Year: 2019

 

Streets and smartphones 

Though you may not remember, there was a learning curve to using a smartphone. You had to learn how to click and double-click. You had to learn how to navigate from the home screen to your desired app. You had to learn how to use the basic functionalities that they offer, such as the alarm clock or calculator.

For most of you, this process took a few minutes or a day at most. This learning curve is considerably longer for people who have never interacted with a digitally-enabled device before, which is the case for many first-time smartphone owners in Southeast Asia, made possible through the wide availability of cheap devices as well as financing plans and other incentives and schemes.

This milestone is too often overlooked. People now have the greatest tool – the smartphone – to take even greater agency over their own social and economic mobility. Southeast Asia is touted as home to the fastest-growing economies in the world, and smartphones in the hands of its people can enable them to tap into this hyper-growth for their own well-being. But which goods do you direct them to?

Also Read: Threat or opportunity? boosting digital banking in Asia

This sounds like a philosophical question: What digital services would you provide an upwardly mobile demographic who now has access to and knowledge of a smartphone for the first time? Unfortunately, many tech businesses take this question lightly. There is a veritable gold rush of tech companies lining up to offer this demographic their products and services, but these are not always in their best interest.

There are apps and sites for everything including digital personal finance and plenty of e-commerce that has come mainstream only in the last couple of years.

What is the digital good 

While this demographic does need the convenience afforded by digital goods, what they arguably need most is digital good. The former – while momentarily satisfying – generally serves a single need. The latter, in contrast, helps them grow across many multiple needs, chief of which is economic prosperity. The difference between the two may sound vague until you look at examples of the latter. 

In Singapore, for example, fin-tech StashAway democratizes wealth management through an app. StashAway allows users in Singapore and Malaysia to automate their investing, all depending on their individual investment goals. People now have access to wealth management that only a few years ago was limited to high net worth individuals who would be attractive to a brokerage.

StashAway is an example of a digital good. As the minimum balance is US$0, the company provides a digital service that can potentially uplift people’s stature in life bringing them closer to financial freedom. Looking at the company in the abstract, StashAway compounds the value of smartphone ownership into actual dollars and cents.

StashAway, of course, is not explicitly marketed toward the upwardly mobile Malaysians and Singaporeans who may have just gained access to these devices. But the value is greatest for them.

The delta between going from not investing in being able to invest is much wider than going from currently investing in being able to more conveniently invest. The newly connected, in short, have much more to gain.  

The same can be seen in the insurance space. InsureShop, which was recently re-launched by leading Philippine insurance firm, Pioneer creates a powerful digital good. On InsureShop, Filipinos can avail of three main types of insurance, each catering to dramatically different needs.

MediCash provides medical insurance to people stricken with Dengue or Leptospirosis; SafeTrip provides travel insurance for travellers based on destination, distance, and other variables; and SafeTrip provides motorcycle insurance that can be customized to meet people’s desired coverage given the various possible circumstances.  

Like StashAway, InsureShop is quite literally a digital good: It creates impact and protects value for the people who need it most, including everyone from motorcycle drivers and travellers to health-conscious Filipinos.

The insure shop platform itself is one that appeals to a new generation now used to shopping and transacting online for their many needs. It sure helps in educating us about the practicality and wisdom indeed of obtaining insurance.

Also Read: Digital literacy for the masses: How Apple is investing in tech education across Singapore

Other large businesses ought to borrow a page from the digital good playbook. With smartphone penetration increasing rapidly in Southeast Asia, thanks to affordable price points and financing plans, enterprises ought to think about how they can best serve the newly connected.

Providing them with valuable products and services often makes more business sense than just selling them items: You not only create social impact by uplifting them, but you also contribute to the growth of upwardly mobile people now likely loyal to the brand. Your company, after all, was one of the first wave of brands to empower them.

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On the 10th of October, the world celebrated World Mental Health Day. An initiative by the World Health Organisation, it is observed to call for more awareness and destigmatization.

In recent years, many public figures such as celebrities, actors, athletes and business leaders have come out to talk about their struggles with mental health issues. While being a phenomenal Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps also struggled with depression. Ryan Reynolds fought anxiety disorder. In the startup world, many founders fight a slew of mental health issues.

While there is rising awareness, the workplace still generally remains as a place where you don’t talk about mental health issues.

When employees are facing mental health issues, productivity is often the first to go. It comes in many different forms: absenteeism, struggling to find momentum, lack of creativity and simply failing to complete work.

Regardless of what form it takes, the statistics are sobering: about 400m workdays are lost every year due to mental health issues in the states. That comes to a lost productivity cost of USD$33.6bn.

A major bulk of lost productivity comes from millennials and Gen Zers—who will eventually make up a majority of the labour force—as recent studies revealed that 50 per cent of millennials and 75 per cent of Gen Zers left their job due to mental health reasons.

With startling statistics like these, leaders need to step up and begin addressing mental health issues.

Though there is a need for organizations to address mental health issues in the workplace, the root of the problem comes from stigma. On top of societal stigma, workplaces that offer little to no psychological safety are often the biggest culprits in rising mental health problems at work.

With no psychological safety, employees are often unwilling to talk about their mental health issues. Recent studies have shown that 60 per cent of employees are unwilling to talk about their mental health issues with their leaders.

Mental health symptoms aren’t unicorns: they are very common in the workplace. We suffer from prolonged stress that can affect our daily mood. We suffer from anxiety symptoms when we are placed in high-stress environments. Depending on our personality traits and experience, we can face a plethora of mental health symptoms throughout our career journey.

Many understand that such symptoms are problematic in the long run. Yet, companies are still prescribing band-aid solutions. Mental wellness perks and programs are great, but the problem comes from within.

Also Read: Leadership is not a benefit to yourself but an obligation to others

When the problem comes from within, leaders need to tackle it from within as well.

Address the problem at its root—start building a psychologically safe culture

In recent years, companies have become enthusiastic about improving their workplace culture. Software tech giant Atlassian revamped their performance reviews to start identifying problematic “superstars”. Uber vowed to clean up its cutthroat culture.

While these are big companies, enhancing workplace culture is not limited to places with more than 10,000 employees. Reality is, every workplace needs to have clearly-defined workplace culture, with psychological safety at its core.

Improving the state of mental health at work is more than an HR issue: creating new HR policies, cookie-cutter solutions and introducing it into leadership programs will not create long-lasting impact.

Instead of relying on HR to create impact across the company, leaders working with their team members in the day-to-day need to spearhead impact.

Changing culture is a top-down process.

Changing culture is a top-down process: it starts with consistent actions and pledges from the CEO, trickling down to the senior management, middle management and finally the entry-level employees.

Companies can start by transforming their leaders into allies.

It is not enough for the middle and junior management to spearhead change; without internalising the purpose of changing the culture, they have little impetus and/or motivation to start, let alone prolong it.

A pledge from a senior leader can go a long way. For instance, the CEO can start pushing for leaders to address mental health issues. By being the ‘normaliser-in-chief’ conversations about mental health at work, they can start building awareness at the top.

The onus to build a psychologically safe culture lies on the senior leaders for this reason: when they are true and driven in their objective, it permeates throughout the company.

Rather than rely on leadership programs, numerous memos and meaningless meetings, creating an internal motivation such as a mission or value have a larger potential to create impact.

Senior leaders need to show commitment

It is not enough to simply say “let’s focus on tackling mental health challenges” and call it a day. There needs to be clear push: middle management needs to see that their senior leaders are pod-committed on the mission.

For instance, senior leaders can start changing the culture by having conversations with middle management—mental health symptoms affect everyone in the organizational structure.

Without the senior leaders taking action, no external change can really create an impact.

Invest in training and education

Managers and leaders need not be therapists—that’s best left to actual medical professionals. Rather, leaders need to understand what tools they have at their disposal. They also need to be aware of how they can broach difficult topics.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to mental health challenges: different people experience different ranges of emotions. Leaders need to know how they can identify the best approaches and methods to start tackling mental health challenges in an employee.

Leaders need to drive inclusion as well: employees must feel that they are not judged when they speak up about their problems. Without fear of consequences, employees become more comfortable with opening up.

Involve technology in the mix

Besides driving the change through workplace training programs, leadership programs, and mental wellness perks, companies can opt to use mental health tools as well. In recent years, mental health startups have been on the rise. Even companies like IBM have also begun research into how technology can help improve mental health at work.

Companies should not shy away from technology. Often, the thought is this: how can a software solve something within a human’s mind?

Rather, it is not about complete reliance. It involves a blend of different approaches to tackle such a complex culture. Leaders can consider using meditation tools, mood trackers, pulse surveys and other forms of mental health services to add to their arsenal of tools they are using to drive change.

In a meritocratic society, mental health problems are often viewed as an obstacle: it is blocking our way to success and we need to solve it as quickly as possible.

Also Read: Identifying leadership gaps in your organisation

Companies need to start changing the way they view mental health problems: it is part of us as human beings and it can be solved.

Hence, it is important that companies start understanding the extant culture in their company. Is it a cutthroat culture? Are people usually bringing each other down? Is it a high-stress environment?

Regardless of how the work is like in the company, building a psychologically safe culture is possible in every industry and subsector.

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While the concept of fintech itself has been known in Malaysia since 2013, it had only become a buzzword in the country starting from 2016.

In its initial years, financial institutions and services industries were once worried about the disruption fintech could cause to their business. But as the years went by, we could see changes happened when these companies decided to embrace working with fintech startups instead.

Today, Malaysia is one of the fastest-growing fintech markets in Southeast Asia. This would not happen without the hard work of prominent fintech personalities in the market, as detailed in the e27 Malaysia Fintech Report.

Here is a list of 16 of those influential figures in alphabetical order:

Amran Hassan
Head of Innovation
Maybank

Aznan Abdul Aziz
Head of the Financial Technology Enabler Group
Bank Negara Malaysia

Also Read: How Islamic finance can work with fintech to promote financial inclusion in Malaysia

Chang Chew Soon
Founder
Soft Space

Chin Wei Min
Executive Director (Digital Strategy and Innovation)
Security Commission

Chris Davidson
CEO
BigPay

Chris Leong
Chief Strategy Officer
Soft Space

David Fong
Senior Non-Executive Independent Director
GHL Systems

Jasmine NG
CEO
Razer

Also Read: Compliance, lending are the most popular fintech sectors among banks in Malaysia

Khairil Abdullah
CEO
Axiata Digital Services

Mehedi Hassan
Co-founder and CEO
MyCash Online

Naysan Munusamy
Co-founder
MoneyMatch

Ng Wan Peng
COO
MDEC

Norhizam Kadir
VP (Growth Ecosystem Development)
MDEC

Raja Adam Malik
CFO
MoneyMatch

Also Read: Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD Bank) holds the 3rd Global Fintech Competition in Singapore, stating a favorable fintech ecosystem

Raja Teh Maimunah
CEO
AmInvestment Bank

Ridzuan Aziz
Country Director and Head of ASEAN
WorldRemit

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Image Credit: Azlan Baharudin on Unsplash

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By default, anyone who owns a business or manages a team has the title of leader, but in my consulting experience, I find that just having the title doesn’t make most of us a true example of the word.

I also find that leaders are made, not born, meaning that we all can grow into leadership, if we learn from experience. I find also that if you fail as a leader, your team will likely fail with you.

Of course, everyone thinks they know what it takes to make a great leader, and many books have been written about the subject. Yet I haven’t found many that offer practical recommendations and examples.

In this context, I was impressed with the new book The Intelligent Leader, by executive coach John Mattone, whom I respect tremendously from my years of consulting in Silicon Valley.

John distills the work he’s done with clients over the years into what it takes to lead, empower, and inspire others. I recommend these actionable principles of leadership for the rest of us, which we can use to evolve ourselves as business leaders as well as owners, including the following:

1. Consistently strive to think differently and think big
Most of the people on your team have to worry about the current crisis, and getting their job done today.

A leader has to keep the big picture in mind, and keep people focused on the long-term vision and mission. Home in on alternative ideas that are actionable, no matter how revolutionary.

Steve Jobs had many faults, but he was perhaps best known for his marketing slogan “Think different” and his commitment to a vision of new and better products, inspiring consumers to demand products and services they never even knew they needed.

Also Read: RedDoorz appoints two new regional leaderships, to accelerate growth next year

2. Create a culture of vulnerability and be the role model
Allowing yourself to be vulnerable and transparent to others makes it possible for them to trust you. Without vulnerability and humility, real change and growth isn’t possible. You need to be willing to open yourself up to others’ feedback, and acknowledge flaws in order to correct them.

Jack Welch, CEO and chairman of General Electric for many years and well-known for being a strong leader, set up a “reverse mentoring” process by pairing younger, more internet-adept employees with older members of senior management so the former could teach the latter about new technology.

This made his leadership team stronger, and built huge bonds with his team.

3. Replace a mindset of entitlement with a mindset of duty
The duty mindset is a perspective in which you see yourself as a key cog in a much larger wheel. Having this bigger picture empowers you to better identify the areas where you need improvement, and set yourself on the right course to positively impact those around you.

4. Prioritise leveraging your gifts over closing your gaps
First, don’t hesitate to solicit input to get the most accurate possible picture of yourself. Then don’t take your strengths for granted or overreact to gaps.

Develop an action plan to lead from your strengths, and seek outside support or complementary partners to shore up leadership weaknesses.

In the early days of Microsoft, Bill Gates recognised his technical leadership skills but relied on partner Steve Ballmer, trained at Procter & Gamble, to lead the marketing and business development efforts. Both learned from the other, and became even stronger.

Also Read: Employees acting weird? this is the time to check your leadership skills

5. Cultivate the courage to execute with passion and precision
Some never make the shift from perspective to action; it takes you outside your comfort zone. But only then can you identify the opportunities for change, and make the mistakes leading to growth and learning. Fearlessly executing with pride and passion inspires others to follow you.

6. Take the time to stay present, listen, and be vigilant
Leaders often make the mistake of thinking that their time is more valuable than anyone else’s, but this breeds resentment and takes you out of touch with reality. In this age of distraction, you need to slow down and absorb each situation, decision, or moment to provide the most effective leadership.

7. Make course correction both a mindset and an action
As an action, course change leadership is what you do in the moment, when you need to pivot. As a mindset, it’s a way of life.

You need to be aware that the world around you is in a state of constant evolution, and your leadership must stay balanced in the face of inevitable change.

Ironically, despite all these positive action items, intelligent leadership in business isn’t really even about you–it’s about both the culture and the teams you create, who really are the leadership interface your customers see and depend on.

Your challenge is to be the steward and model for the leadership that inspires the success and legacy that we all want for our business.

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A previous version of this article first appeared on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: Perry Grone on Unsplash

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Quilt, a Singapore-based human insights startup powered by AI, announces that it has raised a Series A funding led by Nadathur Group, an investment management firm.

As reported by Tech In Asia, the company said it plans to use the new funds to develop the capacity for over 200 languages, build training models on more than 100 billion images, and improve its video recognition and classification engines.

Quilt was founded in early 2018. Its platform indexes and clusters human conversations and expressions across social, news, blog, and institutional sources, as well as search engines, all to help enterprises understand patterns in human behavior at scale.

“We are using anthropologists, semioticians, and designers to work with engineers, data scientists, and mathematicians. With how we operate, the platform changes the internet into the largest reflection of the human world and allows us to understand people and culture better,” said Quilt co-founder Angad Singh Chowdhry.

Along with the funding, the company also announced that it has welcomed Rishad Tobaccowala, who is a member of the senior management at French advertising and the Chief Growth Officer of public relations firm Publicis Groupe, to join its board of directors.

Also Read: Singapore’s AI-based data startup Near raises US$100M from Greater Pacific Capital

Quilt claims to have over 100 clients to date, including global companies such as Amazon, Colgate, Procter & Gamble, Accenture, and Visa.

With its service, Quilt said it uses internet-based tools to drive communication for non-profit organizations like the World Bank, Girl Effect, and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, among others.
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At the moment, there are more than 1500 cryptocurrencies existing today, with a combined market capitalization of over USD$18 billion. As the crypto industry progresses at a high pace, investors are constantly willing to trade in the market that never sleeps. In order to be able to participate in cryptocurrency trading, users turn to the so-called exchanges. 

Cryptocurrency exchanges, or digital currency exchanges, are platforms that enable customers to trade digital currencies for other assets. Cryptocurrencies can be traded for fiat money or different digital currencies. 

Without a doubt, exchanges for these cryptocurrencies have a great influence on the development of projects and their liquidity. Yet, to what extent does the number of featured exchanges matter when it comes to the bright future of the project?

Let’s discuss this.

ICO market: trust issues sunk its popularity?

The cryptocurrency market has been overtaken by the popularity of ICOs in 2017, with the peak craze going on towards the end of December 2017, when Bitcoin hit the ceiling at around USD$20K. In addition, thousands of ICOs have taken place last year, with only a fraction of them surviving and bringing value today. 

Unfortunately, the ICO market was ill-populated with hundreds of scam projects, which raised a significant amount of money and never delivered on their promises, and then suddenly disappeared. This trend has affected the trust of the community for ICOs, decreasing their popularity and success rates. 

According to the statistics from Mashable, “almost 80 per cent of 2017’s ICO were “identified scams.” 

IEO’s as a safer alternative

The year 2019 saw the birth of a new fundraising method, which combined the ICO model with a more solid and stable way of implementing the project. Initial exchange offerings (IEO’s) had a blast this year – during the first half of 2019, IEO projects were able to raise USD$1.6 billion.

The second half of the year has continued riding the trend, with the top exchange launchpads fueling the development of the IEO market. Investor demand for the IEO’s also stays strong, as a number of promising cryptocurrency projects are taking place, heated up by crypto channels in Telegram. 

However, what determines the success of IEO’s in modern crypto space? Some claim it depends on IEO project’s liquidity, others mention the token price and adherence to the roadmap of the project. Some talk about the community size as the gauge of the progress of a project. Today, we will talk about one particular factor – the number of exchanges listing the project. 

Does it affect a project’s long-term success or popularity? Does it determine the true value of the project?

The more the merrier? not quite

The number of exchanges listing the project is closely tied to its liquidity. Without a doubt, liquidity is something that plays a big role in a project. Yet, in the case with IEO’s, thanks to their mechanism of crowdfunding, they get instant liquidity as they are getting listed on an exchange. Thanks to this feature, IEO’s overcome one of the major setbacks that were faced by ICOs – lack of liquidity.

The key important fact when it comes to the IEO liquidity – quality matters over quantity, especially when it comes to multiple exchange listings. 

There is a multitude of cryptocurrency exchanges that are now realizing that the implementation of the launchpad is beneficial for them. Along these are Binance, Bittrex, Bitmax, Huobi, Kucoin, and OKEx along with many others. 

1. Binance, as a matter of fact, is one of the growing crypto exchanges that are now among the top 10 digital currency exchanges in the world. At the moment, it has more than 190 altcoins listed, with the number growing almost every day.

2. Kucoin is yet another prospective exchange that offers a variety of popular coins, including BTC, BCH, XMR, DAG, ETH, XRP, EOS, LTC, ADA, TRX, NEO and the like.

3. Bittrex is an exchange that is based out of the US and offers users the opportunity to trade more than 190 cryptocurrencies as of today. This exchange follows the latest US crypto regulatory practices. 

4. MXC is a Singapore-based exchange that was introduced by a group of professionals with a great digital asset background. At the moment, this exchange offers token trading, perpetual swap trading, OTC trading, and other financial products.

Now, many of these and other exchanges are listing coins on a daily basis – but aside from affecting coins’ liquidity factor, do these exchanges add a lot of value and stability to the projects? Not exactly. 

Just as we mentioned above, quality matters much more than quantity. Speaking differently, the success of a crypto project largely depends on the features of the exchange it is listed on. Some important factors that crypto projects should take into consideration when assessing the possibility of listing are:

Compatibility

Do token’s values reflect those of the exchange? How about the mission – does it align? If a project’s values and vision are in conflict with those of the digital currency platform, a listing might not bring any value to the project, if not depreciate it.

Safety

The importance of this factor cannot be overstated. With recent cyberattacks wiping out thousands of users’ wallets clean, tokens should double-check the exchange for the safety practices in place. Noteworthy, big and popular exchange does not always have the best security systems in place – remember Coincheck hack?

Regulations

Most of the major cryptocurrency exchanges are following the latest regulations when it comes to compliance. Yet, there were cases of popular exchanges overlooking simple regulatory rules. A prospective and stable crypto project would not want to be a part of such an exchange.

These are just some factors that should be on a discussion board of crypto projects that are planning to get listed on yet another exchange. The common belief in the crypto space is that the number of exchanges that the coin is listed on equals the project’s true value. Let’s see real-life examples.

Successful blockchain projects 2019 

GoWithMi

One of the great performing IEO’s, according to the CryptoRank’s list, is GoWithMi. The native token of this project, GMAT, has been able to hit 3.56X ROI USD, with its ATH ROI USD being a whopping 21.08X. 

GoWithMi is committed to building the world’s first complete decentralized location-based services (DLBS) infrastructure. The project has taken off on Gate.io and was able to raise USD$1,350,000 during its IEO.

At the moment, this promising Singaporean project is listed on Gate.io, Big.One and HotBit, with all three exchanges being under USD$500,000 daily trading volume. In addition, these three exchanges are not mainstream and they are not popular globally when compared to other giants like Binance and Coinbase.

Nevertheless, despite being listed on only three exchanges, GoWithMi continues to deliver on its promises and grow its community.

Tokoin

Another successful cryptocurrency project that was introduced this year is Tokoin. Tokoin’s TOKO has performed very well – it reached ATH ROI USD at 9x, with ROI USD standing at 4.18X. Tokoin is striving to secure a better future for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) globally. Thanks to its innovative platform, growing businesses are able to use their potential to the full without facing limitations.

Currently, Tokoin is listed on KuCoin and Atomars, according to Coingecko. In spite of the fact that users are now only able to buy this coin on these two exchanges, token’s performance stands among the top 10 for 2019.

Pledgecamp

Yet another example of a successful coin that has not been listed on multiple popular and big exchanges, and still was able to bring 2.93X ROI USD and 3.97X ATH ROI USD is Pledgecamp (PLG).

Also Read: How comprehensive compliance frameworks can enhance trust in blockchain

Pledgecamp aims to disrupt the crowdfunding industry with blockchain-powered escrow contracts. With an impressive list of advisors on its side, this token has been listed on 6 exchanges so far. These are Bithumb Global, MXC, Bitforex, Piexgo, OKEx, Binance DEX. 

Notably, even though this token is listed on Bitforex, which surpasses all other mentioned exchanges (and those of GMAT) in daily trading volume, Pledgecamp’s token’s price is trading cheaper than GoWithMi’s token.

Final word

We’ve discussed that the number of exchanges that list coins does not affect or determine its true value. Yet, what does then?

As mentioned in this article, some key factors like liquidity, community size, adherence to the roadmap are among those that will pave the way for a project.

Nonetheless, there is one more factor that has to do with the exchanges – it is the exchange platform that launched that IEO. Projects that took off of KuCoin, Huobi, OKEx, Gate.io, and Binance generally brought significant profits to inventors.  Following the same logic, investors tend to choose platforms they trust – they see it as a measure of a certain project’s future success. 

To conclude, it is worth to mention that the popularity of the exchange does not always reflect its safety or level of trust that investors have. Choosing the IEO project to invest in takes a lot of thought, and sometimes hyped-up projects fail without even reaching their goals.

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Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator closing China unit- Reuters

Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley incubator of start-ups, said in a Reuters report it would close YC China, a Chinese version of its US program.

The move comes as tensions rise between the United States and China over trade and intellectual property in the technology sector. Y Combinator said the decision was a change in strategy unrelated to problems between the two countries.

YC China was created in 2018 under the leadership of Qi Lu, a computer scientist who was an executive in Microsoft Corp and Chinese search engine Baidu Inc.

Y Combinator said in a blog post that the incubator had changed its strategy to supporting local and international startups from its Silicon Valley headquarters.

“As a result, we decided that now is not the right time to run a new, country-specific version of Y Combinator,” it said.

Incubators typically run programs for start-up founders to develop ideas and turn them into businesses. Notable Y Combinator program graduates include Airbnb, DoorDash and Dropbox.

Qi will now fund companies under his own program called MiraclePlus, according to the blog. He was not immediately available to comment. Y Combinator said it will continue to support and fund Chinese companies interested in applying to its US program.

Nexus Frontier raising fund to expand to Asia- Press Release

London-based AI solutions firm Nexus FrontierTech has closed a US$3.8M seed round to propel its R&D and global expansion. The funding round was led by a family office based in Geneva, Switzerland, followed by a number of private investors, which include Nick Fry, former CEO of Mercedes AMG Petronas F1, Jennifer Lewis, former Managing Director of GIC, Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund, and Tom Yoritaka, former Managing Director of Cisco Global Ventures.

A number of these investors are also on the firm’s Advisory Board and heavily involved in the company’s expansion and
growth strategies. Founded in 2015 Nexus specialises in modernising data-intensive processes within the regulatory and compliance realm (RegTech). It builds configurable, scalable solutions to help businesses streamline operations and tackle the issues of inefficiency and data waste.

Also read: This 4-month-old Y Combinator startup wants to be the Stripe for the Philippines

With investment secured, Nexus is more ready than ever to grow their footprint in the UK and US markets and now tap into the immense business opportunities in Asia. They currently have their eyes set on Singapore as a business hub alongside its technology hub in Vietnam, where the company was established in its founding days.

BigGo search engine raises US$5M Series A for international expansion- Press release 

BigGo, the product search engine, and price comparison platform have completed the first close of its Series A round at US$5M. The first closing is led by Silicon Valley-headquartered venture capital firm SOSV, Uni-President Group, and Kyber Capital.

For Uni-President Group, the giant Taiwanese food conglomerate company, BigGo is its second internet investment after the investment in Sea Group, Shopee’s parent company, in 2017.

BigGo graduated from MOX Batch 3, an SOSV accelerator for cross-border mobile internet and the reinvestment will help BigGo expand internationally in markets such as Thailand, Japan, and the European Union. “In 2020, we expect to see a 300% increase in revenue from this year. We also expect a substantial increase in users from 11 million to 25 million users,” says Kevin Yen, CEO of BigGo.

BigGo currently sells more than 4,500 Shopee orders per day, with a record high of more than 10,000 orders in a single day. Many e-commerce companies experience substantial increases in conversions and revenue growth of their products on the BigGo platform.

BigGo business includes price comparison, cashback, offline price comparison, price history tracking, and extension services. The platform is available in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai.

Indonesia’s Tokopedia in talks to raise up to US$1.5 Billion- Bloomberg

Indonesia’s online marketplace Tokopedia, backed by the SoftBank Vision Fund and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is in talks to raise as much as US$1.5 billion for a final private funding round before an IPP, according to an article by Bloomberg.

U.S. internet companies, as well as existing investors, are considering contributing to the round, which could bring in US$1 billion to US$1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2020, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. No final decisions have been made and the value of the round could change, they said.

CEO William Tanuwijaya is hoping to attract new investors and raise the 10-year-old, Jakarta-based company’s profile overseas when he lists the firm’s shares locally and in another as-yet undecided market, he said in an interview last month. He declined to specify a timetable for the IPO because of uncertainty about how the trade war between the U.S. and China will affect markets.

WeWork to lay off 2,400 employees globally- DealStreetAsia

Layoffs at WeWork have begun as a part of the struggling office-sharing company’s plan to cut costs after staggering losses. WeWork said in a DealStreetAsia news that the recent reductions will affect 2,400 employees globally. Staff reductions began weeks ago in regions around the world and continued this week in the US. At the company’s Manhattan headquarters, there was an enhanced security presence on Thursday, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

They will receive severance and continued benefits and other forms of assistance, according to an emailed statement. The job cuts represent almost 20% of the company’s global workforce, which totaled 12,500 as of June 30.

WeWork, co-founded by former CEO and chairman Adam Neumann, is seeking to stabilize its business and show a path to profitability. The New York-based company scrapped an initial public offering in September, and its valuation has plummeted from $47 billion as recently as January to about $8 billion. The company reported a net loss of US$1.25 billion in the third quarter, eclipsing its sales and more than doubling its loss from the same period last year.

Image credit: Chastagner Thierry on Unsplash

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There are many ways that the implementation of AI technology can help retail businesses grow.

For consumer goods particularly, the use of AI starts in the supply chain.

According to Noodle AI, between 2016 and 2018, retail use of AI grew 600 per cent. The company also estimated that 95 per cent of supply vendors in the consumer goods space will be leveraging AI learning.

To get a better understanding on how AI can help consumer goods, check out the following infographic by Noodle AI:

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Image Credit: Heidi Sandstrom. on Unsplash

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Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo today announced the appointment of 12 of his new presidential special staffs which included Ruangguru founder and managing director Belva Devara, and Amartha founder Andi Taufan Garuda Putra, Kompas reported.

In a press statement, Devara stated that he will continue on holding his position as founder and managing director of the Jakarta-based startup.

“As expressed by the President himself, I am expected to continue working in my current position as managing director of Ruangguru, to never forget my roots in the tech sector. That way, I can give him relevant inputs on new innovation to help the society,” he said.

Also Read: [Updated] Breaking: Nadiem Makarim named Minister of Education and Culture of Indonesia

The appointment of the two startup founders followed the appointment of Indonesian ride-hailing unicorn gojek founder and CEO Nadiem Makarim as Minister of Education and Culture last month.

President Joko Widodo himself has been publicly speaking about including the younger generation, particularly from the tech and entrepreneurship sector, into his new presidency.

These appointments are part of a growing trend in Southeast Asia of startup founders expanding into politics and public service. In Thailand, Pakornwut Udompipatskul, former General Partner of StockRadars, has also been elected as members of the parliament earlier this year.

Ruangguru is a Jakarta-based edutech startup which offers a range of services of private tutor marketplace to exam practice platform. The startup’s most recent funding round is a Series B round led by UOB Venture Management; it has also received a grant from MIT SOLVE programme.

Amartha is a P2P lending platform that focusses on women-led micro businesses. The startup has raised its Series A funding round in 2017.

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Image Credit: Ruangguru

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Islamic finance has recently gained popularity in the Southeast Asian market due to its advantages. Apart from being a promising instrument to build wealth, it is also being touted for its ability to ensure justice in society and promote financial inclusion.

But how can Islamic finance reach out to a wider audience, especially those living in rural areas in Malaysia, where its advantages are badly needed?

This is where the sector can tap into fintech to further widens its reach.

As explained in the e27 Malaysia Fintech Report 2019, the adoption of Islamic finance through fintech has a large opportunity to connect with the masses, especially rural population who have less access to financial products and services.

“But in order to do this, Islamic finance must forge its own path with fintech, as it cannot replicate conventional financial instruments or products and expect adoption,” the report stated.

Also Read: ALAMI is on a journey to popularise sharia-based finance in Indonesia. Here’s how they do it

It also stressed that Islamic finance must utilise tech to meaningfully provide bespoke financial products suited to the needs of customers and microenterprises in rural areas, as the rural population still represents the largest underserved customer base.

Beyond serving the underbanked communities, sharia-compliant fintech products also have the potential to launch its products and services in the global market.

This is especially true as the government, through Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), already has a framework in place –Islamic Digital Economy (IDE) Mi’yar. The framework is meant to assist Islamic digital players to scale and find demand for their products/ services.

For more about fintech in Malaysia, please read the the e27 Malaysia Fintech Report 2019.

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Image Credit: mostafa meraji on Unsplash

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