Now is the time to forge the path to a bright future

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When Echelon was first organised, it was designed to gather a small, but enthusiastic group of people who were interested in bringing a startup culture to Singapore.

As it grew, and began to incorporate a regional focus, Echelon became a core ecosystem builder in Southeast Asia. My how things have changed.

In 2019, startup folks often talk about a saturation of events. Whether it is private companies or the government, a lot has changed in the decade since Echelon first got off the ground.

But what makes Echelon special is that we are the startup industry. We live this life day-in day-out — which means the event brings together the correct people. All of the attendees at Echelon are startup stakeholders with something to offer.

It also means we have our fingers on the pulse of the startup space, and one thing has become particularly clear: The maturation process has begun.

The days of “rah rah” ecosystem building are fading, and it is time to start to point what we have built in the correct direction. This means serious discussions about privacy, workplace culture, shady business practices and much more.

Also Read: Think you know the Marvel universe? Test your knowledge for Echelon tickets

It means looking to our neighbors in China and our faraway cohorts in America to learn from their history. One of the advantages of working in Southeast Asia is that we can learn from the mistakes made in China and the US. But rather than assuming we can learn-and-avoid, stakeholders need to see-and-prepare.

Just because a topic is not brought to the forefront in public dialogue does not mean it will not come to pass. So, if we already know Southeast Asia will need to navigate its maturation, then now is the time to begin the discussions.

At Echelon, a some of the talks that will aim to discuss these ideas are as follows:

•  Can a regional startup hold its own against international players in a crowded e-payments space?
• How much should we allow tech to aid a child’s learning journey?
• Tech disruption in the newsroom; How the media landscape will shift in the next five years
• How one e-commerce startup is reinventing itself after a layoff and rebranding
• Building a healthier workplace using data; Are there really tangible benefits?

This year, we will bring together the Southeast Asia ecosystem to discuss these an other topics at Echelon Asia Summit 2019! Sounds pretty great huh? Register here!

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Photo by Ian Yeo on Unsplash

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OncoStem’s product CanAssist-Breast helps early-stage cancer patients plan optimum chemotherapy treatment

A close friend of Dr. Manjiri Bakre’s — a cell biology veteran with significant experience in cancer biology and drug discovery — was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer at a young age of 30. Little did the patient know how aggressive her disease was until she succumbed to death two years later.

Devastated and disappointed at the inability to save the friend’s life, Bakre was determined to use her knowledge and expertise in cell biology, with the support of new-age technologies, to bring in a change and save millions of cancer patients, globally.

“Her death made me realise that perhaps today we don’t diagnose the disease. I thought to myself that we needed to dissect the tumour biology further to understand the progression/aggressiveness of the same, which will empower the clinician and the patients to understand the disease better and plan an informed treatment,” says Bakre.

“Such tests are available in developed countries like the US and some parts of the EU, and have saved the lives of thousands of patients. But these tests are not impactful in India or Southeast Asia as they are expensive and primarily developed and validated for stage 1 patients, who are few and far between. This has discouraged majority of patients from going for such tests and they end up receiving sub-optimal treatments,” Bakre maintains.

The very urge to make a difference drove Bakre to start OnocStem Diagnostics in 2011.

Also Read: AI startup Niramai helps detect breast cancer using a zero radiation, non-contact solution; receives seed funding

“OncoStem is an effort towards this goal. We focus on developing innovative tests in personalised medicine space. The tests, performed on the patient’s individual tumour, can help clinicians plan personalised treatment for each patient based on tumor biology,” adds Bakre, who holds a PhD in Cell Biology from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

She revels that today approximately 95 per cent of early-stage (stage 1 & 2) breast cancer patients get chemotherapy to avoid cancer recurrence. Chemotherapy is expensive and only less than 15 per cent of patients with early-stage disease get the benefits of chemotherapy.

“Worse, chemotherapy has severe side effects that can substantially reduce the ‘quality of life’ of the patient. We are trying to solve this by developing innovative tests which assess the risk of cancer recurrence for early-stage cancer patients and which will help in optimum treatment planning,” she explains.

OncoStem’s first product is CanAssist-Breast, which, as the name suggests, is targeted at patients with breast cancer. It is a Machine Learning-based test that assesses the expression of metastasis-related biomarkers to predict the probability of recurrence of invasive ductal breast carcinoma. It categorises the risk of recurrence clearly as either high or low with no grey areas in between. Clinicians use this information, along with other clinical patient specific information, to devise tailor-made therapeutic strategies for each patient.

“The risk of cancer recurrence is dependent on tumor type, stage and on the biology of each patient’s tumour. CanAssist-Breast determines the proteomic fingerprint of the tumour. This information is then used by our proprietary Machine Learning-based algorithm that stratifies patients as low- or high-risk for recurrence. Patients classified as high-risk would have a greater probability of recurrence. This will help clinicians and the patients to understand the disease better and plan a suitable treatment,” she elucidates. “Adjuvant chemotherapy treatment of the patient can be customised based on the risk of recurrence.”

Based in Bangalore, OncoStem uses proteomics-based technology called Immunohistochemistry to perform the test. The technology is based on the detection of highly specific and quantitative antigen-antibody reactions that are measured specifically in tumor cells.

“Immunohistochemistry is a gold standard and time-tested technique. It is efficient, low-cost, and easy to perform across the globe. The data from immunohistochemistry, along with clinical parameters about the tumour, is then used by our proprietary Machine Learning-based statistical algorithm to stratify patient either as low-risk or high-risk for breast cancer recurrence,” she further elaborates.

Priced at INR 60,000 (under US$1,000), CanAssist-Breast can potentially save over 60,000 breast cancer patients in India alone and about one million worldwide every year from the severe side effects and unnecessary costs of chemotherapy, claims Bakre.

Aside from individual patients, CanAssist-Breast also targets clinicians, insurance companies and central and state insurance policies, who offer subsidised healthcare to people.

Currently, OncoStem is working with 10-plus hospitals and two large diagnostic chains in India, with plans to expand to Southeast Asia and the Middle East in the recent future.

OncoStem also has several reputed hospitals in the US and Europe signed up for the validation of CanAssist-Breast tests, she adds.

The medtech startup is also working on similar tests for oral, lung, and colorectal cancer. Research is underway towards identifying and characterizing novel drug targets for breast and oral cancer.

Last September, OncoStem raised US$9 million, led by Sequoia Capital with participation from existing investor Artiman Ventures. The company is now on the lookout for fresh investment to take the company to the next level.

Bakre tells e27 that OncoStem’s seven years’ journey has not been without challenges. “Working with hospitals in India to develop anything which uses clinical material has been a challenge due to lack of clear guidelines and implementation of the same. OncoStem has managed to come this far only because of a few good hospitals with visionary leaders and excellent clinicians, who believe in themselves and us. We are indeed fortunate to have found the correct clinicians and hospitals.”

Bakre, who has previously worked at Mt Sinai School of Medicine, NY, and at Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, feels that Indian entrepreneurs have the ability to develop path-breaking healthcare solutions, but low on self confidence and are often discouraged from starting new product driven healthcare ventures due to the scarcity of funds and the country, on the whole, lacks biotechnology start-ups who have had stellar exits apart from Biocon

“It’s really unfortunate that on the one hand we complain that all the new drugs and diagnostics developed in the West are expensive, but when there is a chance to develop something in India, we do not always lend a helping hand and support to or trust the party doing it. At times, they even dissuade someone from doing so.”

 

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Learning points and takeaways to focus on growing Singapore’s startup ecosystem

It was my second official business visit to Silicon Valley in three years. This time, I was part of a Singapore government delegation who’s objective was to connect and establish partnerships between the two startup ecosystems.

But going beyond the norm of just focusing on business, I found myself diving deep into what makes Silicon Valley the way it is and how Singapore can learn from it. In my travels, I engaged various parties at the Bay for their insights on what makes Silicon Valley great.

Here are my takeaways from these conversations.

1. Harnessing talent comes from being open and accepting immigrants

As I visited each location, one would notice a variety of talents from a slew of ethnicities. People from all across the globe have gathered here in the Bay Area, offering their expertise to the tech ecosystem. This observation was substantiated when my research found that 50 per cent of all tech workers in Silicon Valley were immigrants.

As I spoke to the different teams that hosted my welcome, there were a good number of members who were are not born in America. Yet, they told me that they felt very welcomed in their workplace and communities.
In fact, they added that the open policy of talent is prevalent and a significant number of startup founders are foreign. (An estimated 25 per cent startup founders in Bay Area are foreigners). One host also said that it was quite common to have inter-racial, transnational marriages, something that Asia is still in its infancy stages of warming up to.

Also Read: Lifetrack Medical Systems raises US$5.2M in Series A to bring radiology to remote areas

Singapore has developed a higher ‘cultural quotient’, as defined by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, who is Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation, during his fireside chat at the Singapore Tech Forum held in SF on 20 Apr 2019. He mentioned that Singaporeans have an advantage as they live in a multi-cultural, multi-racial society. This gives Singaporeans the ability to adapt easily in other cultures, which is why a good number are working in the Bay Area.

To further develop his point, I would apply this cultural quotient back to Singapore, where we Singaporeans need to welcome highly skilled tech and entrepreneur foreign talents to find Singapore as a base to build their ideas.

In fact, Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, also a speaker at the fireside chat with Dr Vivian, further observed that Singapore is one of three countries that have a net inflow of patents, which is possible due to the welcoming of foreign talent to build up the nations R&D capabilities.

This hands-on experience of learning how Silicon Valley thrives on mixed global talent reminds us of how much Singapore needs to continue accepting new immigrants and welcoming them to become part of Singapore’s future. After all, Singapore was once a land of immigrants and prospered from the inflow of economic activities.

The Singapore government also highlights that highly skilled foreign talent is essential to invigorate the startup ecosystem. And this trip to Silicon Valley has given me clarity on the purpose.

2. Sharing knowledge sparks new ideas

As we visited locations like Berkeley SkyDeck, NVIDIA, 500 Startups and Draper Venture Network, there was one thing in common: our hosts had no qualms in sharing as much as they could. They answered our questions and gave us many insights.

I asked one host what their secret sauce for building a successful dealflow for their accelerator was, and they provided detailed processes and strategies that built them the way they are today.

Delegation on visit to Draper Venture Network

This is a refreshing compared to my visits to Asian tech ecosystems, where the culture does not promote oversharing, for fear of being copied and edged out.

Trading notes with my fellow delegates, we found good takeaways and were able to come up with new ideas to improve our processes back home. Perhaps, one day that open sharing culture will emerge out of Singapore and help boost the development of more innovative ideas.

3. How our most successful entrepreneurial overseas program has produced a spike of Singaporean entrepreneurs

Our delegation had the pleasure of meeting and catching up with over 50 Singaporean students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) who were under the NUS Overseas College (NOC) program. This programme launched back in 2002 in Silicon Valley, allows NUS students to work in an overseas tech startup or VC in another startup city for a year.

NUS NOC gathering at Block 71 San Francisco

According to friends in NUS Enterprise, the NOC program has sent out nearly 3000 students on internship attachments and a good number are now involved in tech startups.

It has also birthed some great startups, like Carousell for example, our top Singaporean-born startup by valuation. Carousell’s founder, Quek Siu Rui, who was in attendance, shared how much he had benefitted from the NOC program which stimulated the conception of his startup.

Carousell co-founder, Quek Siu Rui at the NUS NOC gathering at Block 71 SF

As I asked these young bright talents on the experiences that they have gained, they shared stories of how their perspectives had changed and had diverted from being too ‘Singaporean’.

One found himself being pushed to think out-of-the-box and look beyond standard traditional solutions to solve problems. Another found himself becoming a hustler and breaking norms to speak to a superior as an equal and calling him by name.

These actions were evident in my conversations with them. I was quite taken aback by their un-Singaporean-like attitudes in wanting to engage me and learn more. They did not hesitate to press me for more sharing as they enthusiastically absorbed every word I said. Back at home, I seldom get this energy of learning when I teach my entrepreneur masterclasses at institutes of higher learning.

The success of NUS’ NOC program has not gone unnoticed with our government. A new Global Ready Talent Program (GRTP) is in place to expand on the NUS NOC program which the pioneers have much to be proud for.
Presence of SV companies in SEA but more collaboration can be done.

It was heartwarming to know that Silicon Valley companies had a presence in South-East Asia (SEA) like 500 Startups and Draper Venture Network. But there were those which had yet to establish a presence in South-East Asia. In fact, I noticed one host had a global presence but none in SEA.

Two reasons were cited on why SEA has yet to be tapped. One, the US market has many opportunities that have yet to explore, and two, Silicon Valley entities find SEA relatively new and unknown and they lack understanding of these markets.

I am a pro-Singapore startup evangelist, and I openly share that Singapore has always been the gateway to SEA, due to our strong connectivity of flights in and out of the region.

Our strong ties to our neighbours, home ground understanding of the quirks and nuances of SEA, coupled with our most pro-business friendly environment, makes Singaporeans the best partners to enter into an emerging region of 640 million markets.

A person I spoke with also mentioned that Silicon Valley was saturated with too many startups and the competition was harsh. She advised Silicon Valley entities to engage in a new blue ocean opportunity and turn eastwards to SEA instead of staying put in the US. And they should continue tapping into Singapore’s openness in collaborations.

4. Singapore now recognises engineers are valued and should learn from Silicon Valley’s practices

In the same Singapore Tech Forum fireside chat, Dr Balakrishnan highlighted that Singapore outsources too much of its engineering capabilities. To him, he observes engineers are valued in Silicon Valley and he re-affirmed that engineers are also valued in Singapore, much to the applause by the audience.

Indeed, tech engineers are rising in demand in Singapore by employers, and along with it, an increase in salaries. According to the Robert Half 2019 salary survey, a data scientist in the finance industry earned US$66,000 to US$147,000 per annum. Meanwhile, a developer in a commerce industry earns US$55,000 to US$88,000 per annum.

Speaking to a few South-East Asian tech engineers here, I asked whether they would consider coming over to Singapore to work on projects, given that the pay was reasonable in comparison to the cost of living.

However, I learnt that pay was not a main concern. Rather, it was the respect that they worry is lacking in the Singapore ecosystem. Being treated well by their employers was a top priority. To them, the treatment of their well-being by Silicon Valley employers has been outstanding.

One highlighted that their freedom to create new innovative solutions and products should be liberal and not be stifled by management bureaucracy. Engineers should also have a right to provide guidance for the tech company’s development and not just the business people.

As for working for startups, one commented that Singapore startups should recognise the value of tech engineering. Only then can Singapore evolve as a tech ecosystem. They should not just be treated as deliverers of work, but builders of a valuable IP that would create defensibility for the company.

Ending thoughts

With 23 weekly direct flights between Singapore and San Francisco, Silicon Valley and South-East Asia (via Singapore) are more connected than ever. But, have the collaborations in the startup tech scene caught up with these flight connections?

Also Read: Golden Equator Group of Singapore raises US$18M led by Taizo Son

There is much to learn from the Bay Area from the perspective of a young startup ecosystem like Singapore, but the Bay Area is starting to saturate with ideas. Perhaps, it should start to look into South-East Asia via Singapore to tap on untapped opportunities.

I have noted a good number of partnerships, but there are still many more cross-border partnerships in the making. The world can always use more tech innovations and building a sustainable future for all.

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Christopher Quek was invited to be part of Enterprise Singapore’s delegation to the Bay Area in order to promote cross collaborations between Silicon Valley and Singapore between 16-20 April. All opinions expressed here are of his own. He writes about the SEA startup ecosystem at christopherquek.com.

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

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UI/UX design is a constant loop, and you will always need to improve your designs following the same process of research, ideate, craft, test, iterate

When I rewind the clock to when ShopBack first started, truth be told, UI/UX-wise-I was floating around in an abyss of the unknown. Flash-forward to today: I’ve had the chance to build my first website, an app, as well as browser extensions.

As a tribute to my learning journey as a UIUX designer, I wanted to document this for the next time I try something new again. If you’re a designer that’s starting from ground zero, I hope you’ll find this useful!

1. Begin with research

Prior to this, you probably already have an idea about the business, but don’t jump in and design base on assumptions yet. Start by asking: What does the business do? Are there existing competitors in the market? What can we learn from them? Your deeper understanding of the business, market and users becomes a strong foundation for your design.

2. Gather the basic requirements

Understand what the platform goals and objectives are before starting to design. Get your team together to focus on the main objective of the platform. Writing User Stories is a method that we use in ShopBack.

A User Story is a write up that answers questions like: Who will use this functionality? What should we create? How will the users benefit from this? You can sum it up like how Atlassian does: “As a [persona], I [want to], [so that].”. Read more about User Stories from them here.

3. Pen your thoughts down

At the beginning of your project, it’s natural to have a rush of ideas and feel clouded with thoughts. Writing things down on paper helps me to put all my cards out to sort it later. You can follow a mantra my teacher taught me: “Get the idea out of your head so you can move on to better ones”.

Also read: e27 Academy is your Founder’s Retreat with hundreds of other Founders

The thing I usually do involves, sketching out page designs, writing down problems and complexities, noting questions to ask my team.

4. Map out the customer journey

Understanding the customer journey is crucial for knowing what to design. If you jump straight into designing without figuring out the customer journey, your screens will act like isolated pieces, fragmented and uncomfortable.

5. Start in low-fidelity

Low fidelity designs work best in helping the designer and team focus on the core functionality and User Experience (UX) instead of being distracted by other aesthetics like colours or design style.

Here are 3 recommended ways to start in low-fidelity:

a. Wireframes

Wireframing is the fastest way to get a general direction of how your designs are going to look. It’s also a good time to think through the states for the pages and components in your platform. You’ll be surprised how many basic shapes can help one visualise!

Tools I use: Sketch, Draw.io, Balsamiq

b. User experience flow

Designing user flows help everyone in the team to visualise and align on the core experience you’re building. You can do this in image sketches or just text flow charts.

Tools I use: Sketch, Draw.io, Balsamiq

c. Low-fidelity prototype

Pairing it up with a prototype also helps stakeholders and users understand the user flow for your platform. There’s also a unique method called paper prototyping. I personally haven’t tried this one out but psyched to give it a go!

Tools I use: Sketch, Craft, Invision

6. Move to high-fidelity

Once the wireframes have been validated with users and given a go-ahead by all stakeholders, you can start doing your magic. Choosing the design direction requires considerations on branding for colours and style.

Also Read: Why e-commerce companies should go hybrid

Here are 3 recommended ways to move to high-fidelity:

a. Pattern Library

From your wireframes you’ll find repeated components, like buttons or form fields, being used. Instead of drawing the same thing multiple times, build a pattern library to help you plug and play components on the go.

Tools I use: Sketch or InVision’s Design Systems Manager

b. Pages & Components

With a library in hand, it will be faster to make aesthetic decisions for your User Interface (UI). Using your preferred tool, you can start building the visuals for your website in reference to the wireframes you designed.

If this is your first time designing for the needed platform, you should read up more about its basic guidelines. Some of which include: Grids, Responsive Websites, Google’s Material Design guidelines for Android and Apple’s iOS Design for iPhone applications. I’ve also compiled a list of resources that helped me here.

Tools I use: Sketch

c. High-fidelity prototype

This is the clearest method to explain your user experience journey to your users, stakeholders, engineers. Using this prototype gives a feel that is close to your actual intended product experience.

Tools I use: Sketch, Craft, Invision

7. Test & iterate

a. McDonald’s Testing (non-users)

At the start of ShopBack, we did this thing called “McDonald’S Testing” (or occasionally “Starbucks Testing”) where we took our mocks and headed to the nearest place to get strangers to try out our product. This is the best method to get fast feedback from non-users of your platform!

B. Usability interview (existing users)

For designs that are improvements of features, your target audience will be existing users of your platform. At ShopBack we call down our customers for a face-to-face interview to get their help in trying out the new products we’re building to get feedback from an end-user perspective. This is a great way of getting qualitative feedback since you’ll get to observe them from first hand. You can read up more about it here.

8. Prepare to build

Now that your team is confident with the designs, it’s time to hand it to the engineers. In ShopBack we use Zeplin which gives engineers specifications for your designs right to the pixel. Be detailed in documenting your designs so your engineers don’t have to guess your expectations. Save them the hassle, be diligent!

Tools I use: Zeplin

9. Launch and celebrate, then get feedback

Hurray! Your designs are out and into the hands of your user. It’s natural to jump straight into building a backlog for parts of your design you want to improve on, but do remember to take a breather and celebrate with your team on this. You deserve it!

Now that your platform is live with some users on-board, you can start looking into getting feedback from users who have used your platform. Here are some ways we get feedback:

Surveys & cold calls

To get a large number of responses in a short amount of time, cold calls and surveys make the cut. Have a specific list of questions that can be answered simply. You’ll be surprised how many responses you’ll get from the users who are passionate about your product.

User Interviews

Similar to Usability Testing, you’ll get to meet your users face-to-face. Except that the agenda will be focused on understanding how they use the existing platform. You’ll discover the usability problems that fell through the cracks before you launched.

In summary

The UI/UX design process is a constant loop. You will always need to improve your designs following the same process of research, ideate, craft, test, iterate throughout the lifespan of your business!

Also Read: How to leverage data to build a compelling story

Summarising my thought with this: Your next design will always be even better. Don’t be afraid to make the first move. I promise that you will get better at it.

Thank you for staying by to read my thoughts on this topic! If you have any thoughts on this, contact me at samanthadsyl@gmail.com. I’ll be so excited to learn from you.

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

Photo by Ion Şipilov on Unsplash

The post ShopBack Co-founder Samantha Soh’s guide to building excellent UX design appeared first on e27.

NeuroTags, which is attached to the product, can be scanned by anyone with a smartphone to get all the information and identify whether or not the item is genuine and authentic

Do you know counterfeit drugs kill around a million people every year?

Nitin Gupta and his friends were watching a documentary on the global counterfeit market. They realised the intensity of the problem when the documentary suggested that around a million patients die every year due to fake drugs alone.  Soon they realised that counterfeiting is a massive problem limited to not just pharma, but across all sectors.

“The steady rise in the growth of counterfeit products has created a negative impact on the world market. Apart from having tremendous business potential, India stands as a major market for counterfeit products. From toothpaste to aspirin to high-end handbag, this problem is spread across all sectors/industries like pharma, retail, and FMCG,” Gupta tells e27.

 “The problem arises when companies don’t have a mechanism to track down this market, collect consumer data, and are unable to keep an eye on distribution network. This leads to billions of dollars of loss every year. If we can save even one per cent of these lives, it would be a great achievement. We hope to achieve this objective with NeuroTags,” he adds.

NeuroTags, owned and operated by Pune- and US-based TezMinds, was developed in 2017 by Gupta (CEO and CTO), Yogesh Miharia (CSO), and Abhishek Agarwal (COO) — all have worked in the hard-core tech and startup sector.

As the name suggests, NeuroTags is a tag that aims to help businesses eliminate the counterfeits of their products from the market, thereby preventing the revenue loss. It helps businesses collect consumers’ real-time behaviour data from the offline world, which in turn help them in constituting informed business strategies.

Also Read: There is growth in counterfeit luxury goods, but blockchain tech can help brands fight back

“When we did a thorough research of the market, we found that most of the solutions in the market, such as holograms, RFID, QR codes etc. are ineffective and are easy to copy. These solutions do not help end consumers in verifying the genuineness of the item in any effective way. We thought if we could utilise the smartphone as a device to verify the authenticity, it would be of a huge for the consumer,” he says.

NeuroTags provides algorithmically-coupled tags — open and protected. The open tag is visible on the product. It can be scanned by anyone (read consumer) with a smartphone to get all the information of the product and an indication of authenticity with a certain probability.

Once a product is purchased, the buyer gets the access to the protected tag, which is protected by a scratch layer kept inside the product seal. After scanning the protected tag, the user gets the authenticity information with certainty. Also, the user can avail warranty, loyalty and referral points after scanning this tag.

The tags are connected, monitored and protected by algorithms and Artificial Intelligence on the server in such a way that, if anyone tries to replicate the tags, it gets caught and the copied product gets invalidated.

“NeuroTags is a unique solution to fight the counterfeit problem in a very effective and economical way. Our technology is capable of getting moulded and be used by any sector/industry in the market. We have identified sectors such as pharma, manufacturing, retail, and FMCG, which are in need of this technology,” he shares.

Being a large and cost-sensitive market, India is witnessing a huge inflow of cheaper counterfeit products into the country. According to the Authentication Solution Providers’ Association, the Indian counterfeit market is worth INR 40,000 crore (US$5.69 billion). Globally, it is US$1.6 trillion problem which is expected to reach US$4.2 trillion by 2022.

Initially, Gupta shares, it was difficult to convince companies about the benefits, as nothing of the product of this kind was available before. But now when they see their competitors and other companies benefiting from NeuroTags, they come on-board quickly (as companies don’t have to change anything in their current manufacturing or supply chain process).

To date, the startup has bagged several SME customers as well as a large enterprise. “We are already working with some of the key companies in India. We are also in talks with some of the top brands and are setting our bases in strategic geographies across the globe. We are in the right market and at the right time, providing the right services.

A bootstrapped company so far, Gupta and team are exploring the strategic partnership for early-stage funding with some of the investors.

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BP Network is a female social network that has been active in the social influencer space in Indonesia for more than two years

Hip acquires Indonesia’s female influencer network BP Network [press release]

Hiip, a social influencer platform in Vietnam and Thailand, has announced its expansion into Indonesia by acquiring BP Network, a female influencer network.

BP Network has been active in the social influencer space in Indonesia for more than two years.

Shintaries Nijerinda, Co-founder and CEO of BP Network, said: “After the merger, BP Network will rebrand to Hiip Indonesia and become part of this highly successful regional company. This will give our customers and influencers access to Hiip’s proprietary AI technology and international cross-market opportunities. We are very excited with the journey ahead.”

Also Read: Vnet Capital leads Series A financing in Vietnam’s social influencer platform Hiip

Phi Nguyen, Co-founder and CEO of Hiip Asia, added: “We are very pleased to work with BP Network, the largest female influencer network in Indonesia, to provide full access to our AI technology-based platform and support them with regional management experience. Also, Hiip Indonesia will expand our influencer marketing offering in almost all categories, segments and social networks. Our hope is to give more values to the existing local influencer ecosystem and provide more opportunities for influencers to connect with both international as well as important local brands.”

MaGIC’s global accelerator programme is back [press release]

Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) is accepting applications for the third cohort of MaGIC’s signature Global Accelerator Programme (GAP) which will be open until 10 May 2019.

Back for its third year now, GAP is looking to handpick 30 startups from across the globe to participate in the four-month long programme to run out of the MaGIC Campus in Cyberjaya, Malaysia. GAP equips local and global startups, keen on expanding in Southeast Asia, with the necessary skills, tools and network to be investment-ready in four months.

GAP provides selected entrepreneurs with a head start to break into the Southeast Asian market, a region that is often touted as the world’s next consumer powerhouse.

During the programme, MaGIC will be equipping participants with benefits worth over USD500,000 from various programme benefit partners including Amazon Web Services, HubSpot, Usability Hub and many others; industry-specific training, an opportunity to learn from world-class technical and business mentors; a stronger route-to-market focus with extensive corporate support, and partnerships in place with private sector champions such as DiGi, Maybank, Media Prima and Allianz Malaysia as well as a co-working space, accommodation, monthly stipend, a 6-month professional visitor pass and marketing allowance.

Essence launches Essence Global Ventures supported by the Singapore’ EDB [Reuters]

Essence, a global data and measurement-driven media agency which is part of GroupM, today announced the launch of Essence Global Ventures (EGV).

Based in Singapore, EGV is the first innovation, research and development hub for Essence in Asia Pacific, with a vision to advance the agency’s product proposition to be the global market leader in predictive, intuitive and growth-driven business solutions for its clients.

The hub is supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). EGV will develop and incubate industry-leading marketing technology products that use predictive data signals and automation to improve business performance, customer experience and brand governance. These solutions will be commercialised and deployed across 106 markets via Essence’s offices worldwide. An executive council, comprising senior global and regional leaders from Essence, will oversee the strategic direction and delivery of EGV’s research and development.

EGV’s strategic initiatives will include talent development programmes to grow and support Singapore’s next generation of industry leaders through professional development and training programmes in high-demand fields, including data science, advanced analytics, data and product engineering, creative technology, user experience design, and data integrity and privacy.

Tesla’s Musk ‘sees merit’ in capital raise [Reuters]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk suggested on Wednesday a capital raise could be imminent, as the electric vehicle maker lost $700 million in the first quarter and predicted a return to profit in the third.

Also Read: Golden Equator Group of Singapore raises US$18M led by Taizo Son

Tesla plans to resolve logistics issues with global vehicle deliveries after weathering a challenging few months, also marked by staff layoffs and a public spat between Musk and US financial regulators.

Shares of Tesla, which are down 22 per cent this year, were about flat after the results, which came more than an hour after they were expected.

Musk is still battling to convince investors that demand for the Model 3, the sedan hoped to propel Tesla to sustainable profit, is “insanely” high, and that it can be delivered efficiently and swiftly to customers around the world. Lower deliveries had added to worries over Tesla’s cash situation and increased speculation a capital raise was coming soon.

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Image Credit: Hip

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Does tech have a hierarchy of needs?

If tech consumers had their own Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, internet access would form the bottom rung, and financial-technology would be the one above it.

You need to be able to connect to the world wide web and leverage this access to store value. The next natural progression once these basic needs are met is investment technology: Once you have extended financial inclusion, you don’t want it just sitting there idly, losing value against your country’s monetary inflation. You want it to grow, which is why the next generation of investment technology platforms is so crucial to the future of economic enablement in Southeast Asia.

Investment tech in Southeast Asia can grow by taking a page book from Fintech, which grew heavily in the region due to heavy localisation. Mobile money provider Coins.ph, for example, made it easy for consumers to “top up” their digital wallets by integrating with the terminals widely available at 7-11 convenience stores in the country.

Also Read: Ninja Van and Grab join forces for intercity parcel delivery service

By making the cash-in process hyper-local and at a staple of fast, Filipino life, Coins.ph made mobile money easy for the average Filipino.

In the same way that mobile money providers like Coins.ph have simplified digital payments through aggressive localisation, so, too, should investment tech.

Unlike mobile money which is simplified through convenience and ease of use, investment tech is simplified through education. Investment solutions, in short, must reduce the cognitive load it takes to make smart financial investments. The days of having to master complex trading philosophies, pour over endless charts, and dig into obscure analysis should be over.

Investment must go local. It must go mainstream.

The rise of investment-tech in Southeast Asia

There are industry-specific platforms in Southeast Asia that are making it easier for formerly non-investors to invest.

One example is i-Grow from Indonesia, which is designed to bridge the gap between farmers and investors. Interested individuals can invest in select farmers via i-Grow and net a return as high as 9 to 13 per cent in as little as half a year. Investors can then view the progress of crops via the company’s mobile app.

It’s the cliche win-win business made true through platform thinking: Farmers get the capital they need to grow their business, and investors on the other end get an easy way to invest money.

Even international platforms are getting in on the action. Social trading platform eToro is now active in Southeast Asia, especially the Philippines, where it recently had two major events for local investors. Founded in the United States in 2007 around the start of Web 2.0, eToro is arguably built from the ground up with non-investors in mind.

Apart from bringing a social element to trading — allowing new and veteran traders alike to learn from one another through sharing strategies and investment picks — the platform also boasts of a trademarked Copytrader feature.

eToro’s Copytrader feature seems tailor-made for the Philippines, which features a rising middle class with significant disposable income but little idea on how to invest it wisely. Users can evaluate investors according to their risk score, track record, portfolio composition, and other key factors.

If a user finds an investor that he likes, he can then “copy” his account, and his portfolio will mirror that person’s future investments. The feature, in other words, reduces the often prohibitively difficult task of investing down to intelligent emulation that any proactive new investor can do.

Also Read: AI becoming a viable way to bridge the gap in the doctor-patient ratio: mfine CEO Prasad Kompalli

Platforms like i-Grow and eToro are the future of Southeast Asia. They move people in the region beyond just mobile money and propels them toward smart money, where their capital works on their behalf and empowers wealth creation.

Adoption of these platforms, then, does not matter only for the company’s founders, employees, and other stakeholders, but to Southeast Asia as a whole. We can even refer to their popularity as a kind of measuring stick for the region’s economic success.

The “investment” in investment-tech may very well refer to both those made by individual users, but also to the investment we collectively make into overall wealth creation for Southeast Asia.

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In its most basic sense, an IEO is a crowdfunding campaign whereby the onus is on the exchange to run most of the sale

In the current market climate, with BTC going up to $5500~ in April, it’s worth taking stock of some real numbers and how exchanges are leveraging on them for that coveted billion or unicorn status.

This is obviously not meant to be investment advice, I give better in person investment advice to accredited investors, that I can assure you.

Initial exchange offerings, otherwise known as IEOs, are the latest talk of town. In its most basic sense, an IEO is a crowdfunding campaign whereby the onus is on the exchange to run most of the sale.

While the model is not new, projects such as Top Network on Huobi Prime has attracted even a food delivery staff to open up his laptop at work to grab a coveted allocation.

With IEOs on Binance selling out in minutes and each user only getting a small allocation, is this really worth it?

Peeling back the covers, different stakeholders perceive the value of IEOs differently.

For projects

It is a great mechanism for fund raising up to US$10 million. The awareness and combined push with exchanges help projects get noticed by a larger user base, often existing exchange users.

After the conclusion of the IEO, project tokens will be open for trading nearly immediately on the exchange. This grants more predictability to the process and projects need not negotiate with each exchange after their own token offering.

The time that projects save can perhaps be put forth to other work such as development and partnerships.

For users

Should they manage to get an allocation in the sale, speculators should have high hopes of doing well on the token. Because the projects are curated and fast-tracked to listing, they can also expect faster liquidity and more attention from other parties.

Terms are also spelt out more transparently and they need not worry too much about others getting a better price than them — except the private sale or seed round investors of course. Some users employ automation to help them get their hands on some allocation.

For exchanges

IEO provides an increase in projects that want to get out there for a raise. This provides a great additional revenue stream for listing fees and value added services.

Should users know that they are offering a great IEO, there is incentive for them to be more active users and thus increasing their site engagement. Trading volumes for their exchange and whichever token they require to be used for purchase will increase as well. As many exchange have their own exchange tokens, this will be beneficial to exchange token holders.

There were many IEOs that were completed this year. Starting with BitTorrent token on Binance, many exchanges have started jumping onboard the IEO train.

Most of the main Asian-affiliated exchanges like OKEx, Huobi, Coineal, Bibox have jumped into the fray in response to the three projects conducted on Binance Launchpad.

Of the conducted IEOs, while the majority of them have hit their funding targets, there are many that have not. This tends to be projects with much less awareness on exchanges with relatively lower user traction.

They also could be projects that have not raised sufficient private sale investment prior to the IEO.

While some of the projects have raised previous rounds, there is also a readjustment to pre-sale investor lock ups that comes as terms with certain IEO listings.

Some of the upcoming projects are Matic Network on Binance Launchpad, DREP on Gate.io, Duo Network on Bitmax and Ocean Protocol on Bittrex.

The accepted contribution are usually a mix of USDT or exchange platform tokens. the models of contribution have also evolved from first-come, first-served to a ballot model.

Since it is an exchange promotional activity, the exchanges have the right to set the rules of engagement and users have to evaluate for themselves if it’s worth the effort.

Despite many of the tokens receiving huge interest and multiplying in dollar value by up to 10 times from the IEO price, we can see that trading volumes and prices decline after the initial listing.

Overall prices and attention trail down for most of these projects over the following span of 30–60 days after their IEO. The snapshot is taken of the first few well known projects conducted on Binance Launchpad, Huobi Prime, OKEx Jumpstart and Bittrex.

In the past 90 days, while Bitcoin prices have gone up by close to 30 per cent, the exchange tokens of the top exchanges with IEO platform offerings have received a huge boost.

Many of them are trading at a 90-day all-time-high with BNB even hitting its historical all-time-high. The increase in price of exchange tokens appear to be correlated with the announcement of various events such as IEOs on the platforms.

The combined market capitalization of these exchange tokens are over US$3 billion.

After the rise and fall of ICOs, alternative forms of fundraising have emerged in the blockchains space — and now you are up to date on Initial Exchange Offering strategy.

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Photo by Dmitry Moraine on Unsplash

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Constant upheaval is never good for a harmonious environment

Keeping a hold on staff is one of the biggest problems businesses in Singapore face. Research across Asia last year revealed that 46 per cent of the country’s employees expected to leave their jobs within 12 months, the highest predicted turnover across the continent.

As demand for talent grows, the balance of power has changed from the employer to job-seekers in recent years. This means that investing in your workforce can give you a real advantage in developing and maintaining a successful business operation.

Constant upheaval is never good for a harmonious environment, which is why there is such a big global drive to improve employee engagement. Happy staff are more productive, and constant recruitment costs money. It’s a win-win for any organisation.

A recently released study of technology professionals revealed that 38 per cent of employees expected to leave their current job in the coming year, which is a costly and often unnecessary expense, especially for those businesses still in their infancy. Of those who were bracing themselves for a move, 43 per cent admitted they were dissatisfied with their career progression, and 42 per cent revealed they were unhappy with the training and development opportunities on offer to them.

Developing a strategy

When almost half of the employees leaving a job blame the progression options available to them, creating clear development pathways should become a critical part of your company’s strategy going forward.
Even if you have highly qualified members of staff, do you need further investment in their development?

The answer is yes.

Talented individuals will almost always be looking to improve themselves, and a company that encourages and facilitates this will be highly valued as an employer.

In an age where your company will have a greater digital footprint for potential candidates, the importance of a reputation for fostering personal development cannot be underestimated.

It’s important that this plan is focused. Make sure that your training is relevant to the job role, rather than a scattergun approach with day courses that offer little value to the employee. If you are in doubt, speak with departments specifically before committing funds towards training.

If it’s irrelevant to them and done for the sake of ticking a box, it could actually be counter-productive and you may end up with low morale due to the backlog of work created by being away from the office.

Getting better hires

With better personal development available, you can sell your training package to candidates during the hiring process. Make sure you present it as a benefit, as that’s what the best employees see it as. They want to better themselves, and supporting and funding their development will make you stand out.

Employers in Singapore are facing a struggle to attract high potential candidates to the country, as well as keeping that talent, so being able to demonstrate a clear commitment to staff training will help you buck this trend, rather than contributing towards it.

Ultimately, there are many factors that will affect your staff’s morale. Remuneration will always figure prominently, but as a start-up, your resources will be finite. You can’t necessarily compete with larger companies in terms of pay, so it’s important to think about how you can outmanoeuvre them.

Looking at employee reviews of companies online provides a fascinating insight into how a workforce value their own development path. Criticism is often levelled at larger companies about how poor their training is, and how little room there is for progression, so start-ups have a great opportunity to raise that bar and mark themselves out against bigger businesses in the war for the best talent.

Also Read: South Korean media company invests in streaming service iflix

Focusing on your employees’ training and allowing them to develop won’t just make them happier, but it’ll make them more productive, which makes them more valuable to you. Most importantly, though, when they know that you are willing to support them while they improve themselves, they’re also more likely to stay with you in the long term.

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Also, Singtel and Go-Jek partners to offer more perks, and Curlec partners with HelloGold to launch new gold investment option

Luckin Coffee files for U.S. IPO, continues its ambition taking on Starbucks [Bloomberg]

Chinese coffee chain startup Luckin Coffee Inc. has filed for U.S. initial public offering and seeks to list on the Nasdaq under the code name LK.

The Beijing-based startup has revealed its plan to raise around US$300 million in the IPO since February. Just last week, the ‘more affordable coffee’ secured US$150 million from BlackRock and other investors at a valuation of US$2.9 billion.

Luckin Coffee first came in scene in June 2017 and has expanded into 2,370 stores in 28 Chinese cities, with Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte and China International Capital Corp as its backers.

Singtel and Go-Jek join forces, offer more privileges to its users [Press Release]

Go-Jek and Singtel have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a strategic partnership that seeks to offer a variety of benefits to their respective customers and driver- partners. From May 2019, both companies will cross-market their offerings, which comprise mobile, ride-hailing, and lifestyle.

Go-Jek driver-partners who subscribe to a Singtel Combo plan will enjoy data-free usage when using their Go-Jek app, allowing them to save up to 2GB of mobile data a month. As for Singtel’s customers, they can enjoy Singtel’s latest all-digital mobile plan, GOMO (Get Out More Often), will each receive Go-Jek ride-hailing credits worth US$3.68, which can be activated using a unique code.

Also Read: Japanese, Malaysian HRtech company Grooves raises US$3M in funding

The partnership is a part of Go-Jek’s mission to lower the operating costs for its driver-partners and provide them with better earnings stability. It also marks the newest benefit under GoalBetter, Go-Jek’s dedicated benefits programme for driver-partners in Singapore, which currently features insurance, medical teleconsultation, and fuel rebates.

Curlec partners HelloGold to make direct debit payment accessible [Press Release]

Curlec, the recurring payment platform with Direct Debit solutions based in Malaysia, has announced a partnership with HelloGold, fellow Malaysian mobile gold savings platform. Both companies join forces to launch a new SmartSaver Programme.

Through the said program, HelloGold integrated Curlec’s Direct Debit solution to automate their customers’ monthly investments to increase investment efficiency and let customers set their desired savings goal to generate longer-term returns.

Both startups are part of the Supercharger Accelerator Program that drives the development of fintechs in Asia and around the world.

“The partnership with HelloGold is an affirmation of our ongoing commitment to revolutionise the way businesses and consumers approach financial services. The importance of having sufficient savings within a tough economic environment is a key driver as to why HelloGold with Curlec’s Direct Debit payment solution will help Malaysians to easily save gold via a secure and disciplined manner,” said Zac Liew, Co-founder and CEO of Curlec.

AI sales assistant Saleswhale secures US$5.3M funding [e27]

Saleswhale, AI-based sales assistant platform, announced today that it has secured a US$5.3 million Series A funding led by Monk’s Hill Ventures., joined by Monk’s Hill Ventures are GREE Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, and Y Combinator.

The company said that it will use the funding to scale and expand its teams in engineering, customer service, sales, and marketing.

The Singapore-based company targets mid-market and large enterprises. Using its proprietary AI technology, Saleswhale describes its service as supporting sales and marketing teams by automating the lead engagement and qualification processes.

Also Read: South Korean media company invests in streaming service iflix

“We believe that AI assistants will become ubiquitous in the near future for global enterprises, as C-suites recognise that automation is essential to scaling. Chief Marketing Officers and Directors today need a scalable and cost-efficient solution that delivers a return on investment, bridges the sales-marketing gap, and supports sales teams in qualifying genuine buyers,” said Saleswhale CEO and Co-Founder Gabriel Lim.
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