For me, the highlight of this year’s International Women’s Month was this article published by The Next Web.

It highlighted how startups in India are calling for the government to cancel the regulation that obliges startups and small businesses to implement a six-month paid maternity leave policy for their employees. A petition in a local community platform argues that for businesses with an annual turnover of less than INR10 crore (US$1 million) should be exempted from the rule, and apply a three-month paid maternal leave policy instead.

The report further detailed that, despite the law’s good intention, as soon as it was passed, the country experienced a 10 per cent dip in women employees in its total workforce. The law is seen as a burden for startups and small businesses as they would also need to pay for a replacement during the employee’s maternal leave.

This is an unfortunate situation as paid maternal leave was one of the forms of support that women need to further continue their career, leading to more women in executive positions and a more diverse workplace in general.

If I understand correctly, the barrier that prevented companies from providing the necessary support for women to succeed is cost –and the goodwill to actually open the wallet.

Also Read: With 2 successful business exits, this ex-CEO of Rocket Internet (SEA) is now championing gender parity in startup world

After some musings, I came into the conclusion that profitability is not merely a sustainability issue for the startup ecosystem.

It is also a matter of inclusivity.

A healthier finance, a healthier culture

 

Let us take a look back into 2019 –to those particular moments that had triggered a change of perspective in the global startup ecosystem, including Southeast Asia.

Since the failure of coworking space giant WeWork to IPO, followed by other similar incidents, both startups and investors are putting heavier focus to become a sustainable business. They would no longer opt to pump truckload of money to burn, in order to pursue rapid growth. They would focus on making profits instead.

In general, this has been a piece of great news. But there is one angle that we have not explored: Inclusivity.

Being a sustainable company means that startups will have a stronger foundation to provide support for their employees to excel in their career, particularly those who need it the most due to the structural barrier.

Also Read: Malaysia’s boardrooms lack diversity in gender and age representation, finds study

For this piece, I reached out to startups understand more about the kind of support that they give to their employees.

Companies such as Indonesia-based coliving platform Rukita, who had recently closed their seed funding round, are providing “skills upgrade benefits” to support its team members to accelerate their competency according to the latest industry standards.

If an early-stage startup is able to provide that kind of support for their team members, then it would be instinctive for us to expect more from bigger companies.

Certainly, it would be naive to think that money alone is enough to support a sociopolitical cause such as gender equality. There has to be goodwill from industry players to allocate their resources into the cause; that willingness has to start from having the awareness.

Having awareness aside, in times of a global crisis like today, when many businesses are barely surviving, it might be insensitive to even talk about profit. However, I am going to take that risk to point out that this moment further highlights the importance of having efficient financial management. Gone are the days when startups would burn money to attract customers with cashback programmes and the like.

This time, it is all about staying healthy.

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Image Credit: Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

 

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Malaysia PM announces US$58B stimulus package for COVID-19-affected businesses

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has announced an economic stimulus package amounting to US$58 billion to help alleviate people and businesses, especially small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) whose source of income had been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia (KKMM) and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) welcomed the initiative, which upholds the slogan “No one will be left behind” and is focussed on the development of the multimedia and telecom industry as well as the digital economy as a whole. An allocation of US$138 million in the special package of free internet service will be introduced to the people of Malaysia in collaboration with the telecommunications companies.

Saifuddin Abdullah, Minister of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia (KKMM),  believes that the package will help the telecom and multimedia industry as a whole. He stated that an additional US$92 million to increase network coverage and capacity to maintain high availability and quality of telecom and multimedia networks will assist in the development of the digital economy sector.

“KKMM, together with MDEC will continue to enhance the efforts to enable the Malaysian business community to tap into digital technologies, assist them to discover new markets, enable cashless transactions and virtual marketing,” Abdullah said.

The aid for SMEs including micro-entrepreneurs with additional funds of US$1 billion in collaboration with Bank Negara Malaysia covering five key initiatives. This would also be of great benefit as there is currently more than 86 per cent of 907,065 SMEs using technology and digital adoption in business operations.

Also Read: Time is ripe for startups around the world to capitalise on Malaysia’s potential as the heart of Digital ASEAN: MDEC’s Surina Shukri

Meanwhile, MDEC CEO Surina Shukri said the third thrust, which provides US$115 million worth of grants under the Micro Credit Scheme to help micro-entrepreneurs, including the creative industry and online traders, will further accelerate growth in both sectors, as the sectors are also MDEC’s main focused areas.

She also welcomed the US$115 one-off assistance to 120,000 e-hailing drivers with an allocation of US$14 million, which will provide more opportunities for workers in the Gig Economy sector, who are now feeling the economic impact on their income.

E-commerce unicorn Tokopedia invests in Indonesian last-mile delivery company SiCepat

Looking to boost its logistic capabilities, Tokopedia has made a strategic investment into SiCepat, an Indonesia-based last-mile delivery operator, DealStreetAsia has reported. The deal was signed last year as part of SiCepat’s US$50 million Series A funding round.

Tokopedia is said to have co-invested with Kejora-Intervest growth fund and Barito Teknologi, the investment arm of Indonesia’s largest petrochemical group Barito Pacific.

In April last year, Kejora and Barito were named as investors in the round, but there was no mention of Tokopedia’s investment.

This would be Tokopedia’s second investment in a last-mile delivery startup. Previously, the e-commerce company put in an initial investment of US$50 million alongside local conglomerate Triputra Group and China’s SF Express to set up a last-mile delivery platform, Anteraja.id.

Founded in 2014, SiCepat caters to e-commerce and online merchant requirements and offers couriers, warehouses and air and cargo delivery across Indonesia.

Singapore’s medtech firm Biolidics acquires laboratory operator Biomedics

Biolidics, the Singapore-registered medical technology company, has announced that it has acquired Biomedics Laboratory for a consideration of up to US$2.6 million, DealStreetAsia has learned. Biolidics said it will pay US$70,000 upon completion of the acquisition, with the remaining consideration can be deferred for up to 24 months post the deal.

Also Read: News Roundup: Indonesia’s mPOS firm Cashlez to raise US$6M via IPO to acquire IT firm

The company will acquire Biomedics from SAM Laboratory, a subsidiary of Clearbridge Health. Biolidics will continue to collaborate with Clearbridge to tap into its established customer base in Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, and Australia.

Offering clinical diagnostic tests, Biomedics focusses on genetic tests and other cancer related diagnostic tests for oncology which laboratory operation is accredited by the College of American Pathologists programme for its detection of circulating-tumour-cell (CTC).

Biolidics has a novel patented CTC-based technology that it deems to be compatible with Biomedics’ CTC programme.

Thai bank SCB to tap into RippleNet remittance market

Thailand-based Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) has reportedly entered into a partnership with Ripple’s enterprise-grade digital payments solution RippleNet to assist citizens in making instant low-cost cross-border payments from their mobile devices, as reported by BTC Manager.

Ripple is a San Francisco-based distributed ledger technology (DLT) startup that SCB has appointed to take the charge in spearheading its digital banking operation in the country.

Arthit Sriumporn, SCB’s SVP of Commercial Banking, said: “Siam Commercial Bank is more than 100 years old and has more than 1,000 branches across the nation. We support a wide range of customers from retail to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and corporations. Our focus is always on enriching the customer experience and RippleNet has helped us to do this with remittances.”

Currently, Thailand’s total remittances value is close to a whopping US$68 billion. SCB said that it’s currently working on a QR code-based app that enables tourists to use their home country mobile app for Thailand’s QR code payment.m by simply scanning the QR code to pay for something instantly without dealing with exchange rates or having to carry around large amounts of local currency.

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Picture Source: Tokopedia

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Barely a month after making the official Budget 2020 announcement, Singapore, like many other nations, took an unexpected economic downturn due to the rapid COVID-19 transmission, which originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019.

However, the Lion City became one of the countries that had its guards up early in the event because it remains the strongest economy and the entrance to the region’s prosperity.

In order to mitigate the crippling effect of the spread of the virus and to ease the lives of its citizens, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Thursday announced a US$34 billion Resilience Budget. Its goals are to “Support Workers. Stabilise Businesses. Build Resilience”.

The key highlights of the “Resilience Budget” are:

• Jobs Support Scheme (JSS), in which the government will pay 25 per cent of monthly wages to every local worker in employment, with higher support for sectors more affected by COVID-19 (up to 75 per cent)
• COVID-19 Support Grant, a cash grant of US$561 per month for three months for low- and middle-income Singaporeans who lost their jobs due to COVID-19
• Temporary Relief Fund, which provides immediate financial assistance for families whose livelihoods were affected by COVID-19
• Support for self-employed Singaporeans, who will receive US$702 a month for nine months upon eligibility along with training support with allowance
• Enhanced care and support package, which ensures enhancements on Singaporeans who received Workfare payments for work done in 2019 up to US$2,105 in cash
• NTUC Care Fund (COVID-19), a relief for a union member, up to US$211 per union member
• SGUnited Jobs that pledges for 10,000 jobs available over the next year
• SGUnited Traineeships, which seeks to support employers in providing traineeships to fresh graduates entering the labour force to help boost employability for new graduates, and courses support through SkillsFuture Credit.
• And greater flexibility on government fees and loans.

The sectors to benefit from the Resilience Budget are aviation; tourism; meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions (MICE) venue operators; food; and land transport such as taxi and private hire cars, as well as art and culture.

Also Read: MatchMove acquires stake in P2P lender MoolahSense to strengthen its SME financing capabilities

The type of reliefs provided to help people cope with the effect of the pandemic are varied — from wage offset, special relief payments, loans, subsidies, tax rebate up to a year and parking waiver for up to six months, support package, to digitisation efforts.

One of the tech angles of the Resilience Budget -aside from supports in forms of waivers and rebates as well as fund for those who are eligible- is the support in capability development. The Deputy PM announced the support for both ready-to-adopt and advanced digital solutions that reduce face-to-face contact.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng underlined that the government will enhance training support, comprising higher course fee subsidies and absentee payroll support, to more sectors and till end-2020.

Positive responses from tech community

e27 approached several tech companies in the country seeking their comments on the Resilience Budget.

According to Singapore Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (SACEOS), the Resilience budget is a welcome move as it is vital to the MICE community.

“The announcement of key measures to protect livelihoods, save jobs and support enterprises shows that the government understands the difficulties that the MICE community is facing as a result of the continued impact of COVID-19 on the Singaporean economy and has taken important steps to address the impacts on our members,” it said in a statement.

“The expansion, extension, and enhancement of wage support measures in the jobs support scheme to 75 per cent of wages will help workers and business owners in our community survive COVID-19 and retain the capability to rebound quickly in the recovery that follows. The support for self-employed persons will also provide valuable support to freelancers in the MICE community,” the statement reads.

Furthermore, SACEOS also mentioned the measures to ease business cash flow by deferring income tax payments for three months as something that will relieve immediate pressure on business owners in the short-term.

Property tax exemptions will also reduce overheads and respond to a key concern held by the MICE community. Changes to the enterprise financing scheme including increased credit limits and deferred payment schedules will make credit more available and affordable for companies to maintain their capabilities throughout the crisis and into the recovery.

Also Read: oCap Management expands into India with GoCapital Finance investment

Taken together, these measures will enable SACEOS members to retain staff and maintain business viability throughout the ongoing crisis.

As a response, SACEOS said it will embrace capability-building initiatives to make the Singaporean economy more resilient, digital-ready, and innovative throughout recovery. It will also provide itself as a point of contact on detailed advice to navigate any help SACEOS members might need with the Resilience budget.

Lien Choong Luen, General Manager, gojek Singapore, said the stimulus package and the additional support that will be rendered to private-hire operators and drivers is a good move.

“The extension of the point-to-point operator license fee waiver by the Land Transport Authority is a helpful move for the industry. We believe that a further postponement of the ride-hail service operator license start date would allow operators like gojek to focus more of our efforts on assisting drivers and addressing business and operational challenges,” he explained.

“Similarly for our driver-partners, the extension of the government’s Special Relief Fund would be essential to further help them minimise their financial burden,” Lien continued.

gojek remains hopeful by operating on its mission of safety movement.

Therefore, to provide for a safer ride environment, gojek has been distributing masks, hand sanitisers, and anti-bacterial wipes to its driver-partners since January.

The ride-hailing giant has also been providing education to driver-partners and commuters on the precautions they can take, such as increasing ventilation of the car by not using the recirculation mode of the car’s air-conditioning system, and observing good hygiene practices such as regularly sanitising high-human contact points such as door handles.

Nisha Paramjothi, Senior Vice President, Investments & Strategy, fintech startup MatchMove, said.

“It is heartening to see the government’s swift actions in rolling out the Resilience Budget targeted at job retention with the Job Support and Wage Credit Schemes. While saving jobs is important, it is equally essential to prepare students and the current workforce alike for jobs of the future. Programmes like SGUnited Traineeships and SGUnited Job Initiatives can help Singaporeans find employment, learn new skills, and gain work experience,” Paramjothi added.

“Given the dynamic fintech landscape in Singapore with the upcoming launch of digital banks in Singapore, we anticipate more jobs to be created,” she continued, adding that in sync with what the Resilience Budget is apparently aiming, the company recently launched the MatchMove FinTech Academy to support the development of digital talent to enable a new level of innovation and nurture a foundation for future fintech talent in Singapore.

Also Read: Finaxar joins hands with Indovina Bank, Cathay Financial to provide SME financing in Vietnam

Finaxar, a small business-focussed fintech company, also lends its insights. Vihang Patel, Co-founder and CEO of Finaxar, said: “The Resilience Budget sees enhanced schemes such as EFS and support from MAS that will undoubtedly provide a shot of confidence for SMEs.”

“In response, Finaxar is launching new measures such as a working capital line with a longer repayment period to lighten the burden and a supplier financing line to ensure that our local supply chains are well supported. Our clients are also working closely with their existing customers to ensure that they are able to meet their financial obligations through various loan restructuring plans where required,” he said.

Fintech firm oCap, that offers access to sustainable, fast, flexible, and affordable financing solutions, also shared how the Resilience Budget might impact its business.

oCap’s CEO Carlos Haeuser said: “The Budget has been designed to provide relief and strengthen the capacity of businesses in order to recover quickly from the impact of the pandemic. From a business survival standpoint, the ability to pay wages and cover operating expenses has become crucial. The expansions to the SME Working Capital Loan and Temporary Bridging Loan Programme will ensure that all businesses will continue to have access to credit.”

Overall, the responses of the tech community in Singapore has been positive. Singapore can be the beacon of hope on what a nation can and should aspire to achieve to come out together whole, leaving no one and no industry behind.

It’s all about supporting each other in tough times and with the speed of how the Resilience Budget was designed to adjust with the nation’s need, the rest of Southeast Asia, even the world can learn a thing or two in doing their best and doing their part in protecting the country from the collapsing economy.
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Photo by Peter Nguyen on Unsplash

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Meet the three startups selected for VIISA’s new accelerator programme

Vietnam’s startup accelerator VIISA has selected three startups for its 7th batch.

These startups were selected from nearly 100 applications after over 40 interviews. Instead of traditional face-to-face meetings, a large number of the interviews were conducted through conference calls due to the Covid-19 fears.

These three startups are from traveltech, edutech and medtech.

The three-month programme provides startups with investment in cash plus an undisclosed amount of supporting services such as co-working space, Amazon Web Services, HubSpot, Google Cloud, Digital Ocean, Mapbox, Zendesk, etc.

Also read: Meet the VC: Stephanie Strunk of Amadeus Ventures on why women should support women

Startups that graduate will have a chance to get a follow-on funding of up to US$200,000 from VIISA Investment Track when they secure a new round of funding from other investors.

Below is the description of the three startups:

AskVietnamese: It focuses on tourist mapping services. Its mapping platform integrates traditional paper maps with the online map infrastructure to provide authentic experiences for independent travellers.

AskVietnamese maps help tourists navigate around their desired destination by promoting local culture, traditional delicacies and unique experiences.

Medigo: It provides remote healthcare 24×7 for everyone. The team started with a mobile app where users can upload doctor’s prescriptions, search for pharmacies, be advised by pharmacists and have medicine quickly delivered to their doorstep.

Since its launch, Medigo has been serving customers in most areas of Ho Chi Minh City. The team is working on expanding to major cities in Vietnam and providing online consultation with doctors via telemedicine.

Testuru: An online testing platform, it is currently focusing on IELTS test. The test includes all parts of an official IELTS test which are listening, reading, writing and speaking. The test results also come with feedback for test takers to improve and better prepared for the later attempts.

AISing secures US$6.5M to strengthen AI platform used in robots and self-driving cars

Japan-based AISing has announced the closing of a US$6.6 million Series B funding round from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, according to DealstreetAsia. Sparx Group, Dai-ichi Life Insurance and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital also participated in this round.

The capital will be used to further enhance the developmental system of the Algorithm Development Group (ADG) and train human resources to develop and commercialize new edge AI.

The company is known for its AI technology which used in industrial robots and self-driving cars.

Unicorn India Ventures makes the final close of Fund II at US$12M

Mumbai-based early-stage VC fund Unicorn India Ventures has announced the first close of its second fund at US$12 million.

The second equity fund of INR 400 crore (US$13 million) was announced last year. Unicorn India has raised funds from domestic investors comprising of family offices and investors from the first fund.

The Fund expects to reach final close in next 12 months, which is expected to see participation from large institutional investors.

With the first close, Unicorn India has also announced its first investment in a Trivandrum -based startup SaScan Meditech.

The fund will exclusively focus on seed and Series A stage enterprise startups, including SaaS, fintech, health tech, robotics, gaming, and digital content sectors.

Also Read: For the startup ecosystem, profitability is a gender equality issue

Indonesia’s VC East Ventures seeks US$609K for COVID-19 detection, cure

Venture capital firm East Ventures is targeting to raise a total of US$609,000 to produce 100,000 coronavirus test kits and finance a vaccine research project in Indonesia, says a Dealstreet Asia report.

East Ventures will be working with its portfolio company Nusantics on the project. Nusantics is a genomics tech company which recently raised an undisclosed amount of seed capital from the seed company. 

The money will be raised through a crowdfunding donation campaign that will begin on March 30, 2020. Anyone can contribute to the campaign by accessing Indonesiapastibisa.com to donate money, equipment, or skill.

Ezay raises US$200K for e-commerce platform

Ezay, a Yangon-based e-commerce platform for rural retails outlets, has raised US$200,000 in funding from Japanese impact investor Seiji Kurokoshi, according to a statement.

The capital will be used to continue the rapid expansion of its retail and wholesale network within the region. 

Ezay connects rural mom ‘n’ pop retailers to wholesalers via its platform and provides same day delivery (more than 90 per cent of these shopkeepers are women).

Previously they would have to leave the shop to travel to town or convince their spouse to do the same, but with Ezay they receive deliveries to their store and get a wider selection and better prices of products.

Ezay currently has over 1,600 retailers.

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Image Credit: Ezay

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Storehub’s cofounder and the team were extremely excited to move into their new, swanky office. And just when they did, the COVID-19 lockdown struck Malaysia. Unfortunately for the Storehub team, the much-awaited new office suddenly became a make-shift desk at home.

The COVID-19 mayhem not only forced their team –spread in four countries– to transition from work-from-office (WFO) to work-from-home (WFH) but also instantly pushed them all into a war zone. The team launched a new feature from their own respective homes, Co-Founder Wai Hong asserted on the e27 Webinar: How to manage remote teams last week.

The global pandemic is intensifying each day and while businesses adapt to WFH setup, the worry of an economy driving towards recession lurks on. This is no less than a war zone kind of a situation for most, especially for companies that were fully working from an office.

At such times, it is even more important for managers and founders to keep their employee morale high and keep the ball rolling. WFH sure comes with its perks. One can save even the few minutes to go from one meeting to another when doing so virtually, spend time with family and take afternoon naps.

But the homely comfort also runs the risk of working all day and forgetting to take a break. Lack of social interaction with colleagues also affects productivity levels (after all, we miss those casual watercooler moments) and disturbs trust and credibility amongst team members.

Also Read: 3 things cybersecurity startups can do to reinvent business amid COVID-19

Decode what is better with Sean Liao, CEO and Founder of Imaginato and Wai Hong, Chieftain and Cofounder of StoreHub in this webinar re-telecast and make the most of their remote work tips and business best practices to help your teams stay connected and coordinated.

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The e27 Webinar series is an effort to share actionable insights with the startup community to improve their day-to-day work life. These interactions are laced with advices, inspiration, and productive human connection for learning and development and sharing the best practices with the e27 community in Southeast Asia.

Next webinar: Join e27 for a live meditation session with Bjorn Lee, founder of mental wellbeing startup MindFi, and learn to keep your cool through the COVID crisis. Register now!

Image credit: NeONBRAND on Unsplash

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In the world of hyper-speed, dramatic scale-ups and connectivity, social media can now be categorised as a mature marketing channel. Although the popular belief is that organic is dead, there are still ample opportunities, especially for brands that do not rely only on paid approach and prefer conversation over the interruption.

However, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are largely focused on driving short-term campaigns. This leads to a temporary boost in numbers and often comes at the cost of revenue. In the long run, these campaigns have minimal effect on actually growing the brand.

With all the latest research supporting the impact of emotionally driven, personalised campaign strategies, there is a steady rise of private channels or messenger apps such as WhatsApp.

These channels make your audience be themselves and comfortably share recommendations, opinions on product or service with a closed group of individuals, which in other circumstances they would not have gone public with.

When a pandemic strikes and the world leaders and analysts forecast the crisis will have a long-term financial after-effect globally cause of the unabated spread of the virus, what role does a brand marketer play?

Also Read: Why every startup needs to embrace video marketing in 2020

The economy of marketing

The major advantage of digital marketing, besides the fact that it does not require face-to-face interaction and thus in tandem with social distancing practices, is that it is measurable. Marketers can obtain which of their activities generate the highest quality leads and at what expense, in other words, they know the ROI.

Let’s look at a few activities happening around brands and digital media now as we speak:

• Airlines and cruise industry have either reduced, postponed, or paused their advertising campaigns given the current climate. Does it make sense to pay for traffic if consumers aren’t buying travel … eh?

• With the “act of going outside” heavily discouraged, any advertiser driving traffic for brick-and-mortar locations is likely seeing a decline in effort.

• If the economic downturn as forecasted realises along with widespread fear of health, pharma, healthcare, and vices (i.e. alcohol) will thrive and grow.

• An uptick for e-commerce, especially for CPG is definite, although, that would have a big impact on digital marketers as they compete for the purchases of not-so-frequent online shoppers.

• Supply chain and logistics will be stressed with delivery windows stretched back to pre-Prime days of five to seven-days. In some cases, the new releases – be it movies or new product lines, will have to wait it out.

• With several tradeshows getting cancelled, businesses that saw a surge in leads and activities during events participation are diverting their spending into digital media to make up for the missed opportunities.

• Remote work policies are fuelling investments in work-flow automation or project management tools such as Slack and Trello, e-learning platform subscriptions and telecommuting tools such as Zoom, Skype, etc.

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

Being responsible and not an opportunist

As grim as it looks, in times of crisis, people look towards their leaders and institutions for information, reassurance, and guidance.

Increasingly, they also look to brands, thus making it the primary duty as marketers to take ownership and channel communication.

Let’s start by reinforcing the sentiment of Alex Josephson, global head of Twitter Next and Eimear Lambe, director of Twitter Next’s thought that “this is not a ‘marketing opportunity’ to capitalise on, and we do not recommend brands opportunistically linking themselves to a health scare.”

Trying times do highlight gaps. Now is the time to move the efforts online and dig potential opportunities in the business’s sales and marketing channels.

Start with these four insightful questions to map out your next marketing action plan:

What are the current offline marketing channels you have?

Repurposing a number of outdoor advertising billboards, swiftly issuing messages of support, donations for medical supplies and engaging in community building activities to interact with consumers are some of the prompt recalibration done by the luxury brands around the world during this crisis situation.

How can you port your offline channels to the online space effectively?

Increasingly, marketers will need to be sure to target and optimise their content so that heavy-lifting ATL awareness campaigns, some of which are already in play, run at the same time as easy-to-share digital content, which consumers will then be free to use and discuss in their own time.

Also Read: Branding is fundamental to digital marketing, and here are 7 rules to live by

While having great customer service and e-commerce experience is imperative, the alignment of sales and marketing teams to successfully execute virtual events and digital engagement will be the difference-maker in maintaining growth rates.

Which online platform reaches out to your most relevant target audience and how to improve company’s visibility and promotion strategy?

Saving commute time? Take this opportunity to fine-tune your digital assets:

• Website content – Ensure that it contains the right marketing messages with the right call to action.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Check your current website organic search rankings. Benchmark with competitors. Optimise for search engines to improve the quality and quantity of your web traffic.
• Content marketing – Generate ideas for new blog posts, video storyboard and start writing the next newsletter for your customers. Build marketing material that can be part of social conversation and is easily shareable.
• Press releases and articles – Build topics you can inform the media and your clients about e.g. measures in place to fight the current situation.
• Social media engagement – Exploring social and search channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Google Adwords, LinkedIn and strategising how you can improve engagement.

What is a comfortable budget to test when advertising on each medium?

Start small, experiment a lot, optimise, analyse and plan your next move. Whatever is your budget, you should always be able to extract value out of it.

Also Read: 10 digital marketing strategies for startups

Having said that, at the start of business, with little to no money, you can only get creative and partake in guerrilla techniques of using word of mouth, organic social media and key networks to sell your product or service. It’s time to get back into that mentality.

SEO is ongoing while keeping your momentum at it, be more creative with respect to your marketing expenses and look for ways to use marketing tactics that don’t have a significant cost.

Co-existing with COVID

Once the precautions are in place, do your best to maintain a “business as usual” stance. Survival matters more than market domination at this point. Let’s keep calm, be tenacious, support other businesses in any way possible and take the necessary steps so that you come out of this disruption stronger than ever.

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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. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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As of March 18, daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Korea have dropped from highs of over 900 to manageable levels of around 90.

More encouraging is that the death rate has dropped to less than a per cent. Korea is winning the battle and it is largely thanks to fast action and the use of technology, including smart city technologies that have been in development for years.

Smart city technology is not just a way to realise the gleaming metropolises of science fiction dreams. It can also be mustered in the fight against new and dynamic threats to urban society.

Smart City curbs COVID-19

Last week two Korean government ministries announced that they would use smart city technology to support epidemiological investigations in a bid to contain South Korea’s COVID-19 outbreak.

Though the KCDC (Korea Center for Disease Control & Prevention) has been trying to track outbreaks and trace transmission paths, its agents find themselves overwhelmed in areas with mass outbreaks such as the southwestern city of Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province, the epicentre of the disease in South Korea.

To help, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport developed a system to support epidemiological investigations using the “Smart City Data Hub,” a tool to analyse urban data the ministry has been co-developing with the Ministry of Science and ICT since 2018. 

Using the data hub, epidemiological investigators can request, obtain and confirm data about coronavirus cases and people they have come into contact with, through a single platform. This has greatly simplified what had been a tedious and time-consuming process.

The new system went into operation on a trial basis from Monday, March 16. 

Also Read: Smarter Cities will help, but not solve, global pollution crisis

In the last week, daily confirmed cases of coronavirus have dropped from highs of more than 900 to manageable levels of around 90 per day in Korea. That was without the need for city-wide lockdowns, blanket travel bans or widespread self-isolation tactics that are now being implemented elsewhere in the world to curb the spread of COVID-19.

‘Smart City Data Hub’  is a dramatic example of how the so-called “smart city” technology is improving the lives of South Koreans.

Promoted by the South Korean government as a key sector of the brewing Fourth Industrial Revolution, smart cities use cutting-edge information technology such as artificial intelligence and IoT to make urban administration more efficient and give residents more fine-tuned control over their lives.

Smart cities are also providing government entities, big corporations, and startups alike a new space in which to innovate. They may even offer a path for inter-Korean reconciliation.

Government fosters innovation

In 2017, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in organised a special committee to develop a set of recommendations to help propel the nation forward in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Spanning multiple ministries and 13 sectors of industry, the initiative largely focuses on how technological progress and innovation can be fostered in different industries.

One of the key projects is a “smart city growth engine” which will kickstart the process of incorporating a variety of technological enhancements across multiple Korean cities, including (among others) Seoul and Busan, turning them into smart cities.

The project identifies a ‘smart city’ as one that is deeply connected via a wide range of telecommunications and information technology working in synergy, bringing many benefits to all citizens who live, work or travel there.

Also Read: COVID-19 is a serious wake up call for sustainable innovation

This is not Korea’s first attempt to build a smart city. The nation is credited with the construction of the world’s first smart city, Songdo, south of Incheon. The new city was built to be energy-smart with a lower cost of living and ICT connectivity throughout. Construction completed in 2015, and while the city’s population is still only 100,000 — a small town by Korean standards — it is growing.

Nearly US$93 million will be invested to build a 4,237 km ‘self-communication network’ that will provide free public wifi to 300 terminals in public facilities, a huge wifi network in 24 large parks comprising over 100,000 square meters, as well as supplying Wi-Fi to all 7,400 city buses and 1,499 village buses operating in and from the city.

“It is the first project in the world to establish a public telecommunications network in a big city like Seoul without having to borrow from its previously established network or the commercial telecommunications network of a mobile carrier,” said Seoul Information and Communication Officer Wan-Gip Kim. “Through this, we will provide public Wi-Fi service throughout Seoul, and further expand to various services by applying real-time data.”

Startups bringing in innovation

While the Korean government is doing a good job organising public projects, it is the startups that are cashing in by bringing their technological innovations to bear.

With one of the biggest benefits of living in a smart city is the connected home environment, IoT companies are in a prime position to reach a wider audience with President Moon’s four-year initiative.

One such company is N.thing, which brings internet connection to your home garden with sensors for plant monitoring. Another example is Luple, who uses AI to identify the link between lighting and human behaviour for better control of reactive lighting.

They are by no means alone.

Also Read: How Vietnam’s e-commerce firm Tiki is tiding over Covid-19 crisis

Founded in 2016 by former employees of the local software firm ToBeSoft, Gractor specialises in AIoT platforms, that is to say, IoT platforms that integrate artificial intelligence.

Its smart city platform collects, analyses, applies and shares all sorts of city-data. Its platform also links the police, fire department and other government agencies with one another and existing devices to provide better, more stable services.

A startup that operates the on-demand valet service Itcha, is taking part in the Seoul suburb of Bucheon’s smart city project to resolve a parking shortage in the city’s old downtown.

Many smart city projects entrust startups to handle the management of residential spaces. One such startup is APTNER, which automates tasks between apartment residents and managers and offers digital services related to apartment management, including payments, community reservations, repair applications, electronic voting, vehicle entry control, and real-time notifications.

South Korean startups have been especially active in developing technology for self-driving automobiles, a key smart city project. Bitsensing, a radar technology startup for smart city and autonomous driving, can not only replace the traditional method for speed and red-light enforcement but also through its ability to collect real-time traffic data to resolve urban congestion issues.

Also Read: COVID-19 is a serious wake-up call for sustainable innovation

Another startup, SOS Lab, is one of the world’s leading developers of LiDAR sensors that function as the eyes of autonomous vehicles. It recently signed an MoU with US-based semiconductor supplier ON Semiconductor to develop and commercialise LiDAR technology for automobiles and smart factories.

Smart city technology might even open a path to permanent peace on the divided Korean Peninsula. KAIST professor Jeong Jae-seung, the master planner of the Sejong City smart city project, said smart city projects could be a win-win for the two Koreas. He said, “We will be able to achieve great synergy if we cooperate.”

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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. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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The recent COVID-19 outbreak has exposed one of the most integral elements of modern society – the schooling system. UNESCO reports that at least 290.5 million students’ educations have been thrown into disarray due to the outbreak.

Parties most vulnerable to this shock would be those suffering from inadequate schooling systems in the first place – a segment that much of Southeast Asia unmistakably belongs to. As students are forced to stay home, schools have started to experiment with alternative education delivery methods, largely spearheaded by the region’s startups.

We must first address the elephant in the room: the poor quality of education in Southeast Asia. Take the Indonesian government, which has made education central to its agenda. Indonesia boasts an impressive 93 per cent net enrolment rate for schooling, yet 55 per cent of Indonesians who complete school are functionally illiterate.

This can be attributed to factors including overcrowded schools, inefficient teaching methods, and the mismanagement of public schools. The COVID-19 outbreak did not induce any new failures in the education system – it simply provided the trigger for other parties to step in and provide meaningful and innovative alternatives for learning.

Edutech startups are not new, nor are they few and far between; in Vietnam alone there are at least 87 different edutech startups. Indonesia’s Zenius and Vietnam’s Topica Group are among the older edutech startups, being founded in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

However, the two received large funding rounds only very recently, with Zenius raising US$20 million in 2019 and Topica Group raising US$50 million in 2018, largely fundraising on the back of improving digital infrastructure and high internet and smartphone penetration rates.

Also Read: Edtech requires certain distinct help that’s different from other verticals: StormBreaker’s Pat Thitipattakul

On the policy front, Indonesia has started to forge ahead in terms of devising new policies to address these developments, as evident by the founder and CEO of Indonesian edutech behemoth Ruangguru being recruited by the President of Indonesia to serve as one of his Special Staff. In an attempt to leverage technology to better collate student data, the Ministry of Education has introduced the e-rapor, a system of collecting and disbursing end-of-semester report cards digitally instead of printing out hard copies.

The concept of live streaming a class is by no means a new concept. However, the outbreak has turned distance learning into a popular topic of discourse, as students are forced to attend classes online from their homes. Teachers thusly turn to startups such as Malaysia’s FrogAsia, which takes the classroom to the cloud, bringing online distance learning into reality.

A convenient side effect of this is that teachers are now free to teach without the constraint of a packed classroom, giving them the ability to reach larger cohorts. This unique advantage addresses issues that are fundamental to the region’s education system –  the glaring shortage of teachers and classrooms.

Given a generation that is increasingly digital-savvy and willing to adopt new technologies, entrepreneurs are progressively identifying addressable pain points and developing new and creative methods for students to receive their education.

With the closing down of schools, a centuries-old education system has been thrust into what could be a new normal – the mandate of social distancing forces teachers to be creative with how they deliver their lessons, whilst making sure the experience seamless and efficient.

Also Read: These Indonesian edutech startups are helping students cope and thrive during the COVID-19 crisis

The environment surrounding the education system in Southeast Asia has been long overdue for disruption, and with governments largely being inactive, we believe it is up to entrepreneurs to step in and pick up the slack. The Southeast Asian edutech scene is largely at its early stages, so expect the COVID-19 outbreak to be the tipping point of the industry’s break out.

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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. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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The coronavirus outbreak has already caused a plethora of issues around the globe and forced public and private companies to rethink their operations and switch to remote work in an attempt to stop the pandemic.

This does make sense and can indeed help to stop the spread of the deadly virus offline, but are millions of people who now have to work from home prepared to face online viruses and threats?

How many companies have adapted to the new environment by strengthening their perimeter which now includes employees’ home devices? For long or not, the world has clearly entered a whole new realm, which requires reassessing the approach to securing corporate digital space.

Fighting cybercrime for nearly 17 years now, and studying hackers’ tactics, tools, and attack vectors, we can clearly see that they are making most of the current situation, using all available methods from social engineering to attacks on VPNs.

We predict an increase in the number of cyberattacks on computers, equipment (routers, video cameras), and unprotected home networks used by employees who have switched to remote work due to the spread of COVID-19.

Employees of financial institutions, telecom operators, and IT companies are, particularly at risk. We believe that the goal of cyberattacks will be the theft of money or personal data.

Our digital forensics specialists have been engaged in several incident response cases, in which an employee working remotely was an initial point of compromise. For example, in 2017, cybercriminals compromised a bank by attacking a system administrator who accessed banking servers from a home computer.

Also Read: Singapore-based Group-IB opens inaugural CyberCrimeCon to public for the first time

With the home office now becoming a new norm, rather than an exception, we have decided to look at just a handful of scenarios for security teams tasked with establishing remote work capabilities to consider. 

Amid this difficult time, cybercriminals capitalise on coronavirus fears and panic. We detect hundreds of corona-related phishing emails masked as alerts, advisories, and guidelines sent out by “international organisations”, “local authorities” etcetera. Not long ago, ESET warned about phishing emails purporting to be from the World Health Organisation (WHO). The recipients were prompted to click on malicious links to receive “extremely important information about the virus”.

The links can install malware, stealing personal data and user credentials. The most recent phishing campaign, detected by our computer emergency response team, was disguised as an app purportedly from UNICEF to track updates about the virus. The app was nothing but a keylogger and RAT designed to spy and steal user data.

So just imagine what happens if an infected user device is connected to a corporate network via an unprotected channel. The email accounts have to be at least protected with two-factor authentication. Moreover, it is required that malware detonation systems are implemented to analyse incoming and outgoing emails.

VPN is a common and generally good practice for establishing a secure connection to a corporate network. True, but only when properly deployed. Even though there are a lot of guidelines on how to install and use VPN, the risks are still high to misconfigure it and end up with a home device, not covered by the organisation’s perimeter security tools, connected to the network’s critical segments – a sweet spot for attackers.

Also Read: On threat hunting and cybercrime: How Group-IB is helping the region in cybercrime prevention

Not only for the financial gain but for espionage purposes as well. Network segmentation and access right differentiation are both required. Not to say that VPNs have to be protected with two-factor authentication.

Finally, banks’ – a prime target for financially-motivated cybercriminals – shift to remote work might result in security teams’ failure to respond promptly and effectively to emerging threats, which, in turn, is likely to lead to the growth of successful attacks on card processing systems, ATM networks, and payment gateways.

As a result of the learnings, Group-IB has just launched the StayCyberSafe campaign to support millions of people who now have to work from home and IT/IS departments. It includes recommendations for employees and security teams on how to organise resilient remote work infrastructure by Group-IB’s experts.

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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. We are discussing inclusivity at work and women all of March. Share your thoughts, tips and best practices on how we can make the startup ecosystem more inclusive, gender and culture diverse.

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Image Credit:  Pixabay

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