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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Popular Foreign E-commerce Platforms in Hong Kong

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Top Mobile Shopping Apps in Hong Kong

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Predictions for 2019 and Beyond

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

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

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

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

Methodology

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

***

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

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

Photo by SHUJA ZED on Unsplash

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WeWork opens first location in Vietnam [Press Release]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do you want to compete with these excellent companies for a chance to pitch at Echelon 2019? Apply today! The success of the startup scene in Vietnam has been one of best stories of 2019 so far. TOP100 is stoked to visit the country and find the best young startup Vietnam has to offer.

If you want to get an idea of the competition, below is a list of some of the startups that will be competing for the top prize. We can’t wait to see you there!

9 Vietnam TOP100 competitors

Minet Asia

An influencer marketing network, Minet Asia targets Facebook and Instagram (the two most popular social media networks in Vietnam). Its goal is to use AI and machine learning to help brands pick the perfect person for their campaign. Minet Asia claims to have 3000 influencers on its network.

Aversafe

This startup wants to streamline online background checks by using the blockchain to help people build immutable credentials. The goal is to build a network whereby individuals have control over verifying their creditials. The hope is to avoid duplicating their online identity. The blockchain creates an individually unique page that cannot be duplicated.

Compily

A regulatory assistant, Compily wants to help companies quickly and efficiently adapt to regulatory changes. The company uses artificial intelligence to help companies identify a regulatory change, map it to existing policies and monitor its status in a workflow platform.

The platform is called ARIA.

KAMEREO

Kamereo is a B2B restaurant procurement platform for sourcing food and drinks. The platform helps people source for new customers, simplify the ordering process, analyse the orders and track cost control.

The goal is to make the restaurant procurement process more efficient in Vietnam.

Wicare

Wicare is an insurance customer relationship managment (CRM) platform. CRM systems typically help people track leads, nurture potential clients and analyse the results. Most CRMs are global companies so Wicare offers a more localised alternative in Vietnam.

Mosia

Mosia wants to become the go-to platform for professional emotional and mental support. The hope is to use the platform to detect cases and help people get help.

It is working on building a network of professionals to help create a network effect around mental health.

Ferosh

This e-commerce platform sells fashion for women. Based on the pricing, Ferosh sells outfits would fall in the mid-tier range of pricing. A typical dress costs between US$20 and US$50. A quick tour of the website seems to show a smart-casual style for women.

GODY.VN

GODY.VN wants to become the TripAdvisor for Vietnamese travellers. The platform has reviews on hotels, transportation, ticketing and even popular picture-taking spots. It also has a product for people to ask questions and a smart map of different regions in Vietnam.

Buymed

Buymed is a B2B platform for companies to buy medicine, first aide and dispensary items. It advertises itself to mom-and-pop pharmacies that make their living selling over-the-counter drugs to the average person. The platform takes care of every step from purchase to procurement to delivery.

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(Get insights from Ankiti Bose and more at Echelon Asia Summit 2019. Happening on May 23-24 at the Singapore Expo. Tickets are now available at US$10 each)

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The development is in line with Uber’s global strategy to cut down on losses as it prepares for a possible US$120B IPO

India’s leading food delivery startup Swiggy is in advanced talks to acquire the Indian unit of UberEats, The Economic Times (ET) reports, citing people with the knowledge of the matter.

The deal, which is expected to close by March, will be the Bangalore-headquartered company’s largest acquisition till date, and Uber’s first divestment of its food business globally.

As per the sources, the transaction is likely to be a share swap, which will give Uber around 10 per cent stake in Swiggy, which is currently valued at US$3.3 billion.

As per this report, the development is in line with Uber’s global strategy to cut down on losses as it prepares for a possible US$120 billion public offering.

Founded in 2014, Swiggy has over 50,000 restaurant partners spread across 50-plus cities. Since the last funding round six months ago, Swiggy has expanded to 42 additional cities and doubled in gross merchandise value as it strengthened its leading market share along with industry-best repeat rates and net promoter score.

Last December, Swiggy executed definitive agreements for a US$1 billion Series H round of funding, led by existing investor Naspers, a global internet and entertainment group. In May 2017, Swiggy raised US$80 million led by Naspers, with participation from existing investors Accel India, SAIF Partners India, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners and Norwest Venture Partners.

In yet another major consolidation move in the food delivery segment, Oyo is said to be in talks to acquire cloud kitchen startup FreshMenu for US$50-60 million, says another report by ET.

As per one of the people who spoke to ET, the move will help Oyo standardise its food experience across hotels, an initiative that has internally been in the works for more than a year.

Launched in 2014, FreshMenu is an online food ordering platform backed by the likes of Lightspeed Venture Partners. Last year there were reports that the startup in in talks to raise up to US$$75 million from TPG, General Atlantic, Temasek Holdings and domestic PE fund Kedaara Capital.

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TresGo helps SMEs in Malaysia with inventory and deliveries, so businesses can actually focus on product development, marketing and sales

TresGo, a provider of e-fulfilment solutions for online sellers in Malaysia, has received an undisclosed sum in investment from state-owned VC fund Cradle. An unnamed traditional shipping, logistics and warehouse company also co-invested in the round.

The startup will use the money for further development of its cloud-based copyright system, which enables all the operations to be viewed by their merchants in real time, as well as for expansion of the warehouse.

Speaking of the investment, Juliana Jan, Chief Investment Officer of Cradle, said: “We have long believed in the inevitable need for the traditional warehouse management system to be digitised for the optimisation of fulfilment solution. TresGo’s technology, which addressed this exact need, is exactly the reason why we decided to invest in them.”

Also Read: Cradle’s startups attract US$10M commercialisation funding under CIP Catalyst programme

“While TresGo has an attractive scalable business model with compelling market opportunity, the team’s expertise equipped with their strong execution capabilities is what enticed Cradle to invest in them,” she added.

Founded in 2017 by Nadhra Fauzi and Safiyya Azman, TresGo offers three core services — storage, packing and delivery. In other words, it helps smaller-scale sellers with inventory and deliveries, so businesses can actually focus on the important bits like product development, marketing and sales.

TresGo was part of the second cohort of MaGIC’s global accelerator programme in 2018.

Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd (Cradle) is Malaysia’s early stage startup influencer, incorporated under the Ministry of Finance Malaysia (MOF) in 2003 with a mandate to fund potential and high-calibre tech startups through its Cradle Investment Programme (CIP).

 

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The lifestyle brand gaming company launched its HQ2 at a groundbreaking ceremony today in Singapore

Razer, the gamers’ lifestyle brand has officially started the building of its Singapore-based headquarter in a groundbreaking ceremony celebration located in one-north, a 200-hectare business park. Attending the ceremony was the Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat, the Chairman of Singapore Economic Development Board Dr. Beh Swan Gin, and the CEO of JTC Corporation Ng Lang.

Also Read: 9 startups aiming for the crown at Vietnam TOP100

The 19,300 square metres will be dedicated to office space, R&D labs and design studios spread across seven storeys. It will be one of the two global headquarters of Razer and is expected to be ready for move-in by mid-2020. It will house more than 1,000 employees.

“The growth of gaming and esports across the world has propelled us to become one of the first lifestyle brands for gamers since 15 years ago, and we can’t wait to move into our new home to better serve the 2.3 billion gamers across the world,” said Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, and CEO.

Kiren Kumar, Assistant Managing Director, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) also expressed its support. “At their new home, Razer will develop and scale new products, services, business models and partnerships, as well as invest in new technologies such as AI, Data Analytics, IoT, and Cloud. These are important drivers for business innovation and will create new-tech jobs and skills for Singaporeans to succeed in the digital economy,” said Kumar.

Razer headquarters’ groundbreaking is also a launching platform for Echo Base, a digital real estate start-up that seeks to incorporate Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and other technologies into real estate development projects.

Echo Base will focus on the development, investment, and management of smart buildings and integrated developments in the Asia Pacific and selected global gateway cities.

Backed by SGX Mainboard-listed Boustead Projects Limited and Moor House Capital Pte Ltd, Echo Base has secured its first smart city project in the region to be developed over the next few years.

The building is said to have the embodiment of Razer’s signature design elements that are dominated with the green and black colour, combined with technology for environmental friendliness, specifically in reducing carbon footprint.

The building will feature greeneries, solar power, and batteries for clean energy. It will have sky terraces with communal spaces and public pedestrian walkways to facilitate social interactions and public events. The building hopes to transform the bicycle to the main mode of transportation in the headquarters as the company seeks to support the country’s car-lite initiative with the parking space, locker room, and shower facilities.

Also Read: Cradle invests in e-fulfillment solutions provider for online sellers TresGo

The next step for Razer is to continue the growth in gaming industry and esports community through investments. By adding talents to its 400 staff in Singapore office alone, Razer is looking at expansion of existing business units and in emerging new business areas by 2020.
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Image Credit: RazerTM

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TOP100 companies routinely raise follow-on funding and find success later in their entrepreneurial journey!

Want to get your startup in front of these fantastic judges? Make sure to apply to TOP100 today!

This year, our TOP100 competition wants to create a deep connection between the startups and investors. This is why we will be hosting the pitching competition in private. The goal is to dig deep into your startup so that the judges have an in-depth understanding about your future plans.

More of the judges that will be involved in the competition can be found here and here.

Let’s take a look at 9 more!

The TOP100 Judges

Thoa Nguyen — 500 Startups

Nguyen is part of the investment team at 500 Startups Vietnam. The fund has about US$14 million and is hoping to invest in 80-100 Vietnam-connected startups by 2020.

Prior to joining 500 Startups, Nguyen was the Deputy Director of Group Financing at Topica Group.

Eugene Kim — SparksLab

As a Partner at SparksLab Kim manages the day-to-day operations of the accelerator program. Prior to joining SparksLab, he was the Director of Global Business Development at Tencent Korea. He has a long career in business development as well as sourcing and publishing properties within a given market.

Tina Jabeen — Startup Bangladesh

As an Investment Advisor for Startup Bangladesh, under the Bangladesh ICT Ministry, Jabeen has a keen understanding of the relationship between the Bangladesh government and the startup community. She also is deeply embedded in early-stage startups, leading the investment and accelerator program for Startup Bangladesh.

Jabeen has a CPA and has worked in the investment industry for over 25 years. Before her current job she was a Director of Finance and Tax at Horsely Bridge Partner, a fund of funds.

Shpangental Golan — Anemone Ventures

Golan is the Co-founder and CEO of Anemone Ventures, a Taiwanese firm that aims to help corporates and startups work closely with one another. Shpangental has a 20-year history of starting businesses and rolling them out across Asia.

She is an active member of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce and works to bring the international community to the island.

Sia Zong Xi — Cocoon Capital

Sia is an Associate for Cocoon Capital, an early-stage investment company focussed on Southeast Asia. They provide a unique strategy of capping the amount of investments made annually in an effort to help Founders spend more time with the VC.

Sia graduated from King’s College in London. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and graduated with honours.

Booway Balhaajav — Boston Champions

Balhaajav is the Founder and CEO of Boston Champions, a consulting and development firm based in Mongolia. The company has a diverse set of clients, ranging from mining companies, finance firms and tech startups.

Prior to starting Boston Champions, Balhaajav was the President and CEO of Naran Trade Group.

Elen Goel — Singapore University of Social Science

Goal is the Head of the Entrepreneurship Programme at the Singapore University of Social Science (SUSS). She has years of experience helping connect corporate programmes (Like Alibaba’s Entrepreneurship Certificate) to budding entrepreneurs in the region.

Prior to joining SUSS, Goel was Founder of 22 Experience, an online discovery platform and event management company supporting by the Singapore Tourism Board.

Azman Hood — Cradle Fund

Azman Hood is the Vice President of Investments for Cradle Fund. In his job, he helps lead the direction of one of Malaysia’s most important early-stage investment firms. Hood was previously a Senior Investment Manager at Cradle and has been with the company since 2010.

He is an avid fisherman who has a fantastic quote on his biography: “The key to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that is much worse.”

Jason Pard — Monk’s Hill Ventures

Pard is an Investment Analyst at Monk’s Hill Ventures. His job duties include deal sourcing, investment analysis, portfolio management, community building and research.

During his time at the University of Illinois, he was the President of Illini EcoConcept, an organisation that designs and builds a hydrogen-fuelled concept car.

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Affiliate marketing is the shortcut to success you might have been waiting for

When you’re involved with affiliate marketing and you want to start your own business, you’ll have the opportunity of earning commissions without doing any real work — just selling products or services provided by other companies.

Unless your business really takes off and becomes lucrative, you probably won’t earn enough money to be completely self-sustaining.

However, affiliate marketing can be a great way to supplement your income right from home.

There are a wealth of such opportunities available right now, even with companies that are well known throughout the US.

Here’s what you need to know about establishing your own affiliate marketing business.

1. Sell products you’re familiar with

At the beginning of your affiliate marketing career, you should stick to selling products which you know fairly well — a reflection of your present interests or current occupation.

The reason for this is that you will almost always do a much better job when you already have a working knowledge of those products you’re trying to sell.

2. Create a website which caters to your niche

When you’re trying to get established with specific companies as an affiliate, they will want to know the website you are going to be using to sell their products.

This is very natural because any company affiliating itself with independent entrepreneurs is going to want to know that these websites will not damage their reputation.

It will be very easy for you to set up your own website, especially if you use one of the most popular content management services like WordPress.

As you’re building your website, make sure to include content which is not dominated by sales pitches.

Instead, what you should aim for is to present yourself as an authority in your particular market, so that potential customers will want to come to you for relevant and useful information.

3. Cost of creating a website

When considering the cost of a new website, a number of factors come into play.

These include the number of pages you’ll have on your website and the kind of content that you’re going to post on the site.

A study conducted on 400 of the top freelancer profiles on UpWork came up with some ballpark numbers which can be used as a guideline for someone who intends to become involved with the affiliate marketing business.

A 10-page website will cost somewhere between US$200 and US$1500 for its initial setup, and then there will probably be some modification costs afterwards.

If you want to include some custom site designs rather than using a WordPress template for instance, the range you might expect to pay would be from US$1,500 to US$5,000.

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If you were to further enhance that website with custom designs and custom functions, a 10-page website might cost anywhere between US$5,000 and US$10,000 for its initial set up, along with periodic additional investments for marketing and development.

If you are a newcomer to affiliate marketing, you’re probably going to want to stick to the low side of website costs, and keep your investment somewhere near the US$200 range, which is entirely possible when you use a WordPress template as a framework for your site.

4. How to become an affiliate

As mentioned above, you should probably start by researching affiliate programs which offer products that you’re familiar with, and that you can comfortably pitch to potential customers.

One good place to start is on Amazon because the site sells just about everything, so whatever you’re looking to become involved with, there’s a good chance that there’s an affiliate marketing potential at Amazon.

One other great option is a company called Commission Junction, which will help you to become an affiliate for a huge number of successful companies that you’ve probably already heard about (Office Depot, Overstock, and a great deal more).

Clickbank is one other option that is worth researching, and which many affiliate marketers have become very successful.

Commissions earned from companies associated with Clickbank have been very profitable in the past, and are likely to be just as lucrative in the future.

5. Join your chosen affiliate program

Generally speaking, there is no charge associated with becoming an affiliate in any specific program.

That means you should be wary of any company which asks you for your credit card number when you’re trying to join an affiliate program, because you may be getting scammed.

Virtually, all reputable companies which provide opportunities for affiliates, allow entrepreneurs to affiliate with their companies for no charge.

You are likely to be asked for a PayPal account number or a bank account number, but that’s not because the company wants to extract money from you. They will need an account number to deposit your commissions in, once you start becoming successful.

You may also be asked for the URL of the website you created for your affiliate marketing business, and this is quite normal as well.

6. Include affiliate links inside your content

One great way to boost your commissions without even having to make a sales pitch is to include affiliate links within the content on your site.

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Whenever site visitors click on any of those links, they will be taken to the company site, and if they make a purchase there, a commission will accrue to you for your efforts.

Most companies make it very easy for you to acquire links to their websites. The method that you acquire these links may vary from one company to the next, but it’s almost always very easy to link to any products you’re looking for.

7. Keep producing relevant content

If you want people to continue to come back to your website, you need to continue producing relevant and useful content for your users.

The more users are encouraged to come back to your site, the better the chances are that they’ll click on affiliate links and make a purchase, which in turn earns you a commission.

By producing a steady stream of content which interests your readers, you’ll encourage more visitors to your site.

Eventually, the sheer weight of numbers should operate in your favour, and a number of these visitors would be clicking on affiliate links to make purchases — while you earn profits.

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