Day: February 20, 2020

Skymind Global Ventures (SGV), an Artificial Intelligence-focused startup fund-cum-accelerator based in London, recently announced that it plans to expand into Malaysia and Indonesia. This precedes the launch of a US$800-million fund to back promising new AI companies and academic research across the UK and globally.

SGV was founded by Shawn Tan and Dr Goh Shu Wei to provide supported access to the market for open-source AI platforms and to invest in the AI ecosystem building.

In an interview with e27, CEO Shawn Tan talks about the fund, AI industry and the Southeast Asian market.

Edited excerpts:

Is SGV a corporate VC or a traditional VC fund?

SGV is a corporate VC fund. It is the only dedicated AI ecosystem builder focused on ecosystem growth. We are also an AI education launchpad for open-source tools, including Eclipse Deeplearning4j.

We provide hands-on training to help companies support their existing engineering teams and provide training to help new talent acquire the skills to master Eclipse Deeplearning4J and other open-source tools.

Also Read: How AI will revolutionise the boardroom through these 3 breakthroughs

Finally, we are passionate about helping enterprises, promising new startups and world-class researchers to achieve their AI destiny through venture capital funding.

Skymind launched the investment fund in 2020 to support the advancement of the AI ecosystem. The fund comes from the revenue generated through the Skymind ecosystem.

The fund will back global startups specialising in AI at seed and Series A stage. It will also support independent research and university programmes focused on artificial intelligence.

SGV aims to make its portfolio of venture-backed companies profitable and to nurture the development of AI innovation around the world. Investment decisions for the fund will be made by the executive team based in Skymind’s London headquarters.

How many startups in Southeast Asia (SEA) do you plan to invest from this fund? Have you already identified any startups for potential investments?

Skymind’s priority in SEA is building the ecosystem and developing the tech talent pool. But if we see a potential startup with good proprietary AI technology, we will invest in it.

Skymind has identified three startups through the Skymind Launchpad programme. We saw great talents from Singapore, China, Japan and Australia and what’s interesting is they are all ready to move and incubate their startups in Malaysia.

With the programmes that we are currently conducting, we hope to see more locals in the region benefitting from the foreign experts we are bringing in. With this, we hope to see more AI products or local IPs built in either Malaysia, Indonesia or the region.

Can you share details about your SEA expansion plans?

Right now, we are looking at key markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia, which we see as high-value growth markets. Our primary focus is to create a talent hub in Southeast Asia for AI talent, which is in very high demand at the moment.

We are also looking at investing in the region to enable promising and innovative companies that have potential.

Why an emphasis on these two markets in Southeast Asia and why not other markets like Singapore and Thailand? What specific potentials do you see in Indonesia and Malaysia?

Both markets have a lot of potential in terms of talent, infrastructure and partners that are keen to work with us to grow the AI ecosystem.

Indonesia and Malaysia have a large talent pool and just require the expertise and infrastructure that Skymind can provide for them to realise their potential as active AI-ready markets.

We are looking at other markets as well, and if the opportunity does present itself, we will explore the potential in those markets.

By any standards, Singapore is the most advanced market where AI is growing fast, with many industries like banking planning to integrate AI with their products. Why is this market excluded from your expansion plans?

This is a long-term plan for Skymind to build a robust AI ecosystem and at the moment are not ruling out any market. However, to ensure a planned and measured approach, we have identified markets and industries where Skymind’s involvement will have the most significant positive impact and want to focus our attention, before expanding into other markets.

Markets such as Singapore, Thailand and other countries in the region are part of our long-term vision to foster and grow a healthy AI ecosystem.

You aim to grow and boost the AI ecosystem in Southeast Asia. How do you plan to achieve this goal?

By focusing on talent in the region. We strongly believe that Southeast Asia has the necessary talents to make it a hub for the global AI industry.

Also Read: 9 digital marketing trends you can no longer ignore in 2020

By fostering and developing a scalable method to train and provide employment for AI talent in the region, we know that this will help the industry grow faster.

How do you look at the overall growth for AI in SEA? Do you foresee a massive growth for this tech across industries, particularly banking and cybersecurity, etc.?

Most definitely, we see growth in those industries. Still, overall we see significant adoption across all sectors as we work to improve the talent pool in the region while educating the market about the potential of AI.

The benefit of building an ecosystem is that it fosters growth across multiple industries through multiple stakeholders. This allows faster growth as there is more access to talent, infrastructure and technical expertise.

Which other sectors do you think can AI disrupt?

Every industry in the world from manufacturing to e-commerce can benefit from AI solutions. Most sectors already employ at least some form of AI solutions, mostly through machine learning and basic automation, but at the moment, they are barely scratching the surface.

We see a future where AI is part of every single industry, improving efficiency and quality in all aspects of the business. The opportunities are endless but require a robust ecosystem around it to nurture growth and innovation.

The post ‘Southeast Asia has the talents to make it a global AI hub’: Skymind Founder Shawn Tan appeared first on e27.

Finance

Vietnamese IT recruiting platform TopDev raises investment from Korean recruiting company SaraminHR

Vietnam-based IT recruiting startup TopDev announced that it has closed a seven-digit deal investment from Korean recruiting company SaraminHR.

Nguyen Huu Binh, TopDev CEO and Founder, said: “With this new funding, we will continue to improve TopDev’s services quality and develop new values for our customers, while still continuing to enhance others goals besides the recruitment functions such as increasing the developers’ supply for the market through training, developing IT career programmes for young people, students, and freshers.”

TopDev is an IT recruitment platform which claims to possess 300,000 developer profiles, with the customers mostly are technology companies in Vietnam and the region.

Vietnam’s startup movement with digital transformation has made the demand for recruiting programming personnel has increased 1.5 times each year, along with the participation of companies in the region coming to Vietnam in search of tech talent.

Cambodian logistics tech ShopRunBack raises US$900K in pre-Series A funding from OBOR Capital

ShopRunBack, a French-Cambodian logistics tech startup announced that it has closed US$900,000 in pre-Series A funding led by OBOR Capital, a venture capital fund in Cambodia. Joining the round are other investors including Negocia Ventures, a Singapore-based VC firm founded by serial entrepreneur, Thierry Tea.

ShopRunBack is a reverse logistics company that was founded in 2014 with the aim to transform the returns experience for both customers and merchants, combining international logistics network with a new generation of plug & play software.

Also Read: This Hong Kong logistics startup supports the logistics of, well, startups

ShopRunBack has already counted retailers and marketplaces in Europe such as Etam and Mango in its portfolio. It recently signed a strategic partnership with Shenzhen’s 4PX Express (Alibaba Group) to propose the use of its reverse logistics platform to 4PX’s database that includes more than 300,000 merchants and to increase adoption of logistics and e-commerce best practices in the Mekong region.

Indonesian AI-powered software startup Eureka AI nabs US$20M in Series B round from host of investors

AI enterprise software company Eureka AI has raised US$20 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Apis Partners, Gobi Partners, the Riyad Taqnia Fund, and MEC Ventures, Tech In Asia has learned.

The Softbank-backed startup also welcomes SG Innovate, GDP Ventures, Pacific Bridge, and Cianna Capital into the round, joining existing investors in the company that includes SoftBank, PPF Home Credit, and East Ventures.

The company said that the funding will be used to support its expansion plans in Europe and the US, as well as develop its product portfolio.

Eureka AI was founded in 2017 in Indonesia, offering a proprietary AI enterprise software platform Spectrum, that helps organise mobile data to deliver actionable intelligence at scale for mobile operators and enterprises in fields such as banking, insurance, transportation, fast-moving consumer goods, and telecommunications. It helps these companies in making decisions, serving their customers, and acquiring new clients.

SoftBank reportedly funnels US$2.5B to the second Vision Fund

Japan’s SoftBank Group is said to have funneled US$2.5 billion cash into new investments since October to its Vision Fund, DealStreetAsia reported. There was also a report that the Japanese tech conglomerate also considers adding another US$2.5 billion of its own money.

SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said that the company may spend up to two years investing its own money in a bridge fund, to give investors enough confidence to participate in a second Vision Fund by bettering its portfolio.

Also Read: Taiwan AI tech startups to stand out for Global Recognition at CES Eureka Park 2020

For the second Vision Fund, SoftBank targeted a US$108 billion fundraise. It had committed US$38 billion of its own money toward that goal but faced delay due to investor “concerns” about the performance of the first US$100 billion Vision Fund.

The first Vision Fund spent over US$80 billion after its first major fundraising close in May 2017 backing a number of technology startups, such as office space-sharing company WeWork and ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N). However, it was faced with a loss with SoftBank forced to save WeWork from bankruptcy last year in a roughly US$10 billion financing deal.

Business

BCA partners GK – Plug and Play to launch its second edition of SYNRGY Accelerator

After the 2019 edition of SYNRGY Accelerator, PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA) continues the accelerator programme partnering global accelerator GK – Plug and Play focussing on Augmented reality (AR)/Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML).

The startups joining this batch are:

• Ai Sensum, big-data analytics & AI customer engagement platform
• Assemblr, a mobile and desktop platform to access and create AR content
• Cubeacon, a platform to build hardware dan Mobile Insight for IoT (Internet of Things) device.
• Delman IO, an end to end big data solutions focussing on data cleansing and data warehousing.
• DyCodeX, an end to end AI, IoT-based solutions. SMARTernak is a platform to support cow farming management, developed by DyCodeX.
• KYCK!, a KYC (Know Your Customer) platform that can be used to verify blockchain-based startups identity.
• Octagon Studio, a tech company specialises in AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality) dan MR (Mixed Reality) products.
• Qomodo, a market research company serving SMEs in doing automated market research and data analysis.
• Shinta VR, a software developer, and VR/AR/MR content company that focusses on training and edutech sector.
• Verihubs, a platform that provides automated verification using AI.
• Zero One, a service-based company that helps companies innovate with data optimisation

There will be two batches of SYNRGY Accelerator this year for three months each where startups will get access to investors, one-on-one mentoring, chance to collaborate with BCA, connection with the regulator, and media coverage.
–

Image Credit: TopDev Vietnam

The post Morning News Roundup: Vietnam’s IT recruiting platform TopDev raises investment from Korean recruiting company SaraminHR appeared first on e27.

 

Singaporean fintech company Hoolah enters Malaysia

Hoolah, a Singaporean fintech company that allows consumers to pay for three-monthly instalments without any interest or fees, has confirmed entry into Malaysian waters, according to Tech In Asia.

The country marks its first international expansion.

Stuart Thornton, CEO of Hoolah, stated that Malaysia has always been a key market for the company due its proximity to Singapore as well as the rise of e-commerce in the market.

The startup has already managed to partner with two fashion tech companies Novelship and Blinq.

Singlife confirms license to operate in the Philippines

Singlife, a digital life insurance company based in Singapore, has officially received a licence to operate in the Philippines, as reported by Dealstreet Asia today. The deal reports a 65 per cent stake of SingLife Philippines to be owned by Singlife while other partners Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) and Di-Firm will own 15 and 20 per cent stake.

“The licence was issued just two months after the digital insurance company partners with Philippine-listed AEV to launch in the Philippines,” said IC Commissioner Dennis B. Funa to Inquirer.

Also Read: Unicorn startup Traveloka’s CTO has stepped down

Singlife has a current valuation of  US$360 million and is the first independent life insurance company that is fully licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Indonesia’s unicorn Traveloka launches co-branded credit card with Bank Mandiri

Indonesia’s unicorn Traveloka announced today that it has launched a co-branded credit card along with Bank Mandiri that will allow consumers to earn points from offline and online purchases among many other benefits, according to Tech In Asia.

The card will be available to Indonesian consumers in the next few months, according to a statement. Users can file for their application via Traveloka’s platforms.

This happens to be Traveloka’s second card after it had partnered with another local bank, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, to launch the PayLater Card.

Also Read:  Morning News Roundup: Vietnam’s IT recruiting platform TopDev raises investment from Korean recruiting company SaraminHR

“The collaboration aims to solve the pain points of customers who are often forced to book flights and hotels at the last minute due to a lack of credit access,” said Traveloka in the company statement according to Tech In Asia.

–

Image Credit: Hoolah

The post Afternoon News Roundup: Singapore’s Hoolah enters Malaysia, targets growing e-commerce market appeared first on e27.

On Tuesday, the Singapore government announced the budget allocation for the year 2020.

It is committed to set aside S$8.3 billion (US$5.9 billion) over the next three years to help companies, including startups, to transform and grow. There is a great emphasis on collaboration between different players as a means to achieve that, through initiatives such as the GoBusiness platform, the expansion of the SMEs Go Digital programme, and the enhancement of the Market Readiness Assistance.

In this article, we are looking at the elements within the budget that will directly or indirectly impact the local startup ecosystem –and what industry players have to say about it.

Deeper into deep tech

One of the highlights of the budget was the S$300 million (US$215 million) additional funds set aside to support startups in the deep tech sector.

The government noted the larger investment and longer gestation period required by deep tech investments as the reason why the sector was given special attention in this budget.

In a written statement to e27, Steve Leonard, Founding CEO at SGInnovate, said that the additional funds “attest to the increasingly vital role of deep tech in delivering social and economic outcomes in the future.”

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Singapore’s Hoolah enters Malaysia, targets growing e-commerce market

“Based on a scientific core, deep tech has the potential to improve lives for humanity and offer solutions even in clean energy and rising sea levels – both long-term focus areas highlighted in this year’s budget,” he states.

“To create scale and impact, our deep tech startups need to look beyond Singapore, and the government’s commitment to supporting deep tech startups is expected to draw in further private funding and international collaboration opportunities. With Startup SG Equity co-investment as one of our tools, we are continuing our work in growing the deep tech ecosystem and contributing to Singapore’s future,” Leonard elaborates.

Greater collaboration –at home and abroad

The budget also sets up a “70-70” target where it aims to have 70 per cent of local graduates of institutes of higher learning to have overseas exposure, with 70 per cent of the countries to be either Southeast Asian countries, India, or China.

Turochas “T” Fuad, Managing Director, Southeast Asia and Korea at WeWork, dubs this initiative as “heartening.”

“While tools and technology are important, it is the exchange of ideas and cooperation that will rejuvenate the industry,” he wrote in a statement.

“It is also great to see that more Singaporean students will have the opportunity to go abroad and gain overseas exposure. As collaboration increases, developing a broader and more nuanced understanding of different cultures will emerge a key theme,” he stresses, adding collaboration across different functions, industries and countries as the key to success for an innovation-led economy.

Stepping into automation

The budget also highlighted the importance of greater integration of technology in the workplace, with a focus on automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Singapore budgets US$215M to support deep-tech startups 

“The emphasis on advancing AI and automation capabilities is key to the success of these enterprise schemes. In fact, our benchmark data shows Singaporeans (62.4 per cent) are significantly ahead of other Southeast Asian nations (48.6 per cent) when it comes to adopting AI-enabled customer support channels. This has more than halved wait times, while improving customer satisfaction over the past year, suggesting that customer expectations also continue to rise exponentially,” writes Abhishek Deshmukh, VP of Engineering & MD Singapore at Zendesk.

Deshmukh expresses the company’s hope that these new initiatives will make AI and automation adoption to become more prevalent.

So, what is next?

Looking at the focus areas that are being mentioned in the budget, we can start predicting the trends that are going to emerge in 2020.

First of all, there is going to be greater collaboration between the government, startups, and the corporations, particularly in initiatives that aim to transform “the way we work.” Since automation and AI are the main focus here, we can even expect more investments in the sector.

We are also going to see more deep tech startups expanding their business into new markets.

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: MealPal changes existing business model, expands operations in Singapore

Entering the new year, Singapore –and the rest of the world– are facing a fresh challenge in the form of COVID-19 outbreak. We believe that this will also change the face of the tech industry, with some services experiencing an increase in popularity.

—

Image Credit: Guo Xin Goh on Unsplash

The post Singapore Budget 2020 and what it means for the tech ecosystem this year appeared first on e27.

The recent Coronavirus epidemic has no doubt greatly affected the business and financing of some of our venture building projects. Our entrepreneurs have worked tirelessly to get results but with little or no success.

In the face of these setbacks, calmness, wise judgement and even maintaining a positive attitude is a test of the minds for many entrepreneurs.

While being self-quarantined after my business trip to China, I took the time to read some books on Stoicism and discovered that this ancient school of Greek philosophy can give us, entrepreneurs, the ability to shed light on our inner minds and improve our personal goals.

It is fascinating! Today, let me share with you some knowledge on this important Western school of thought.

Stoicism is one of the four major and most popular, philosophical schools in Ancient Greece. From Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome to Later Europe, many of us are familiar with the famous philosophers, writers, and politicians of the Stoic school including more famous figures like Roman General Scipio Aemilianos and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Presently, many of Silicon Valley’s technopreneurs are also practitioners of stoicism.

Also Read: In video, how fear setting can help you take action and thrive in high stress environments

What is the Stoic’s philosophy of life?

The school of Stoicism teaches that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge. The wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune, pleasure and pain; to realise one’s control and tame (rather than eliminate) instinctive desire and passion with reasoning to achieve “stoic calmness and tranquillity”.

Stoicism has many unique thoughts in philosophy, politics and psychology. One of the very basic ways of thinking is called “negative visualisation” i.e. always imagining the worst situation.

Assuming that everything has been taken away by fate, what should I do?

Stoicism suggests for us to imagine the things we value to be taken away by fate –  such as the loss of jobs, the loss of wealth, the death of loved ones, and even consider our own death, and then re-examine what we have and what we are doing.

Seneca, the great ancient philosopher of Stoicism, said, “We should love all of our dear ones …, but always with the thought that we have no promise that we may keep them forever—nay, no promise even that we may keep them for long.”

Seneca takes things even further than this, adding on that, “We should live as if this very moment were our last. ” This is the most important Stoic psychological technique for “all things everywhere are perishable.”

By practising negative visualisation, we will be able to embrace whatever life we are living and love it with every bit of delight we can extract from it.

Also Read: The Jay Kim Show: Ryan Holiday and ego as the enemy

It also prepares us for events that will deprive us of the things that bring up happiness. In other words, it teaches us to embrace our life and endeavour without clinging to the pain and pleasures of vicissitudes.

Such ideas can also be found in modern thought. For example, the writer Rowland said, “There is only one heroism in the world: to see the world as it is, and to love it.” By contemplating the impermanence of everything, we will not only gain the primary benefit of Stoicism, namely  “a boundless joy that is firm and unalterable,” but also to pursue our endeavour with a significance and intensity that would otherwise be absent.

This is the life philosophy of the strong.

Philosophy is a sentence or two of life mottos that makes sense. Philosophy is the product of speculation. But you must have a concrete logic that can withstand scrutiny and debate.

Similarly, the formation of the philosophy of life and ideological concepts requires a lot of active practice: daily, in self-reflection and when faced with adversity.

Especially for entrepreneurs who face all kinds of opportunities and adversity every day, many mental methods of Stoic philosophy may help us to see clearly the goals of life and entrepreneurship, face all uncertainties rationally and calmly, and still persist with enthusiasm!

The content of Stoic’s philosophy is definitely rich and intriguing. For friends who are interested, I highly recommend reading A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine.

Startup life is full of surprise and setbacks, Keep calm, our fellow entrepreneurs.

Acknowledgement: The author would like to thank Stephanie Winata for her contribution to this article

–

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.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page and sign up for our upcoming webinar on how to manage founder’s burnout. 

Image credit: Giammarco Boscaro on Unsplash

The post Finding solace in Stoicism as coronavirus looms over the economy appeared first on e27.