funds to invest in outside startups. More are launching their own accelerator and incubator programmes and ecosystems for cultivating these opportunities.

These investors can be great allies in taking your business to the next level. Though they can be quite different to work with, and any integration or collaboration on sales channels, systems and customer bases needs to be approached carefully and with a lot of patience.

Founding entrepreneurs and corporate investors often have completely different styles and perspectives. It is going to be vital to learn to understand each other and have some boundaries set up when going in, if this is going to be an enjoyable relationship.

Summary

As you can see from this list, there are a wide variety of very different types of investors for funding startups. Some are very specialised in the stages and funding rounds they will invest at. Though these lines are increasingly blurring. Think of this as a ladder, not an A or B menu list.

As your startup grows different sources of capital will be more advantageous and valuable to fuelling that next level of growth. Understanding these differences will be invaluable for an efficient fundraising campaign and targeting the right investors at each raise.

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A previous version of this article first appeared on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: NESA by Makers on Unsplash

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Chosen from over 2,400 applications, the Top 100 Global Startups are set to pitch their most innovative ideas on stage next week at Asia’s hottest deep tech pitching competition

Overpopulation. A warming planet. Decreasing food and water security. In an increasingly globalised world, our planet is facing new challenges that threaten our existing way of life.

But there’s a silver lining – as our global needs evolve, so does technology. New disruptive technologies are invented by startups every day, and their innovations could be the key to paving the way for a sustainable future.

With that, sustainability is at the heart of tech at SLINGSHOT 2019, a deep tech startup pitching competition held at SFF x SWITCH from 11 to 13 November. This year, SLINGSHOT received more than 2,400 applications from 120 countries!

The selected Top 100 Global Startups will finally take the stage next week to pitch their most innovative ideas to the world, and battle it out for more than US$2 million in prizes.

Check out these four participating startups from SLINGSHOT 2019, and their commitment to ensuring there is a future for our next generations:

Biteback (Singapore) – Disrupting the US$60 billion palm oil industry with bugs

Cooking oil and butter made from insects? Agri-food tech startup Biteback has created a healthier and more sustainable alternative to palm oil – the production of which is a major contributing factor to climate change.

“Growing up in Indonesia, we witnessed the destruction of natural resources due to the ever-increasing demand for palm oil and the endless expansion of palm plantations,” said Biteback Co-Founder Mush’ab Nursantio, who studied agricultural technology.

Biteback was born out of a university research project that he was working on with fellow Co-Founder Ifdhol Syawkoni. Initially, they looked at insects as a source of protein, but soon realised its potential to create oil-based products.

Together, the pair developed a refining technology to manufacture ingredients, such as cooking oil, butter, fatty alcohol and biofuel, from edible insects.

Biteback is a novel solution to the way humans produce and consume food. Not only is their insect-based oil rich in nutrients, using insects reportedly produces an oil yield 40 times more than palm oil on the same land area.

Biteback has offices in Indonesia, the United States, and Singapore. As the company continues to scale, both Nursantio and Syawkoni hope they can help to reduce deforestation in their home country.

BeON Energy (Portugal) – The world’s first plug-in solar micro-inverter

BeON Energy is making clean green energy accessible and affordable to all households with revolutionary do-it-yourself plug-in solar kits. This allows customers to connect a solar panel to their home power socket, and convert solar energy into electricity to power their entire homes.

BeOn Energy’s kits contain a solar panel, micro-inverter, cable and other accessories. The product’s value lies in how easily they can be installed in one’s property, just like any regular home appliance – as “simple as connecting to a television”, according to Rui Beon, CEO and Founder of BeON Energy.

Also read: An exploration of deep tech with SLINGSHOT 2019

What spurred the creation of these kits was the unreliability of solar technology in the market, said Beon, who has experience working in the solar industry overseas. He realised that many of the complexities and costs of domestic solar energy usage lay in the final step, of connecting the system to the household.

“We wanted to democratise solar power and accelerate the mass adoption of domestic renewal energy generation. By connecting the power generation device directly to a socket, we save time and money,” he added. Each solar kit from his startup costs around the same price as a television.

Founded in 2015, BeON Energy is headquartered in Portugal and has presence in France and Germany. To date, the startup has sold over 100,000 solar kits, which have been installed in 20,000 homes.

Revolv (Hong Kong) – A deposit-based rental system to reduce single-use plastic waste

Say bye to takeaway culture – Revolve is on a mission to eliminate single-use plastic waste for a greener planet. The startup has created a deposit-based tech platform that enables the seamless borrowing, using, and returning of reusable cups, bottles and containers at no cost.

Revolv was launched in Bali, Indonesia in April 2018 as a response to the visible plastic pollution back there. “In our first pilot location of Bali, there are daily reminders of how dire the current situation is. The rivers, beaches, and surrounding areas are submerged in discarded single use plastics,” said Francis Brian Reilly, Founder and CEO of Revolv.

By placing a deposit, customers can grab their coffee to go in a reusable cup at any one of Revolv’s participating food and beverage outlets. They can get back their deposit by returning their cups – which are tagged – to any partner within Revolv’s network. Each reusable will then be cleaned and re-circulated to its outlets for reuse.

“We hope to educate consumers and businesses alike that there are more sustainable alternatives,” added Reilly. “By bringing additional awareness to our everyday habits, we can make a tremendous difference and lasting impact.”

Revolv is currently operating in 18 venues in Bali – Canggu, Berawa and Seminyak. They have also rolled out the system in Hong Kong and most recently Singapore, at four environmentally-friendly cafes in the district of Tiong Bahru.

Altaroad (France) – Making roads safer and more environmentally-friendly

We’ve all been there – wasting precious time being stuck in a massive traffic jam at peak hour. But Altaroad is on a mission to make our roads more intelligent and sustainable.

The French startup has created an industrial internet of things (IoT) platform for infrastructure to optimise traffic and reduce emissions. They have embedded sensors beneath the road surface to generate real-time road data, in order to evaluate traffic patterns, monitor dangerous driving behaviour, track the weight of vehicles and assess their impact on the road.

Such data is useful, as it gives an indication of the road’s condition at any time, allowing maintenance or repair to be deployed. This data is made available through a cloud-based dashboard to road operators, city traffic managers, logisticians, and autonomous and connected cars.

Altaroad’s clients at present include French construction companies such as Eiffage and Leon Grosse.

This is just a teaser. To catch more startups changing the world for the better, come for SLINGSHOT 2019!

SLINGSHOT 2019, powered by Startup SG, is happening from 11 to 13 November at SFF x SWITCH. Register for your free Trade Visitor Pass to attend SLINGSHOT 2019 here!

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Malaysia-based Kenanga Investors today announced the launch of Kenanga Global Unicorn 2 (KGU2), the second tranche to the fund launched in June (KGU1).

The KGU1 fund was meant to provide Kenanga Investors’ clients with means to invest in the so-called unicorn tech companies, which tends to stay privately owned for a longer time.

In a press statement, Kenanga Investors said that its first fund has surpassed the targeted fund size of US$2.5 million by over 1.5 times.

Similar to its predecessor, the fund aims to invest in unicorn companies, which is defined as “globally recognised technology companies who have undergone a transformational change from startup to IPO.”

It also aims to invest up to 10 per cent to similar companies that have yet to reach the US$1 billion valuation threshold, but will develop products, processes, or services that “provide or benefit from equivalent technology and innovations.”

Also Read: Gobi Partners, MAVCAP, Sunway Group launch early-stage fund for Malaysian startups

The fund will be feeding into the Ericsenz-K2 Global Unicorn Fund II and has a targeted 12 per cent internal rate of return per annum.

It will be managed by venture capital and private equity firm Ericsenz Capital, just like its predecessor.

“With such a solid and collaborative network in place, we continue to pave the way for our clients to invest into dominant and disruptive players within the technology revolution that the global community currently resides in,” said Ismitz Matthew De Alwis, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kenanga Investors.

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Image Credit: Kenanga Investors

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Xurpas to acquire VC firm Wavemaker Partners US – Dealstreet Asia

Philippines-listed consumer tech company Xurpas announced that it has agreed to acquire US-based early-stage venture capital firm Wavemaker Partners US for an undisclosed amount, Dealstreet Asia reported.

The acquisition will be paid in cash and the general partners of Wavemaker US will also subscribe to a total of 1.7 billion Xurpass unissued shares for an approximately 48 per cent stake in the company.

The transaction does not include Wavemaker’s Southeast Asia practice as it will remain independent and wholly owned by its management.

With over $210 million in assets under management, Wavemaker US has been operating for almost 17 years.

LinkAja e-payment options to be available on Grab platform – KrASIA

Following a similar partnership with gojek, Indonesian e-payment service LinkAja sets up a partnership with Grab that will make its service available as a payment option in the Grab platform, KrASIA has learned.

LinkAja CEO Danu Wicaksana said that the integration is currently in its beta phase and not yet available to all users.

He also declined to reveal the details of this partnership which will be announced officially “soon.”

Also Read: Captain’s Log, Sept 8: Ninja Van is eyeing US$60M funding, Xurpas is “most active” SEA tech acquirer

Indonesia to set up personal data protection commission – DailySocial

Indonesia’s ministry of communications and informatics is set to launch a special comission for personal data protection, after the model that is currently implemented in Singapore, DailySocial reported.

The ministry is currently undergoing research and study process for the model’s implementation in the country.

Despite being under the ministry’s structure, the commission will operate independently.

Symphony, Tencent partner to enable WeChat integration – SCMP

Symphony Communications Services, a cloud-based messaging start-up for professionals, teams up with Tencent Holdings to integrate WeChat into its system, South China Morning Post reported.

The platform is backed and used by some of the world’s biggest financial services companies including Goldman Sachs.

The messages between Symphony and WeChat will be compliance checked in line with financial industry rules, which include trust barriers, information protection governance and data sovereignty requirements.

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Image Credit: Helloquence on Unsplash

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There have been frequent panel discussions and dialogues about instilling a sense of entrepreneurship spirit and the spirit of daring to fail on both the startup and national levels.

But are we truly walking what we preach?

Despite a recent report that Singapore has retained its place as second best on a World Bank ranking for the ease of doing business, let me tell you why I stand by that statement.

First, ease of doing business does not equate to ease of starting a business. Ease of starting a business also does not mean the environment required for doing so is there. It can simply be the process is quick and efficient, not necessary the proper ingredients for so are there, high labour and rental cost aside. Then again, it also depends on how you define what does the Silicon Valley of Asia mean.

Also Read: Whats Silicon Valleys secret sauce : what Asian entrepreneurs can learn in terms of culture

The silicon chip is an integral component of the semiconductor industry and is used in just about everything that’s computerized and Silicon Valley probably got its name due to a large number of innovators and manufacturers in the region specializing in silicon-based businesses during its earlier days.

I’m also sure you would agree the following are critical to the startup ecosystem: a hotbed of startup activities, great talents, key partnerships, and more importantly, funding.

For the 3rd year running or perhaps even longer (I only researched 3), seed-stage deals have been dropping reflecting the low-risk tolerance here.

Taken from Wikipedia itself, “Silicon Valley has a social and business ethos that supports innovation and entrepreneurship”. From Dictionary.com, an entrepreneur is “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.”

With all the talks within the ecosystem, about embracing failures – taking risks, do we truly put our money where the mouth is? Or is it simply the case of  “Yeah, take the risk. You, not us.”

 

Just in Q1 2018, Grab received a US$2.5 billion fundraise among the city state’s record US$2.68 billion in VC investment. However, a whopping 93.28 per cent of it is going to just one company.

There used to be frequent debates on many Startup and Entrepreneurship Facebook groups and pages on if the seed stage is dead. Nowadays, I rarely see them. Perhaps the debate has been settled once and for all, or everyone just silently resigned to fate. Perhaps the seed stage is not dead, but it might as well be.

For the 3rd year running or perhaps even longer, seed-stage deals have been dropping. If the mindsets of key private players of the ecosystem do not change while schools are advocating entrepreneurship, how can we have a holistic ecosystem where we cannot even have the chance to truly take chances? Should we motivate our next generation to equip themselves with updated skills in STEMS, AI, coding so that they can become great employees or that one day, they can become the next Facebook or Tesla and there be an environment for so?

Also Read:  What Singapore can learn from Silicon Valley

While I had to turn down a couple of angels as they wanted the majority of my startup’s equity, others might have better luck than me. I could also be talking to unsuitable angels that might not be representative of the “education” and mindset of most angels here.

A friend who works at one of the angel networks here told me she was surprised by how much the angels here require to see before opening their chequebooks when the average investment amount is lower than where she came, another country in Asia despite their PPP and GDP are much lower.

Even feedbacks among founders could be inaccurate as it depends on who we hang around with. During a talk at an entrepreneur hub where there were 2 founders from the USA and Australia respectively, I raised my hand and asked them about their opinion of the fundraising scene here, I could already guess the answer, to which both replied that VCs here give lower valuation, take longer to come back, required more tractions. The only reason why they chose to fundraise and have a headquarter here is that their target market is this region.

A VC once commented that founders should not have “me too” idea and that he looks at founders with skin in the game. Okay, first part sounds reasonable, but how do you measure “skin in the game?” I asked. He replied determination, grit and perseverance.

Okay sure, but How do you measure that? I made dozens of pitches to VCs and angels, and never once did they ask anything besides the solution, the business plan, etc that would determine mine. He answered one way of looking at it was how much have we invested.

As a matter of fact, this question comes up rather often – but how and what has that got to do with anything? A founder that invested 500k vs another that invested 5k?

“How much” is subjective. 500k or even 5 million could be nothing if your father is a regional automotive giant vs me of humble background with my dad also in the automotive industry but working as a driver.

For over a year, I slogged and took the financial risk of doing this full time. While I am very fortunate to have the blessing of my girlfriend whom I have been with the last couple of years, I have to painfully and selfishly shelve aside our hope of applying for a flat now in our late 30s so as to allow me to concentrate on this endeavour.

All this while, not giving up and moving on to attempt to start this startup right after a year of research, interviewing dozens of other users and similar platforms aboard, when just not too long ago, for many months not receive any salaries despite supposedly being a paid director and suffered financial ruins – I persevered.

Never once a VC or angel tried to assess if I have grit. If the angels here behave like VCs and VCs like PEs, who will give founders a chance? The irony? I want to start a reward crowdfunding platform as I wanted to encourage more to take up the path of entrepreneurship and help them to be able to raise the funds to do so.

How Silicon Valley became Silicon Valley could also probably be due to the America Dream and that it is the land of opportunity. I noticed most young entrepreneurs usually have parents that are entrepreneurs themselves. In the UK, only 4 per cent of doctors came from working-class families. Social mobility through entrepreneurship aside, while I envy as they have more access to resources, I also want to believe in a meritocracy – that anyone can succeed with the right idea and hard work.

It’s important to be hopeful, but when for the 3rd year running or perhaps even longer, where seed-stage deals have been dropping, and the ecosystem is shutting the door of opportunity more and more often, when should we really speak up and urge for more to be done? Isn’t being an entrepreneur being all about changing the status quo?

Also, what does this bode for the long-term health of the ecosystem?

In the US, the odds of becoming a unicorn is 1 out of 1092. If we do not have enough ideas getting invested to compete and survive, the odds of us producing a unicorn are going to get lesser. It takes a village to rear a child, but what happens when the village only focus on the big boys and neglects the toddlers?

Sure, with our favourable tax and business climate, we can become an attractive startup hub. But with established business coming over to be headquartered here and becoming later a unicorn, and with key players here remaining conservative and risk-averse to the seed stage, is that really encouraging entrepreneurship? Or do we promote entrepreneurship like how we import foreign table tennis players?

Singaporean boldly invests in property and the stock market. However, we must also continue to support and invest in our entrepreneurs, else, when we call ourselves the Silicon Valley of Asia, are we referring to the shell or spirit?

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Singapore has been named in the top five list of best cities to launch a digital or tech ventures in the world, according to a recent study by Movinga, a Europe-based full-service provider in the moving industry.

Sitting on the fourth position, Singapore is the only Asia Pacific city in the top 10 list of such cities, with the study stating blockchain as the main industry for growth in the city.

The rest of the list was being dominated by cities in the US and Western Europe.

Launched with the goal to help entrepreneurs make a more informed decision on the best places to start a business, the study looked at 75 global cities that are already known for their entrepreneurial spirit, business opportunities, and economic growth.

They divided the study into three main categories of businesses: Restaurants, tech or digital ventures and import or export.

Also Read: Jakarta comes out as “challenger” to global startup ecosystems: Startup Genome Report

For the tech or digital ventures category, a city is being scored based on the following factors: Tech ecosystem, human capital, venture capital, and main industries for growth.

“Tech or digital ventures rely not only on the ecosystem and available talent, but the investment opportunities, so the data for this industry also gives an insight into the feasibility for launching any internet-based startup looking for venture capital,” the study explained.

Main industries for growth and what it means

Despite not making into the top 10 list of best cities to launch a digital or tech ventures in the world, Beijing scored the highest score in the venture capital aspect, followed by San Francisco and Shanghai.

Of all the cities in the digital or tech ventures list, artificial intelligence was the main industry for growth and is most popular in cities. The position is being followed by e-commerce, blockchain, and SaaS.

“The main industries for growth in the tech or digital venture category is one of the most interesting datasets in this study. With artificial intelligence taking top spot and blockchain making a noticeable appearance, digital entrepreneurs are clearly leveraging future-facing technologies more than ever,” said Marta Blanco Amez, Vice President of Marketing at Movinga.

Also Read: Report: Until “strong, effective” legislative framework approved in Asia, crypto projects will not gain momentum

“What those planning to launch their own business need to decide, is do they go with a city containing an established network of people in the same field, or do they go where there’s less competition? We hope that this index can help technology startups to make these difficult decisions.”

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Image Credit: Yeo Khee on Unsplash

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Malaysia’s cross-border payments industry is going through a renaissance, according to experts. Customers who traditionally relied on banks have now started switching to fintech players for sending money to their relatives abroad.

Online cross-border payments companies such as MoneyMatch, MyCash Online, InstaRem (now Nium), Valyou, Tranglo, and BigPay look to leverage on this opportunity.

“The remittance industry in Malaysia is of late going through somewhat of a renaissance, as we are starting to see a lot of innovative solutions spring to life in this sector. This is due to a combination of pragmatic and forward-thinking regulations and the introduction of many fintech players such as ourselves,” said Adrian Yap, CEO of MoneyMatch, a leading remittance platform.

“This is a great time to be a consumer and we see growth happening as more corporate and retail customers choose fintech players over traditional banks,” he added.

Remittance is traditionally a bank service, wherein customers need to visit their bank branch or use online banking applications to send money abroad. However, it is expensive and works only during banking hours. Plus, it does not give reasonable forex rate to the customer.

Also Read: Why we are far from being the Silicon Valley of Asia

In the past few years, non-banking entities have entered this sector and started to provide money transfer services. They are convenient and cheaper, compared to banks’. However, they are still expensive. “From last year, remittance startups began to offer zero FX margin service, making it cheaper and convenient. This is expected to drive growth,” said Mehedi Hasan, Co-founder and CEO of MyCash Online, a finance marketplace for migrants.

As per a report by the central bank BNM, the total outward flow of remittance from Malaysia to other countries grew to US$852.6 million (RM3.5 billion) in 2017 from US$596.5 million in 2016, driven mainly by its migrant population. While the latest figures are unavailable, this signals a positive trend.

Globally, remittance is on a high-growth path. As per data, the annual remittance flow into low- and middle-income countries reached US$529 billion in 2018, up from US$483 billion in 2017. The overall remittances, which also include inflows into high-income countries, touched US$689 billion in 2018, up from US$633 billion in 2017. Among countries, top remittance recipients were India with US$79 billion, followed by China (US$67 billion), Mexico (US$36 billion), the Philippines (US$34 billion), and Egypt (US$29 billion).

Remittance companies are also seeing massive opportunities in B2B sector. “We believe the opportunity lies in the SME segment that has somewhat been neglected by banks in general,” Yap continued. “We are talking about SMEs which the banks have deemed to be too small to be granted access to a full suite of services and also are too small to be in a position to bargain with regards to rates and fees. It is a massive and under-served market. It is a market that we are looking to dominate in the near future.”

However, the remittance industry is facing some significant challenges: “The main challenge is the stringent regulation, which at times makes it costly to operate. Secondly, some banks don’t allow remittance startups to open bank accounts. This makes it very difficult. Lastly, illegal competition like hawala makes this market very difficult to survive,” said Hasan.

Creating awareness is another challenge. “Rate of adoption is also challenging when we are shifting from a cash-based society to a cashless one. The speed at which this shift is happening is slower than what I expected. Our goal is to help Malaysian companies become digitally ready for Industry 4.0 by equipping them with the financial tools that they require to compete on a regional front. The challenge would be for them to lets us help them,” said Yap.

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Financial institutions are accustomed to holding on to historical customer data. They view this as a competitive advantage, as well as a security requirement.

Today, however, regulatory and market changes are driving “open banking”, a buzzword that in practical terms usually means “open API”, that is, requiring customer transaction data to be shareable with fintechs, merchants, or customers themselves.

And this is making banks very nervous. But if they play their cards right, banks, lenders, insurance companies and other financial institutions may find open API is a powerful driver of new revenues.

Banks struggle to understand the information they have on their customers, and they need tools to help them make the right decisions and create the right products that their customers want.

Fintech companies, like gini have developed solutions to help commercial banks, credit card companies and other lenders turn data into insight – and insight into action.

Also Read: 7 reasons why profitability is for losers

In Asia, some markets adapted to the open-API trend quickly, such as Korea and India, with regulatory support. Now Australia is mandating open APIs, while regulators in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong are pushing banks to open as well but without explicit direction, leaving it to the marketplace to determine the most relevant use cases.

Some fintechs in these more hands-off environments worry that banks will simply drag their feet. But regulation is not always the most important factor in opening data: the United States, for example, has no such regulatory mandate but has a robust open-API environment, because banks discovered that it helped them compete against disruptive tech players.

So what are some uses cases in a market such as Hong Kong, which is possibly the most developed but also the most traditional banking market in Asia?

Fintechs are building capabilities to help banks and lenders make sense of the troves of data they possess but aren’t able to exploit. They do this by enriching data to build a structured set of data. That’s the first step for a bank looking to use machine learning and AI to improve customer experience and lower operational costs.

Banks may have plenty of historical data about their customers until now they have been flying blind in terms of seeing a customer’s entire portfolio or behaviour.

Fintechs acquire transaction data and “clean” it, eliminating errors, and “enrich” it, making it machine-readable. That data is now being turned into analytics and use cases for banks that need to either reduce their operating costs or generate new revenues.

One of the earliest benefits is removing costs from chargebacks. In Hong Kong, over 10 per cent of calls to banks’ call centres involve questions about card transactions at venues that people do not recognize. This is because many merchants operate under confusing holding-company names.

Also Read:  Blockchain will force banks to change their feudal mindset

This may sound simple, but each investigation costs banks on average around US$100, which adds up to tens of millions of dollars, for every one million customers, over a year. However, the clean data includes geolocation, enabling it to map venues to corporate names – and even to identify individual stores among chains, which are often impossible for banks to figure out. Such data insights not only save banks money on investigations but also reduce the number of incoming calls.

The same kind of structured data can also be used to make money, not just save it. One of the biggest demands among banks is to personalize rewards and offers, delivering the right product to the right customer at the right time.

To date, banks have relied on their proprietary demographic information to come up with new product offers, which tend to be one-size-fits-all pitches.

For banks to be able to leverage more data better, the advent of open API is a game-changer.

A financial institution can work through technology companies, such as gini to access the data from, say, an e-commerce site or a merchant, and develop new products for those customers. And as banks become more comfortable with data exchange, they will begin to embrace the greater value from open API collaborations.

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Tech companies have recently come under scrutiny for being overvalued and scaling their losses instead of building an actual business.

That’s a little ridiculous (almost like judging, say, an electric car company for its inability to manufacture cars.) It’s lonely at the top. We should let the haters hate and focus all our energies on protecting the beautiful tech bubble from unreasonable criticism. Here are 7 great reasons why profitability is for weirdos and boring people.

1. It makes predatory speculation much harder. It’s virtually impossible to pump and dump a tech company from nothing to IPO unless it’s overvalued. And where’s the fun in funding real businesses? Almost as lame as being honest on your LinkedIn profile. I mean, who is that boring?

2. It slows down your growth. Yes, losing more money every month is much more effective in achieving growth than actually growing your business. Losses are the new profits and allow you to generate flash floods of clickbait ads containing half-truths such as ‘the app that all CEOs love’ or ‘this startup is harder to get into than Harvard.’

3. It diverts your time away from fundraising. Stop trying to be an entrepreneur and start wining-and-dining investors. Fundraising is a full-time job; why waste your precious time on building a commercially viable product when you can just defer this issue until your post-IPO penny stock phase? By that time it’s not really your problem anymore, anyway.

4. It turns you into a commodity. Almost all businesses in the world make money, so why be like them? What about originality and changing the world? Screw all those capitalist crooks, and focus on evocative, lucid-vision narratives. It’s about making the world (more precisely, your world) a better place, dammit!

5. It constrains you. You want fluorescent pink walls in the office, a pet elephant, and Michelin-star canteen food but you can’t have that. Why? Budget issues. What’s the point of dedicating your privileged first-world life to fashion yet another gimmicky consumerist pyramid if you can’t have some fun along the way?

‘Lean’ is a word you ask an up-and-coming artist to spray paint onto your fluorescent pink office wall. It’s an idea that applies, if at all, to your employees. Lean makes everything worse when you take it too seriously. Think lean foie gras or lean caviar. Gross.

6. It makes you unattractive as a company. Nobody wants the truth. Stop conspiring to find ways of making your innocent target audience give you their hard-earned cash. It’s unsavoury, like telling your tinder acquaintance about your bloating issue on the first date.

Do you really think VCs want to know how you manipulate innocent users to pay for your products and services? Do you believe they actually enjoy paying for things? Make them all happy by making it free. Start caring about bettering humanity, and stop all that endless greed. Today’s consumers expect your investors to pay for their lifestyle – it’s all about customer-centricity.

7. It limits the extent of your favouritism. With profitability metrics in the mix, it may become harder to justify hiring your 19-year-old brother as Senior Vice President of user engagement (even if he’s good at social media.) Why take that risk?

Honestly speaking, stop thinking about profitability. It pollutes your mind and distracts you from what really matters. Be bold, spend as much OPM* as possible, keep pouring oil onto the hype fire and by all means, start a fund (with OPM*, of course) once you’ve been bought out, to perpetuate the scheme.

OPM = other people’s money = the best money in the world.

Added Podcast Alert!

To understand more about the impacts of profitability in a tech company or any company for that matter, tune into my new podcast “Present to Future” hosted along with Pak Teng Chow, founder of Blockspace Asia, which talks about trends in the tech world and aims to clear up some of the biggest doubts around it.

Please let me know what you think or any tech trends that you would like us to cover !

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit:  Frank Busch

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