Day: January 29, 2020

gojek reportedly invests in wearable devices startup Zulu – DailySocial

Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek has invested in local wearable device maker Zulu, according to a report by DailySocial.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report named the investment as gojek’s first foray to consumer tech space. The amount of the investment and what the startup is planning to do with it, were undisclosed.

Founded by CEO Nathan Roestandy and CTO Yusuf Syaid, Zulu builds wearable devices for motorcycle riders such as anti-pollution masks and Bluetooth-enabled helmets. Zulu products are exclusively sold on Lazada platform.

Both gojek and Zulu have not released any official statements regarding the investment.

India’s InterviewBit raises US$20M in Series A funding round – TechCrunch

Bangalore-based computer science education programme InterviewBit has raised a US$20 million Series A funding round, TechCrunch reported.

The funding round was led by Sequoia India, Tiger Global, and Global Founders Capital, among others.

With the funding, the startup also announced that it is rebranding its online coding programme InterviewBit Academy to Scaler Academy.

The computer science education programme is aimed at college graduates and young professionals. It implements an income-sharing model (“human capital contract”) which has been gaining popularity recently.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: gojek partners US ad tech company The Trade Desk to provide advertisers with O2O sales insight

India’s JSW Ventures makes first close of US$49M fund – Dealstreet Asia

JSW Ventures, the venture capital arm of Indian steel and energy conglomerate JSW Group, announced the first close of its new INR350 crore (US$49 million) fund at INR150 crore (US$21 million), Dealstreet Asia reported.

“We will put the first cheque of US$2-3 million, followed by US$2 million more across rounds, for 10-12 companies and plan to invest in four companies a year,” JSW Ventures Managing Partner Gaurav Sachdeva said.

The report further explained that while its INR100 crore first fund in 2016 was entirely backed by the Jindal family, founder of the steel and energy giant, the latest fund is anchored by the Jindals with a 30 per cent commitment of the fund.

The rest is being raised from limited partners or investors in a fund such as high net worth individuals, family offices and banks.

JSW plans to invest in Series A rounds in companies that have already found its product-market fit. They should also have a few investors such as angels and incubators or accelerators on board.

SGInnovate Founding CEO Steve Leonard to leave in May – e27

Singapore government-owned startup builder and investor SGInnovate announced that its founding CEO Steve Leonard would be concluding his term in May 2020.

“The conclusion of my current term in May represents a good time for organisational renewal. Every team moves forward based on fresh ideas and energy, and I’m very confident in the men and women of SGInnovate to continuously bring new capabilities to the deep tech startup ecosystem in Singapore,” Leonard stated.

Prior to his role as the CEO of SGInnovate, Leonard served three years as the Executive Deputy Chairman of the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), a government statutory board under the purview of Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information.

He also serves on the advisory boards of a range of universities and organisations in Singapore, as an independent non-executive Director at SingPost, and AsiaSat, a Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed commercial operator of communication spacecraft.

The post Today’s top tech news: gojek reportedly invests in wearable devices startup Zulu appeared first on e27.

 

Singapore’s new payment legislation will offer a license for cryptocurrency firms to expand their operations today, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The Payment Services Act (PSA) will offer a regulatory guideline for companies handling activities ranging from digital payments to the trading of tokens such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin.

Additionally, the law will also hand the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) with supervisory powers for cybersecurity risks, money laundering, and terrorism financing.

“The key advantage of Singapore’s new legislation is providing regulatory clarity on new types of payments activities such as e-wallets and cryptocurrency exchanges,” said Nizam Ismail, founder of Ethikom Consultancy, a Singaporean compliance consultancy focusing on helping fintech and blockchain-based companies grow in Asia.

Pak Teng Chow, CEO of Blockspace Asia, a platform for startups and SMEs driven by blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and deep tech, has also expressed his support for the law.

“This is a great initiative to push out and to make Singapore a market leader in the SEA tech space,” he told e27.

““It will create a higher barrier of entry for companies who want to step in the space to come up with quality solutions and therefore will get rid of all of the bad apples that have been around. It is also great that MAS is giving a time frame for companies to first apply for the license and then to comply with it over time,” he expressed.

Also Read: The next generation of cryptocurrency users: A currency and technology that spans the young and old

According to Chinalysis data, about 40 per cent of crypto exchanges are based in the Asia Pacific region and have accounted for about 40 per cent of Bitcoin transactions in the first half of last year.

Increased investor interest in digital tokens over the past few years has encouraged several regulators to bring the venue under their scrutiny, especially for money laundering and other illicit activities. However, with the new transparent law, Singapore will further attract a pool of investors, founders from the crypto community.

The legislation will “provide regulatory certainty to industry players but, more importantly, it will provide consumers with a clear sense of the players they can trust,” said General Manager Sherry Goh of Luno, a London-based firm who are deemed as one of the first firms to apply for the license.

Alternatively, this will also mean that current crypto firms will now have to spend a considerable amount of money to apply for the new license, according to an undisclosed source.

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Image Credit:  Unsplash

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Less than a year ago, our former editor at e27 released an opinion piece on how TikTok would never measure up to Instagram’s monstrosity, calling the China-born app “cringeworthy”.

But today, the app has grown so rapidly that even on Instagram, users are treating it as this FOMO-inducing trend that one simply has to try. Everybody from your former classmates to celebrities is getting their hands on it. That is certainly the case with TikTok.

I was feeling so tired that when my younger sister came for a visit, it became a welcomed distraction from my routine. She pulled out the app, saying that everybody was doing it, and the next thing we knew we were checking what the hype was about.

We started off from the obvious: The swirl. You do not have to understand why but it is quite big in Indonesia –and it is fun. The swirl is basically you putting your hands up in the air and letting the swirl effect twist your body from head to toe like a tornado or a blender. What makes it laughable is actually the song in the background, which brings us to why TikTok has become more relevant than ever in less than a year.

Live to create

When it comes to music streaming, there is not much left in the digital space except for online and video streaming. Spotify and iTunes are the go-to platforms, and there is always YouTube. But that is all. Also, these places are where artists with access to labels or music production thrive, not aspiring creators.

By aspiring creators, I am talking about the rest of us mere mortals. TikTok arrives just when we are all caught in the “create, don’t hate” virus. We create just to exist, to self-actualise.

So in a way, I get it. I see why it is easy to get hooked on dancing around to songs and be viral. Aside from having fun, the idea is to become creators –and doing it more easily. This goes from average Joes and Janes like the rest of us to content creators such as dancers, chefs, and craftspersons.

Also Read: [Updated] Mobile studio app Musical.ly, Tik Tok to merge into a new app

TikTok’s short duration also helps. Remember the heyday of Vine? How it died on us for lack of distinctive feature aside from its ability to produce snippets? Well, TikTok managed to resurrect it with a better version, completed with Instagram and Snapchat-like filter. It also comes with the option to go as long as one minute.

Let’s admit it, a better era for this kind of entertainment.

How powerfully early TikTok is

My first encounter with TikTok actually began way before it exploded into a phenomenon like it is today.

I read about it when Lil’ Nas’ became a huge deal for having excerpts of his song Old Town Road on a random user’s video, and how it caught waves. The article stated that “turns out, there’s a ‘new’ platform for previously unrecognised artists and how their songs have found a second life in TikTok.” Just like in the case of Lil Nas.

That was the first time TikTok caught my attention as a real, powerful marketing medium that was a novelty, and now it started to take form. We catch up, most certainly, and we can still be an early adopter to promote our content (a.k.a whatever it is we wish to sell online) on TikTok today.

Now I am not the one to advise on how to use TikTok properly (but then again that would be a good, fun content to have). But with the platform seriously growing users, and how it becomes even more relevant to all ages than what we guessed, it is here as the future of digital marketing platform and social media.

TikTok’s market

Social Report states in its article that “TikTok is largely used by people between the age of 16 and 24. This age group makes up 41 per cent of the total user-base. Unfortunately, the social network hasn’t released much beyond this, though it is safe to assume 24-30 makes up another large part of its audience”.

So with these numbers in mind, the Chinese ByteDance‘s most successful products, which acquired US-based mobile studio app Musical.ly at the end of 2017, can only get bigger with time as it started off as the online place where young demographics create stuff such as skits, craft and art, cooking, and lipsyncing videos. These youngsters will get older with time, but their way of finding their entertainment and content online will stick around for quite some time.

As of now, the platform has yet to monetise their contents with ads. But it will get there, just like the past social networks always did. So if you know you can get on board with the trend and your brands or anything you sell online can manage, get on board now –and get on board fast.

Create content with a viral intention first and foremost, as TikTok is all about the virality of your content, to the point others want to copy and recreate their own interpretations. Remember Lil’ Nas’ success on it?

Instagram vs TikTok

Another thing that makes TikTok so powerful is its ability to let people engage and share.

In the case of Instagram’s engagement, it has provided every option there is online for different types of engagement. From feed post and Instagram story to tell minutiae of a life that is more interesting than yours, to Instagram TV for longer, documentary-like videos. Instagram started off as an online gallery and slowly morphed into other things as well to keep up.

Also Read: Why Tik Tok is not a real competitor to Instagram

In the case of TikTok, people have long been predicting, suggesting, believing, and applying the relevance of videos moving forward –and TikTok came along. Unlike Instagram, it is a video-first platform, which leaves no choice for people but to pick themselves up, post their face, and try not think about it too much.

Turns out, spontaneity and short-span content is the future. And it starts today.

Would they be a match for Instagram? I believe the answer is still no. If anything, I think Instagram would add a new feature that has TikTok’s elements in it. Because that is what Instagram has been trying to do all along: To keep us in and not closing the tab on it, ever. So they will eventually come up with something similar, especially with TikTok’s user closing in at 500 million per last year.

In Indonesia, recent news emerged about how the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology resurrected its TikTok’s account despite blocking it once in 2018. The minister’s head of public relations Fernandus Setu has released a statement saying that they did block it but only for a week. It is safe to say that TikTok’s popularity has caught up even with people in politics.

There are different types of people on social media that I have seen. There are the more cynical ones who keep their Instagram posts to minimal; there are also people who just want to have fun and find out their level of influence online. The second group of people increases day by day. So let us do the rough count starting today.

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Image Credit: Harry Cunningham on Unsplash

The post I tried TikTok out and now I get why it is the future of digital marketing appeared first on e27.

Ivan Linn, a music director of Assassin’s Creed Worldwide concert, developed an online platform to bring together classical musicians and create a forum for discussions and exchanging of information.

He, however, soon realised that the industry of classical music isn’t large enough to support its own global community.

“I have always wanted to do something that will be influential to the industry,” he recounts the story for e27. “While I believed that music is a way to express and impact the society and community, I knew that Folkspaper could do something more. That’s how I began my startup journey.”

Folkspaper was launched in late 2019 by a team of three co-founders — Linn (CEO), Musasi Hung (Product Designer), and Alex Wu (CTO). Headquartered in Boston, the startup has one of its co-founders based in Singapore.

Also Read: I tried TikTok out and now I get why it is the future of digital marketing

In its current form, Folkspaper is a community space, which offers its members creative content protection through blockchain technology. Any content created and shared on the platform will be protected and cannot be stolen.

“When it comes to content creation and protection, a question arises: who is the original creator of that piece of artwork, information, music, or video?” Linn says. “In other words, you can upload a piece of original content onto social media, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you are its owner.”

Sharing more details, Linn adds that with the data-anchoring tech, a creator’s work uploaded onto the Folkspaper platform will be able to be anchored to the blockchain network. This would generate a record in an immutable ledger serving as a hard proof that you are the original creator of that work at that time.

“We all understand when there is a transaction uploaded onto the blockchain, you cannot delete, revise, or modify it. Everything is transparent, and every one of us in this world will be able to check those transactions.

With this technology and data-anchoring, we would be able to serve our users, and benefit them when there is such a case where they would have to provide hard proof as to whether or not they are the original content creator,” Linn shares.

The Power of reward

The platform has a feature to reward content creators when they contribute to the community. If one finds another user’s content interesting and likes it, he/she will be able to tip the user directly.

“The platform has a built-in tipping mechanism where users can reward and support the creators that they love with ‘Power’, our internal currency. ‘Power’ can be purchased using your local currency with a credit card, Google Pay, or Apple Pay and spent within the app. The power that you earn can be cashed out into Bitcoin through the PowerStation,” he explains.

Professionals working in different sectors can be Folkspaper’s users, including journalists, freelancers, college students, or academic researchers.

As for monetisation, Folkspaper has a few revenue channels in place. In addition to running ad campaigns on the platform, it also runs a subscription-based content protection programme. The startup also takes a small percentage when users tip each other.

Talking about the challenges Folkspaper is facing, Linn says that it has always been hard to engage the community and foster user adoption when introducing a new product. “A lot of people initially hadn’t even heard about Folkspaper, and especially with its connection to blockchain or cryptocurrency, it can be quite mysterious to our an average user. It took us some time to start getting traction with the community.”

“Another major challenge is with regard to expansion. Even though we have achieved several million impressions and thousands of users on Folkspaper, expanding further is a bit tricky,” he shares.

Angel coming in the form of a cat

Despite being an early-stage venture, Folkspaper has managed to secure an angel round of US$450,000 so far. Curiously enough, the investment came from an unlikely source.

Also Read: Singapore’s new payments law is a boon for the crypto community

“A friend of mine who asked me to take care of his cat ended up being our first angel investor. What happened was that our conversation about the cat turned into business talks. It later turned out that this cat owner was an investor in several other technology products,” Linn laughs.

For the co-founders, the main mission is to create an impact on the industry of content generation and journalism. “When it comes to copyright issues and concerns, there are problems yet to be solved. We believe that by providing easy access to a product, users would be able to register their original work and earn rewards for their content contributions to the community.

We believe that we are entering a new era where people would be able to browse or to absorb information in a new way where content contributed to this community would be compensated and protected,” he signs off.

The post Ivan Linn’s blockchain-powered social network is music to content creators’ ears appeared first on e27.

The world is mourning the death of 41-year-old retired NBA sensation Kobe Bryant as one of the nine victims of a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, Sunday, January 26. What makes the whole thing even more tragic is that Bryant was riding alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna to a basketball game he was supposed to coach. The father and daughter pair lost their lives in this accident.

After his retirement from professional basketball in 2016, leaving a legacy of five NBA titles, two Finals MVPs, an 81-point game, and 60 points at the final time he took the floor, Bryant made a smooth move to the business and entertainment world. He had even written and produced short animation movie Dear Basketball through his sports-focussed production company Granity Studios. The movie went on to win an Oscar.

In 2013, Bryant co-founded a US$2 billion-investment firm Bryant Stibel with Jeff Stibel, the Web.com CEO and serial entrepreneur, who is known as one of the youngest public company CEOs in America.

This article by The Street stated that the establishment is looking to “provide strategy, capital, and operational support to businesses with a focus across technology, media, and data”.

A remarkable story about the company is that most people would not connect the name “Bryant” in Bryant Stibel to the basketball legend, who managed to keep it that way for five years. The firm is said to focus on three core strategies, which are growth equity, ventures, and value.

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

Describing the investment journey for almost seven years, Bryant Stibel’s team often takes “proverbial long shots” at a variety of businesses with familiar consumer brands.

The businesses in the discussion are a lost-item tracker-maker Tile; Epic Games, the company behind the online game Fortnite, desktop sharing and online collaboration company TeamViewer; Chinese online retail giant Alibaba, Dell Technologies, restaurant-booking company Reserve, and actress Jessica Alba’s wellness brand The Honest Company.

In last year alone, Bryant Stibel had invested in 28 companies, including the now-publicly traded Dell Technologies, Alibaba, and National Vision. The Street further noted that it recently partnered with investment firm Permira on a US$1.7-billion fund called Permira Growth Opportunities.

In 2015, an article by CNN revealed that Bryant was working with Alibaba Group to release the basketball star’s documentary Kobe Bryant’s Muse through its Tmall Magic Box TV in China. The deal also involved working with Bryant to create a new social media platform that brought new avenues of connecting China’s young people directly to Kobe and his philosophies.

Bryant’s most notable investment, however, was his 10 per cent stake in healthy sports drink maker BodyArmor, in which he managed to snag more than US$200 million for his initial US$6 million investment.

Bryant admitted in USA TODAY’s interview that of all his post-basketball ventures, it was the investment firm that became the most satisfying and exciting career win.

Also Read: Executing your mission the Alibaba way

“It’s finding that winning company as an investor,” Bryant told USA TODAY personal technology columnist Edward Baig last September. “Because I always expected to hit a game-winning shot growing up.”

Kobe Bryant’s legacy in the investment world hasn’t been too far-off from his years of experience in the sport. Further noted in the USA TODAY’s piece, Bryant said that patience and teamwork are important in business and investing.

“A lot of time through the course of a game, you may notice a gap in defence or something you can take advantage of offensively. If you attack all at once, you show your hand too early,” he said. “Team sports does a great job in teaching that and how to trust others.”

Finally, Bryant’s advice for anyone looking to grow their money is to “invest in businesses you understand and can get your hands around, and to invest with the right people. You’ve got to have strong entrepreneurs,” he said in an interview with CNBC in September.

“Yes, it’s important to see those returns, right? But it’s also important to have great opportunities, great relationships with our investors, great opportunities with our entrepreneurs to help them grow and put them in situations where they can be successful.”

Rest in Peace, Black Mamba.

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Image Credit: Tokkoro.com/Chisholm Waite

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