Month: January 2020

The blockchain technology has come a long way since the time it was introduced back in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. Today, the latest statistics show that global spending on blockchain solutions is expected to grow from US$1.5 billion in 2018 to an estimated US$11.7 billion by 2022. 

Authorities and educational organisations are already pushing forward some fundamental changes in the system. Many well-known and innovative universities, including Cornell and Georgetown Universities, are already offering programmes focused on blockchain technology. 

However, aside from disrupting the usual education programs across global organisations, there is another way blockchain changes the global educational system. 

Blockchain technology has tons of applications, and the same is true for the education sector. In the course of the past several years, blockchain companies and enthusiasts were working on solutions that can allow us to improve the higher education sector.

Below are some of the ways blockchain can start a fundamental change in the global education system, according to Gartner.

Also Read: Why should universities teach blockchain to students?

Record-keeping

One of the greatest applications of blockchain in the education sector involves the digitisation of educational credentials, including the degrees, certificates, diplomas, and the like. This kind of record-keeping can significantly enhance the security of the credentials and make sure that there is no need for an intermediary to verify them. 

Furthermore, blockchain technology can be applied in the case of accreditation of educational organisations. At the moment, this process involves a number of complex steps in some of the countries. This time-consuming and cost-inefficient procedure can be easily substituted by using digital records.

Boosts efficiency 

There is no doubt that blockchain-stored credentials for universities are already a great improvement over the traditional education sector’s approach. Yet, a step-up from this method of application would be the establishment of the virtual transcripts. These transcripts would include all the information about the educational activities and achievements of a person’s history.

This application would diminish resume fraud and speed up student transfers. Another great advantage of this application is the diminished need for staff related to credential verification. Overall, the blockchain-fueled virtual transcripts would streamline a lot of internal processes and increase efficiency for the educational organisations.

Streamline payments

Today, paying for your higher education with cryptocurrencies might sound like crazy talk. Yet, a couple of years from now on, it might very well become the reality. In fact, back in 2014, King’s College in New York City became a pioneer in this field by accepting bitcoin as payment, and thus marking its place as the first accredited US institution to do so. 

Also Read: Ivan Linn’s blockchain-powered social network is music to content creators’ ears

Processing payments for the studies require a lot of labour and time. It also involves a lot of parties, including parents, financial institutions, scholarship-granting companies, educational institutions, and governments.

By simply paying the student fee with a cryptocurrency, people would eliminate the need for intermediaries and cut down on processing fees as well as save a ton of time.

New business models

Aside from the use-cases, which focus on improving record storage, security, and efficiency, there is still a lot of potential in the blockchain technology that can be utilised in the educational sector. One of the ground-breaking applications of blockchain is the creation of new business models. 

Following this strategy,  Woolf University aims to become the very first blockchain-powered borderless university. The university was founded by a group of academics from Cambridge and Oxford. 

This non-profit organisation will be based on blockchain and smart contacts. These will act as the foundation of the relationship between teachers and students. 

How far are we from the future?

While the majority of countries have acknowledged the potential of blockchain, there is still a long way to go before we will use blockchain on a daily basis in our lives. One of the main obstacles on the way of wider blockchain adoption is the lack of awareness among the general public. 

Also Read: Blockchain tech is innovating education, and schools are catching up to the trend

When it comes to learning about this technology, people are usually divided into two groups: those who are not interested in understanding the ways this technology works, and those who are willing to learn but have limited resources to do so. 

The latter group usually comprises of younger individuals, and they are eager to learn and apply their knowledge in the industry. Yet, due to the limits of the educational system, not many universities offer blockchain-focussed degrees. So, many ambitious students are choosing to learn about blockchain online, via guides and video courses. 

Nevertheless, as blockchain becomes more popular, many global organisations move to help educate the growing generation about this technology.

In addition, the help also comes from within the industry, with a number of blockchain projects organising events and seminars to teach students around the globe about the ins-and-outs of blockchain. 

It is crystal clear that blockchain application is a game-changer in the education sector: it can increase productivity and security, boost efficiency and help cut costs. In addition, blockchain technology gives life to many new beginnings and projects that inevitably improve the quality of life. 

Hopefully, thanks to the efforts of the global authorities, educational organisations, and blockchain projects across the planet, people will soon be more comfortable with using blockchain technology in their everyday life.

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Collaborative innovation definitely has its benefits. Whereas at first, it may seem intuitive, it is actually not so simple and straightforward to integrate your innovation practices with another company through collaboration. 

According to Akyuz and Gursoy, collaborative innovation can be defined as “the process of managing the interaction and collaboration of multiple partners to deliver new solutions within a business ecosystem.”

The need for collaborative innovation arises because each participant individually does not have the capacity to carry out the innovation implementation, so they reach out to partners to deliver it.

A great example of collaborative innovation is P&G’s Pringles Prints. In 2009, the company conceptualised a new product, which would have custom words and images printed on each Pringle crisps.

In collaboration with a small-bakery, which came up with a method for printing in ink-jet method on edible products, P&G managed to quickly adapt its technology. This enabled them to reduce product development costs and time-to-market. 

Also Read: A multi-disciplinary approach to product development requires collaboration

But there are many prerequisites that need to be met before successful collaborative innovation can be implemented within a company:

• Preparation for sharing intellectual property
• Organisational mindset that is beyond competition and adversarial sentiments
• Ability to learn and combine different company or department cultures
• Synchronised analytics and measuring

Although this seems achievable (and with the right amount of time and resources, it definitely is) a total transformation has to happen on a company or department level before collaborative innovation is implemented. 

Surpassing limits

The most obvious benefit of adopting open, collaborative innovation is that a company will be free of the constraints of closed innovation. Every company that decides for a closed innovation approach will also have to factor in its limits. 

However, this closed innovation paradigm is not all negative, the way open innovation is not all positive. Closed R&D, after all, let to some of the most important achievements and business successes in the 20th century.

It was also an innovation model that was used by most US companies in the previous century. 

At the same time, this past success of the closed innovation model does not guarantee efficiency in the 21st century’s realm of warp-speed technological progress. 

Also Read: Why you shouldn’t resist collaboration and remote work

Why has the Silicon Valley of the 21st century become a playground for collaborative innovation?

The answer is the exact benefit we’re talking about – getting rid of the limits of closed innovation: high investment requirements, a limited span of ideas, high demands from employees and the costs of creating high-performing teams.

Higher returns

According to Kalypso’s whitepaper Best Practices in Collaborative Innovation, there is a potential for a 10-15 per cent increase in sales and profit for companies that decide to take this approach. 

This is achieved through a reduction in R&D costs, speeding up time-to-market and creating new revenue streams. 

In closed innovation models, a huge portion of the revenue is spent on in-house R&D, talent and product development. When you take this out of the equation, there is a much higher profit that will remain to be used by the company for other purposes that can boost sales, such as marketing. 

Rethinking labour division

According to Pavitt and Steinmueller’s Collaborative Innovation study, collaboration within companies prompt innovations in the division of labour and will ultimately lead to “enquiry into the future of capitalism”. 

In another research paper from 1947, Schumpeter argued that the major determinant of the future division of labour and the very nature of capitalism, our companies, and corporations, will be their ability to make innovation routine. 

Also Read: Startups need to collaborate in order to build decentralized products that make an impact

In a less apocalyptic and world-shattering sense of the word labour division, collaborative innovation actually has the capacity to remodel organisational hierarchies in the short-term. 

Creating customer focus-friendly environments

When different departments within a company gather to provide an innovative approach, their common view will reflect that of a customer. Given that the issue has to be viewed from all sides at the same time, the final solution will be exactly what the customer would want in each step of the buying process.

For example, a tech employee or team from the IT department might have an innovative idea, but the sales and marketing department might contribute and add that this idea is not really marketable to the general audience.

The finance department might warn that the idea is not very cost-effective. In this example, in order to come to a collaborative solution, all three departments will have to make up these differences in order to actually achieve the desired result. 

“When we think about innovation, we usually think about disruptive businesses and industries and ways in which this disruption will skyrocket their profits. However, those who actually use these products and services – customers – are the ones who are on the other side of the story, and focusing on customers should be the number one priority of collaborative innovators within a company,” says Mitchell Foreman, HR manager at AllTopReviews.

Also Read: Tribe Accelerator facilitates additional US$15.7M fundraising to boost blockchain innovations, commencing collaboration with Dubai

When the joint goals of partners in collaborative innovation are to create win-win situations, this is always done through the lens of the customer. 

Optimised resource allocation

Collaborative innovation can have far-reaching consequences for the business ecosystem, which is often among the primary goals of companies in collaboration. However, it can also result in many other positive effects, such as better use of your own company’s resources. 

More often than not, innovation and optimisation are sparked by an employee or a team noticing that the company is “losing” money somewhere in the operational process. For example, a customer support team at one of the paper writing websites or at a skills assessment software company might notice that they’re wasting too many hours on identical tickets and demands and recognise the need for an AI-powered chatbot.

In this way, innovative thinking and collaboration among different departments can lead to savings and better attribution of your company’s resources. This can also happen in collaborative innovation processes with another company. 

Agility and adaptability

An important aspect of innovation is also for a company to be able to adapt quickly to market demands, requirements and challenges.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: Singapore, India ink collaboration to develop fintech industry

If your departments are cooperating and collaborating on innovation issues, it will be much easier to predict where adapting is in order. It will also be much easier to speed up the innovation process and actually see ideas come to life (from ideation, analysis to commercialisation) much more quickly. 

The time to market acceleration is also one of the major benefits of collaborative innovation. Given that products are developed faster than ever and it’s important to launch a high-quality product faster than your competitors, this will become one of the main benefits of companies competing in crowded markets. 

Agility and time to market are one of the most important factors that led to the popularity of collaborative innovation in the ICT industry. 

Improved decision-making with data

Of course, shopper and customer data is a precious resource across all departments within a company, and innovation is no different. Not only that, but innovation is actually among sectors that can benefit from data and insight the most and translate it to actual business results most evidently.

In innovation departments and collaborative innovation processes, ideas don’t have to appear “on their own”: they can actually result from a question or issue posed in consumer data analytics.

Also Read: Meet design thinking: An approach to problem solving that can increase the probability of breakthrough in innovation

For example, an e-commerce company might notice that women over the age of 50 are most likely to abandon their carts. The task of the collaborative innovation team would be to identify the possible causes of this and to generate ideas that would tackle this issue. 

This also happens to be one of the double-edged swords of collaborative innovation: when you share your consumer insights with a partner company, you will simplify the decision-making process and make room for better, insightful ideas. On the other hand, you will also be sharing one of your most valuable assets. 

Higher degree of differentiation on the market

This is another benefit of CI that is intuitively understood but is rarely utilised and taken to its maximum.

When you’re working with a partner company in a mode of collaborative innovation, you can present the best of both worlds to the market you’re competing in: and the same goes for the company you’re partnering up with.

This is especially applicable when you have an exclusive R&D or collaboration arrangement with another company. 

There are so many benefits to collaborative innovation within a company that it’s become simply irrational to not include this approach in your operational structures, when possible and when necessary. 

Whether you want to decrease your product development costs or simply start cooperating with companies that possess high-value innovation property, this is one of the best approaches you can make as a company.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that the model does have its drawbacks, so you will have to do a careful cost-benefit analysis before you even enter that realm.

For example, for companies that find it very risky to share their intellectual property or consumer data, collaborative innovation will be a no-go.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

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BlibliMart store is the latest innovation from Indonesia-based e-commerce platform Blibli. The brick-and-mortar retail store uses a cashless and cashier-less shopping system, with shopkeepers available to check their purchases after the payment is made.

Blibli’s move with its grocery brand BlibliMart is aimed at establishing an offline presence to complement the growing BlibliMart online grocery store, as reported by The Jakarta Post.

With its cashless and cashier-less shopping experience, it seeks to cater to millennials’ fast-and-cheap shopping preferences. By using the Blibli app on their smartphone, customers can scan the product barcode and pay using the Blipay digital payment service or the GoPay payment app by gojek.

Blibli senior vice president of trade partnership Fransisca Krisantia Nugraha emphasise that 66 per cent of shoppers are omnichannel shoppers.

“It means they are the type of shoppers that use both online and offline platforms for their shopping needs. That’s why the retail store will hopefully bring us to these omnichannel [consumers],” said Nugraha.

Also Read: We mapped out the e-commerce competition scene in Indonesia and found 5 interesting trends

The store, which is located at the Sarana Jaya building in Central Jakarta, adopts a similar shopping experience in US-based convenience store Amazon Go, that allows customers to purchase groceries and other goods without any cashier checkout or clerk interactions.

The test run started in November last year and according to Nugraha, the retail store had recorded more than 1,000 orders daily.

However, unlike Amazon Go, BlibliMart retail store shopping still needs former customers to check out their purchases with a shopkeeper to prevent theft.

“Because there is currently no applicable technology solution [to prevent theft] in Indonesia,” Nugraha said.

“There are still a lot of questions from the customers, and there are a lot of connection problems too, so we provide free Wi-Fi for the customers,” Nugraha added.

According to the company’s vice president of development Sherwin Sasmita, in facilitating customers with such experience, Blibli uses its online consumer data to determine the product preferences of consumers near the store to ensure suitable product selection and stock availability.

“We can identify the market segment. We can identify what people in Jakarta buy from our online data, what people in the area [of the store] buy,” Sasmita said.

Also Read: Blibli acquires Tiket.com, further strengthening its foray into travel industry

Nugraha said Indonesia had a US$200 billion grocery market opportunity, with 1 per cent, or a US$2 billion market potential, forecast for e-commerce.

Aside from the addition of retail stores, the company also plans to strengthen its online service by providing scheduled delivery, product subscription, and in-store pickup services through a partnership with third-party retailers.

In Indonesia, e-commerce platforms are embracing offline retail to complement their existing online presence. From beauty and fashion platforms such as Social Bella and Berrybenka to mom-and-pop store platforms such as Warung Pintar.

Even Chinese e-commerce platform such as JD has also tested an offline retail store in Indonesia.

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Indonesia’s leading ride-hailing app gojek has made an investment of an undisclosed amount in tech wearables and apparels called Zulu, according to Deal Street Asia. The news was first reported by DailySocial.

The proceeds will be used by ZULU for team expansion and launching stealth projects. ZULU co-founder Yusuf Syaid has declined to disclose further details on the startup’s plans for the new capital but has planned on raising a Series A round, as reported by Deal Street Asia.

Founded in Indonesia in 2018, Zulu is a tech and lifestyle company which creates Bluetooth motorcycle helmets, pollution control masks, motorcycle jackets, gloves, and goggles, all of which are currently available on e-commerce site Lazada.

Also Read: From sports drink to Alibaba: A look into Kobe Bryant’s legacy in startup investment

“We secured funding from gojek in August 2018 after pitching our business in January 2018. From there, we were part of the gojek rebranding campaign – managing production, QR, and delivery of the two types of jackets [for gojek driver-partners],” said Syaid.

“We created smart barcodes using RFID in the new jackets and helmets, producing over two million pieces [in total], with more ongoing for their future driver attributes like the GoFood bag and so on,” he continued.

According to reports, GoJek is the sole investor in ZULU, but it is also its first investment in the consumer goods space in the region.

GoJek itself is seeking to complete its Series F round by this year.

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Image Credit: Afif Kusuma

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The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) reportedly plans to launch a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer payment and money transfer platform in the next few months, as shared in Blockchain News.

According to the NBC Director-General Chea Serey, the platform would be known as a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

Another report from the Phnom Penh Post revealed that the ongoing project is dubbed ‘Project Bakong’. Serey has been quoted to say that the scheme already rallied the support of 11 banks, and expected more to join soon.

Project Bakong itself was launched on a trial basis in July and will kick off operation within the present fiscal quarter.

Also Read: Report: Cambodia saw 140 per cent rise in tech startup investment in 2018

“Bakong will play a central role in bringing all players in the payment space in Cambodia under the same platform, making it easy for end-users to pay each other regardless of the institutions they bank with. Eventually, we hope to allow cross border payment through the Bakong system too,” Serey said.

Unlike most cryptocurrencies, which are decentralised, Bakong will deploy a closed system backed by banking authorities. This will enable the project to close the possible loophole.

Apart from Cambodia, another country that has been making headlines with its national cryptocurrency plan is China.

In August 2019, a Forbes report stated that China is planning to issue the cryptocurrency to seven institutions that included tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent.

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Sea Limited, a global consumer internet company, today announced that its digital entertainment arm Garena has acquired Phoenix Labs, an independent game development company and the studio behind the cross-platform co-op action role-playing game, Dauntless.

The transaction is already complete.

Post-acquisition, the existing management team at Phoenix Labs will continue to run the studio.

In addition to complementing Garena’s in-house content creation capabilities, the partnership allows Phoenix Labs to tap into the company’s global network in mobile games and community building.

The two companies will work together to continue adding new features to Dauntless and explore new growth opportunities in markets such as Asia and Latin America and on mobile. Together, they will also explore new opportunities in global markets and on mobile.

The transaction was closed.

Jesse Houston, CEO and Co-founder of Phoenix Labs, said: “With this next step, we’re able to ensure that we can provide the best possible experience for Dauntless players around the world.”

Also Read: How Garena became extremely important for Tencent’s future

Forrest Li, Founder and Group CEO of Sea, said, “Over the last few years, we have watched Phoenix Labs mature into one of the best development teams in the business and launch a hugely exciting title in Dauntless. We also know that they share our mission of making great games, creating the best teams, and putting players first. Our skill sets are highly complementary, and we see many exciting opportunities ahead that our teams can explore together.”

Founded in Vancouver in 2014, Phoenix Labs now has a team of more than 100 developers across its offices in Vancouver, Canada, San Francisco, and Seattle, Washington. Dauntless was launched in 2019.

Headquartered in Singapore, Garena is a global games developer and publisher that had more than 320 million quarterly active users in the third quarter of 2019. Its self-developed title, Free Fire, is a popular mobile game.

Garena was one of Phoenix Labs’s earliest investors and has supported the growth of the company and the development of Dauntless over the last several years.

Also Read: Tencent grants Sea’s Garena first access to its games titles with a publishing contract

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Picture Credit: Sea Group

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With an ambition to become the Alibaba of the Philippines, e-commerce enabler Great Deals announced early this week a US$12 million financing round from Navegar, the largest private equity investor in the country.

It is rare for a company in the Philippines to raise such a massive sum in the very first round of funding, but for CEO Steve Sy, it is a well-deserved feat. He founded Great Deals in 2014 after spending many years as an entrepreneur in the retail and e-commerce sectors. He identified a glaring need to enable entrepreneurs like himself to succeed in the internet economy.

Also Read: 5 Filipino startups are giving Lazada, Shopee a run for their money, defying expectation

In this conversation with e27, he talks about the country’s e-commerce industry and Great Deal’s roadmap.

Edited excerpts:

You have worked in the retail and e-commerce industry before starting Great Deals. How has the industry grown over the last few years?

I entered this industry in 2012 during its infancy stage when the penetration was shallow, and the chance of even small merchants dominating the online retail world was very high. I have seen e-commerce’s hyper-growth in the last few years.

Now, merchants need to find a strategic partner to help them succeed. As a ripple effect, our company has been growing a hundred per cent year on year.

Why did you go for a single investor for this funding? What is the synergy with Navegar? How much stake did you dilute this time?

Rather than an investor, we wanted a strategic partner that would help us grow in the right way. I believe that with Navegar’s support, our company will propel to better heights. I diluted only minimum stake.

You aim to become the Alibaba of the Philippines. In what sense — as an enabler or a marketplace? Do you have B2C e-commerce arm?

We are having what we call the network externality effect. Aside from Great Deals, we are also pioneering companies that will soon be a vital part of the digital economy.

Also Read: How top e-commerce platforms are fuelling Philippines’ online economy

We booted a live-streaming service company, a farm-to-kitchen marketplace business, and we also have an SME for drop-shipping in the country. Each of these initiatives is interrelated in the e-commerce industry.

Our ultimate goal would be to contribute to the development of the ecosystem.

E-commerce is still just 2 per cent of the the country’s GDP. What is holding back the growth of this industry?

I believe that our poor internet infrastructure is holding back its growth. Despite this, a recent study shows that we Filipinos spend the most time on the internet.

The e-commerce sector in the country has everything in place for massive growth. What is still lacking? Is there still a trust deficit between e-commerce and consumers?

We lack two things: better internet infrastructure and low logistics cost. Due to regulations, unemployment and other factors, the Philippines has the highest logistics cost, and we are evaluated as the worst performer, not just in ASEAN but also globally.

In a country like the Philippines, poor traffic conditions often affect the timely delivery of products. How do you manage to address this challenge? What is your strategy?

Our plan is to set up several fulfilment centres across the country. The warehouses would be closer to the major cities, and consequently, the deliveries would be faster.

Do you also partner with offline firms to help them go online and tap into the e-commerce opportunity in the Philippines?

That’s what we do. We work together with offline business or firms with a weak online presence to help them tap into the e-commerce space.

Some of your clients, like Zilingo, have a foreign presence. Do you handle their overseas market requirements as well? How does it work?

We’re only operating nationwide, but we have been having talks regarding this possibility. We are not closing our doors.

What are the top three items consumers prefer to buy online?

Most probably, they are diapers, milk and electronics.

What are the unique characteristics of the Philippines’s e-commerce consumers? What do they expect from an e-commerce platform?

I can share three characteristics of a Filipino consumer. First is our preferment for cash-on-delivery payment method. People feel safer and find comfort in the thought that they would receive their package because it is unpaid.

Also Read: Great Deals raises US$12M from Navegar to be the Alibaba of Philippines

Second is the peak purchase time. Most buyers place their orders during their lunch period, which is between 12 pm and 2 pm.

Lastly, shoppers like reverse showrooming. It is when people visit brick-and-mortar stores to browse items but purchases online where they have access to discounts and free shipping. Those are the typical consumer behaviour right now.

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From Baidu to Meituan, Chinese tech firms to donate millions to support the fight against coronavirus [South China Morning Post]

The recent outbreak of the mutated coronavirus in Wuhan, China has prompted many Chinese tech giants to pledge to donate the cause for fighting the virus.

Among the big guns are Qihoo 360, which pledged to donate US$2.2 million in medical resources while AI firm iFlyTek said it donated US$1.4 million and US$72,000 worth of medical supplies, as reported by South China Morning Post.

Search firm Baidu and food-delivery platform Meituan also have pledged millions of yuan towards medical research, supplies, and support for frontline health care workers in the battle against the coronavirus epidemic.

Baidu, specifically, said that it had established a US$43 million epidemic and public health security fund to “support efforts including screening and research and development (R&D) for cures of diseases such as the new coronavirus, as well as for longer-term efforts such as public health and safety information dissemination”.

Meituan also set up a separate US$29 million fund dedicated to caring for the nation’s medical staff. Initially, it will focus on assisting medical staff in Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, with funds going toward medical resources, humanitarian help, and ensuring that medical staff is supported in their daily lives.

Alibaba Health, Alibaba’s health care arm, has made its telemedicine services available to residents of Hubei, the area most affected by the plague, encouraging patients who have minor illnesses to consult online doctors for free as hospitals in the area feel the strain.

Also Read: Together with Ping An, GrabHealth starts to show its teeth in Indonesia

Online healthcare Pingan Good Doctor also set up an antivirus command centre with access to free online consultations for all users in China.

After announcing a lockdown for a country-wide quarantine, battles to contain the spread of the virus continue, which has so far caused some 80 deaths with 2,800 confirmed cases in the country.

UK welcomes Huawei to build 5G network’s parts despite US security concerns [Wall Street Journal]

Chinese telecom company Huawei is given permission to build noncritical parts of the network in the UK, ignoring Trump’s call to boycott the telecom-equipment vendor stressing on security matters, as reported by Wall Street Journal.

The government has said that Huawei would be given permission to build noncritical parts of the country’s 5G network because Britain’s National Security Council concluded that the security risks the Chinese company presented could be managed.

The security matters in question are that the equipment provided by Huawei could be used by the Chinese state to spy on countries or incapacitate key infrastructure. Huawei denied the rumours.

“Nothing in this review affects this country’s ability to share highly sensitive intelligence data over highly secure networks, both within the U.K., and with our partners,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.

Many countries are expected to make a decision whether or not they will employ Huawei for its 5G network building, including Germany and Canada.

The UK’s way to contain every possible scenario with Huawei is by banning the company’s equipment from centralised parts of the 5G infrastructure that route data across the network, as well as sensitive locations such as near military and nuclear installations. Huawei will only be allowed to provide more peripheral equipment—such as base stations and antennae that connect the core to consumers’ devices—that is viewed as less of a security risk.

Singapore’s Temasek invests in French DIY home improvement startup ManoMano [SWF Institute]

Singapore’s Temasek Holdings announces that it has led a US$138 million Series E funding round in ManoMano, an e-commerce startup in France aimed at DIY (Do-it-yourself) home improvement and gardening products.

Also Read: The top Chinese smartphone brand, Huawei, just launched a mobile payment service

Other investors in the round are General Atlantic, Eurazeo, Piton Capital, Bpifrance, and Kismet Holdings.

Formed in 2013 by Philippe de Chanville and Christian Raisson, ManoMano has presences in markets other than France, such as in Germany, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom. ManoMano raised US$121 million on April 1, 2019. ManoMano Fulfillment is the company’s logistics platform based in Gretz, which was recently launched in November 2018.

Malaysian BigPay adds 3 new international remittance service corridors [Press Release]

BigPay, ASEAN-focussed fintech startup based in Malaysia announces that it has added three new corridors to its international remittance service: India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. The company explained the decision to have access to the three countries is because these three countries have the highest number of foreign workers in Malaysia right after Indonesia, and the amount for some of the highest numbers of outbound remittances in the country.

BigPay’s mission is to democratise financial services across the region by offering a low-cost and accessible way of transferring money to and from these countries is a cornerstone of BigPay and its financial inclusion strategy.

Also Read: Temasek teams up with Swiss firm to launch a US$50M logistics fund in Singapore

BigPay launched its international remittance services in September 2019, enabling users to send money directly from Malaysia to bank accounts in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, with fixed fees per corridor and competitive exchange rates.

The company said it is currently working on cash pickups in selected markets.

Singapore-based startup SynOption launches FX options trading venue [Press Release]

Singapore-based startup SynOption Pte. Ltd. launched its platform for electronic trading of FX Options this week. An institutional platform, it allows investors to execute FX Options trades by requesting quotes from multiple banks on a centralised venue.

SynOption claimed to be the first firm approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to establish and operate an organised market for a period of 9 months under the Sandbox express framework. The firm has also been awarded a grant by MAS Financial Sector Development Fund as a designated special project.

“SynOption attempts to build a fair platform for trade execution for all participants in the niche FX Options market. We provide an efficient workflow to clients, by getting involved in their entire investment process from idea to implementation while protecting liquidity for banks in an illiquid space,” said SynOption’s founder, Anchal Jain.

SynOption has started onboarding Institutional clients based in Singapore and has gained good traction. The platform has signed up top-tiered banks up as liquidity providers and is rapidly looking to expand its participant base in the next few months.
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It’s no secret: Asians love food, and so when we think about opening our first business, many of us gravitate to it. We may dream of opening our own restaurant, eatery, or cafeteria … depending on our capital. But there is so much more to food than just cooking and serving meals.

The last decade has seen the emergence of foodtech. Most of us are familiar with foodtech services such as GrabFood, FoodPanda, and Lalafood, but the space is much larger than those on-demand food delivery services.

Foodtech encompasses any attempt to innovate a product or service along the food value chain, any of which would be a promising area for Asian founders to create a business around.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand the opportunity in foodtech is to look at the biggest players in the space and see what it is they exactly do.

The prospects are so huge and exciting that the popular online social and copy trading platform eToro recently launched a foodtech portfolio comprised of companies across the space. eToro’s idea, of course, is for ordinary folk to have a piece of the action and be able to invest in what are otherwise large global stocks.

One example from the portfolio is Beyond Meat, which creates meat substitutes that still taste like meat. The company thus targets the unique demographic of health-conscious people around the world who have gone vegetarian for some reason – whether it be for their health, morality, or environment – but still occasionally crave the taste of a good slab of beef. 

Also Read: India-based foodtech startup HungerBox raises US$12M to expand to Southeast Asia

Beyond Meat is an example of innovating the very foods we consume. While some may assume that such products require prohibitively expensive research and development, this is not always the case.

Sometimes it’s just about turning consumers toward a product that is already there, as in the case of some Asian brands that extol the virtues of goat’s milk.

Foodtech for food security

Creating demand for alternative foodstuffs that are as healthy as the incumbent but are nowhere near as popular will aid with food security, one of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations for 2030. As the world population soars past current highs, it becomes even more imperative for foodtech companies to ignite demand (and our appetites) for more sustainable, alternative foodstuffs. If there’s not enough social incentive, there is clearly business value (Beyond Meat has more than quadrupled its stock value in three short months after its initial public offering this past May).

Another telling example from the eToro foodtech portfolio is Danone, a multinational food company that has also been actively investing into foodtech disruptors. The inclusion of Danone is reflective of two major trends in foodtech: The first is the influx of venture capital into the space, which according to a recent article from TechCrunch, made for 459 unique investments in 2017, a serious jump from the 223 in 2015.

The writing’s on the wall: Asian founders who have an idea in the foodtech space will have a serious chance of raising serious venture capital to turn that dream into a reality.

The second trend that the inclusion of Danone points to is the very nature of most foodtech businesses. In most cases, these are not value-add companies, but disrupt the very nature of how restaurants and other food businesses operate.

Take the example of Travis Kalanick, who recently raised US$400 million for his first startup after Uber, known as CloudKitchens. This company creates what it calls “smart kitchens for delivery-only restaurants.” These, in effect, allow food operators to expand rapidly and project themselves into what may have once been prohibitively remote locations. 

Also Read: [Exclusive] Foodtech startup Ai Palette gets US$1M seed funding from Decacorn Capital, others

Since the cost is significantly lower than setting up a consumer-facing restaurant with all its attendant expenses (waitstaff salary, design and decorations, utensils, and so on), food operators can open up more locations at a fraction of the cost. Just as “cloud-based” software allowed companies to save enormously in comparison to on-premise software, “cloud kitchens” will enable food operators to earn more from their menus.

Scaling across a spectrum of possibilities

The foodtech trend is not limited to cloud kitchens. Every stage of the value chain is now being upended, from how food is cooked (some kitchens employ robo-cooks), ordered (some employ touchscreens and other server-less options), sold (many are going with fintech and other cashless solutions), and even marketed – there are an increasing number of digital storefronts that allow food operators to increase their food traffic, such as through user-generated reviews, time- or demand-based discounts, digitized menus, or other high value content.

Clearly, there are opportunities across the entire spectrum of foodtech for Asian founders to create a business that addresses a pressing need.

The fact that these foodtech companies are publicly listed shows the scale available in the space. Not even the largest tech companies have as wide and open accessibility for their consumers and customers. To access Facebook, for example, you need an internet connection, or to use Airbnb, you need a credit card. No such limitation exists in the foodtech industry, which is predicated on finding new ways to serve everyone and more, including the people yet-to-be-born but will further strain our food security over the coming decades. In this view, foodtech is not only a business opportunity, but one for social impact: Your business can reach an unprecedented scale, all while keeping people satiated, fed, and nourished.

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San Francisco-based dating app, The League, aimed at “power couples”, is set for an official launch in Singapore on February 2.

The new dating app focuses to target Singapore’s growing tech and financial markets which attracts a community of “overachievers”, making it the perfect selection, according to the company statement.

Additionally, the island state has recently ranked as third in the world in 2020 Bloomberg’s Innovation Index and first in the world on the World Economic Forum’s 2019 Global Competitiveness Report showing that Singapore has a great market for working professionals.

Prior to this launch, The League has already been available in 59 cities in the US.

Founded in 2014, the seed-stage startup was created to connect high-achieving individuals with one another, using a selective admissions-based model.

The app also included a League Live feature which will go live in Singapore on February 2. The way this works is that users sign into the feature, and if selected by The League community, participate in three dates on Sundays at 9PM local time with candidates who fit their preferences.

Also Read: An elitist dating app is stoking controversy in Singapore, but is the vitriol warranted?

Both users are also shown an optional ice-breaker question and given two minutes to get a sense of the other person via video. During the conversation, if they “Heart” each other, a match is formed.

The app has also released statistics based on their beta version in Singapore, which boasted a 14 per cent acceptance rate. Out of these, the top professions were founders or co-founders, and manager or director, consultant, marketing executive and project manager subsequently.

Also Read: Why Tinder beats Bumble and the world is still not ready for a feminist dating app

This method of selection is different from the popular “simple swipe only” method used by other dating apps. However, CEO of The League, Amanda Bradford, believes that the strong rollout process is because the app wants to encourage relationships and not one-night-stands.

“We hit a really strong need in the market that wasn’t being met,” said Bradford to TechCrunch. “Literally dating apps launch every day in the app store, but we hit a need for young professionals that want to meet each other and don’t want the one-night-stand brand associated with their actions.”

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Image Credit:  Matt Mariannelli

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