Terra Capital, Bangkok-headquartered investment firm, announces that Singapore-based Dr. Reckendorfer & Partners, has acquired a minority stake in Terra Capital in order to support the firm and its current investment portfolio in reaching their expansion and revenue goals.

Dr. Reckendorfer & Partners has seven worldwide offices in addition to Singapore, whichare located in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Belgrade, Limassol, and Vienna.

Terra Capital CEO Stefan Gunnarsson commented, “The acquisition of a minority stake in Terra Capital by Dr. Reckendorfer & Partners validates the strength of our portfolio and gives us the backing of a firm with a global network and valuable local insights in Asia and Europe. We are scaling the companies in our portfolio across the region.”

“We view the partnership with Terra Capital as an ideal symbiosis of two companies involved in innovative business models and technologies,” said Dr. Reckendorfer & Partners Chairman Dr. Wolfgang Reckendorfer.

Terra Capital CEO and founder Stefan Gunnarsson established Terra Capital in 2017 for early stage investments in Southeast Asia.

Also Read: Online cashback platform RebateMango acquires Thai rival DeeDee Cashback

Over the past three years, Terra Capital has invested US$2 million in total in eleven startups in pre-seed and early stage rounds. The firm aimed to invest US$5 million within the next twelve months.

Terra Capital’s notable additions to its portfolio include Singapore-headquartered online property rental marketplace Flat Monthly, Vizoport; Asia-based producer of 3D immersive content, and JobExpress, a recruitment startup that seeks to minimise operating costs.

Being onboard, Dr. Reckendorfer & Partners said it provides strategic, investment, business development, and operational services to create and accelerate establishment of businesses in Asia and Europe.

Dr. Reckendorfer & Partners, or DR&P, is an international and interdisciplinary consultancy company, specialisung in representing European high tech companies in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.
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Picture Credit: unsplash.com/@jarvisphoto

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Being perfect isn’t cool anymore

Pastel-perfect colours, bright facades, and smashed avocado toast – hallmarks of the Instagram trend were all the rage back in 2017. Then something happened. 

People got tired of it.

Consumers, especially millennials and Gen Z, are becoming increasingly sceptical towards influencers and their hyper-curated content. 

A study by media agency UM found that internet users are becoming more distrustful of social media content with only 8 per cent believing most information on social media. When it comes to content provided by influencers, this number declines even further to 4 per cent.

Engagement rates are also down. As seen in the chart below, influencer sponsored post engagement rates have declined 40 per cent from 2016 to 2019 – hitting an all-time low of 2.4 per cent in 1Q19.

Show me something real

Unglam is in

To their credit, some influencers have begun adapting to the new climate. Trends like “Instagram vs. reality” have gained traction as people poke fun at themselves in an effort to become more relatable and authentic.

Zero One Partners has been granted permission to feature photos by Rianne Meijer 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BzGbpdfIUY4/?utm_source=ig_embed

 

Apps like Tiktok that celebrate the embarrassing and cringe-worthy have also shown astronomical growth – recently crossing 500 million monthly users. 

Compared to Instagram’s neat and carefully crafted aesthetic, Tiktok users upload videos of themselves lip-syncing, dancing, and making fools of themselves (Jimmy Fallon convinced people to roll around like tumbleweeds on Tiktok).

The rise of more authentic micro-influencers

Distrust towards artificial, perfectly curated content has also spurred the rise of another kind of influencer – friends, family, and people from shared interest groups. 

After all, given how easy it is to spoof follower numbers across social media and how many people have now become essentially shills for products online, it’s much easier to trust someone you already know or someone who has to maintain some sense of credibility within a shared community group.

Anyone can be an influencer for as little as $12.95! Photo from idigic.net

 

Consumers today are smarter than ever and winning their trust is all about presenting authenticity. Just look at the American beauty startup Glossier, who has achieved massive success with Millenials by doing just this. 

“Beauty inspired by real-life,” says the Glossier website the moment you arrive. One scroll down the page you see “Real people share their real-life routines”. Then in the “Glossier in real life” section, the company showcases the Instagram posts of real customers using their products (many of whom have less than 1000 followers). 

Everyone knows a model with perfect photo editing will look good in makeup, but what about real people? What about imperfect me? This has proven far more compelling content than purchased mega-influencer posts or professional photos of perfect models.

Screenshot from https://www.glossier.com/shop-the-look

Glossier is killing it by tapping its customers as authentic micro-influencers; started in 2014 the company has already achieved a reported market valuation of US$1.2 billion and is outcompeting far more well-established brands.

Leveraging micro-influencers isn’t just a developed market trend either. In India, the Y-Combinator and Sequoia-backed social commerce startup Meesho leverage its users as micro-influencers to resell products into their social circles via mobile phone chats.

 

Think of it as an Avon or Tupperware business model built for the smartphone generation.

Meesho takes care of all the backend including product sourcing and inventory management, allowing anyone to easily resell products via Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger with a higher conversion rate because they are selling to people they know, rather than being mega-celebrities blasting out paid posts to an audience of complete strangers.

With social blending into commerce, authenticity & trust have never been more important 

Social is commerce

It’s tough to predict the future of any industry, but from how social and commerce have been intersecting over the past few years, it seems all but inevitable for the two to blend into one another.

Since 2018, social media companies have begun launching commerce-related initiatives in earnest. 

Facebook launched its marketplace feature in Singapore last year, while Instagram has begun rolling out its new shopping & checkout features. Messaging app LINE also just announced their plans to build a new e-commerce platform offering an assortment of products from 15 major marketplaces.

In turn, e-commerce companies have also become more social.

In 2017, Amazon launched a social network-like featured called “Amazon Spark” where Prime users could share pictures of their latest purchases allowing customers to discover new products. While Amazon eventually shut down this feature, the Company has incorporated what they learned into #FountItOnAmazon, which is still active.

Alibaba Group’s Taobao app is also blurring the lines between e-commerce and social through its live streaming feature. Thousands of merchants showcase their products over the video while answering questions and offering advice in real-time. Merchants host their products in the stream allowing customers to seamlessly purchase products while never leaving the video.

User-generated content: higher content authenticity = higher impact

With every social interaction increasingly becoming an opportunity for brand awareness, advertisers need to learn how to adjust their marketing strategies.

According to statistics from Stackla, 90 per cent of consumers finds authenticity to be important when deciding which brands to support with individuals being 2.4x more likely to find user-generated content (“UGC”) authentic compared to brand-created content. 

The perceived authenticity has led to consumers finding UGC to be 9.8x more impactful than influencer content, and 6.1x more effective than a brand’s own content.

Chart from Stackla – Bridging the Gap: Consumer & Marketer Perspectives on Content in the Digital Age

 

Already, many firms across the world have leveraged the power of UGC to great success.

Xiaohongshu (小红书), a Chinese startup founded in 2013, has seen rapid growth thanks to its engaged community and a plethora of recommendation-focused features. 

Compared to other shopping apps, Xiaohongshu doesn’t allow one-click ratings or anonymous reviews. Instead, the app is known for 笔记 or “Notes” – extensive product feedback often accompanied by images & videos – which has lent a higher level of credibility to products on its platform.

Screenshots from Xiaohongshu’s mobile app

 

This has, in turn, led to higher conversion rates. According to Econsultancy, 8 per cent of users makes orders on the Xiaohongshu app after reading reviews vs. 2.6 per cent on Tmall (China’s largest marketplace for brands).

Many firms in the US have also begun leveraging UGC. 

Thanks to Yotpo, a New York-headquartered startup, it’s easier than ever for brands to leverage user-generated content in their marketing. 

Yotpo collects user-generated content (such as social media posts, reviews, and photos) and allows companies to embed the UGC everywhere across the web – from home pages, social media platforms and also e-commerce sites. Companies such as GoPro, Steve Madden, and Everlast leverage Yotpo to augment their UGC marketing campaigns.

Intuitively, the success of user-generated content makes sense. From relying on stock images, then influencers, and now micro-influencer or consumer-produced UGC, there has been a continuous push by consumers for more transparent and authentic content – things we can more easily trust. 

The now mature TripAdvisor has shown us the success of leveraging this for years, actually, providing us user-snapped pictures of actual hotel rooms to trump the perfectly-edited photos every hotel tries to sell us.

So while “cool” picture-perfect posts may momentarily capture our eyeballs, these days consumers are more suspicious than ever that influencers are bought or content is heavily edited.

To paraphrase Kendrick Lamar from his hit song Humble: “We’re so sick and tired of the photoshop… show us somethin’ natural like stretchmarks”.

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

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“The jail cells in Singapore are not bad, food is quite good, too,” quipped an entrepreneur when we sought his comment on the new ‘fake news law’, enacted by one of the world’s wealthiest countries.

Singapore’s new fake news law, or the ‘Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act’ or POFMA, came into effect on October 2. The law gives government ministers powers to order social media sites to put warnings next to posts authorities deem to be false. In extreme cases, ministers can order to take a news item down.

Yes, a law to curb fake news is a good step in the right direction. But the moot question is who discerns what fake news is? Will it serve the purpose? And what will be its repercussions?

“There are good intentions behind this new law, taking into account the importance of multiculturalism, strength in unity and international relations,” believes Roshni Mahtani, CEO, Tickled Media, which owns media sites theAsianparent.com and AsianMoneyGuide.com .

“Time will tell if there are repercussions on the dynamic digital media ecosystem in Singapore. For now, it encourages accountability and a responsible media presence,” she says.

“I think this is a good and bold step in the right direction. No other countries have taken such a step yet,” Adrian Liew, CEO, Beknown, a reputation management company, agrees.

“When fake news is identified, it is important to stop its spreading as soon as possible to protect the public interest. I read in papers that some fake news in India had caused panic among the public and that led to lynching. My only concern is how the government will execute this law in Singapore, or will it be seen as a way to stifle dissent. A tool is a tool and must be used in a manner for the public good,” Liew added.

Also Read: The world should wish the Singapore fake news law is Fake News

Logan Tan, Founder and CEO of Eezee, another local startup, can’t agree more. “In my opinion, the fake news law, although controversial, is a necessary step to protect the people. As the era of digitisation comes into full effect, information is spread across fast and vast. Platform owners have the responsibility to regulate and control the information being posted on their respective platforms.”

“Ultimately, the law is just a tool. It still boils down to how the authorities exercise this right. If used properly, I believe there will be greater benefits than there is zero regulation,” Tan added.

Several others view the fake law from a different angle. For them, this is not a regulation or technology problem, but a societal problem. “People are just too addicted to having everything served to them fast and easy, to the detriment of society,” says a digital media entrepreneur. “I think the only way to eradicate fake news is by investing our energy in learning to be better critical thinkers. I feel the ‘fake news law’ is just another knee-jerk reaction.”

For several others, POFMA is fair if used with the explicit intention of preventing falsehood from spreading. “However, it would not be fair if the laws are used to stifle controversial debates or dissent,” says a guest contributor of e27. “But this has been clarified publicly by various representatives of the Singapore government that POFMA focuses only on falsehoods of news.”

“Speaking in a context as a guest contributor on e27, it ensures that the articles I write should be double-checked for facts, and the information should be obtained from credible sources. This is an ethical code of conduct of journalism, which I am already adhering to. As long as I follow these guidelines, I would not worry about breaching POFMA,” the contributor said.

But not all founders we spoke to subscribe to this view. “The law sucks,” says one. “What if some news stories are real, but the government refuses to acknowledge them?”

He has raised an important question: How will the government decide a piece of news is fake or not?

“It will be more effective if online voting is conducted to verify and establish the authenticity of certain content,” suggests Bandanjot Singh, Product Manager with a local startup. “This can also be done via crowdsourcing from the members of social media, rather than the authorities mark a news item fake. This will remove the bias. There is always a risk factor that certain content may be marked fake and removed from the sites if it doesn’t match government views.”

“That’s a terrific idea, but what if the votes are also biased,” asks another founder. “Let’s take the Cambridge Analytics issue. Enough of misinformation. Here, the voter can also vote knowingly in favour of the perpetrator. My point is that the crowd is not a good judge, either.”

There is already a law in Singapore, the Computer Abuse Act, top executive of a startup points out. This law is to penalise the fabrication and spreading of falsehood. However, the new law is specific to online and falsehood.

“Singapore’s government doesn’t need new laws to force action on the part of publishers — it’s always been able to silence its critics through legal action. POFMA presents a dangerous precedent by empowering ministers to issue directives, instead of the courts,” argues Alan Soon, Co-founder and CEO, of Splice Media.

“The fake news problem is a media literacy problem. Not a government policy problem or a technology problem,” another one opines.

Agrees another founder: “Misinformation has been around since long. Until recently, with the amplification of social media and instant messaging apps, it became a serious problem. The solution is well, be smarter. It’s not something tech, or government policies can fix,” he quipped.

Image Credit: Elijah O’Donnell on Unsplash

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What do you think of the Singapore government’s new law? Please post your comments below.   

 

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Malaysia threatens to fine grab US$21M – Bloomberg

The Malaysia Competition Commission announced that it could impose an MYR86.8 million (US$21 million) fine against ride-hailing giant Grab, Bloomberg wrote.

According to the report, the regulator provisionally found that Grab prevented drivers from providing ad services for its peers during rides, distorting competition in the market.

The investigation itself has started in 2018, as a response to multiple complaints accusing Grab of monopolistic practices, following its acquisition of Uber in Southeast Asian.

In a press statement, Grab said that it was “surprised” by the proposed decision.

“We believe that it is common practice for businesses to decide upon the availability and type of third-party advertising on their respective platforms,” wrote a spokesperson.

Hillstone Networks conducts IPO in Shanghai – Press Release

Vickers Venture Partners today announced that its portfolio company Hillstone Networks has been listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s sci-tech innovation board (STAR market) as of 30 September 2019.

The Silicon Valley-based network security solutions provider raised CNY949 million (US$132 million) from the IPO. Its stock price also rose by 112 per cent after the first day of trading, with a market cap of CNY8.1 billion (US$1.1 billion).

“Network security plays a critical role in China, especially in cloud computing, 5G development and IoT. Back in 2009 when we were looking to opportunities to invest in the field, Hillstone stood out as a startup with the best technology and most experienced team. We are delighted to be one of the early backers of the company and supporting their growth to this day. Listing on STAR is a major milestone for Hillstone as it recognises the quality of its solutions, in addition to cementing its market-leading position,” said Linda Li, Vickers Venture Partners’ Managing Director.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: Grab faces anti-monopoly investigation from Malaysia

President Barack Obama to speak at The Growth Faculty – Press Release

President Barack Obama is set to speak at The Growth Faculty event in Singapore on December 16.

The former president will discuss his time in office and his thoughts on leadership in the world.

The Growth Faculty is a platform that provides business communities with access to speakers through events and online programmes in the areas of business, politics and personal development. Previous events presented by The Growth Faculty have featured Hillary Rodham Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, Indra Nooyi, Simon Sinek, Malcolm Gladwell, Jim Collins and George Clooney as headline speakers.

Bukalapak, Qiscus team up to launch chatbot on the online marketplace – DailySocial

Indonesian chatbot developer Qiscus announced a partnership with e-commerce giant Bukalapak to launch a chatbot service on the online marketplace platform, DailySocial wrote.

Through the partnership, Bukalapak expects to maximise server usage by four times, bandwidth use by 20 times, and be more cost-effective.

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While social media platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook seem to be all the rage lately, you can’t do without email in your marketing efforts.

A study found that, despite all the noise about social media, old school communication methods like email account for 75 per cent of all communications.

Whether you want to reach out to the press, solicit partners, or market your offer to prospects, you have to use email — and often, the same principle can be used to ensure maximum success with all your emails.

Below are five email outreach tips that will help your startup marketing efforts.

1. Embrace The KISS Principle

While it is easy to want to succumb to the temptation of writing emails that are wordy, “don’t”.

It is important to come to the realisation of the fact that you don’t necessarily have to include all the information you want your recipient to know in your initial email.

As such, you should keep your end goal in mind; if the end goal is to get a response, then keep it short and simple. If the purpose of your email is to get users to click to a product or offering, you should follow the same principle as well. Your email isn’t, and shouldn’t be, a sales page; rather, it should drive prospects to your sales page.

Here’s how you can employ the KISS principle for your email messages:

1. Keep paragraphs short and to the point.

2. Learn to use numberings and bullets to make your points stand out.

3. Make sure your email has just one purpose and call to action; you want to avoid having too many choices.

4. In a lot of cases, plain text emails will outperform design-heavy emails. You want your email to appear well and consistently across devices.

2. Use a research-backed approach to follow up with emails

Whether sending personal emails to influencers for strategic purposes or promotional messages, it is essential to follow up if you don’t get a response — and to do it the right way.

Following up becomes all the more important when you realise that, depending on your industry, average email open rates could be as low as 15 per cent. The marketing rule of seven also suggests that you might need to reach some prospects up to seven times before they notice and act on your message.

Also Read: The 5 elements of the perfect cold email

So what’s the best way to follow up then? By following up soon enough but not too soon. The sweet spot is 48 hours.

This is according to data from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, which is based on an analysis of 16 billion emails from more than 2 million users. The study found that 90 per cent of people will respond to an email within two days; if there’s no response then, you’re highly unlikely ever to get a response.

So, if you send an email and there’s no response, wait 48 hours and send a follow-up.

3. Make sure the timing of your emails is data-driven

Do you know that there is the best time to send emails?

Data from MailChimp’s Send Time Optimisation algorithm that analyzed billions of email messages sent to users on the Mailchimp server found that there are a best time and day to send emails.

Mailchimp’s study found that sending emails on weekends could result in a 50 per cent drop in engagement with the email message and that most people interact with messages they receive on a Thursday.

Furthermore, MailChimp found that most subscribers engage better with messages when the message gets to their inbox around 10 AM.

Your audience should most certainly determine when you send your messages, but people rarely engage as much with emails on weekends. Therefore you must avoid sending important messages on weekends. Besides that, use third-party data as well as your own internal data to find out when people best engage with your emails and leverage this data when sending emails.

4. Segment and automate

Do you know that automated emails get 119 per cent higher click-through rates compared to broadcast emails? Or that properly-segmented emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails?

One of the smartest things you can do when trying to promote your startup is to learn how to segment and automate your emails effectively.

In fact, in a particular study that compared general emails sent to an entire email database and emails sent to a segmented list, marketing research institute MarketingSherpa found that segmented emails resulted in 208 per cent higher conversions than batch-and-blast emails.

You can segment your email list in so many ways: most email service providers will let you segment your email list by gender, location, and activity of a subscriber based on interaction with your site.

Also Read: How to increase at least 15 per cent ROI by running a successful email outreach campaign

For example, you could send a different message to a male segment of your list from what will be sent to females.

You could also segment such that the message sent to someone who just recently subscribed to your list is different from that sent to someone who has been subscribed for a long time and has been engaging with your messages.

5. Focus on your subject line

Your email subject line can make or break your outreach efforts. In fact, research shows that more than a third of email recipients open email messages based on the subject line of an email alone.

If your email subject line is weak, it will affect response to your message. The following tips can help, however:

1. Make sure your email subject lines are specific and to the point. As tempting as it is to want to take advantage of readers’ curiosity, this could quickly backfire.

2. You might also want to try to make things a bit personal; research by Adestra shows that including the name of your recipient in your email subject line can increase your open email rate by up to 22 per cent.

3. It is also important to keep your subject lines short; the fewer the words required to pass across your message, the better. You don’t want your recipient’s email client to trim your email’s subject line and lessen its effectiveness.

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

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

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I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be involved with the world’s largest online network of entrepreneurs and to have interviewed many of the most successful founders and executives of today’s most valued startups.

Some have worked directly for the likes of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Being a successful and great leader isn’t always as tidy, easy and fun as you think. There are a lot of myths. A lot of articles written by others who mostly seem to name the traits they’d like to see in a boss. Those aren’t always what you get, or is possible if you are going to build a billion-dollar company.

Here are ten things I have found that do actually make great leaders that get results.

1. Build a team of great leaders

To be a great leader you don’t just need followers and employees, you need a whole team of leaders under you. Think Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, and all of their companies.

Think about the structure of any military. The leader in command is only as effective as the leaders of the smallest groups of troops in training, technology development and execution in the field.

As a fun fact many of the guests that I have interviewed on the DealMakers podcast, where some of the most successful entrepreneurs share how they did it, used to be in the military.

2. Cultivate admiration

This doesn’t necessarily mean being a nice guy who is friendly and is everyone’s best friend in the office. Not by a long way. People are scared when they finally get to level up to meet with people like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates.

They often have a reputation for being hot-headed and tough but are not necessarily regarded as tyrants.

Also Read: Mind your emotions: why emotional agility is the key to personal growth

If you’re great at what you do, you can have great personal conversations with these leaders. Admiration comes from respect. Not necessarily likability, but recognizing the leader’s talent and the way they do their job.

Richard Branson has been named one of the most admired entrepreneurs of all time, but you can bet he is demanding too.

3. Self-care

We’ve all heard that we need to lead by example.

Those we have influence with are much more likely to copy what we do without saying a word than to do what we say and don’t do ourselves. This applies to every area of business. Though today’s leaders are also talking a lot more about self-care.

Being wary of burnout. Having a real life. We want our teams and vendors and partners and even investors and board members to work hard. Yet, if paying attention to, and actually following through actions required to avoid burning out so we can perform at our best is so important for us, it is really important for teams too. Show them by example.

4. Be inspiring

To lead you to have to inspire others.

You have to inspire cofounders to join you. You have to inspire yourself to leap and keep going. You have to inspire workers to join your team. You have to inspire investors to take a risk on you. You have to inspire customers to buy from you.

5. Be humble

This may not be the first trait that pops into the mind when thinking about many leaders. Business or otherwise.

Yet, off-screen, when you really talk to those that are most successful, they are often far more humble and generous than you would expect. They are eager to learn what they don’t know, to hire those who are more talented and experienced than themselves, and to consult others for help.

Also Read: Startups must embrace Blue Ocean strategy

6. Put the mission first

Great leaders put the mission, business and others first. The best definitely put their investors and staff before themselves. They do this when it comes to making big and tough decisions for the business itself. It’s not what will best satisfy my ego or bank account, or what is easiest, but what will create the greatest result.

That may mean jumping in to wash the dishes, hiring an outside CEO to lead, accepting someone else’ input, or selling the company to an acquirer who can take it to the next level.

7. Extreme ownership

Even if you have co-founders aboard, it is really up to you as an entrepreneur, CEO or chairman to make it work. You might get some credit when things go well. Though you’ll definitely get all the blame when it doesn’t, and have to own that.

Approaching this with the right mindset from the start can make a huge difference. Hold yourself accountable, own the need to make decisions and whatever the results are.

8. Be curious

The number one trait that you’ll find in the greatest leaders is their curiosity. They’ve been through enough to realize they often don’t know what they don’t know. They’ve been wrong enough to want to hear other ideas. They wouldn’t have gained the chance to lead unless they were curious in the first place.

Allow yourself to be curious. Just a few minutes of curiosity can be as good as a few moments of courage.

9. Listen

I believe we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. You don’t have to act on every critical review or change your mission based on the harshest investor rejections. You don’t have to adopt every idea your staff comes up with. Though do listen.

Do ask for input. Do learn. Do log that data. Just taking the time to listen can make a huge difference.

10. Think big, not fluffy

There’s a lot of talk about thinking big, dreaming big, and being a visionary. This isn’t a pass to just get lost in fluffy daydreams and be overly optimistic. You do have to be pragmatic. You do have to be willing to start with very small steps and to do those pressing tasks.

Great leaders will embrace what others believe is impossible or maybe ten years before their time. Yet, they also use the data and they strategize.

They breakdown the mission to tangible steps. They know their total addressable market. They find ways to compel enterprise-level clients to buy, invest and even acquire them.

Whether you are looking at building your own business or scaling the ranks in the corporate sector you will always need to surround yourself by the right people. This could be an executive coach, fundraising consultant, etc.

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

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

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Indonesian public company Erajaya injects funding into Singapore-based wifi provider Datapro [The Jakarta Post]

PT Erajaya Swasembada, a publicly listed retail company from Indonesia, announces that it has invested in Singapore-based tech startup that provides on-the-go WiFi services for tourists Datapro.

According to Erajaya’s Director for Marketing Communications Djatmiko Wardoyo, the decision to invest comes from the data that shows there’s a large number of Indonesian tourists visiting Singapore every year. It supports Datapro to tap into the growing number of Indonesian tourists in the country.

About 18.5 million tourists visited Singapore last year, of which three million were from Indonesia.

Circles.Life announces key hires for regional tech hub, global innovation [Press Release]

Following its launch in Australia and Taiwan, Circles.Life, Singapore-base mobile virtual network, announces several key hires as the latest move to scale across markets and multiple consumer verticals. Key hires include Dhanush Hetti to lead the engineering department, Anupam Mathur to lead strategic business development, and David Boublil to lead talent acquisition.

Also Read: Malaysian foodtech startup dahmakan enters Thailand by acquiring Polpa

Hetti was previously CTO & Head of Engineering for Venmo, the mobile payments service in the United States where he led and built an engineering organisation that aligned closely with the company’s strategy and brought solutions to the market.

Meanwhile, Anupam joins the company with 14 years of experience in financial services and strategy consulting. He will be playing a key role in driving Circle.Life’s growth and its entry into multiple verticals.

Moreover, David joins the company to build the acquisition team to support headcount growth across all departments, including expanding the engineering team and scale the regional tech hub.

Proptech startup Hidup secures over US$100k from Australian angel investors [DealStreetAsia]

Digital Marketplace Asia’s proptech product Hidup.co.id raises more than AU$150,000 (US$100,725) in seed funding from angel investors in Australia, as reported by DealStreetAsia. The Indonesia-based company also has received support from the Small Business Entrepreneur Grants Program from the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training in Queensland, Australia.

Founded by Steven Ungermann, it wants to change the way foreigners and expats search for long-term accommodation while relocating to Indonesia. The startup said it seeks to offer a new way to find mid to long term accommodation rentals in major cities through its offices in Jakarta, Makassar, and remote teams in other Indonesian cities and in Brisbane, Australia.

It is also looking to replicate its business model in more Southeast Asian hubs like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh City, and others.

Thai Tuk-tuk to become a testbed for autonomous, energy-efficient makeover [Economic Times]

Thailand’s famous vehicle tuk-tuk, the three-wheeled taxi reportedly will get a makeover to help carry the local auto industry into the future. As reported by Economic Times, starting in November, a public-private partnership will run a test for the first self-driving tuk-tuk.

The move is initiated by startup Airovr, investor Siri Ventures, and the Thai government, who together will run the months-long trial inside a gated Bangkok community.

Also Read: East Ventures invests in Indonesian rental marketplace CUMI, eyeing growth and expansion

Most autonomous-driving advancements in Asia come from Chinese and Japanese companies, such as Baidu Inc., Pony.ai and Toyota Motor Corp. Southeast Asia has yet to see a local champion, so this could be the first of its kind and a further boost of the auto industry that reportedly generates 12 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Tuk-tuk was chosen as a test vehicle because the three-wheeler is more energy-efficient than a car, requires fewer parts, is cheaper, and is more suitable for the country’s hot weather, said Amares Chumsai Na Ayudhya, founder of Bangkok-based Airovr.
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Photo by Grahame Jenkins on Unsplash

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Singapore-based insurtech startup Axinan is in the midst of raising Series A-plus funding, its Founder and CEO Wei Zhu told e27.

Axinan, which in February last year secured an undisclosed sum in Series A round from NSI Ventures and Linear Venture, also plans to expand into Thailand and Vietnam.

“We are currently in the midst of raising Series A+ round of funding. We have plans to expand into Thailand and Vietnam,” added Zhu.

Zhu didn’t share more details.

Incorporated in 2016 by Zhu (formerly CTO of Grab), Axinan focuses on creating “innovative digital insurance for the Internet economy”. It leverages Big Data, real-time risk assessment, and digitised claims management to create B2B2C insurance solutions for online companies and insurance companies.

Axinan mainly offers two B2B2C products — e-commerce logistics (protection of items against the risk of total loss or damage during transit, failed delivery and returns), and electronic gadget (protection of electronic gadgets against accidental damage).

“We currently focus on areas where data and technology can be used meaningfully to create value and bring the most impact,” Zhu said. “For now, it means focusing on the e-commerce-logistics industry, capturing relevant data, analysing it and using the insight to assess risks and inform pricing strategy.”

Also Read: Ex-Grab CTO’s startup Axinan raises Series A funding to create online insurance products

Axinan’s B2B clientele currently consists of six commercial partners, who have inked seven contracts with the firm catering to Southeast Asia and Australia. The names include regional powerhouses Lazada, Shopee and Bukalapak. “We are also currently in talks with additional commercial partners in both the e-commerce and telco space,” Zhu said.

igloo, the first B2C product

igloo is Axinan’s first consumer-facing product. A mobile app, igloo makes consumer solutions available to anyone with a mobile phone and internet connection.

“With igloo, we address consumer pain-points head-on by providing instant coverage, intuitive and simple claims management. This enables everyone to afford insurance with dynamic pricing,” he explained.

“We aim to expand our range of coverage options so that everyone can protect the things that they care about — no matter what they are. And we’re starting from the thing that people most care about now: their mobile phones,” shared Zhu.

Zhu claims the igloo app has been downloaded by more than 90,000 users across Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines to date.

The company is also looking into insurance solutions for health and pets.

Currently, Axinan, which also has an office in Taiwan, provides free return shipping policy for its e-commerce partners. “A purchase experience can go bad very quickly in so many ways: losing or damaging a parcel in transit, theft, or shipping the wrong item. We do not just offer coverage for returns-shipping for e-commerce partners, but also cover three other risks, including total loss, damages during transit, and failed delivery.

We provide comprehensive coverage for the e-commerce platform, its merchants and customers to insulate themselves from the costly expense of unfavourable events,” he said.

 

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Angel investor Mike Flache was a survivor of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

When it happened, he was on the Indonesian island of Bintan. Like many other survivors of such a massive disaster, his survival encouraged him to give back to the society by co-founding Safe Water Gardens, a Singapore-based NGO that aims to use digitalisation to tackle global sanitation crises.

But at heart, Flache is an entrepreneur and investor.

“I have always been fascinated by the process of creating something. At the age of nine, I programmed my first computer, then I founded my first company at the age of 19 … Building businesses has always been my whole life, both as an entrepreneur and an investor,” he tells e27 in a phone interview.

Apart from being a partner at V/G Ventures Switzerland, Flache is also involved in at least 15 startups in the area of Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, SaaS, and fintech such as Fundment and Codetrails. He also advised Fortune 500 companies and spoke at various events and conferences.

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

In this interview, Flache breaks down the four main points to consider before one begins the journey of angel investing:

1. Choose the right startup
What is the right startup? The angel investor explains that the right startup should have a “realistic” pre-money valuation. He points out how founders might get over-enthusiastic about their ideas, leading to a ballooning pre-money valuation.

“This is not a good base in an investor’s point of view because you need to develop this company first,” he says.

2. Keep an eye on the founders
An angel investor needs to keep watch of the company’s founding team, which Flache stresses as the most important factor that he considers when looking at a potential investment. It is a time-consuming process, but investors must see the founders’ mindset, ability, and track-record.

“It’s best to say I invest in people instead of tech,” he says.

Flache also elaborated that the most ideal number of people in a founding team should be between two to three people.

“If you have more than three … it can be hard to get all minds on the same page, especially if they have strong characters or vision,” he says.

Also Read: Angel Investor: The right catalyst for your startup

3. Prepare the safety net
Flache also advises for angel investors to ensure the strength and endurance of their portfolio company.

“As an investor, you might be building a portfolio of five to 10 companies. But every single startup must have the potential to recover the entire portfolio,” he explains.

He points out the importance of this idea by reminding that the tech industry is a high-risk business, with more than 70 per cent of startups failing within their first few years.

4. Find that timing
Last but not least, Flache finds that it is important for angel investors to always consider the timing.

Most innovative businesses have a time-frame of a few years. For example, building an e-commerce company is much harder today compared to 10 years ago.

“You cannot force anything, even if you’re willing to put more money into the company … The ‘magic’ that you will need to find is the ideal fit between the product, the market, and above all, the team itself,” he elaborates.

 

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Image Credit: Mike Flache

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Enhancing Indonesian exports, e-commerce giant and local unicorn Tokopedia will be implementing its own “globalization strategy” to help its merchants to export their products abroad, following a similar strategy carried out by competitor Bukalapak.

At a DealStreet Asia event in Singapore, President of Tokopedia, Patrick Cao said that Tokopedia merchants will benefit and utilise the company’s resource, network, and connectivity to be able to sell to a broader market. But unlike Bukalapak, Tokopedia will offer this service offline. While Tokopedia has carried out some promotion of local brands to foreign markets on its platform, no cross-border transaction is facilitated on it.

Retaining its focus on serving the Indonesian market only, Cao said that helping merchants sell their products abroad will be the full extent of Tokopedia’s globalization strategy for now. Its strong focus on the Indonesian market, Cao believes, is what sets Tokopedia apart from well-funded regional competitors like Singapore-based Lazada and Shopee, despite them investing heavily to build out strong local teams in Indonesia

Also read: Creating a global market for your business and what it takes to grow one 

Cao said: “We are the beneficiaries of the fourth largest market in the world. So we don’t need to go elsewhere. They run centralized technology product leadership teams in Singapore. Everything is built in one place and translated. So if you take a Singaporean app and then translate it into Bahasa, you as an Indonesian would know very well that the customer journey is not as good. So that I think is also a key advantage”.

While Bukalapak recently achieved the breakeven milestone, Tokopedia seems in no rush. In regards to revenue management,  the company prefers to look at global peers for inspiration. Its global peers, like Amazon, generate a lot of cash flow which they reinvest into their business, so at times they show profitability. “I think we always have the option to be profitable, it’s just that we choose to invest in growth and we will continue to do that in a sustainable manner,” Cao added.

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Image credit: Chuttersnap on Unsplash

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