Twenty years ago, the concept of a ‘data leader’ simply didn’t exist. Yet today, it has become a core function for many forward-thinking organisations.

With a series of industry bodies rolling out programmes to drive data best practices – last year, Singapore’s PDPC (Personal Data Protection Commission) launched its Trusted Data Sharing Framework, followed by its DPO Competency Framework and Training Roadmap – there is certainly a mounting case for executive teams across APAC to ensure they have their data in order.

Earlier this year, Singapore’s PDPC (Personal Data Protection Commission) launched its Trusted Data Sharing Framework, followed by its DPO Competency Framework and Training Roadmap.

These were aimed at providing guidance for Data Protection Officers as they embark on their new roles and focus on building a compliant yet compelling customer experience strategy. Elsewhere across APAC, we’ve seen the introduction of the IMDA’s voluntary Data Protection Trustmark, as well as an update to APEC’s Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR).

And with the ACCC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission) now warning that companies are collecting and selling on consumer data via customer loyalty schemes, it seems that data regulations are only set to become tighter.

As data becomes arguably the most valuable asset for businesses, the message is simple – the customer (and therefore customer privacy and customer experience) – must come first.

So what three steps can companies take to become true masters of their data while remaining conscientious and compliant?

Adopt a privacy-first data collection model

The entire customer experience strategy of any business should focus on gaining, but also retaining, customer trust.

But with today’s multi-channel marketing approaches, meaning various functions within an organisation will have influences over a customer, it’s crucial that everyone across the organisation is responsible for the integrity of data collection practices as a whole.

Not just the C-Suite or Sales & Marketing, but anyone and everyone who handles sensitive customer information.

Also read: The Startup’s guide to securely handling data amidst GDPR and other privacy regulations

Customers are no longer willing to offer up their details without being sure of the tangible benefits of doing so. Therefore, regardless of who in the company may be conversing with a customer, they need to be explicit about which details are being collected; why and how they are being collected; and who they are being shared with.

And while it’s the DPO or CDO that is responsible for spearheading this initiative, everybody across the organisation should be aware of the need for transparency, and be mindful of the overall message being conveyed.

Implement a centralised data repository

With so many disparate teams collecting or accessing a variety of customer data (from different channels, devices and systems), governing and harnessing that data can be almost impossible.

Consolidation of data is by no means a new concept, although with over a third of APAC marketers still struggling with channel integration, it’s time data and executive teams consider the ways in which they can finally bring these sources and channels together effectively.

Integrating a solution such as a CDP (Customer Data Platform) will help to provide a single source of truth for the entire organisation, laying the foundation for teams to connect the dots between data touchpoints along the customer journey, with the ultimate goal of enhancing the customer experience.

Becoming familiar with data unification technology now will also prepare data professionals for a potentially more stringent regulatory landscape over the coming years.

Focus on first-party data

Unlike a Data Management Platform or Customer Relationship Management software, it’s easy to integrate other systems with a CDP to tap into behavioural insight, which enables teams to keep building and updating that all-important customer profile.

Once such a solution has been integrated, it can be used to extract quality data from a number of online touchpoints such as websites, mobile apps, and customer service systems; as well as offline touchpoints such as beacons or IoT devices.

Also read: How can privacy-focussed apps step up amid a world of data breaches?

Creating persistent profiles that can be accessed by everyone allows teams to get smart with their messaging. Customers finally begin to receive consistent and highly personalised content as they proceed along their path to purchase, and no longer endure the frustration of being offered products or services they have already purchased.

In twenty years, data has evolved from a nagging consideration to indispensable asset. It’s now up to DPOs to lead the way in mastering their data, by building a robust data foundation, embracing legislation, and paving the way for unrivalled customer experience.

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With only RM22 million (USD5.4 million) of venture capital invested to date, the startup ecosystem in Johor, Malaysia, has come a long way.

The local startups now boast a combined valuation of RM467million (USD115 million), with more than 400 jobs being created over the past 4 years, contributing an average of RM160 million per year to the local state GDP.  

There are also a staggering number of 46 coworking spaces, now, in Iskandar, Malaysia, combining for a total area of 300,000 square footage.

These figures were all taken from the Johor Startup Ecosystem Report which was officially published on 15 Jan 2019, in conjunction with IskandarSpace’s first year anniversary. 

Exactly a year after on 15 Jan 2020, the ecosystem reached another significant milestone by hosting the BASE Conference 2020, organized by START Malaysia. 

In his opening remarks, Feng Lim, CEO of START Malaysia, emphasized the significance of the inaugural event, as he aims to “create a platform as a testament to tell our people, our government, the (ASEAN) region and the whole world that there is serious innovation here in Johor, Malaysia.”

It was heartwarming to see ~900 fellow attendees across 15 cities flocking into Iskandar Malaysia Studios to witness the largest regional business & technology conference in the state to date for themselves.

Now hereon in this article, my job is to further amplify your FOMO by giving you a glimpse of what the event was all about.

Megatrends in emerging markets

The hot take from Riddhiman Das, CEO & Founder, TripleBlind, is that “the thought of Blockchain as a solution to solve societal issues in emerging markets is on the decline”. Russ Neu, Venture Partner, Impact, Quest Ventures believes that “A lot of new technology and innovation in the coming decade will be addressing the UN’s SDGs”.

 When should startup founders think/talk about an exit strategy

Paul Ark, Managing Director, Corporate Venture Capital, Digital Ventures, shared that, “It’s a delicate balancing act because as a founder, you don’t want to be seen as starting a company just to get out of it. But from a VC perspective, they have a horizon for their fund to exit.”

Also Read: START Mongolia merges with StartupJohor to form a united brand START

Ark added, “As you move aways from local funds in early-stage fundraising – who want you to move fast and break things – towards international funds/acquirers/stock exchanges, it is the administrative staff under the hood like your articles of association, employment contracts, and accounting practices that must be ironclad”.

On trade sales as an exit strategy

Koichi Saito, Founder & General Partner, KK Fund, believes that “To attract global investors and acquirers, you need to do so by showing a regional play and have a significant footprint in markets outside the startup’s domestic market. 

When we negotiate with potential buyers, we don’t start with the explicit intention to sell the company. It always starts with – we want to raise”

Sai Kit Ng, Chief Executive, Captii Ventures, added “As a founder, you cannot let someone who’s not active in the running of the company decide or dictate the trade sale. A typical VC’s metric is to look for the biggest returns, and they will wash their hands off the company once the deal is done.

(As a founder) you are in it for the long haul and there must be alignment in product, culture, legacy, with the potential acquirer so that you can continue to live with the deal moving forward.”

On tech startup IPOs

Ng feels that “IPOs are often over-romanticized and over-sensationalized. Founders must bear in mind that they will then be in for the long haul and be dealing with more stakeholders, including the regulators and the public’s interest.”

Ark added, “It’s not just about you wanting to go public. But why do you want to go public? That depends on where you want to be, where your market is, and how big that market is.

An entrepreneur who wants to list on a secondary board in Thailand is on a US$100m trajectory but another who wants to list on NASDAQ is probably on a multi-billion dollar trajectory, and those are two very different ambitions”

Ark also generously hinted that the IPO door has closed on all sharing economy business models that are not profitable, after the spectacular failure of WeWork. 

On the startup landscape in Malaysia

Jeffrey Paine, Managing Partner, Golden Gate Ventures pointed out that, “When it comes to government support, Malaysia is #1. (Korea is #2, while Singapore is #3). To continue doing what they do and do it well is extremely difficult, and they will continue to get better with more engagement with the private sector.”

Azman Hood, Vice President of Cradle, added “Since 2014, Cradle has iterated on its grants, set up an equity fund, and introduced complementary programmes such as the Ideas Bank and policies such as the Angel Tax Incentives. These efforts leverage on stakeholder partnerships to support the founding journey and continuing to build the ecosystem.”

On advice for Malaysian founders

Paine shared “If you are an introvert, find an extrovert to introduce 5 people to you. But only 5 conversations/meetings per week, because anything more and you will burn out”

In the same panel, Paine went on to share his candid perspective on the odds of Malaysian startups, with this anecdote “The Top 50 startups in Southeast are copycats, of which 80 per cent are consumer-facing, and 80 per cent of those have the word Indonesian in it. This will give you a sense of where the money is.”

Paine elaborated on his firm belief, that “99 per cent of startups should not take VC money and it’s perfectly fine to be a 20-person SME that runs a decent profit to feed all employees.

The no. 1 problem now – the 99% think that they are the 1%. The second problem is that – the investors think the same way. Overthinking leads to money being inefficiently allocated, and now the angels are scared to invest after being burnt before.” 

Paine’s final advice to Malaysian founders was that “Grants are important to give you a first short of getting towards a proof of concept. But the grant office is run by patent lawyers so getting it doesn’t mean you are VC ready.

If you are raising seed, also remember to talk to A and B VCs to get feedback first, before getting stuck in a particular direction only to realise you can’t raise the next round after 1.5 years in.”

Challenges for Malaysia’s startups

From Hood’s perspective, “The biggest challenge in Malaysia is the small market. It is a nice size as a testbed, but your business must have a regional play.

Singapore is the financial hub of the region that attracts global capital from (the likes of) Japan, China and the US. Rather than have a sentiment about it, be logical and systematic about having an office in Singapore to attract growth capital there as well”.

Paine echoed, “The idea cannot be a Malysian idea, it has to be a regional idea. So understand who’s doing the same Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and find out how they’ve figured it out. This is how startups that are based here should up their game over time. 

Sometimes you are just a 1-country play, then find out how you can make money 10 different ways. So even if the govt shuts down 3, you still have 7.”

Don’t miss out on Johor anymore

For the handful of Singaporeans who eventually decided against attending BASE Conference 2020 due to traffic – it’s actually not that bad to drive up or bus in on a regular weekday morning.

I live in the west of Singapore, and it took me less than 40min door-to-door via the Second Link.

In 2017, I was with Lim at a Startup Weekend event in IskandarSpace where he first shared his vision for Johor’s community and Malaysia’s tech startup ecosystem. Since then, he’s run a couple more hackathons, published a Johor Startup Ecosystem Report, got married, embraced fatherhood, and completed an M&A to form Start Malaysia.

Much inspiration and huge respect for the man and his team – for having the passion, conviction and dedication to walk the talk.

To sum it up, Lim promised, “We are committed to continue running the event and to continue to grow this ecosystem here. Malaysia is not just about Kuala Lumpur. You can create a great company in Johor, and anywhere else in the world.”

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Image Credit: Author

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Thailand-headquartered digital fashion brand Pomelo has appointed Anders Heikenfeldt, ex-Managing Director of an H&M venture, as its Chief Retail Officer (CRO).

The former H&M executive will be responsible for Pomelo’s retail expansion plans across Southeast Asia. This comes right after Pomelo’s Series C funding round where it managed to raise US$52 million.

He will also be in charge of growing the retail division, developing the company’s omnichannel strategy, and online platform.

“Anders is an exciting new addition to team Pomelo,” said David Jou, CEO and co-founder of Pomelo.

“His appointment reflects Pomelo’s commitment to redefining retail. He’s a great leader and we’re extremely happy to have him on board,” he continued.

Also Read: Pomelo appoints former Lazada CMO Jean Thomas as new CMO

Heikenfeldt has worked with H&M for over 10 years in developing and refining strategies to enhance the retail experience and prior to that, he has also served as COO of at 6ixty 8ight, an online Singaporean lingerie and nightwear store.

Bringing an executive of a multinational clothing-retail company such as H&M will definitely add more value to Pomelo’s current team.

As a fast-growing company, the fashion company has since hired 200 new employees and has opened 10 new stores locally in 2019.

“Southeast Asia is an incredibly fast-growing, unique market with so much potential. I’m excited to be a part of this journey as we continue to expand Pomelo’s retail footprint across the region and provide customers with an innovative, omnichannel shopping experience,” expressed Heikenfeldt.

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Image Credit:  Kai Pilger

 

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Vynn Capital, Southeast Asian early-stage venture capital firm, today released what is said to be the region’s first travel tech report Travelution. The venture firm focusses on selective industries, including tourism as well as synergistic verticals such as food and property.

Back in 2018, Vynn Capital jointly announced a partnership with the World Tourism Organisation of United Nations (UNWTO), which has been championing the effort of encouraging governments and companies to be innovative and adopt digital transformations.

Travelution was created with input from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (“PATA”) as well as UNWTO.

The report notes that the emergence of online booking solutions began in the 1980s before hotels and airlines partnership followed suit in the 1990s. The 2000s marked the different verticals in the travel tech sector, and the 2010s were the year of UX personalisation.

Noting further on the past decade’s trends of personalisation, the report pointed out that several sub-domains in the travel tech sector emerged, such as pre-trip, midway, and post-trip. Pre-trip involves information discovery served by companies such as Expedia, CTrip, TripAdvisor, and Airbnb. Meanwhile, midway entails support to travellers such as Triip, that offer personalised travel experiences for travellers who are exploring new destinations.

Also Read: Traditionally innovative: How Vynn Capital plan to bridge between startups and big corporations

Finally, post-trip involves the sharing of experiences and comparison of itineraries.

Entering 2020, the report shares that the major trend of this decade is still personalisation. The trend of personalisation in the travel tech sector expanded to the point where travel tech companies sell entire experiences across the value chain.

Travel tech companies invest to increase offerings such as food services, transportation, health and wellness, and activities operators. Furthermore, as travel tech companies expand into a vacation and short-term rentals, there has been a proliferation of property-related services.

Boundaries between industries are quickly breaking down and the ecosystem is flattening.

Looking at the bigger picture on the global travel industry, the report marks that it has grown to over US$1.6 trillion, over 10 per cent of world GDP. Tourism is recorded to employ two in 10 people in the global economy.

As for deals in the travel tech sector, 2019 saw an all-time high of 159 acquisitions and funding activity remains strong, with Asia leading the number of capital raising with 54 per cent. Indonesian startups took 70 per cent of funding, Singaporean companies tapped 28 per cent.

Online travel is the top sector in the internet economy with roughly US$30 billion in bookings and growing 15 per cent YoT.

Also Read: Asia VC Cast with Victor Chua from Vynn Capital

The firm further predicted that there will be more investments into travel tech startups in the region by larger traditional players as well as later-stage funds. At the same time, it is also expected that there will be more consolidations happening as an increasing number of smaller startups get bought out or absorbed by larger platforms and companies.

“Whilst many would view industries such as travel as a silo opportunity; we believe there is evidence of convergence – companies cutting across industries and people become savvier about industries that are deemed as a synergistic expansion from the one that they are in,” said Victor Chua, Vynn Capital’s Founding & Managing Partner.

“Investing into the right sectors is becoming more important and Vynn Capital believes that focusing on travel tech as well as the selected industries where we are investing is a competitive advantage over the long term, especially when Southeast Asia’s economies are converging,” he added.

The report can be requested from the firm or downloaded from the website.

Vynn Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm founded with the objective of bridging the gap between traditional industries and the new economies through the development of technology. Key industries of focus include Travel, Property, Food and FMCG, Female Economics as well as Business Enablers (including logistics and fintech).

Vynn Capital is currently active in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar.

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Field service automation startup Zinier raises US$90M led by ICONIQ Capital

Zinier, an intelligent field service automation company, today announced that it has raised US$90 million in Series C funding, led by ICONIQ Capital.

Tiger Global Management, Accel, Founders Fund, Nokia-backed NGP Capital, France-based Newfund Capital and Qualcomm Ventures also joined the round.

The funding will support global customer adoption and expansion of Zinier’s AI-driven field service automation platform, ISAC.

Zinier’s field service automation platform helps organisations work smarter — from the back office to the field — to solve problems quickly.

South Korean gaming company NPIXEL raises US$26M Series A

South Korean gaming company NPIXEL today announced that it has secured a US$26 million at a valuation of US$260 million, led by Saehan Venture Capital and Altos Ventures.

“This investment is meaningful in that NPIXEL was recognised by investors who have
handpicked unicorn startups and successful gaming companies in the earliest stages&quot,” said Bong-Gun Bae and Hyun-Ho Jung, Co-founders of NPIXEL. “We will focus on providing the best gaming experience to gamers all around the world, starting with GRAN SAGA.”

Founded in September 2017, NPIXEL has created GRAN SAGA, an MMORPG enchanted by the adventures of knights to save the kingdom and is set to be released in the first half of 2020.

The game is developed in a multi-platform that is not limited to just a single device but can be played across different types of devices including PCs, mobile devices and consoles.

AI and drone startup Clobotics bags US$10M from Tiger Investment to expand to Singapore [KrAsia]

Shanghai- and Seattle-headquartered computer vision technology company Clobotics has raised US$10 million in its Series pre-B+ round from Tiger Investment, 36Kr reported on Wednesday.

The new funds will be channelled toward research and development as well as the company’s expansion to Singapore. Clobotics closed its US$22 million pre-B round in August 2019 and scored US$21 million in Series A investment one year prior.

The company uses its fleet of drones to take precise photos for wind turbine blade safety inspections, sparing manual work and increasing efficiency by up to 10 times, according to its website. Clobotics’ clients include Europe-based GEV Wind Power and Shanghai Electric.

Betatron increases investment amount up to US$500K per startup [press release]

Betatron, a startup investment firm and accelerator programme based in Hong Kong, has announced it will be increasing the investment amount given to each startup up to US$500,000.

In addition, Betatron will be providing its startups with an investor roadshow across Asia and North America, including Demo Days in Hong Kong, Singapore and Silicon Valley in 2020.

The main focus of the Betatron programme is to help each startup raise the next round of funding and accelerate business growth. To date, Betatron has invested in 37 startups from around the world and brought them to Hong Kong for its programme.

Applications for cohort #6 close on 18th March 2020 with the four-month programme starting in Q2, 2020.

Startups don’t need to be in Hong Kong for the entire duration of the programme as it’s designed so they only need to be there for three two-week blocks.

Securemetric invests a 5 per cent stake in Indonesian digital startup [The Edge Markets]

Software company Securemetric has invested in a 5 per cent stake in Indonesian digital startup PrivyID for a cash consideration of 20.25 billion Indonesian rupiah (US$150,000).

The company signed a conditional share subscription agreement with PT Privy Identitas Digital today, it said in a statement.

PrivyID is Indonesia’s first non-government institution certified certificate authority (CA), as well as the first private company in Indonesia that was granted access to the National Identification database.

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