Month: February 2020

 

Experience is often said to be the best teacher, but leadership expert John C. Maxwell said that this only applies to the experiences that have been evaluated.

Living off this principle, Swingvy co-founder and CEO Jin Choeh takes the lessons from his previous venture and implements it in his current one.

As if testifying to the quality of these lessons, Swingvy has successfully raised US$7 million from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, making it the first of the South Korean tech giant’s investment in Southeast Asia.

The all-in-one HR, payroll and benefits platform was founded in 2016, and has services with 5,000 companies and reportedly achieved a revenue increase of 390 per cent last year.

In an interview with e27, Jin Choeh shares the lessons on the work culture that he incorporated at Swingvy –after experiencing burnout while managing people.

Also Read: Swingvy, an online HR platform for SMEs in Southeast Asia, raises funding from Aviva

Giving employees authority

As a founder a burnout can be a common phenomenon; it ranges from purely physical exhaustion or even a more emotional one. Jin Choeh begins by explaining how the burnout happened in his previous company.

“In my previous startup, I believed in myself too much. I worked the hardest, and realised that it turned out to be the biggest inefficiency in the team,” he says.

In order to cope with it, and to prevent himself from making the same mistakes in the new company, Choeh resorts to hiring individuals who are more qualified than him.

He believes that it has helped him manage the team better.

“I hate the word ‘management’ and would only hire qualified people who are better than me. My role is not to say we do this or we are going to go there; it is more about setting goals and letting the team navigate in their way through,” he noted.

Also Read: A look at workweek hours and differences in work cultures around the world

Clear communication

As Choeh speaks about hiring experienced people, he also stresses communication as a major focus of the startup, which is why the company encourages good and transparent communication practices.

To support this process, the startup implements the Agile Scaling structure as used in streaming giant Spotify.

As explained in this article, Spotify arranges its engineering team into seven different roles, with squads being the smallest unit and a chief architect as the leader of all engineers in the team. This arrangement puts emphasis on autonomy and trust in each unit.

“In Swingvy, we follow the squad structure inspired by Spotify, where one product manager manages all team members. This way, there is alignment across teams, and often allows us to set the kind of aggressive goals that we want,” Choeh says.

“Our team is dispersed in four different countries and we have decided that having a squad structure would be the way to properly share information in the clearest way possible,” he continues.

In his opinion, Choeh explains that because the squad structure tends to be smaller, it is able to enhance communication between the team members. This has something to do with the Chinese Whisper Theory, which says that having too many members in a team might distort the communication process.

These factors about employee experience have enabled Swingvy to rise as a startup and enabled its highly remote team to deliver results in the best way possible.

The team is also preparing a fresh product line, offering new value by the end of the second half of this year, according to the founder.

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Image Credit: Swingvy

 

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SOSV’s mobile-only accelerator MOX reveals 10 startups from 8th cohort

MOX, a mobile-only accelerator operated by US-based venture capital firm SOSV, announces its eighth cohort of 10 startups.

The 10 startups are:

• Arkademi (Indonesia), a vocational training platform to upskill and increase monthly earnings
• Civilcops (India), a personalised communications platform bridging governments and citizens to make smart cities possible.
• Eat Mubarak (Pakistan), a platform that connects 3,500 restaurants with their one million users.
• Giladiskon (Indonesia), a social buying club where Indonesian members get exclusive discounts at restaurants and lifestyle retailers.
• Kravve (Malaysia), a social commerce platform powering small businesses in culinary sector.
• Moodah (Indonesia), a sales digitisation of mom-and-pop shops, inventory, and cash management.
• Pencil (India), a platform that turns books and other publishing into living content using data, analytics, and dynamic editing.
• Supplynote (India), a procurement management platform that cuts out the middlemen and automates purchasing for restaurants.
• Verismart (India), an identity and personal data management platform leveraging blockchain to drive KYC, risk profiling, and fraud management.
• Yuna&Co. (Indonesia), an AI-based fashion personalised matching platform for young professionals.

MOX helps startups cross-promote each other to lower customer acquisition costs and achieve profitability instead of selling equity to buy Facebook and Google ads. Startups in the programme focus on positive unit economics first before raising additional money.

The demo day events will take place on February 25 in Taipei and February 28 in Singapore to an invite-only audience of regional investors and the media. SOSV itself just closed its oversubscribed fourth fund at US$277 million.

Singapore’s Haulio partners Antwerp-based Avantida to drive a more efficient container usage

Haulio, Singapore-based tech-enabled container haulage platform announces partnership with Belgian company Avantida to introduce the container street turn on their platforms for more efficient usage. Avantida is an online platform that facilitates services offered by ocean lines to transport and logistics companies for digitally optimised container transport planning.

Also Read: Haulio wins PITCH, becoming the first Singapore startup to achieve champion title

With the partnership, Haulio is to bring its extensive relationship with the trucking community through its container movements and job pooling digital platform while Avantida to complement with its elaborate relationship with ocean lines and multi-faceted platform into the synergies.

Avantida first launched street turn services in Singapore with CMA CGM, and will now work with Haulio to bring their services together, offering a more integrated experience for both local trucking companies and shipping lines.

Through Haulio’s platform, truckers can digitally request for containers to match their import or export trips, after which the Avantida platform provides an automated connection to the ocean line’s booking system where the request will be processed instantly.

Thailand-headquartered Pomelo launches in-app livestream to unveil latest collection

Pomelo, Southeast Asia-operated omnichannel fashion brand, debuts its in-app livestream tech with the launch of its Spring-Summer 2020 Collection. According to a statement by the startup, the move marks the first time a fashion brand in Southeast Asia is unveiling such in-app capability.

Also Read: Thailand’s Pomelo gets US$52M Series C funding to expand omnichannel experience

The launch of the Spring Summer 2020 collection will be fully live-streamed via the Pomelo app to give fans an exclusive sneak peek at the collection ahead of its official launch in real-time, beginning with the launch showcase happening on February 27.

Pomelo collaborates with interactive streaming and marketing platform Geddit to develop the in-app livestream functionality that will be fully shoppable from March onwards.

“As the retail landscape continues to evolve, Pomelo stands out by bringing dynamic experiences to fans that combine shopping with engaging, real-time content. We’re confident that the launch of the new in-app livestream feature, amongst other new developments still to come, will enable us to be at the forefront of driving innovation in this industry,” said Jean Thomas, CMO of Pomelo.

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Image Credit: MOX

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Agritech has come a long way from its infancy to become a fast-growing industry and has attracted millions of dollars of investment from private investors. Much like the private sector, the government is also expected to make more investments into the sector in terms of sops and startup programmes in order to boost the growth of tech in agriculture, which provides the livelihood to millions of people in Indonesia.

Also Read: Why Swingvy CEO says he will only hire people who are smarter than him?

As the industry is now drawing attention from investors and corporates alike, we at e27 decided to prepare a comprehensive guide to the country’s agritech ecosystem. This guide/research report has attempted to include all the major details and developments in the ecosystem and has included expert comments and insights from industry leaders.

Here is a basic version of the report. The full version is available only for our paid members. For any enquiry related to the paid membership, email us to engage@e27.co.

Photo by eggy gouztam on Unsplash

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Vietnamese startup Waves raises US$1.2M seed funding for its podcast service 

Waves, an audio and podcast startup, announced today that it has raised US$1.2 million seed funding in a round led by Singapore’s Insignia Ventures Partners, with participation from Hustle Fund and Skystar Capital, according to KrAsia.

Waves founders Kevin Gao and Ben Minh Le have said that the startup “aims to become one of the leading platforms in Southeast Asia for podcast and audio content”. Currently, the platform has more than 30 original programmes, 50 programmes created with partners, and has hosted 500,000 other programmes which users can stream for free.

Also Read:  Morning News Roundup: SOSV’s mobile-only accelerator MOX reveals 10 startups from 8th cohort

The company will be launching a mobile app on the Apple Store and Google Play this month and will focus on producing more original content with Vietnamese content creators.

VC firm Beenext ropes in Hero Choudhary as new partner

Singapore-based VC firm Beenext has roped in Hero Choudhary as a new Partner.

Together with other leaderships and team members, he will focus on supporting the founders of portfolio companies to scale their business toward the growth stage of the startup journey, including potential IPOs in the future.

Beenext is an early-stage VC firm with a focus tech startups primarily in India, Southeast Asia, and Japan.

Teruhide Sato, Founder and Managing Partner of Beenext, said: “Hero has a great depth of
knowledge in technology companies. With his extensive network among growth-stage to public market investors globally, we believe Hero can strengthen Beenext’s core ability in supporting our portfolio companies’ founders and enhance the Partnership for the Founders which we facilitate across the region.”

Fintech company XPay.Life launches in India

XPay.Life, a product of XIPHIAS providing a one-stop solution to pay multi-utility bills using a single window, has launched its operations in India.

Powered by a blockchain-based transaction framework, the company offers a wide spectrum of digital bill payment services, including touch-screen kiosk, web, mobile app, POS device and mobile ATP van.

XPay.Life caters to both B2B and B2C segments.

Founded by Rohit Kumar (CEO) and Bohitesh Misra (COO & CTO), XPay.Life accepts both cash and credit/debit cards as a digital method of payment. It is based on the AMBIC model, which stands for Artificial Intelligence, Mobility, Blockchain, IoT and Cloud, to provide transparency during transactions.

e27 launches Indonesia’s agritech report 

As Indonesia continues to develop as a hub for startups, the agritech industry has seen millions of dollars of investment coming in from private investors.

e27 has launched an in-depth report of the growing agritech ecosystem in Indonesia. This research report attempts to include all the major developments in the ecosystem including expert comments and insights from industry leaders.

Also Read:  A comprehensive guide to Indonesias agritech ecosystem

The 43-page basic version of the report has been uploaded, however the full report is for paid subscribers only.To read the full version please email engage@e27.co

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Image Credit:  Fernando Lavin

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I have had many people through the course of my career, try to change my natural accent.  Essentially, not what I say, but the way I say it. 

Some well-intentioned employers did it with a view for me to ‘better’ my broadcast reports, as my accent cannot be categorised in any one natural box.

It has shades of my heritage (I am South Asian, from India), my roots (I grew up in Dubai, a melting point of different cultures) and my life experiences (studied in London, worked for multinationals all my life). Some others plain told me on my face that I have a South Asian accent which will not be understood by most. 

If I had listened to one manager in my early 20s, I would have never been a TV journalist. He basically told me that I had the face for radio and a voice for television.

Yes, it hurt. But it also made me reflect on how biases creep up at different times in our career. 

Accents equal intelligence?

Another former manager asked me to keep repeating myself as she could not understand my English, and that also got me reflecting on how our intelligence is directly perceived with our accent, and by corollary, how it defines our career path. 

Also Read: Managing the millennial workforce over coffee and culture

It is clearly not fair -some of the most intelligent people are not articulate or have challenges expressing themselves. Think Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize Winner for Physics and Chemistry,  who had to learn a new language in her 20s whilst she was studying in Paris to be taken seriously by her all-male peers.

And while most of us cannot boast a natural IQ as Madam Curie to help us get along in our professional life, or win two Nobel Prizes at that, we can only tend to adapt. So, just as a chameleon who changes its spots to suit its environment to survive, we unwittingly do the same. 

A very dear friend of mine pointed this out to me recently, when she said, I have started adopting more North American shades of vocabulary when I speak, a natural shift to my corporate environment. I had no idea I was even doing this. That is how subtle my actions were. 

But, do we really need to do this? One could argue if your work is good (or even excellent), then your accent should not be able to define your career prospects. In reality, biases are very powerful. 

Biases

You may be sitting in a meeting room with several other colleagues coming from different backgrounds, ethnicities with who are equally qualified as you, and you may start wondering why you are suddenly silencing your opinions. Why you are afraid to express yourself when you clearly know your stuff. Why suddenly this self-doubt creeps up.  

It has happened to me many times and I know the feeling only too well. At that moment, I enable others to take the lead, afraid of judgement both from others as well as myself and it is a very disempowering feeling. I know I can do better, I know I have what it takes but I allow my earlier experiences of people telling me about my accent, colour my present moment. 

Also Read: Netflix partners with Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture to boost local film industry

Authenticity 

So, how am I dealing with this when my primary role is that of communicating? I am working on just being myself. Not the NY/London/Dubai/Delhi Prerna but the true authentic Prerna who knows who she is at her core and who leads by example, not by taking on the guise or crutch of some other persona.

That crutch will invariably be used at some time in the future, there is a lot of work to be done to undo the years of being judged harshly, but at least I am taking my first few steps towards it. 

In the process, I am finding myself to be more articulate, exceedingly confident in my abilities and more importantly, not feeling like I need to be someone else to further my career prospects. 

So, how do we start unpacking?

I am a big fan of listing thing, so here is my list of how I started my process:

• Be true to the real you: There is a reason why you have come this far on the journey that is called life- it is because of the real you. Not the fake, inauthentic self who comes on momentarily and opportunistically. Take an hour off from work and really reflect on who you are, what you stand for and what you’re passionate about. The answer will come to you.

• Remain pure: Does one person’s judgment really matter to you? Trust your gut on this one and let go off the negative comments like a lotus which lets the dirt fall off its petals and yet remains pure. Be that lotus. 
• Stop judging: Just as you expect not to be judged, stop judging others who have different forms of communicating. Cut some slack to that difficult colleague as she may be having a tough day at home or may have a sick family member she needs to take care of. 
• Fight the fakeness: If the company you are in is enabling others who are not as well qualified as you to get ahead primarily because of the way they speak or encourages sycophancy, then you are probably either going to be very unhappy (most days), will not feel fulfilled (all the time) and will probably not be true to yourself. During times of uncertainty, we all do not have the luxury of leaving, but if you do, then stand up for what is right for you. Your future self will thank you for sparing you the months and years of emotional misery. 
• Upskill: We are not all perfect so go take that communications course or whatever tickles your fancy. I am a big fan of upskilling and am planning to take a course on general management later this year (will keep you posted on how it goes!). Your interpersonal skills will improve and you will learn something new. 

So, let us go conquer those naysayers, be true to ourselves and more importantly, be kind to each other. 

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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.

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. 

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Google Trends shows that inbound marketing has existed for a long time but only gained relevance in 2010. The whole idea of this marketing strategy has always been to promote brand visibility and gain customer interaction by sharing valuable content with your target market.

With more startups, business brands and digital marketers tapping into this trend, how does one stand out in the crowd?

While Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is fast becoming obsolete due to the rise in blog competition, videos seem to have become the new wave.

Video marketing has become a desirable marketing tool among B2B and B2C brands as they have been found to be better engaging and adaptable. Reports by Wyzowl shows that 63 per cent of startups and businesses have absorbed videos into their promotion strategy. 

As a business owner, you should consider adding videos to your advertising toolkit. It is your best shot at levelling up to the strife out there.

Videos are vital to your startup’s growth as they have been found to be an essential tool for brand publicity and one of the major digital marketing strategies for startups that still work today. They are great for growing your brand network and clientele. 

Gone are the days where you would need to hire an entire media crew to produce high-quality videos. With the aid of good apps and software, you can create professional videos on your mobile device. 

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: SoftBank-backed Brandless shuts down, Aussie video platform raises US$8.8M

I will outline some reasons your startup needs to embrace video marketing.

Effective Storytelling

Videos are undoubtedly a more effective means of communication. You’ve probably heard the saying “A good product without a good story is like a good engine without a steering wheel”.

Videos are one of the best content forms to use in telling your brand story. They are said to be the consumer’s favourite content medium. 

Visuals easily appeal to our human sentiments and emotions. Writing a wonderful sales copy may be genius, but more than throwing pretty words around, you need to connect to the heart of your prospective clients to spur them to purchase your products.

This differentiates the awareness, consideration and decision stages of purchases. Written words are nice, but high-quality videos with good visuals and background music convey the message explicitly.

Improve brand awareness

What better way to make your brand know than to use videos. Videos are said to get more attention compared to other digital advertising mediums. According to a study by Optinmonster, videos increase brand recognition by 54 per cent. As the attention span of internet users continues to decrease, it reduces their ability to read long product descriptions.

They are more inclined to watch, like, comment and share a short video clip in split seconds just at the click of a button. You know what this means: more brand awareness.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news: India considers censoring Netflix, Amazon Prime Video

Oberlo postulates that video marketing will drive 82 per cent of global internet traffic. That is expected as videos are easy to consume. Videos display your deliverables to make them appear real and tangible to the buyer. 

Customers want you to show, not tell them what your brand is about. It doesn’t matter if they are Youtube videos or videos you embedded on your blogposts, the laziest buyer would rather watch them than strain their brain cells to read those pretty words about your brand offering.

If your video appeals to them, you will instantly get social shares. This increases your competitive advantage.

Expand audience reach

With more brands engaging via email, blogs, and social media, it is only wise that you seek for a means to stay afloat amidst the intense competition. Videos may be time, energy and capital intensive, but they are worth it. Video marketing increases your brand exposure to a larger target population.

Research shows that one-third of the activities on the internet involves watching and downloading videos. Over 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day with 53 per cent of the viewership requesting more videos. 

A single viral video may be all your small start-up needs to boost brand engagement. A classic case study is the Dollar Shave Club which grew into a billion-dollar brand from one viral video.

As of 2015, the video had over 22 million views. The brand is currently valued at US$615 million with a customer base of 1.1 million individuals. Who knows? Your startup may just be one video away from hitting the jackpot.

Also Read: In Video: Watch a robochef cook this Hokkien mee dish

Boost sales

The exposure gained from video marketing can be channelled into a sales funnel to increase conversion rates. The average internet user spends approximately 88 per cent extra time canvassing through a page with videos that improve the engagement on your website.

This means users will stay on your website longer than expected if there is a video to keep them engaged. You can capitalise on this traffic to generate leads and subsequently boost sales on your website. 

Do not undermine the power of videos in the buyer’s journey. It plays a vital role in the buyer’s decision-making process. Videos are said to increase purchase decisions by 93 per cent and brand engagement by 139 per cent.

Statistics show that eight out of ten people make a purchase after watching a product video. Lead generation can also increase based on the quality of your video content.

Now that you know how video marketing can be useful to your brand, consider including videos to your digital marketing strategy. If you want to launch your brand online, then think of making more videos. 

It’s okay if you are a sucker for web articles and blog posts, but integrating videos into your content plan could be the icing on the cake.

You can start your video marketing journey by creating product demos, customer reviews, vlogs, promotional and how-to videos, and upload them on distribution channels like your official social media handles, website, and email broadcast list.

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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.

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. 

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In a joint report released recently by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and SME Finance Forum, it was found that the global funding gap for small, medium and micro businesses amounted to US$5.2 trillion per year, with the East Asia and Pacific region representing 58 per cent of the global demand.

A massive figure for a massive market, but one that lies in a severely fragmented region with 11 countries, each with its own unique economy, infrastructure, culture and significant differences in terms of laws and regulations.

While the region has seen exponential growth over the past few decades, financial inclusion remains limited – with only 33 per cent of businesses having access to proper financing.

The SME and startup financing landscape in SEA

Worldwide, financial regulators are enforcing stringent laws on the lending/banking industry when it comes to business loans and lending, requiring specified amounts to be held in the capital at all times to cushion them against financial emergencies.

This has led to stricter risk profile assessments, especially when lending to startups or SME’s who typically can not show constant profits or afford to offer a lot of collateral, making them too “high-risk” to qualify. 

In SEA, SMEs employ half of the workforce and contribute between 20-50 per cent to the national GDP. These businesses have little to no resources and some lack even the most basic business skills, such as how to add a markup to products or filling out business loan applications.

Also Read: [Updated] P2P lending platform Investree buys stake in B2B startup Mbiz, to develop supporting infrastructure for SMEs

Several companies are stepping up to the plate with initiatives to educate and inform young entrepreneurs and SMEs while at the same time investing in flexible and lively cloud data storage strategies in order to provide more personalized services to these business owners.

As the traditional banking relationship model doesn’t find any value in underwriting loans for these businesses, SME lending platforms, online lenders and fintechs are making credit more accessible by trying to address the problem through alternative lending and the use of technology and AI, bringing new solutions and new, digital-first models to assist these business owners in growing their businesses.

Who is stepping up?

• Jenfi

One of the most exciting newcomers is the startup Jenfi, who has already established its first base of operations in Singapore. To date, they have lent over SG$600,000 to their first 50 borrowers since launching during 2019. What makes their offering profound is its business model.

Approaching their lending from a growth perspective, Jenfi helps business owners invest in their businesses mainly through digital marketing, and takes a percentage of future revenue instead of fixed monthly repayments. In their bid to revive entrepreneurial spirit across Southeast Asia, the company has confirmed that even though marketing growth is their initial product focus, they ultimately want to solve small business lending throughout the region.

• First Circle

Growing by leaps and bounds is the Philippines-based First Circle, who managed to acquire US$26 million in funding to commence with regional expansion. This after raising US$2.5 million (including a US$1.8 million seed round) in 2017.

First Circle’s loans are usually transaction or working capital used to secure contracts or deals with guaranteed financial returns. Unlike Peer 2 Peer (P2P) models, First Circle sources capital from third parties who take on only half of the loan, as such they remain invested in the deals and do thorough due diligence before committing.

They are also looking into their data to include more options that include little to zero human interaction, as they believe a massive amount of their financing processes do not need any human interaction.

• Venturra Capital

Venturra Capital is a US$150 million fund that is actively looking at new opportunities in the digital space. A very smart move when one considers that mobile internet adoption in the region is growing at an unprecedented rate across the population of over 600 million.

The group has already spent close to US$500 million developing its own e-commerce platform in Indonesia but continues to remain flexible in their focus. According to the founder, German Jung, “Our themes are broad and include ecommerce to fin-tech, healthcare, and education. We are primarily looking at consumer businesses, but there are bigger opportunities in the B2B space, too.”

Also Read: Venturra Capital launches seed investment arm Venturra Discovery, armed with US$15M fund

The fund will also invest in startups in various industries across SE Asia, with scope to look at international companies that may have business potential in Southeast Asia.

• Insignia Venture Partners

Taking the success of their first fund which closed at US$120 million a bit further, Insignia Venture Partners hit an oversubscribed close for its second fund at US$274.1 million at the end of 2019. The powerhouse fund gave away that they would be doubling down on early-stage technology in Southeast Asia.

“We do not see a change moving forward, especially as there is more smart capital and top talent flowing into the region that spurs the formation of great companies,” said Tan Yinglan, founding managing partner of Insignia. Insignia has won the Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association’s “VC Deal of the Year” award for two years in a row, first with the automotive marketplace Carro in 2018, and again in 2019 for their investment into the Indonesian fintech firm Payfazz.

• Tryb Group

The Tryb group is another major player with a unique business model, focusing on fintech in the region, it functions as an umbrella company by taking stakes in promising companies and buying up other by way of acquisitions. Playing directly into predictions for the future of the financial industry and trade finance, their predominant focus lies in the digitization of the mainly analog systems of financial institutions and banking services in Southeast Asia.

Another major area of interest for the Tryb Group is in capital markets, where there is increasing interest in Southeast Asia from outside the region. The group is not currently showing direct revenue but is in the process of finalizing several acquisitions in the enterprise space which will bring revenue to the group once finalized.

Current and future trends

During 2019, both local and international players were actively investing in the region. Several local players started providing lending and micro-insurance services to businesses and individuals who previously had no access to those services provided through banks. There is a definite shortage when it comes to the financial literacy of the larger population in the region as a whole.

As such, when looking at the personal and nationwide financial statistics, it becomes easier to see the steps the US had taken to include a larger portion of the population and how this same approach can provide inclusion to smaller businesses in Southeast Asia. One of the most significant trends driving alternative lending is the number of fintech firms that have taken the opportunity to launch their products.

We’ve also witnessed the growth of Southeast Asia’s cross-border ecosystem. Countries collaborating within special frameworks like the pan-Asian Fintech Cooperation Committee and the Asia-Pacific Fintech Network will assist the market in further strengthening the region’s position in the fintech scene. 

Google and Temasek have predicted that SEA’s loan book will increase two-to threefold reaching $110 billion by 2025 (link to image)

New technologies are influencing the fintech sector in major ways with AI, chatbots and surprisingly, some ideas around the uses of social media, leading the way. According to Andrea Baronchelli, CEO of Aspire, a Singapore based company offering direct loans to SMEs, social media can be used to determine a business’s overall health.

“In this era of social media, there are huge amounts of data freely available online. Companies that have perfected the method of tapping this data will have a key competitive edge moving forward.” As such, innovative new methods of credit verification will become key in revolutionizing SME financing methods. 

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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.

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. 

The post How unique lending platforms boost small businesses in Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.

The novel coronavirus –now named COVID-19– that surfaced a few weeks ago has now seen cases in several countries around the world. The fear over the spread of the new coronavirus has led millions of people in China to remain at home.

Given China’s role in the global supply chain, businesses both in China and abroad have felt the impact of this unfortunate event. The situation has put pressure on some of the more obvious sectors such as retail, travel and tourism, hospitality as well as the service industry.

But the question is: are all industries negatively impacted by the outbreak? And what trends will surface from this?

Gamification

As unfortunate as this global catastrophe is, some sectors seem to have been benefitting from the recent outbreak. As recent data has shown, the gaming and streaming industries have been some of the major beneficiaries. As most people in China in the past few weeks found themselves restricted indoors, gaming and video streaming apps popularity further rose. The most popular among them being Tencent’s Honor of Kings.

According to Japanese investment company Nomura, the mobile game that has around 60-70 million daily active users on average surpassed 100 million DAU over the Chinese New Year Holidays. Another one of Tencent’s popular titles, Game for Peace, generated revenue between US$28.7 million to US$71.5 million on the eve of the Chinese New Year alone, as reported by securities firm Sinolink Securities.

The fact that some video game publishers including the likes of NetEase, Tencent Games, and Kingsoft extended the promotions on their games until February 10 goes to show that the significant impact the outbreak has had on their bottom lines and their desire to retain these users. Given that schools and universities across the country will remain closed until the end of the month, we can expect this momentum to continue.

Also Read: Keep calm and remain communicative: Startup founders share how they cope with coronavirus crisis

Remote rules

In addition, even though several educational institutions and companies have closed down, there still remain several more who have begun teaching and working remotely, giving a push to remote office apps such as Alibaba’s DingTalk, Tencent’s WeChat Work, ByteDance’s Lark and Huawei’s WeLink.

Though one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, if not the most, China has so far lagged much of the world in permitting telecommuting till now. But as data suggests, this may be fast-changing.

According to a statement published on Weibo, employees from more than 10 million corporations began working from home on DingTalk, with the number of users on the app exceeding a whopping 200 million users on February 3 as reported by 36Kr.

Earlier this week, DingTalk announced that more than 50 million students and 600,000 teachers used the live-streaming feature on DingTalk to hold online classes.

In order to keep up with the competition, WeChat Work, the enterprise communication app from Tencent also released a set of new features aimed at facilitating remote work including online meetings for up to 300 people and live streaming.

Remote office apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams have been highly successful in the west. In China, since telecommuting or remote work has not really been popular so far, we have not seen any significant numbers coming in from Chinese remote office apps until now.

Also Read: Coronavirus is driving the world into an economic slump. How to cope up?

The world’s largest work-from-home experiment currently going on in China has the potential to drive the use of such applications further.

E-commerce boom

China already leads the world in terms of e-commerce but given the current state, Chinese online sellers are also on the more generous side of the aisle with regards to the impact they have felt. As more people are stuck at home in China waiting out the outbreak, delivery and e-commerce companies have seen a surge in contactless delivery and online grocery shopping.

As reported on CNBC, a delivery guy for JD.com who would deliver about 140 to 150 packages per apartment complex on a typical day previously, now delivers more than 200 packages a day at present. JD’s sales of fresh products increased by more than 300 per cent compared to the 10 days of Chinese New Year from the previous year, selling 15,000 tons of fresh products.

Furthermore, its affiliate Dada, which delivers for Walmart and other grocery chains, also reported a quadrupling in its sales compared to the previous year. And while it can be argued that rising sales could be a result of maturity in online grocery shopping from YOY basis, it is very likely that the current crisis has brought more users to these online platforms.

In the midst of the crises, what we are currently witnessing is a new way technology is being used in China like never before with some of China’s biggest tech companies leading the way.

Live streaming and online teaching existed but not at the scale it is being used now or potentially in the days to come. Remote work apps existed but only now have companies started leveraging them.

Chinese kids being homeschooled through live streaming has suddenly opened up an entirely new possibility in online education that was so far used only to supplement offline teaching. Furthermore, more people buying fresh produce and groceries online would further highlight the significance of the New Retail (Retail 2.0) concept popularised by Alibaba in China.

Also read: Keep calm and remain communicative: Startup founders share how they cope with coronavirus crisis

The coronavirus has undoubtedly changed the way of life for many people all over the country, altering consumption pattern among other things and providing a boost for the tech industry. Crisis brings risk but also brings opportunity.

Several tech companies in China have managed to seize this opportunity so far and as this health risk prolongs further, the need to innovate will grow further.

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Trax, a retail tech unicorn with a valuation of US$1.4 billion, announced today that it has acquired Qopius, a Europe-based image recognition company that has raised close to US$1.8 million.

The company refused to comment on the terms of the deal.

Trax CEO Joel Bar-El said that Qopius’ expertise in digitising supermarket shelves across Europe and phenomenal talent line-up make it a strategic fit for Trax. Trax offers vision and analytics solutions for retail whereas Qopius provides AI-based in-store technology solutions. Both companies are focussed on digital retailing services.

Bar-El expressed that the key to success in retail lies in technology to support employees.

“This means capturing critical shelf data in real-time to enable employees to fix merchandising and availability issues faster than ever before,” he said.

Also Read: Trax secures US$100M in Series D to become Singapores second unicorn

“Qopius’s mission is to transform brick-and-mortar into a data-driven and frictionless operation while empowering store employees to focus on providing the best customer experience. We are thrilled to join Trax. Together with the reach and resources of the Trax group of companies, we will deliver scalable, easy-to-deploy digitisation solutions to improve the health of every shelf, which will revolutionise how shopping is done today,” said Qopius co-founder Roy Moussa.

Other recent acquisitions by Trax included LenzTech in China (June 2019), Shopkick in the US (June 2019) and Planorama in Europe (July 2019) as reported by DealstreetAsia.

The company’s lead investors are Warburg Pincus, and private equity firms such as BlackRock, GIC and Boyu Capital.

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Image Credit: Trax

 

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is is a 2019 British drama film written, directed by, and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor in his feature directorial debut.

Based on the heartwarming true story of William Kamkwamba who gained fame in his country when he built a wind turbine to save his family from a severe drought that devastated his village killing many. 

His wit, ingenuity, perseverance is something we as startup founders can learn from.

Learn how when not to take no for an answer

The film is an inspirational true-story film based on a memoir by the Malawian engineer William Kamkwamba. As a teenager, he built a wind turbine for his famine-stricken town in Malawi, helping to power small appliances and eventually irrigate crops.

William needed parts from his father’s bicycle to build a full-sized windmill!

In rural South Eastern Africa and many parts of the world, where basic transport infrastructure is lacking, a bicycle makes a big difference between spending a full day walking into town and back –or riding for a few hours ride.

His father thought William was up to one of his crazy ideas again and refused to give up the bicycle as parts for the windmill. He scolded William very harshly, tears streamed down his eyes but he didn’t give up and he tried again soon after.

Also Read: Why successful startups often have a pair of founders

As founders, we are not invulnerable to rejections. It hurts. I have been many a time as a result of getting rejected. At such time I did not want to spend time with my family, instead chose to brood in my room replaying over and over in my mind what I could have done better, how could I have answered a question better. 

It’s understandable, we are only humans. William is but a kid and many didn’t want to take him seriously, just like we are – a small startup.

But we must all be like William and wipe away the tears and stand up to try again.

MVP

He believed he could build a windmill to drive a water pump and water the village land. He first tested the idea by making a small one to power a radio. After this, many in his village were encouraged and decided to assist him in building a full-size windmill.

Many times, startup founders hit an epiphany and start thinking they found something that might make them the next Google or Facebook. However, it is important to perform tests to prove that the concept works and building an MVP is one of the many ways we can use to gauge if something is viable before we start to enroll the entire village and sink valuable time and money into something that may not work.

Educate yourself

When his parents could no longer afford to pay his school fees, he was disappointed but did not let that stop him from getting the knowledge he needed to build the windmill. He found a way to get into the library –despite not being a student at the school– and poured over books on magnets and how to build a dynamo. 

There’s a saying, “leaders are readers.” We as founders do not always have to be from prestigious universities, but we must be resourceful enough to know where and how to get the knowledge we need to successfully build what we are building and the hunger to always explore.

Support from family

We often say it takes a village to raise a child.

The importance of having multiple support roles enable a startup to flourish. That said, it doesn’t necessarily have to come from a co-founder.

Also Read: Finding the right co-founder is worth the trek

Your family’s understanding is equally important for you during this journey as starting up could mean time and financial resources being allocated to building this new business. Their understanding could elevate a lot of stress off you. 

When William’s father refused to give up his bike for the windmill, it was his mother’s conviction in him that persuaded his father to. When the father knows they have to start to ration their food, he got the family to vote, which meal of the day they should be eating and which to skip.

I too might not be able to continue in this journey without the support of my family and my wonderful girlfriend who have been understanding of the fact that its no overseas holidays for us for the next couple of years, not being able to help out financially at home that much, believing in me and that I am fighting hard each day. So learn to share with your loved ones and prep them for what is required of you and how it might affect them.

I hope this article inspired and taught you something, just like the movie did for me. Now founders lets go out and harness the wind.

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