Also, Hydra X partners with CEZEX; IMDA, Singtel and DBS’ collaborate to champion SMEs

The Asia Accelerator to announce its call for application this month [Press Release]

The only independent traditional startup accelerator program in Singapore, The Asia Accelerator, will launch a call for applications on January 15. The first cohorts will stand a chance to get SGD100,000 (US$74,000) of funding, free office space, a trip to Silicon Valley and credits from the accelerator’s notable partners such as AWS, Stripe, and Hubspot.

In a mass notes sent by the co-founders of The Asia Accelerator, the program mentions that there will be roadshow and visits to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Manila, and Dhaka starting from January 15.

Keen startups can apply online at theasiaaccelerator.com/apply, which will remain open until February 15.

Also Read: Startup generator Antler unveils 13 startups at its first Demo Day

The Asia Accelerator highlights its founder-friendly funding terms in the note, and it also allows referral system for startups that want to recommend other startups (with commission of US$100 per referrals successfully landing in the top-10).

GrabTaxi sued over the domain name ‘grab.co.id’ [e27]

GrabTaxi Holdings, the company that carries ride-hailing unicorn Grab, is reportedly being sued by a 3 Corporate Services, a web portal service and local management consulting firm in Singapore. The dispute is over an Indonesian domain name of “grab.co.id”.

GrabTaxi Holdings allegedly failed to comply with the written agreement that says it will acquire the domain name for US$250,000. It is being sued for losses and damages.

The parties involved have both denied respective accusations toward one another, in which GrabTaxi Holdings said that 3 Corporate Services engaged in a cyber-squatting practice of acquiring well-known names for domain and resell it at what it’s called to be “extorting” prices for profit.

Meanwhile, 3 Corporate Services said that its Indonesian arm “Grab Indonesia” had been in operation since 2013 while Grab only branded itself as so in 2016.

The trial for the civil suit is scheduled in June this year.

Trading tech provider Hydra X partners with digital asset exchange CEZEX [Press Release]

Singapore-headquartered trading technology provider Hydra X announces that it has partnered with the Asia-based digital asset exchange, CEZEX. The collaboration aims to integrate CEZEX with Hydra X’s Sigma trading platform as a trading venue.

“As a licensed digital asset exchange, CEZEX is one of the first and leading venues in Asia to offer fully regulated and secure access to digital and securitised token offerings, so this partnership is strategic for both sides to become a primary aggregated marketplace for trading venues that connects digital and emerging asset classes,” said Daryl Low, CEO of Hydra X.

Hydra X provides technology such as distributed ledger technology (DLT) that provides mission-critical trading and settlement infrastructure for digital and traditional asset financial marketplaces. Sigma trading platform by Hydra X offers a suite of trading tools ranging from price formation to analytics while facilitating price discovery and asset transfers across multiple exchanges and brokers globally.

CEZEX is Asia’s fully regulated and licensed digital assets trading exchange for multiple asset classes, including currencies, securities, and derivatives. CEZEX is also a platform for listing security tokens.

IMDA, Singtel, and DBS band together to launch new platform supporting SMEs [Press Release]

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singtel, and DBS announce the launch of 99 per cent SME e-commerce (99sme.sg), a platform that seeks to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) merchants in Singapore in easily adopting digital technologies and providing customers with omni-channel experiences.

With the new platform, SMEs can utilise the omni-channel and retail features to grow customer base using both offline and online presence. The platform also allows retailers to offer ‘last-mile’ delivery options to their online customers by allowing them to perform self- collection from the stores, which is critical for SMEs to upsell and cross-sell to online customers who walk into their stores and collect their merchandise.

Also Read: Meet the 4 Bruneian startups who impressed at Darussalam Enterprise Startup Bootcamp’s Singapore Demo Day

SME merchants can also use the platform’s business insights and reports to better understand sales performance of product categories and help them plan their product mix to optimise sales and inventory.

There is no charge for SMEs to list their products or services. as well as participating merchants.

Digiperform raises US$3.6M from India’s prominent media house [press release]

India’s leading news publication group, HT Media, has invested US$3.6 million in digital education Startup Digiperform.

The company will use the funds to build brand awareness and marketing in India and accelerate growth.

Launched in 2014, Digiperform offers short-term skill training courses for job seekers, working professionals and business owners for building digital skills. Headquartered in New Delhi, Digiperform has 36 training delivery centres in 14 states across India and 10 new centres in the pipeline.

“This investment will add momentum to our capital raising and supports our focus on marketing in order to accelerate brand awareness and presence across India,” said Digiperform’s CEO Manu Jolly. “We are focused to create highly skilled and efficient manpower to support digital economy in India by offering in-demand, job role-specific curriculum and training.”

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Terra will work with Ulaanbaatar administration to replace the payment method of utility bills and government subsidies with its stablecoin

Terra, a blockchain company building the next-generation payment system, today announced a partnership with Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar, to launch instant money transfer and lending services.

Terra’s payment solution will first launch in Ulaanbaatar City’s Nalaikh District through a pilot programme, with plans to expand citywide. The programme is set to launch within the next six months.

Mongolia’s fintech market is still in its early stages, but has recently experienced a series of successful IPOs from local startups that display the market’s rising potential. As a reaction to this success, the Mongolian government has implemented progressive regulations that intend to facilitate the growth of startups and fintech, such as the Central Bank of Mongolia approving the launch of its first national digital currency license.

With the support of the government, Terra aims to simplify and secure the payment process with the click of a button, and provide other financial services such as fast and low-cost remittance and lending.

Also Read: What founders need to understand about fundraising from Angels

The partnership aims to reform the largely cash-based infrastructure of Mongolia by enabling more transparent and convenient digital payments. The pilot programme in Nalaikh City will launch with two main features: peer-to-peer (P2P) payments to allow instant transfer among users of different banks, and mobile payments to build the infrastructure for secure, contactless payments. As an immediate next step, Terra will work with local government to replace the payment method of utility bills and government subsidies with its stablecoin.

“Facilitating P2P and recurring utility payments with Terra are important first steps towards building a blockchain-based financial infrastructure in Mongolia,” said Daniel Shin, Co-founder of Terra. “From there, we will build out a wider range of financial services, reforming the remittance, loan, and overall banking industry.”

“We believe this pilot programme with Terra will reform how the people of Nalaikh City make everyday payments. It will contribute to the development and enrichment of the nation’s digital payment infrastructure, while creating a new online platform to easily share information and offering great opportunities to connect with our citizens through advanced technology,” said Radnaabazar Choijinsambuu, Governor, Nalaikh District of the Capital City.

A special task force made of key players from Terra, Nalaikh District, and XGround – a fintech company with a strong base in Mongolia – will oversee the initiative.

Founded by a team of business, finance and blockchain experts, Terra is designing a digital currency that it claims will power the next-generation payment network on the blockchain. It uses a dual-token model to fully collateralise its stablecoin Terra, with a decentralised asset and second token called Luna.

Terra has offices in Singapore and Korea.

Nalaikh City is located 36 km east from Capital City Ulaanbaatar and hosts a population of about 40,000. It is Mongolia’s first industrial hub, serving as the home to the first state coal mining company since 1922. Today, the industry is still developing rapidly, with the City supporting other growing sectors such as agriculture and the production of consumer goods.

In support of the Action Program of the Government of Mongolia for 2016-2020, which aims to revitalize the economy and promote growth, Nalaikh City is focusing on increasing internet accessibility and advancing financial inclusion for its citizens.

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Indonesia’s online marketplace Bukalapak has just celebrated its ninth birthday

Celebrated its ninth birthday last night, a source revealed to DailySocial that Bukalapak is going to announce its newest funding in which the company behind South Korean LINE, Naver Corp participates.

The information is also confirmed by other sources from Kumparan. However, Bukalapak’s founder and CEO Achmad Zaky refused to comment during the birthday celebration’s press conference.

Also Read: Tokopedia appoints former Indonesia Finance Minister as its President Commissioner

In the press conference, Bukalapak revealed the company will allocate IDR 1 billion (US$ ) to develop its program called Mitra Bukalapak or Bukalapak’s Partners.

There’s no further details on the possible funding.

Recently, as one of unicorns in Indonesia, Bukalapak has been focussed on allocating budget towards its R&D center. Bukalapak believes that further innovation will drive more businesses.
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Hailing from industries such as F&B, agriculture, technology, healthcare and cosmetics, these startups were mentored by seasoned entrepreneurs and subject matter experts

Brunei’s fledgling startup ecosystem has been burgeoning with vibrant activity over the past month — with the successful completion of nationwide hackathon Brunei Hacks 2018 and the announcement of the largest seed round raised by a local startup – and momentum doesn’t seem to be slowing down as we head into 2019.

4 Bruneian startups were flown in to Singapore for a demo day to pitch to a group of regional investors. Held at SPECTRUM Global, this event was a culmination of the fourth cycle of Darussalam Enterprise (DARe) 100-day Startup Bootcamp. Golden Equator Consulting (GECo) facilitated the programme to help equip Bruneian startups with the core skill sets needed to maximise their growth potential and achieve long-term sustainability of their business. Hailing from industries such as food & beverages, agriculture, technology, healthcare and cosmetics, these startups were mentored by seasoned entrepreneurs and subject matter experts who shared relevant industry expertise and experience.

Here are the 4 startups that pitched:

1. Rotuku.com

An online Halal-certified products marketplace that offers a product development programme to Nano and Micro SMEs helping them achieve market access competitively.

2. Essentials.ai

An insurance technology service that aims to close the technology gap in Asia’s insurance industry starting with an AI-driven chatbot service that can communicate effectively with the digitally-savvy population.

Also read: This accelerator programme wants to help Southeast Asia tap into the potential of Brunei

3. Memori

All-in-one legacy planning platform that aims to enable the everyday person to manage every aspect of their legacy including creating secure wills, insurance policies, memorial services as well as social media and email passwords.

4. Bowlus

A platform that connects bowlers and bowling centres worldwide, with a mission to provide a brand new bowling experience through big data and gamification.

In his welcome address, Daniel Leong, Deputy CEO at DARe, shared that while fundraising would be a bonus, it was more important for the startups pitching to get regional exposure and build up their network here in Singapore, showing that a small country can have big ideas, big dreams and the ability to deliver it.

Echoing this sentiment was Adam Flinter, Managing Partner of Golden Equator Consulting, who said, “Beyond equipping these startups with foundational business sustainability knowledge and expansion strategies, our role is also to connect emerging startup economies like Brunei with the regional startup ecosystems, so that their innovative businesses can have the right access to networks and opportunities that can help them speed-grow their business and strengthen their presence in the region and beyond.”

The trip to Singapore definitely proved to be a fruitful one, as all 4 startups really impressed in their pitches. Ambar Machfoedy, Managing Partner at Rekanext Capital Partners, summed it up nicely for the panel of investors in attendance, “I didn’t know what to expect at first when knowing I’d be hearing pitches from Bruneian startups, but I was very impressed with the pitches. A number of them have unique ideas or approaches for addressing problems that consumers and business face, and I say that from the perspective of someone who has looked at numerous ventures from the region. It’s refreshing that the Brunei startups are looking at heretofore untapped opportunities like will-writing services and insurtech – I’m looking forward to having deeper conversations with these startups down the line!”

ICYMI, you can relive the demo day via DARe’s Facebook live broadcast.

Peering into Brunei’s Startup Ecosystem

Brunei Darussalam is strategically located on the north coast of Borneo in ASEAN, and enjoys a healthy economy and political stability largely attributed to its oil and gas economy. To diversify away from heavy reliance on the latter, the Bruneian Government introduced the Wawasan Brunei 2035, which aims to actively develop key sectors such as Halal, Tourism, as well as Innovative and Creative Technologies.

At the heart of this strategy was the establishment of DARe in 2016, as the national agency to nurture an entrepreneurship culture and equip Brunei’s MSMEs with the core skills to compete on the world stage. Through it’s 100-day Startup Bootcamp, participating would be guided through the full startup journey through workshops, mentorship and opportunities for market access within ASEAN.

Also read: Brunei’s legacy planning startup Memori raises US$100K funding

Javed Ahmad, CEO of Darussalam Enterprise, shared that, “Equipping early-stage startups with the skills to accelerate growth, stress-test their business ideas, and gain international exposure are crucial in today’s globalised economy. This is an important step forward in achieving the Brunei Vision 2035’s goal in raising the standards of our talent pool to develop a dynamic, diversified, and sustainable economy to compete on the world stage.”

Progress since then has been evident, as the Global Entrepreneurship Index in 2018 ranked the nation 5th in the region entrepreneurship environment, just behind South Korea, Singapore, Japan and China.

About Golden Equator Consulting (GECo)

A digitally-focused business consulting firm that helps companies with strategy, transformation, and growth. We combine real-world business experience, the Golden Equator Consulting “core” methodology and deep professional networks to provide expertise across multiple verticals, including digital transformation, consulting, market entry strategies, marketing, and web development.

Golden Equator Consulting is part of Golden Equator, a group of companies based in Singapore: Golden Equator Capital is a fund management company; Golden Equator Wealth is a multi-family office; Golden Equator Consulting provides digital and tech-focused business consultancy services with expertise in Asia; SPECTRUM is a curated technology and innovation business club; and Asia Finance is a Fintech solution platform. For more information, please visit: https://www.goldenequatorconsulting.com/

About Darussalam Enterprise (DARe)

DARe is a statutory body that looks to nurture and support local enterprises with the aim to foster their growth in order to enable them to contribute to the country’s GDP. DARe develops local enterprises by assisting in capacity building, facilitating access to funding, access to international markets as well as providing industrial spaces for SMEs to grow, business support services, and promotional services. For more information, please visit: http://www.dare.gov.bn

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While the quality of startups and entrepreneurs have been increasing over the years, there are still many common mistakes and areas that entrepreneurs should take note of when pitching to angels

At AngelCentral, our Partners, who have all been active angel investors for many years, meet close to 500 startups annually. As such, they have met a diverse group of founders with extremely different backgrounds and personalities, and been pitched a wide range of business ideas and opportunities. While we believe that the quality of startups and entrepreneurs have been increasing over the years, there are still many common mistakes and areas that entrepreneurs should take note of when pitching to angels. Here are some important things we believe that founders should understand before approaching an angel investor:

You are the most important part of the pitch

During the many investor meetings I have sat in, many founders like to go straight into pitching their business. Yes, while many founders get it right by sharing important areas of focus such as their product, market opportunity, traction and the like, they usually skim or worse yet, miss out on the most important thing that many angels focus on: the founders themselves.

When evaluating an investment opportunity, most angels like to make sure they are extremely confident that the founder(s) is the right person to make the idea work. Of course, many founders will share about their past study and work experiences, skillsets and abilities, projects they have worked on, etc. However, it is also useful for investors to know the entrepreneurs’ vision not only for the business, but as an individual. This includes sharing about their values, mission, and goals in life.

A couple of months back, I joined an office visit meant for angels who have already committed to investing in the startup. During the Q&A session, an angel asked the founder her reasons for doing the startup in the first place. The founder spent about 10 minutes giving a spirited sharing about how succeeding in the startup would help to achieve her goals, dreams, and her mission in life. Everyone present could sense the passion and excitement from the founder when doing so, and not only did it solidify many of the angels’ commitments, a couple of investors even decided to increase their investment sums after hearing that sharing.

Also read: The angel investor’s cheat sheet to successful portfolio building

This is not to say that you need to share every personal detail of your life, but a crucial part of any pitch towards investors. is you should always give reasons for angels to invest in you as a person, and not just the business.

Investor rejection is going to happen; Make full use of it

No matter how much research you have done for your financials, preparations you have made for the most effective deck, and number of rehearsals to perfect your pitch, there will always be investors who reject you. This is completely normal. There could be a thousand reasons why an investor says no, and not one of them could have been within your control. It could be that your business does not fit into their investment thesis, they have already invested in a similar business, or they have maxed out their portfolio allocation for the year. Of course, it might be because they do not believe in your idea or business.

Don’t be disheartened. It is normal. Some of the biggest names in the US’ startup world such as Mark Cuban, Chris Sacca, and Bill Gurley, missed out investing in companies such as Uber, Airbnb, and Google. Yet, they are still considered as some of the most successful investors of all time! If even the most renowned investors can miss out on such opportunities, it means that being rejected by any angel would mean that your idea is bound to fail.

Thus, instead of taking it personally or feeling down that your investment pitch was rejected, you can make full use of it by asking for three simple things. Firstly, you can ask why they rejected you in the first place. Some founders, having been rejected by potential investors, decide not to communicate with them anymore. Instead, you could use it as a huge learning opportunity by finding out why your pitch was rejected in the first place. This can help you improve and increase your chances of getting an investment in future pitches.

Secondly, ask whether you can periodically provide updates to the investor about your startup. While investors do not invest in you in this round, they could always do so in subsequent rounds. Also, by providing periodic updates, investors will constantly be kept aware of your progress.

Lastly, ask for potential referrals. Even if one investor decides not to invest in you, it does not mean that he/she believes you might be right for someone else instead. It is usually ok to ask if the investor can make a warm introduction to another potential investor who could have a greater level of interest in your startup instead.

Also read: 6 bad angel investor practices that will sabotage a startup’s success

Focus on securing a (reputable) lead investor

From my experience, most angels in the region generally prefer to invest only after the startup already has a VC or super angel leading the round already. This could be due to the variety of reasons, perhaps that angels here are more risk adverse, or trusting that the lead investor would have made an extensive amount of due diligence and evaluation and thus trusting his/her judgment, etc. Either way, if you have secured a reputable VC or super angel to lead the round, it usually becomes easier to secure the commitments from other investors.

Do note that the key word here is reputable. You would generally want a lead investor that has a good reputation among the ecosystem. He/she must have had some experience in investing in or leading previous deals, be known for being both founder and investor friendly, whether that involves being responsive, helpful, participating actively, or issuing fair terms for both parties.

By securing a good lead, fellow angels will actually be a lot more confident in investing in your startup and it is likely you will gain a lot more interest than before, as it signals credibility that a reputable investor would want to lead your fundraising round. It will help you to secure investment commitments from fellow investors a lot easier.

A great product does not mean it is a good investment opportunity

When speaking founders, one thing I found is that many startups tend to focus on how great their product is, or the number of partnerships or customers the businesses have secured as a proof of its validation. While all these info is great, it does not necessarily translate to a good investment opportunity. This is because other areas such as, the projected financials (incl. sales) of the business, along with the target valuation of the company at that fundraising round, are usually important factors for angels to consider when deciding to invest or not. There are many times where the startup’s solution is solid and there is actual validation from the market,  that angels still decide to pass on the opportunity because the valuation just does not make sense from their POV.

Thus, it is important for angels to highlight the company’s projected financials for the next 3-10 years, and how it will bring about a positive ROI for the angels. Yes, while it is true that many angels do not just do it for the money, it is important to show that you as a founder, have thought of a clear path on how your angels can profit in the long run by investing in you as well.

Conclusion

Through this piece, I hope that founders will have a better idea of some things they need to look out for when fundraising, and help create a better experience not only for themselves, but for investors as well.

As part of what we do in AngelCentral is to create a smooth fundraising process for startups when pitching to angels, do check us out if you are a founder looking to fundraise, or an individual who wants to find out more how to become an effective and competent angel investor.

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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 Eugenia Vysochyna on Unsplash

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Artists should be able to create their work in an environment where their originality and creativity is not just appreciated, but given the compensation it deserves so we can shift the artist paradigm once and for all

Nanu Berks has lived a life that can almost be defined as cinematic. Born in San Juan, a small town North of Argentina, Nanu grew up in an environment filled with community, culture, and simplicity. It was through her humble surroundings that she learned to appreciate true abundance; the kind that goes beyond material gain. Her mother also played a major role in developing her outlook on life.

Overcoming obstacles and challenges were a theme in her life from an early age, moulding her early childhood and growing up during the economic downturn that took place in Argentina from 2002 to 2008. Banks closed down, citizens lost their savings, and many of them lost their jobs as well, including Nanu’s mother. Unable to support themselves, the family moved in with Nanu’s grandmother, living in the garage of the house with a mini heater and very few of their belongings.

Finding Roots of Her Own

Frustrated by the failed financial and governmental systems of the times, Nanu turned to venting her feelings through spray-painting walls and banks. “Once we turned 12 or 13, we joined ‘cacerolazos’ – revolts on the street, hitting pots and pans while advocating for justice.” She and her peers chose to use graffiti culture as their medium to express their activism. It was from this point that the “art fire” in her was lit and would continue to burn. Soon after her art discovery, Nanu’s mom and brother relocated to the US; but by then she had lost interest in “the system”. She gradually transitioned to backpacking full time, finding herself traveling through the Americas, the Middle East, and Europe.

“I saw a lot of beautiful people in broken places, and many beautiful places with helpless people,” she explains. “I would live on the beaches of Peru for months at a time in a tent, painting murals in exchange of food, and then teach yoga at a mansion the next week. During this time of my life i was very fortunate to have connected with a few teachers who really cared about me and saw a light of creativity in me.”

Her Journey into Tech

After gaining acceptance to university, a professor who really believed in her future allowed Nanu to travel and backpack while gaining credits for university remotely. Nanu had the opportunity to live a nomadic lifestyle while graduating with a BA in Communication as well. Her focus was mainly on social design for global impact. After a decade of backpacking, trading art, and conducting healing art classes, Nanu decided to become a freelance Tech writer.

Her interest in tech was minimal, when she first started out, but as she delved more into the topic, namely planet positive as well as transcendental tech, and realized the importance tech could play in shaping a better world, her perception changed.

“Tech is a 3D print of our consciousness,” Nanu says. “Like everything else, what we do with the tools we pull from the collective ether is steered by out ethos and our core values. People often blame tech for going too big too fast, but this is a fundamental human problem in how we see value.  Redefining value through art and through transcendental tech art is why I believe these two worlds [tech and consciousness] need to continue intersecting, to balance each other out.”

Also read: Fintech and blockchain pitches can be so ugly, but here’s some communication advice for fundraising startups to get the point across

Behind Her Art

“At first it was mostly symbology, as a dyslexic person,” Nanu explains. “I assumed I was unintelligent. I used to have a lot of trouble with numbers growing up, however as soon as I was educated on what dyslexia is, and how to read and do math with this different type of brain, I became obsessed with letters and numbers as a means of symbology expression.”

Essentially, art is how memories are stored and how people design who they become. Without the symbols, the slogans, the music,  and even the tech, there would be no culture. Culture is the creative expression of thought and product, it is the soul of all movements, and this is why it is crucial to give attention and resources to the artistic renderings of our evolution. This is the message Nanu carries within her when she expresses herself through all of her art.

“I aim to help redefine value, from how we see our natural resources, to human interaction, community and labor.”

Transitioning to Blockchain

It was also with this mindset that Nanu ended up adopting blockchain. Nanu first heard about Bitcoin in 2012 but did not pursue her research further into the topic until she found herself in the tech world. It was during her work with Samsung Bixby AI team that she came back to find blockchain technology, with her interest particularly piquing in Satoshi Nakomoto’s philosophy.

“I realized that nomadic principles are very similar to Satoshi’s original dream, decentralization of power, opportunities, and resources, tokenization as a trade economy, merging with elements of a gift economy, and what “democracy” should actually look like.”

After being on and off and around the blockchain space, Nanu made a decision to jump into the industry at the Miami Bitcoin Conference in 2017. But she has been an advocate for decentralization since her protest days of her younger years, avidly against the idea of central governance and authority. Not only did Nanu transition to the blockchain space, she found a way to merge her passion for the industry with her first love – art.

Merging Art and Blockchain

“I tend to embed positive messages of compassion and love into made up language equations, they usually contain a lot of blockchain symbology as well,” says Nanu.

After gathering significant experience from advising companies on art and integrating blockchain, as well as engaging other communities on the importance of the convergence of these two worlds, Nanu, herself, has registered her art on the blockchain. Mainly through the Blockchain Art Collective, a project that utilizes NFC chips, equipped with unique hashtags for “proof of originality”, Nanu has successfully managed to tokenized her work.

Also read: Why your company needs an Artist-in-Residence

Tokenization is the process of converting a “real-life” asset into a token that can be moved, recorded, or stored on a blockchain. Simply put, tokenization converts the value stored in an object – e.g. a painting, luxury product, or a carbon credit – into a token, a form of digital currency.

Nanu is also an advocate for transparency; making use of Paybook Glass, a financial transparency platform, to view for the rebuilding of trust and transparency in various communities. In this way, she believes, tech can give power back to the people.

Technology like this also plays an important role where charitable efforts are concerned.

“I donate a lot of art to non-profit,” Nanu explains. “But, often, we don’t know where the funds end up. With [financial transparency technology] you can see where and how these funds are being spent. Systems like these are very important in the redefinition of value; we need to have secure systems in place that hold us accountable for the values we say we advocate for.”

Another major factor that has helped Nanu advance in her endeavors is the fact that she has both a business and creative mind. This, however, has not stopped her from experiencing a series of challenges in creating her form of original art, and converging it with tech. One of the biggest struggles she has faced in the last few years, and continues to overcome, is getting the mainstream community to find original art just as, if not more, valuable than generic art.

“While art has always been admired and valued highly since the beginning of time,” Nanu explains. “Allocating equal resources to art careers has not been a priority; even today we see middle schools cutting out art classes from their programs.”

But she refuses to be deterred by these challenges, choosing instead to raise awareness on the importance of original art, and why artists should be significantly compensated for the work they create. She has also channeled her efforts into breaking the glass ceiling for other artists to gain their deserved benefits from the work they are creating – both on and off of the blockchain.

Nanu believes that blockchain can solve the counterfeit problem many artists experience on a regular basis. Through tokenization, and storing artwork data to the blockchain, artists and art buyers will be able to keep track of all original works, preventing fraudulent parties from attaining them.

“I dream of a world where every mural has a QR code we can donate to,” Nanu mentions. “Imagine a world where an artist paints a beautiful mural in a community and goes home to open his crypto wallet and finds compensation from random people who stopped by their work.”

Her hope for the future is that artists will be able to create their work in an environment where their originality and creativity is not just appreciated, but given the compensation it deserves so we can shift the artist paradigm once and for all.

These days Nanu travels, creating immersive art installations and partnering with brands who want to expand their message to a larger audience. She also teaches creative workshops with teams and at events, to help them gain productivity by tapping into their sense of flow.

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The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) of the Philippines said that there’s been a violation

Following its region-wide expansion, Indonesia’s ride-hailing unicorn Go-Jek is reportedly forced to pause its expansion plans to Philippines, as reported by Rappler yesterday. In the Resolution No. 096 dated December 20, 2018, the country’s Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) denied Go-Jek’s entry due to a violation by the company’s local subsidiary, Velox Technology Philippines.

As a transport network company (TNC), the local subsidiary is said to violate the foreign ownership rule in public utility. This resulted in the rejection of the company’s application to start operations in the Philippines.

Also Read: Online investment startup Ajaib secures US$2.1M from SoftBank

“This committee resolves to deny applicant Velox Technology Philippines Inc’s petition for accreditation as a transport network company due to its failure to file a verified application as prescribed in the item (II) first paragraph of Memorandum Circular No. 2015-015-A dated 23 October 2017 and for being a foreign-owned corporation in violation of Section 11 Article XII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution,” the dispositive portion of the resolution said.

Under the Constitution, franchise for public utility should be granted to Filipinos who own at least 60 per cent of its capital, while Velox is 99.99 per cent owned by its parent company, Singaporean Velox South-East Asia Holdings.

LTFRB’s pre-accreditation committee chairman Samuel Jardin confirmed to Rappler that Velox’s application was denied, signed by himself and panel members Carl Marbella, Nida Quibio, and Joel Bolano.

However, Jardin said that Velox can still appeal the decision.

“We continue to engage positively with the LTFRB and other government agencies, as we seek to provide a much needed transport solution for the people of the Philippines,” Go-Jek told Rappler.

Also Read: TenX Co-Founder and President Julian Hosp has left the company

Right now, Grab is still dominating the market for ride-hailing services in the Philippines.

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Also, Equinix to build US$85M worth of data center in Singapore, Privé Technologies buys digital engagement startup Hive Up

Coinhako to offer 100 fiat-crypto pairings [Press Release]

Coinhako, Southeast Asia-based blockchain platform, announces that it now offers trade option pairings for 25 cryptocurrencies and 4 Asian fiat currencies for Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. This puts the total number of cryptocurrency and fiat currency trade pairings at 100 on the platform.

Although speedy, the limitation in direct cryptocurrency purchases with fiat currencies makes it debilitating and not to mention complex. To access certain cryptocurrencies, users must make multiple transactions – ranging from FX exchanges, crypto-to-crypto exchanges, and moving tokens across different platforms – and these practices sure incur a variety of fees.

Also Read: Online investment startup Ajaib secures US$2.1M from SoftBank

The mission of Coinhako is to help to accelerate crypto access in the region. Besides Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) exchange services, Coinhako users can now gain access to Bitcoin Cash(BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Omisego (OMG), Zilliqa (ZIL), the 0x project (ZRX), Kyber Network (KNC), Status (SNT), Golem (GNT), Basic Attention Token (BAT), QuarkChain (QKC), Waltonchain (WTC), District0x (DNT), Pundi X (NPXS), DigixDAO (DGD), Mithril (MITH), Loom Network (LOOM), Storm (STORM), Binance Coin (BNB), SONM (SNM), Gifto (GTO), Civic (CV), True USD (TUSD).

Coinhako has also added wallet support for Stablecoins such as Paxcoin(PAX), USD Coin (USDC) and Dai Stablecoin (DAI). Coinhako has shared that it will add on new cryptocurrency and fiat pairs through the year focusing mainly on emerging markets.

SoftBank Group Corp. will no longer take a controlling stake in real estate company WeWork Cos. [Bloomberg]

After investing more than US$8 billion in WeWork, SoftBank now has come to a decision that it will no longer go through its initial plan of taking a controlling position. Had it come through, the Japan company would spend another US$16 billion just to buy a big chunk of the company, as shared by an anonymous source.

The cold feet is likely due to recent declines in tech stocks — particularly SoftBank’s shares, which are down about 20 percent in the last month.

On its own WeWork’s 7.875 percent bonds dropped 3 cents on the dollar to 86 cents on Monday afternoon in New York, which made it the lowest price since the debt was issued last April. The bonds are due in 2025.

Originally the SoftBank Vision Fund, in part backed by the Saudi Arabian government, had discussed buying the controlling stake in WeWork. Now, SoftBank the company is planning to make a minority investment directly.

Both SoftBank and WeWork declined to comment on the issue.

Equinix put in US$85M for the fourth data center in Singapore [Press Release]

The interconnection and data center company Equinix, Inc. announced yesterday that it plans to start the construction of its fourth International Business Exchange (IBX®) data center in Singapore, called SG4.

The new facility is said to provide interconnection and premium data center services to help businesses with their IT transformation and cloud adoption initiatives, while also supporting the digital infrastructure of Singapore. The investment made onto the seven-story data center is worth US$85 million, scheduled to open in Q4 2019.

Located at the eastern part of the country, SG4 will provide approximately 4,220 square meters of colocation space, offering an initial capacity of 1,400 cabinets. The facility is planned to accommodate more than 4,000 cabinets at full build out, with a total colocation space of approximately 12,280 square meters, all using 100% clean and renewable energy.

SG4 will also provide software-defined interconnection through the Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric (ECX Fabric) to more than 1,300 businesses. Names that already on the list to use the facility are some of the largest cloud service providers (CSP) like Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, and Tencent Cloud.

Fintech Privé Technologies buys digital engagement startup Hive Up [Press Release]

A global fintech solution Privé announced that it has bought out Hive Up, a financial-literacy content startup from Singapore.

“Privé will be able to help us accelerate our mission of bring wealth management to the masses. Our team is excited to join forces with Privé,” said Qiuyan Tian, the CEO and co-founder of Hive Up.

“ Hive Up’s expertise in the mass affluent and wealth management segments contributes to Prive’s mission to bring wealth management to all,” said Charles Wong, CEO and co-founder of Privé Technologies about the acquisition.

Hive Up focuses on highlighting financial concepts and engaging the everyday person via mediums such as articles, infographics, workshops, and webinars, all the way to curriculums and institutional trainings. For enterprise businesses, the company builds management platforms and client-facing applications for financial advisors.

Malaysia’s RHL Ventures invests in SaaS platform HealthMetrics [Press Release]

Malaysia-based investment firm RHL Ventures has made an undisclosed amount of investment into healthcare SaaS platform HealthMetrics. The investment is a follow-on, and RHL Ventures has participated in the seed round before.

HealthMetrics Co-Founder, Alvin Yuan, said that the investment will enable them to build an extensive network of healthcare suppliers not only Kuala Lumpur, but also in Penang, Johor and Malacca.

Also Read: Go-Jek is forced to pause expansion to the Philippines

Employees’ medical benefits has been an overlooked segment which has resulted in companies overpaying on employee insurance premiums and in employees underutilising their benefits due to the lack of transparency, inconvenience, and overcomplexity involved in the management part.

The platform supports human resource (HR) administrative tasks related to employee well-being by integrating its solution to a company’s existing HR management system. Employees, on the other hand, can use HealthMetrics’ mobile app to check their medical benefits balance and enjoy cashless visits to the clinics.
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Image Credit: HealthMetrics

The post Today’s top tech news, January 9: Coinhako to offer 100 fiat-crypto pairings, SoftBank will no longer take controlling stake in WeWork appeared first on e27.

Commercial rentals and leases are stuck in the age of dinosaurs while disruption is happening in other industries

Commercial rentals and leases are stuck in the age of dinosaurs while disruption is happening in other industries.

Physical paper copies of rental lease agreements are still signed and kept by property owners and their tenants, while manual spreadsheets are used to monitor leasing agreements and transactions.

These traditional ways of transacting are paved with challenges for landlords. Fortunately for commercial property market, blockchain technology, used primarily in transacting cryptocurrencies can be employed as digital smart contracts — revolutionising the way landlords and tenants transact.

1. Painful Documentation Processes

Traditional commercial real estate leasing processes involve a lot of documentation. Between you and the lessor, there are lawyers, guarantors, agents, financial institutions and more needed to verify and safeguard each transaction.

The moment you engage your agent with the interest in leasing a property, your paper trail starts. Then it goes through various parties, with back and forth amendments, additions, and cleaned up versions with every new iteration of the contract.

With digital contracts, these processes and paper trails are greatly reduced.

Signature collection can be performed almost instantaneously online. Once the primary stakeholder and verified and signed off, the counter signatures can be notified and collected right way.

2. Need for Internal Checks

The manual process of leasing transactions opens up opportunities for fraud; the more parties involved, the higher the chances. Internal and external audits, tiered approvals, and corporate governance procedures are needed to minimise mischief and instil trust. Such processes lead to bureaucratic bloat and inefficiencies.

Using artificial intelligence, discrepancies can be quickly spotted for immediate ratification by the involved parties.

3. Privacy and Security Risks

Using excel spreadsheets to record data makes it vulnerable to data hacks by external parties. The Singhealth database breach last year is a prime example of how manual processes offers little to no security. With Blockchain’s cryptographic security system that requires the use of a public and private key, your data is secure and immutable.

Also read: 4 good reasons why commercial real estate should use blockchain

4. Inefficient Manual Tracking

Current real estate leasing, tracking and booking systems are often recorded manually on excel spreadsheets. This is both time-consuming and tedious when records need to be traced and verified. This also places unnecessary administrative

burdens on the personnel responsible for keying in entries to the excel sheet, and creates hours of non-productive work.

While applying blockchain, commercial real estate companies can now eliminate painful documentation processes as contracts will now be transacted online with a monitoring systems of each stakeholder’s actions. Privacy and security risk will be significantly reduced due to characteristics of Blockchain.

5. Environment and Space Unfriendly

The large amount of paperwork that follows a leasing transaction is not very green – many trees would have to be sacrificed. With that much paperwork, it also means there’s a need for substantial storage space to house all these documents. This results in a waste of space that could be used for commercially profitable activities.

Needless to say, if these transactions are done online tons of paper can be saved. While storage space can therefore be repurposed for commercial use.

6. High Intermediary Costs

Leasing a commercial space the traditional way doesn’t just involve the lessee and lessor. There could be many parties involved, like lawyers, guarantors, financial institutions, courier companies and more. Collectively, such third party and intermediary fees could swell the actual business cost for both landlord and tenant.

As platforms that utilise blockchain technology to create smart contracts typically acts like an agent. High administrative fees and commissions will be eliminated, saving real estate companies unnecessary expenses which can better their bottomline.

Also read: Why proptech and real estate tech will be important in Asia

7. Lengthy Approval Processes

The time between the start of a leasing transaction until its completion could be lengthy. With multiple intermediaries to deal with, plus the time needed for contracts to be seen and approved up and down the corporate hierarchy of each organisation, it may take 2 to 3 weeks for a contract to be approved and endorsed.

This excludes the transportation time involved in delivering the physical copies of the contract back and forth between different parties.

By transacting online, all these inefficiencies will magically disappear. It’s as simple as sign, verify, confirm. It’s akin to performing a web check-in online before you

travel. It enhances the experience between the landlord and tenant by reducing the need for unnecessary waiting time.

8. Costly to Manage Short-term Leases

The trend of tenants committing only to short-term leases makes the lease management process tedious and laborious. Manual records will need to be frequently documented, plus the need for intermediary fees to be incurred regardless of the size of the rental contract.

Smart digital contracts platforms are agnostic to the size of your leasing contract. The cost and time required to transact are the same for 1 month leases, as well as 10 year leases. It spells convenience without imposing heavy intermediary fees.

9. Tedious Tenant Due Diligence

Evaluating potential tenants and lessees is a painful necessity. Failure to ascertain their credit-worthiness may lead to potential risks such as tenant defaulting on payments or having tenants with poor track records on board.

Also read: (Infographic) 16 industries that blockchain is disrupting

10. Inefficient Tenant Search Costs

Finally, the marketing of available commercial spaces is archaic, cumbersome and expensive. Property owners have to list their spaces across multiple online and offline media, incurring marketing and advertising expenses.

It’s surprising that it has taken so long for the industry to take on a digital approach for their commercial property leasing. Like airlines, commercial property should take a direct booking or enquiry approach due to the sheer fact of perceived cost savings to be enjoyed when you transact directly with the landlord. There aren’t many plug and play solutions out there to help landlords easily market their spaces and there should be more, lots more.

Charting the Way Forward

Thanks to the advent of the blockchain, smart contracts, and cryptocurrency tokens, commercial property owners and managers can now forge a fresh way forward.

Offering greater security, almost real-time approvals, trust-less verification, and frictionless transactions, blockchain based systems can transform how commercial leasing takes place.

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Photo by Sandro Katalina on Unsplash

The post 10 ways blockchain can help overcome the biggest challenges in commercial leasing appeared first on e27.

Angel-funded on-demand laundry startup Mama Wosh is already gaining good traction in Kuala Lumpur

Just a few weeks after Anh Tu Sam’s birth to a Vietnamese mother and a Chinese-descent father in the city of Hanoi, his country plunged into a massive political unrest, forcing them to flee Vietnam. After several months of a perilous journey on a country boat, with a temporary stop in Hong Kong, Anh Tu Sam and his family ended up in the German city of Dortmund in 1980.

“We first arrived in a refugee camp near Dortmund,” Sam recounts the treacherous journey to e27. “Since then, we moved around many times and lived in places like Hamburg, Cologne, Bonn and Frankfurt. The first few months were hard, as I could not pick even a single word of the German language. This made my kindergarten tough. However, after several months of perseverance, I assimilated into the local culture and lifestyle.

“From then on, I enjoyed each and every moment of my life spent there. However, I always felt something amiss in my life. I realised that it was the yearning to return to my roots, meaning to go back to Asia. That’s what brought me back. I feel that it is my destiny to be here,” he shares.

Meeting future co-founder

While pursuing a Graduate course in Business Computing at a university in the European country, Sam met Holm Schimanski. Although they came from different backgrounds, they both shared some common characteristics and became thick friends. After graduation, Sam worked for a leading strategy consulting company and opened several F&B franchise stores, before eventually founding a VC-funded language startup. Schimanski, on the other hand, worked as an IT consultant for over a decade, dealing with large customers and implementing CRM and SAP software.

“It was 2015 and the O2O category was slowly taking off across the world, thanks to the success of companies like Uber and Grab,” Sam, now 39, shares. “We decided to try our luck on O2O. We sat together and brainstormed ideas around this. I was still itching to go back to Asia. Fortunately, Schimanski (now 38) was also okay with my idea as he, like me, always loved the Southeast Asian lifestyle.”

Also Read: eziPOD’s smart laundry locker doubles as your courier delivery point and personal storage

However, with the kind of economic growth rates in Asia, it was a no-brainer to set up a business in this part of the world, Sam thought to himself. “We conducted an in-depth research of all major ASEAN markets, such as Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. After looking into GDP levels, disposable incomes, infrastructure, language barriers, market size etc., Malaysia seemed like the perfect starting point.

And the duo set foot in Malaysia, with an on-demand laundry startup.

Launched in Selangor in 2015, Mama Wosh is a laundry subscription service app. As customer, you can choose your time and location, and Mama Wosh’s “laundry angels” will come and pick the laundry. You will get back your clothes folded or ironed within a specified timeframe.

“Most people are frustrated with laundry and dry cleaning in general,” according to Sam. “Consumers spend 12-15 hours on laundry every month. Most laundromats and dry cleaners have limited business hours only. Bad cleaning, damaged and lost items are the most frequent complaints. Transparency in pricing is another problem. We are here to address these pressing issues.”

The Malaysian on-demand laundry segment is still in the nascent stages, despite the fact that there are already a handful of companies attacking different sections of the society. “We have seen a lot of laundry startups in Malaysia. Most came, stayed for a few months or a year, and then went offline again. Probably because they have underestimated the operational complexity of this business model,” Sam notes.

Most laundry businesses in the country are just mom-and-pop shops that have spent some money on a website and started to deliver to their existing customer base. Sam feels that these businesses know literally nothing about tech, online or digital. “We have also noticed that Asians in general are embracing mobile technologies much more than Germans. Back in our home country, we would have to deal a lot with legal and privacy issues such as the GDPR compliance. Here in Malaysia, the government is very eager in becoming a prospering digital economy. And we love it.”

Then there are coin laundromats which, in his view, are great for low income households, but for majority of the population, sitting around and waiting for an hour or more just to do your laundry seems like a very inconvenient waste of time.

The existence of the number of players such as eziPOD, Fresh Press, Mr. White Dry and Mobile Laundry, however, doesn’t really bother Sam and team. “We are looking at competition from two different angles. One the one hand, like Peter Thiel or the book ​Blue Ocean Strategy​ says,  you don’t want to have competition; ideally you are the only dominant player and run a monopoly. At the same time, competition can be a good thing as it fuels innovation, which in turn will benefit the end customer. In the end, we said to ourselves: several players in the market are a good indicator that there’s some demand. Let’s bring on the challenge and crush the competition, which we eventually did,” he shares.

Indeed, everything in Malaysia is still in its infancy, Sam reveals. Search Engine Optimisation, affiliate marketing, digital analytics, email marketing, frontend/backend engineering– it’s tough to find talent with decent experience in those domains. “But we’re quite happy about it. What this means is that the situation gives us some advantage and a headstart over our competitors,” Sam smiles.

The revenue stream

In order to earn revenues, Mama Wosh banks on three services — ​laundry wash,​ ​dry cleaning​ and ​curtains​. With  its ​curtain PLUS service, the startup sends a team of people to do the heavy lifting for the customer. This means, these people remove, wash and re-install the curtains for the customer.

For the other two services, the startup enables customers to choose between ​regular turnaround time​ or ​next-day express turnaround​ at double the normal rates. In the beginning, Mama Wosh banked on a ‘pay-per-use’ model; if a customer had three loads of laundry in a month, he/she would make three bookings, get three deliveries and pay three bills.

“But, always having the customer and his problems in mind, we thought ‘how we can make their lives easier?’ That’s when we came up with the ‘L​aundry-​as​ -​a​-​S​ervice’ concept. It’s a subscription model where you pay a monthly flat fee and are entitled to have one laundry pickup every week. We would pick up the bag, and whatever you can fit into this bag gets washed, dried and folded,” he explains.

Also Read: How the son of a humble watch repairer became the owner of a multi-million dollar realty tech startup

Still in beta test mode, Mama Wosh is going to publicly launch the service soon.

In Sam’s opinion, the Malaysian market is not the biggest, and the company plans to expand to another country within the next 12 to 18 months. Whether it’s going to be Singapore or Thailand remains to be seen, he said. “There is no rush — in Malaysia alone, there’s enough business to make millions of dollars per month.”

A massive market

As per the company’s estimates, the laundry market in Southeast Asia is growing at a CAGR of 37 per cent and is estimated to reach US$1 billion in annual sales in 10 years from now. The market share of traditional players will steadily decline but offline retail will never go away. “Luckily, we have figured out how to fill out those gaps and have a strong physical offline presence.”

Looking into the future, Sam wants to shape an entirely new O2O category at a massive scale. He says popular apps like Grab and Go-jek started with ​transportation,​ then later ventured into other verticals, such as ​food,​ ​payments,​ ​parcels​.

“One day, they will have to deal with the laundry vertical. Given the massive market size, they cannot simply ignore laundry and sit on their ​transportation​ or ​food delivery​ cash cows forever,” he feels.

In the first two years of launching the company, Sam and Schimanski were doing freelance consulting jobs to bootstrap and finance Mama Wosh. “Last year a fantastic business angel joined our company and invested a small amount. Now that we have seen great traction over the past 12 months, we committed ourselves to work full time on Mama Wosh, and make this really big. We want to take our startup to the next level and hence looking for a seed round of US$350,000,” he concludes.

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The post A refugee in Germany in the 80’s, this entrepreneur is now back in Southeast Asia to achieve his dreams appeared first on e27.