Accelerating development in decentralized platforms will require a paradigm shift, which requires developers to collaborate and learn through a multidisciplinary approach. There needs to be a more collaborative approach in order to produce real-world solutions that can make a big impact, and the developer community expects to have better capabilities and tools on hand.

In terms of skill, blockchain programming has mostly been learned through experience and community participation, there is no doubt that certain industries need more robust standards when it comes to how products are built. Industries like finance and security will require a more well-rounded and collaborative approach when building blockchain platforms and solutions, for instance.

Learning institutions are already addressing this trend. According to the second annual Coinbase Report on Higher Education done in partnership with Qriously, the percentage of top global universities offering courses and programs in blockchain has increased from 42 per cent in 2018 to 56 per cent this year, with Cornell University topping the Coinbase 2019 Leaders in Crypto Education list.

The report also cites a growing number of students who have expressed interest in learning blockchain. This means there is a growing demand for educational institutions to actively include blockchain in their curricula and course offerings – not just colleges and universities, but even primary education, as well.

“Many universities have started introducing courses in blockchain in recent years. Most of them are focusing in exploring the possible use cases,” says Richard Tiu, Strategic Alliance and Partnership Director of NEM Philippines, which has been working with 24 universities in the Philippines in offering blockchain courses.

“Reckoning that having a supply of developers with blockchain knowledge is fundamental for blockchain to flourish, universities start to offer courses for developers. There is more and more training conducted by the developer communities too.”

A multidisciplinary approach in building solutions

At first glance, blockchain development might seem to be more focused on the technical aspect of product development. However, according to those involved in blockchain education at universities, the interest has been diverse. After all, this technology has a multidisciplinary nature: It cuts across computer science, finance, legal, economics, social sciences, medicine, and so forth. 

The Coinbase study notes that after computer science, business and law are the biggest areas of interest when it comes to blockchain education.

This is not surprising, due to the relevance of regulatory frameworks in blockchain and cryptocurrency platforms today. Speaking on the topic, Anatoly Ressin, Co-Founder and Chief Blockchain Architect at PARSIQ, says that blockchain companies are pushing for enhanced regulation in order to arrive at better standards and utilization.

“Our ultimate goal is to push for the mass adoption of blockchain technology in general. Currently, most [crypto and blockchain companies] are not compliant with the current regulations.” 

NEM’s Tiu says that in order for educational institutions to participate in accelerating the development of decentralized platforms and applications, they need the ability to quickly adapt and change with the growing needs of the industry. But beyond this, there is also the feedback mechanism — building more capability in blockchain will also contribute to a more active blockchain community. 

Jean-Charles Cabelguen, PhD, Chief of Innovation and Adoption at iExec, says that developers need to build products with convergence in mind:

“They need to understand blockchain tech but also other technologies working in interaction with decentralized platforms. IoT, AI, Trusted Execution Environment is a great additional tech, providing highly valuable services when combined with blockchain. It may be a strong stretch from web applications. But we will see more and more full-stack developers with understanding in another tech, as well as specialized developers.”

iExec is addressing the machine-to-machine economy and the edge computing economy in showcasing a proof-of-concept illustrating how connected devices can collaborate and share services. Here’s where the multidisciplinary nature of development will play a big part.

Collaboration and interoperability as an integral part of blockchain development

“Indeed for a lot of actual tech infrastructures, blockchain is not needed. But it is easier to see its strong necessity when forecasting the rise of smart industries where interoperability layers will be needed to aggregate digital infrastructures,” says Dr Cabelguen, who is Chair of the Board at the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, a member-driven standards organization, whose charter is to develop open blockchain specs that drive interoperability.

He adds that accelerating development in decentralized platforms and applications will need two criteria: development of tools and federating around game-changing services. “I think it is key to find the equilibrium between providing tools for concrete needs of today and as well as building tools for coming challenges.

The first part is key in order to bring onboard people and companies focusing on short term financial profits. The second part is key in order to federate around a strong vision delivering game-changer services. Innovation is often a mix of changes in technology, adoption and/or business models.”

Ressin, whose platform provides tools for blockchain intelligence and analytics, agrees that development tools are important criteria in accelerating development in decentralized platforms. The fast-paced nature of blockchain development today necessitates collaboration among developers, in order to build on each other’s strengths and experience. 

“Supporting new blockchains (e.g., simply listening for activity, monitoring them in real-time, scrapping data, automating on-chain processes) requires time and effort, since it is not only about the support, but also the reliability, maintainability and ability to work with big data – each of those will require the proper distribution of resources to save time and money in the future,” Ressin says.

He adds that leveraging third-party tools and services can enable faster deployment vis-a-vis building these from scratch.

“Third-party tools and services exist to eliminate the learning curve for developers [as they can] delegate responsibility and abstract from underlying complexities, being able to concentrate over the features the business requires without any worries that something will get broken the purpose for collaboration, according to Ressin, is “to build fast, integrate faster and measure the results on customers even faster.”

Beni Hakak, Co-Founder and CEO of LiquidApps, likens current blockchain development to the early days of the internet: “Only when developers could begin to move resources away from infrastructure and towards building experiences did the internet revolution really take off. Similarly, for blockchain developers to create products with real end-user value, they must focus their resources on optimizing user experiences, not on building and maintaining the service infrastructure to support their dApp.”

He adds that developers need to collaborate in order to avoid reinventing the wheel, citing the work that his company does in supporting development of decentralized apps (DAPPs). “Trustless DAPP Network services offer developers web oracles, seamless user onboarding, databases, computation, inter-blockchain communication, memory, and more. These services are not restricted to a single base-layer blockchain, either, thanks to LiquidX – which allows developers to use the DAPP Network on their blockchain of choice. They can even potentially use multiple chains or seamlessly migrate later, should the need arise.”

Preparing for the future

Dr. Cabelguen concludes that mindset is what’s important when building on these disruptive trends: “When learning new tech trends, it is key to have a strong commitment and to gather sources from different industries and media. The first step is to not tag too strongly our technical identity. For example, being a hardcore Java developer is great. But other languages are also making sense. It’s the same with new tech in general. The idea is to be committed but to do so with an open mind in order to welcome disruptive approaches.”

—

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Former gojek CEO Nadiem Makarim at the Blue Bird and gojek partnership announcement event in 2017

Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek is nearing an agreement to buy five per cent of local taxi operator Blue Bird, Bloomberg reported.

Citing people familiar with the matter, gojek is set to pay US$30 million.

“That implies a price of more than 20 per cent above what Blue Bird closed at in Jakarta on Monday and would value the company at about US$600 million,” the report stated.

While gojek spokesperson said they will not comment on market speculation, a Blue Bird representative did not respond to queries for comments immediately.

Also Read: Indonesian consumers can now book a Blue Bird taxi via Go-Jek application

The partnership between gojek and Blue Bird came with a long history of competition and reconciliation.

When gojek first took its claim to fame in the Indonesian market, it was met with protests by taxi drivers who believe that the service threatened their livelihood.

But in March 2017, the two companies announced a partnership that would see Blue Bird service being available on the gojek platform.

More on this story as it develops.

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Startups today are inundated by the narrative of being showered with copious amounts of funding. Companies can hit astronomical – and some would say logic-defying – valuations, as investors place large bets on companies in the hopes of landing a golden goose. Indeed, there’s a lot of hype around the VC-startup relationship, but is it healthy for the entrepreneurial ecosystem?

How can investors avoid a sense of FOMO (‘fear of missing out’) when looking at trendy but not necessarily lucrative investment opportunities? And how can they apply more logic and sense to a financing decision and securing the right investee?

At a panel discussion at WiT 2019, VCs from across global markets discussed strategies investors should apply to make more sound investment decisions, and how startup founders can develop stronger relationships with their investors.

Moderated by Stephan Ekbergh, CEO of Travelstart the panel included William Bao Bean Managing Director of Chinaccelerator; Kuo-Yi Lim of Managing Partner, Monk’s Hill Ventures; Oliver Rippel, Founding Partner of Asia Partners; Melissa Guzy, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Arbor Ventures.

Here are the key takeaways:

Don’t fear FOMO; think about the long-term approach instead

The temptation to give in to FOMO will always be there. And for VCs that focus on making a limited number of significant deals annually, there will inevitably be times when they miss out on companies that eventually turn out to be a winner.

However, the panel advised that instead of feeling regret, investors should ask themselves a fundamental question: “Based on the same amount of information available at that point in time, would I still have made the same investment decision?”

If the answer is “yes”, then they have built a system of strong investment values that is consistent and repeatable across different cycles, which is more important than being driven by emotions that can be illogical and lead to short-sighted and ill-advised decisions. Staying true to the philosophy that has served them well in the past will keep them on track to making stronger investment choices.

Investing in business means investing in its founder, which is akin to getting into a long-term relationship or marriage, said Bean. It is a lot of commitment and investors are usually tied up with the company for at least five to 10 years. It’s a lot of effort and devotion to an impulsive investment decision.

Before investors sign a cheque, what they really need to consider is whether they would be willing to continue working with a founder and company during a downturn. Are they prepared to fight through tough times and tackle problems together? Does the company’s culture align with its philosophy and would they be able to overcome conflict amicably?

Backing the right founder and building strong relationships

To judge a founder’s capabilities, character and compatibility is not a simple task. Today, however, investors can leverage advanced tools to filter out founders who may not be a good fit or whose character is suspect.

For example, there was talk about developing AI programmes that can assess any founder’s behaviour profile based on online data, to give investors a clearer sense of if they will be good to work with or if they should be kept at arm’s length. Investors could also use the HBDI (Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument) test to analyse how a founder would approach a decision-making process.

Nonetheless, measuring the calibre and integrity of a founder is not an exact science.

Many entrepreneurs, especially in Southeast Asia, are young upstarts in their mid-20s whose behaviour and thought processes are still subject to major change as they continue to mature. Plus, it is virtually impossible to predict every possible scenario that could occur, regardless of how much due diligence is done on the founder and their company.

Ultimately, investors have to feel comfortable working with the founder and their team from day one. “Make sure you are a good fit,” said Guzy. “As an entrepreneur, it can take 35-40 venture firms before you find the right one. There are lots of ingredients that go into if a match can work and you have to meet a lot of VCs to find the one you want to partner with.”

After that match is made, maintaining an open, communicative relationship is fundamental to sustaining a long and happy ‘marriage’. Lim advised that it is more productive for founders to open and vulnerable about business than feel the need to pitch about how great the business is doing all the time. Being honest about the challenges a business is facing will help investors get a better sense of what support they can provide to overcome any problem.

Rippel added, “The biggest mistake is trying to manage everything in your board room meeting… Keep the quarterly board meeting to focus on the bigger things that matter and what you need to keep things going.” Beyond the boardroom, he advised regular meetups to work through the smaller, grittier details of the business that both sides can work through together.

Most importantly, the investors advised that a positive relationship is one where founders can feel vulnerable with their investors. Founders should feel comfortable writing emails or weekly newsletters to their investors that speak openly about struggles and achievements. Ditch the polished, PR lingo; speak the unfettered, unvarnished truth that comes from the heart instead. Investors appreciate honesty and directness, and this way founders and their investors will develop a stronger bond.

—

This article was first published on WiT.

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Accelerating development in decentralized platforms will require a paradigm shift, which requires developers to collaborate and learn through a multidisciplinary approach. There needs to be a more collaborative approach in order to produce real-world solutions that can make a big impact, and the developer community expects to have better capabilities and tools on hand.

In terms of skill, blockchain programming has mostly been learned through experience and community participation, there is no doubt that certain industries need more robust standards when it comes to how products are built. Industries like finance and security will require a more well-rounded and collaborative approach when building blockchain platforms and solutions, for instance.

Learning institutions are already addressing this trend. According to the second annual Coinbase Report on Higher Education done in partnership with Qriously, the percentage of top global universities offering courses and programs in blockchain has increased from 42 per cent in 2018 to 56 per cent this year, with Cornell University topping the Coinbase 2019 Leaders in Crypto Education list.

The report also cites a growing number of students who have expressed interest in learning blockchain. This means there is a growing demand for educational institutions to actively include blockchain in their curricula and course offerings — not just colleges and universities, but even primary education, as well.

“Many universities have started in introducing courses in blockchain in recent years. Most of them are focusing in exploring the possible use cases,” says Richard Tiu, Strategic Alliance and Partnership Director of NEM Philippines, which has been working with 24 universities in the Philippines in offering blockchain courses. “Reckoning that having a supply of developers with blockchain knowledge is fundamental for blockchain to flourish, universities start to offer courses for developers. There are more and more training conducted by the developer communities too.”

A multidisciplinary approach in building solutions

At first glance, blockchain development might seem to be more focused toward the technical aspect of product development. However, according to those involved in blockchain education at universities, the interest has been diverse. After all, this technology has a multidisciplinary nature: It cuts across computer science, finance, legal, economics, social sciences, medicine, and so forth. 

The Coinbase study notes that after computer science, business and law are the biggest areas of interest when it comes to blockchain education.

This is not surprising, due to the relevance of regulatory frameworks in blockchain and cryptocurrency platforms today. Speaking on the topic, Anatoly Ressin, Co-Founder and Chief Blockchain Architect at PARSIQ, says that blockchain companies are pushing for enhanced regulation in order to arrive at better standards and utilization. “Our ultimate goal is to push for the mass adoption of blockchain technology in general. Currently, most [crypto and blockchain companies] are not compliant with the current regulations.” 

NEM’s Tiu says that in order for educational institutions to participate in accelerating the development of decentralized platforms and applications, they need the ability to quickly adapt and change with the growing needs of the industry. But beyond this, there is also the feedback mechanism — building more capability in blockchain will also contribute to a more active blockchain community. 

Jean-Charles Cabelguen, PhD, Chief of Innovation and Adoption at iExec, says that developers need to build products with convergence in mind:

“They need to understand blockchain tech but also other technologies working in interaction with decentralized platforms. IoT, AI, Trusted Execution Environment is great additional tech, providing highly valuable services when combined with blockchain. It may be a strong stretch from web applications. But we will see more and more full-stack developers with understanding in other tech, as well as specialized developers.”

iExec is addressing the machine-to-machine economy and the edge computing economy in showcasing a proof-of-concept illustrating how connected devices can collaborate and share services. Here’s where the multidisciplinary nature of development will play a big part.

Collaboration and interoperability as an integral part of blockchain development

“Indeed for a lot of actual tech infrastructures, blockchain is not needed. But it is easier to see its strong necessity when forecasting the rise of smart industries where interoperability layers will be needed to aggregate digital infrastructures,” says Dr Cabelguen, who is Chair of the Board at the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, a member-driven standards organization, whose charter is to develop open blockchain specs that drive interoperability.

He adds that accelerating development in decentralized platforms and applications will need two criteria: development of tools and federating around game-changing services. “I think it is key to find the equilibrium between providing tools for concrete needs of today and as well as building tools for coming challenges. The first part is key in order to bring onboard people and companies focusing on short term financial profits. The second part is key in order to federate around a strong vision delivering game-changer services. Innovation is often a mix of changes in technology, adoption and/or business models.”

Ressin, whose platform provides tools for blockchain intelligence and analytics, agrees that development tools are important in accelerating development in decentralized platforms. The fast-paced nature of blockchain development today necessitates collaboration among developers, in order to build on each other’s strengths and experience. 

“Supporting new blockchains (e.g., simply listening for activity, monitoring them in real-time, scrapping data, automating on-chain processes) requires time and effort, since it is not only about the support, but also the reliability, maintainability and ability to work with big data – each of those will require the proper distribution of resources to save time and money in the future,” Ressin says.

He adds that leveraging third-party tools and services can enable faster deployment vis-a-vis building these from scratch. “Third-party tools and services exist to eliminate the learning curve for developers [as they can] delegate responsibility and abstract from underlying complexities, being able to concentrate over the features the business requires without any worries that something will get broken.” 

The purpose of collaboration, according to Ressin, is “to build fast, integrate faster and measure the results on customers even faster.”

Beni Hakak, Co-Founder and CEO of LiquidApps, likens current blockchain development to the early days of the internet: “Only when developers could begin to move resources away from infrastructure and towards building experiences did the internet revolution really take off. Similarly, for blockchain developers to create products with real end-user value, they must focus their resources on optimizing user experiences, not on building and maintaining the service infrastructure to support their dApp.”

He adds that developers need to collaborate in order to avoid reinventing the wheel, citing the work that his company does in supporting the development of decentralized apps (DAPPs). “Trustless DAPP Network services offer developers web oracles, seamless user onboarding, databases, computation, inter-blockchain communication, memory, and more. These services are not restricted to a single base-layer blockchain, either, thanks to LiquidX – which allows developers to use the DAPP Network on their blockchain of choice. They can even potentially use multiple chains or seamlessly migrate later, should the need arise.”

Preparing our mindset for the future

Dr. Cabelguen concludes that mindset is what’s important when building on these disruptive trends: “When learning new tech trends, it is key to have a strong commitment and to gather sources from different industries and media.

The first step is to not tag too strongly our technical identity. For example, being a hardcore Java developer is great. But other languages are also making sense. It’s the same with new tech in general. The idea is to be committed but to do so with an open mind in order to welcome disruptive approaches.”

–

–

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Left to right: OVO’s President Director, Karaniya Dharmasaputra; Warung Pintar’s CEO and Co-Founder Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro; General Secretary Director of Regional Commerce for Indonesia’s Minister of Commerce, Syailendra; Minister of SMEs Teten Masduki; Deputy of Creative Economy, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs and Indonesia’s Economy Minister Coordinator, Mohammad Rudy Salahuddin; Tokopedia’s CEO and Founder William Tanuwijaya; SAHARA’s CEO, Farah Savira in the opening of Festival Gerakan Nasional (FGWN) in Lapangan Banteng, Jakarta, Saturday, December 14.

OVO, Indonesian digital payment platform, announces that it has launched financing services to address SMEs’ needs called DanaTara. The new offer aims to widen business access for SMEs as well as supporting them in improving business potentials.

OVO President Director Karaniya Dharmasaputra said that OVO DanaTara offers to be a solution for business expansion, balance stream management, and to be additional equity for Indonesian SMEs.

“This solution seeks to help address SMEs’ needs in getting business financing in an easier, simpler process. DanaTara has been made available for SMEs in e-commerce platforms like Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, and BukaLapak,” Dharmasaputra said.

OVO is also involved in Festival Gerakan Warung Nasional, a movement by Tokopedia and Warung Pintar, as a strategic partner to educate SMEs about e-payment and digital financial services for SMEs.

Also Read: OVO expands to P2P lending service by acquiring Taralite

The event also welcomed Indonesia’s Minister of SMEs Teten Masduki, alongside OVO President Director Karaniya Dharmasaputra; Tokopedia’s CEO and Founder, William Tanuwijaya; Warung Pintar’s CEO and Co-Founder Agung Bezharie Hadinegoro; and the Chairwoman of Indonesia’s Women Entrepreneur (INKOWAPI), Ir. Sharmila, M.Si.

Rumours have been circulated since earlier this year that Lippo Group would sell its stake in OVO as the company could no longer inject more funds into the fintech firm. Lippo Group was said to be paying around US$50 million to OVO per month.

However, OVO President Director Karaniya Dharmasaputra denied the rumours, saying that OVO was originally founded and developed by Lippo Group, as reported back in November 2019.

Finance Asia in its report in September cited a source that claimed OVO to have reached unicorn status through its latest funding round at US$2.9 billion valuations.

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Crowdsourcing – garnering input or support for a venture from a large number of people via the internet – has become an everyday practice, and the most common variety is the crowdfunding campaign.

According to the popular platform GoFundMe, more than 10,000 people start a GoFundMe campaign each day – a statistic that explains the site’s claim to have raised more than $5 billion since its 2010 launch.

Such campaigns are well and good for individuals and businesses looking to raise money to get new products off the ground or muster support for a pet cause. But would you trust crowdsourcing as a means to improve the security of your network and enterprise systems?

Quite a few of the world’s largest high-tech vendors do just that, and the smart money suggests that hundreds of organisations are set to follow suit. Offering financial rewards or “bug bounties” to hackers who can find a weakness in your cybersecurity bulwark can be a fast and cost-effective way for organisations to strengthen their defences before trouble strikes for real.

Rising threats

The chance of real trouble is rising. A study by A.T. Kearney discovered that Southeast Asian countries are being used as launchpads for cyberattacks, as both vulnerable hotbeds of unsecured infrastructure where numerous endpoints can be targeted for large-scale attacks and as bases for a single point of attack to gain access to the hubs’ global links.

The study also found that cybersecurity issues could cripple Southeast Asia’s digital innovation agenda – an essential pillar for the region’s success in the digital economy – with the top thousand companies in the region potentially losing US$750 billion in market capitalisation.

Large organisations– those with more than 500 employees – may incur losses as high as US$35.9 million in the form of direct, indirect and induced costs should a significant breach occur.

Many eyes make for safer systems

A crowdsourcing cybersecurity initiative is not a complete safety solution, but it can be an excellent way to test the efficacy of the measures you’ve already put in place.

It’s not a matter of throwing down the gauntlet to random, faceless hackers with dubious intentions. Companies can engage with the cybersecurity equivalent of GoFundMe, established platforms whose verified security researcher members can opt-in to challenges as they’re posted. Popular platforms include HackerOne and Bugcrowd.

Here are some reasons why it makes sense to open your enterprise security infrastructure up to the crowd.

Scarce resources on demand

If you’re a Southeast Asian organisation looking to beef up your internal cybersecurity team, then good luck with that. The dearth of skilled cybersecurity professionals constitutes a global impediment as the United States’ Information Systems Audit and Controls Association (ISACA) declared a worldwide shortage of over two million professionals by 2019. Malaysia requires 10,000 cybersecurity professionals by 2020, but unfortunately, the Southeast Asian nation had only amassed 6,000 professionals in 2018. Other nations in the region are taking necessary steps to plug the skills gap with Singapore’s announcement in 2018 to form a cyber defence vocation that will lead to a 2,600 strong force of cybersecurity professionals, under the ambit of the Singapore Armed Forces.

Security crowdsourcing can provide access to a smorgasbord of specialised skills that would be expensive and difficult to access on the open market. Better still, they’re available on a no-win, no-fee basis, as companies only pay bounties when bugs are detected. That makes it a cost-effective means of augmenting existing resources.

Reputation rehab

A headline-hitting breach or security outage has the potential to be a long-term reputation wrecker. Consumers fret about the fallout should their data fall into hackers’ hands and wonder whether the company in question is committed to ensuring it doesn’t happen again. Commencing a crowdsourcing security initiative can be one way to demonstrate you’re taking the issue seriously and are willing to explore new measures to bolster your defences.

Keeping up with the company next door

If there is one thing hackers and cybercriminals like, it’s easy access.

Keeping pace with other organisations on the cybersecurity front lessens the chance you’ll be a sitting duck. As security crowdsourcing goes mainstream, that may mean joining the crowd of companies posting their own bug bounty challenges.

Strengthening security

In a climate of rising risk, there’s no room for complacency. Southeast Asian companies need to act wisely and strategically if they’re to keep pace with the army of hackers and cybercriminals intent on compromising and exploiting corporate networks and the customer data they contain. Enlisting a crowd of experts to the defence team can be a great start.

About Scott Robertson

Scott Robertson is the Vice President of Asia Pacific and Japan for Zscaler. Mr. Robertson has more than 20 years of experience in IT and IT Security, having previously held senior leadership positions at WatchGuard, CRYPTOcard, and Microsoft. He has a combined MBA from the University of Washington and Macquarie Graduate School of Management, with a concentration in entrepreneurial studies.

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From L to R: Bobby Healy, Founder & CEO, Manna.aero; Rod Bishop, CEO, Jayride; Panhavuth Heng, Chief Commercial Officer, BookMeBus

For many commuters or travellers, Google Maps is the first stop when it comes to planning travel routes; it automatically crunches the time it would take for various transportation types, as well as the costs if you are booking rides from some of the more popular ride-hailing apps.

Yet, there is a gap in the market; and Google, surprisingly enough, does not have all the answers – especially when it comes to helping travellers with their ‘last-mile’ in-destination. “Google wants to suck all these transportation companies into their map, but so far, they have got only five or six [such as Grab, Lyft and Uber], they haven’t got it all,” said Rod Bishop, CEO of Australia-based startup Jayride.

Furthermore, Google does not provide transportation booking services itself.

Bishop spoke at a panel discussion about moving transportation online at the WIT Innovation Stage this week as part of WiT Singapore 2019. He was joined by Panhavuth Heng, Chief Commercial Officer of Cambodia-based startup BookMeBus, with Bobby Healy, Founder & CEO of Ireland-based startup Manna.aero, moderating the panel.

Bishop’s startup focuses on price comparisons for airport transfers across 81 countries, covering over 1,500 airports, so travellers no longer have to scramble around multiple airport transfer service booths to find out who gives the best deal (or get haggled by other external operators outside the airport, for that matter).

He gave a rather humorous anecdote to emphasise his startup’s USP (unique selling point) that also acted as a great metaphor for the pain points surrounding last transportation mile for travellers. “A lady in L.A. was in front of me and she was downloading every ride-hailing app, and when I asked her what she was doing, she said ‘I’m going to…find out which one’s cheapest, and then that’s the one I’m going to use.’”  It highlighted the niche gap that the travel industry has to step up and tackle.

Also Read: KiotViet gets US$6M Series A funding from Jungle Ventures, Traveloka, eyeing expansion

Healy posited that bigger OTA companies could outspend and out-strategise the smaller startups on this front (imagine if TripAdvisor integrated a similar airport transfer feature within their platform instead of having its users crowdsource answers on its platform).

Heng, whose startup, BookMeBus, provides online digital management systems for bus operators in Cambodia and surrounding markets, is not fazed. His focus, he said, is about building a full-fledged ecosystem for transport companies, including content, online payment and invoicing, and ads. This enables the transport operators to upscale their offerings and provides a full-fledged service to travellers.

For example, a customer can use BookMeBus to arrange for airport transfers to hotels as well as ground or ferry transport to places of interest all on one single transport platform.

These startups, however, still face threats from ride-hailing unicorns like Grab and Uber, which provide not only transport but also food delivery, among other services. For example, some travellers will stick to just one provider because it caters to all their needs. To that point, Healy asked the panellists whether their startups would consider broadening their product base, or if they are satisfied with just focusing on a single vertical.

Bishop said that the key thing is identifying what the traveller wants. If a person books an airport transfer, do they necessarily need food delivery? Probably not. The key point is providing the right value to the customer, which in Bishop’s case, is getting right airport transfer for their needs at a good price point.

It’s a difficult case to fight for sure. At the end of the day, with enough commitment and capital, large corporations like Google could very easily launch a far superior transport booking platform for travellers, eroding the USP of smaller players.

But if there’s one element that is not easy to compete with, it is localisation – the secret sauce of any startup’s winning game.

“We work closely with the ground operators… we speak the local language and culture. Cambodian people are very skeptical… trust is a huge factor,” said Heng.

“It’s about customer service that provides the extra mile so you are no longer anxious about travelling,” said Bishop It’s not just about transportation but fundamentally rethinking what it means to provide a quality travel service.

—

This article was first published on WiT.

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Image Credit: WiT

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Grab has gained the Indonesian government (Coordinating Ministry of Maritime and Investment)’s full support in the launch of Electric Vehicle (EV) Ecosystem Roadmap that aims to accelerate EV adoption in the country and bring a more environmentally sustainable transport network.

Grab launches Four-Wheels and Two-Wheels Electric Vehicles (EV) pilot projects in Jakarta with support from carmakers to help build up Indonesia’s EV ecosystem. The move is also the unicorn’s answers to government’s target of 2 million EVs by 2025, something that SoftBank has committed to support through its US$2 billion investment into Grab back in July.

Grab also announced partnerships with automakers Hyundai, Astra Honda Motor, and Gesits to launch four- and two-wheel electric vehicles pilots in the Greater Jakarta region.

Ridzki Kramadibrata, President of Grab Indonesia said: “The joint effort is in line with our commitment to accelerate digital infrastructure development in Indonesia, will help us to come up with solutions that will achieve higher cost efficiencies and spur more people to adopt EVs not just in Indonesia but also across the rest of the region.”

Also Read: Grab teams up with Singapore Power to roll out 200 electric vehicles

“We are very grateful for the initiative that has been done by Grab as this in line with the current regulation in further developing the EV industry as well as accelerating the use of environmentally-friendly transportation modes in Indonesia,” said Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia.

“This can also support the government’s initiative to reduce the air pollution issue in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta,” he continued.

Grab reportedly has been expanding its EV ecosystem by collaborating with governments and partners like automakers and electricity providers, to drive up EV adoption. By gaining insights on how to better operationalise and expand EV fleets, Grab seeks to co-develop policies with governments with the aim of making EVs more affordable, thus encouraging driver-partners and fleet owners to adopt EVs.

Grab claimed to already own one of the largest fleets of electric vehicles in Southeast Asia, with 200 Hyundai KONA models operated on Singapore roads in a pilot project, launched in January this year.

Grab is also partnering Singapore’s energy utilities provider, SP Group, to use its public EV charging network for Grab’s EVs.

Also Read: Grab raises US$250M more from Hyundai, Kia; plans for electric vehicle adoption

In Indonesia, Grab has inked an agreement with state-owned electricity provider Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to co-build a network of electric vehicle charging stations.

On two-wheel front, Grab has partnered with Astra Honda Motor (AHM) and Gesits to launch EV bike pilots, all to test the viability of using EV bikes across Grab’s ride-hailing, food and parcels delivery business in greater Jakarta area.
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Picture Credit: Grab

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A limited liability corporation (LLC) is a hybrid legal entity that combines the tax benefits of sole proprietorships and partnerships with the liability protection of corporations.

While an LLC does provide significant protections for business owners, the protection offered is not complete. If you are considering forming an LLC, you should take the following five aspects of liability protection into account:

1. Personal liability for the LLC’s debts

The most powerful protection an LLC offers is that it generally shields owners from liability for the debts of the LLC. In a sole proprietorship, if your business becomes insolvent or ceases to operate, you may be liable for all of the debts of your business.

This means that creditors could seize your personal assets, including your bank accounts, vehicles and home to satisfy the debts of your business. With an LLC, creditors of the LLC can only pursue the assets of the LLC and not the assets of the owners. However, this protection may not apply in cases where you have personally guaranteed debt. 

2. Personal liability for the actions of co-owners and employees

If your business has more than one owner and one of the other owners becomes liable for damages due to their negligence or misconduct in the course of operating the business, they may be held jointly liable with the LLC, but creditors will not be able to pursue your personal assets if you were not involved in the wrongdoing.

This also applies to damages caused by the actions of your employees. 

3. LLC’s liability for personal debts

The LLC structure provides many protections for business owners from the liability of the LLC, but it also protects your business from being dissolved by creditors due to the personal debts of the owners. In most cases, creditors can not seize the assets of an LLC to satisfy the personal debts of owners.

However, in some states creditors may be allowed to obtain a charging order, foreclose on an owner’s interest share or get a court order to have the LLC dissolved so that it’s assets can be sold off and used to pay creditors. It may be wise to consult with an attorney to determine which of these remedies are available to creditors in your state.

4. Personal liability for your actions

An LLC will generally not protect you from liability for your actions. If you cause damages due to your negligence, malpractice or other wrongdoing in the course of operating your business, both you and the LLC can be held liable for those damages.

This means that both the assets of your business and your personal assets can be seized to satisfy any judgments against you. 

5. Piercing the corporate veil

In certain circumstances, courts may choose to ignore the liability protections afforded when you start an llc. This is called “piercing the corporate veil.” Courts generally do not like to pierce the veil but may choose to do so when attempting to force a corporation to comply with a government program, when a business has been found guilty of manipulating bankruptcy laws or committing other types of fraud when businesses have deliberately maintained low levels of capital that are insufficient to pay employees or shareholders and in situations where owners have not sufficiently separated their personal affairs from the affairs of the business.

When the corporate veil is pierced, any owners or shareholders found personally liable for the wrongdoings of the business can be held liable for any judgments against the business. 

Forming an LLC does not provide you with complete protection from liability incurred by your business. However, it does have some significant advantages that are worth considering. It may be a good idea to consult with an expert before determining if this business structure is right for you.

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Image Credit:  Armando Arauz

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