Day: March 5, 2020

When I first decided to start my own business – a PR agency – I envisioned a sleek office decorated in steam-punk fashion with a huge reception to give people a sense of wonder whenever they came over for a meeting. I worked out the budget and put together a hiring plan that included a receptionist and a strong operations team to manage our plethora of clients.

Fast-forward two years into our journey and we do not have a physical office, but we have a strong list of exciting clients spread across three countries– Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

So here’s what happened. Firstly, commuting back and forth in any of the three aforementioned countries was a struggle for everyone. Secondly, when we first started, budgets made it very hard to fit in office rental as well as comparable salaries in Singapore, which is our home market. 

Thinking back to the beginning, I had one of two options, get a loan from a bank or beg for money from my friends, or postpone my dream until I won the lottery, so I could get my dream office. Instead, I decided to wing it, and start my business and build a company of remote workers. 

So here’s a summarised version of how we grew from two people who only ever communicated via email, to a team of over 27 full-time and contract staff across eight countries servicing clients based mainly in three markets.

Remote does not mean cheap

There is a huge misconception in the market that remote means cheap labour with questionable quality. When I began my journey at SYNC, I sought out experienced freelancers and content specialists who I knew and trusted to join the team, offering them market-comparable pay with the convenience of being able to set their own timetable. 

Also read: The future of remote work is happening now, here’s how to make it work for you

My payroll resembled a traditional PR agency, but I was able to remove the usual overheads and only invest in labour costs and some technology tools to help manage the team.

So while my overall burn rate was much lower, I did not pay less for talent. This really matters if you want to build a strong team that is able to maintain productivity and professionalism while working remotely.

Communication is key and even communication companies get it wrong

It might have been a lack of experience or overconfidence, but the first few months of running the business were quite a challenge. Communication, which is at the core of my profession, was also a challenge when you are used to just turning around to your colleague for a quick chat or popping into a meeting room for a 15-minute brainstorm. 

I had to adapt from years of working within a team, to a team of strong-willed individuals who did not quite understand what I was trying to achieve with my business. Trying to instill a sense of pride and belonging when you never see your team was another challenge – more so when you are trying to disrupt or change a traditional business such as public relations. 

Something had to change. So I changed because it was the best thing for the company.

From being a solitary and focused worker, I built a culture of sharing and openness that is pushed from top-down. If something goes wrong and it is my fault, I own up to it and my team provides feedback on my performance for everyone to see. 

I took a team of social introverts and told them that we were going to have to meet up every week. Now I meet my Singapore team at least once a week and I speak to them more than I do my own friends.

I see my Malaysia and Indonesia teams about once a month and they know they can reach me at any time – so I am fielding questions and getting updates seven days a week. 

While it is tough work, creating a real culture in a remotely-run business means you have to invest your time and become part of the fabric of the actual business.

Remote workers are not all beach-lounging hipsters

I class myself as a remote worker, but go for meetings regularly and dress (relatively) formally when meeting clients and partners. My team follows suit (most of the time) and we try to maintain a public-facing level of professionalism. 

Also read: Creating a culture beyond ping pong tables and sleeping pods

Most of my remote team of contractors and full-timers are your typical office worker with the exception that they get to wake up a bit later than normal, save time and money on commuting and are able to actually be home for deliveries on a weekday morning should the need arise. 

So, I do not get to spend a lot of time on the beach, even though I love it.

We are not the only ones doing it

Remote work has become more popular as employees are starting to realise that it is a viable job option, while at the same time businesses are fast realising that talent does not necessarily reside in a certain market or location.

In fact, according to a study called 2018 Global State of Remote Work, of the total companies and employees polled, more than half (56 per cent) of companies offer both remote and in-office options, and employees who work remotely at least once a month are 24 per cent happier than their work-from-office counterparts.

We also work with two companies that were entirely built on remote staff – Tech Collective Southeast Asia, a technology publication and Travel Wanderlust, a travel resource site. Both have built a core team of remote workers that use a pool of talented content developers and journalists across the world. 

There are options for everyone

Another interesting trend I have noticed is the availability of a growing number of resources and platforms for remote workers or digital nomads. From traditional players like Fiverr and Upwork to new players from Southeast Asia like MOPress from Malaysia and CoXplore in Vietnam offers affordable access to co-working spaces for the remote worker community.

Also read: Managing the millennial workforce over coffee and culture

MOPress offers businesses access to thousands of freelance writers, as well as AI tools for them to enhance their articles. It has an innovative monetisation scheme for writers that allows them to benefit from increased revenue if their articles are well-read. 

For CoXplore, a recent article says that the entire company is remote, and is part of the community that they cater to. The Vietnamese startup is still quite young but hopes to have their app available by the end of 2020 for remote workers to be able to search and book vetted coworking spaces, co-living spaces, and travel experiences with minimum effort.

Can you build a unicorn with just remote workers?

The short answer is I don’t know. 

I think you can build a very successful and sustainable business with remote staff, but building a billion-dollar business involves a wealth of infrastructure and a well-oiled engine to run it. 

However, for most of us, remote work and workers offer a sustainable and high-quality way to build a business without the hassle or barriers of large overheads. It is dependent on the type of business you want to run, as well as the type of entrepreneur you are. 

I am happy to say that this model has worked well for me.

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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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When I was younger, I used to love organising after-work drinks and dinners to know my colleagues better and to swap war stories.

It was at gatherings like these that you got to know each other not just as teammates but as people, which made all the difference when you’re working together in times of crisis.

These were also pre-social media times, so there was no urge or pressure to keep up, take photos and document where you were. We were literally just in the moment.

Ghosting at work

Fast forward fifteen years later and in the words of a great American poet, boy, have times a-changed. It’s not just about the work you do anymore and with whom, it’s also about who’s the inner circle you’re in and whose social media feeds you manage to get into.

Ghosting as a term has been used in the context of contemporary dating a lot. It basically means you’re ignoring a person because either you’ve found a better prospect or you’ve lost interest, or sometimes sadly, both.

But, I feel you can apply this to the corporate environment too.

This is especially true in larger organisations where competition doesn’t just exist between teams but more disturbingly, within. The promotions are limited, so are more vitally, the bonuses, and like a Gladiator contest from Roman times or a riveting Games of Thrones episode, you have colleagues pitted against each other through a game of wits to determine who will emerge as the vanquisher, and who will be ghosted.

I’ve worked in many environments where teams aren’t developed, where competition is encouraged between team members and where ‘impact’ is hardly defined but expected from managers who can’t communicate what their needs are.

One could argue that this promotes healthy competition between teammates, which in turn, ups productivity and increases numbers for a business. But, is this truly a healthy environment to work in?

Toxic environments

The answer, as most of us know in our hearts (unless you thrive in toxicity), is a resounding No. When you work in toxic work environments where popularity contests matter more than your work, not only does your productivity decrease as most of your time is spent not on actual work but on plotting, forming alliances and excluding the weaker members of your organisation it also makes you unhappier.

And if you’re not those who value politics over actual work, then you’re doomed. The politics will eventually either lead you to seek help, look outwards or just plain give up.

I had my first (and only) child, two and a half years ago. This changed my perspective on prioritising what’s important for me at work and at home.

So, whilst in my 20’s I loved socialising with my colleagues, even after work, I now know I need to really prioritise and balance my son’s needs with those of my work.

That has meant that I may need to decline the odd after-work drinks or a lunch invite so that I can put in that extra hour to my pending work projects and get back home to play with my son on the playground, before hitting the gym.

Has this put me in good stead with some of my former colleagues? Honestly, I would say no.

I know that building relationship is a vital part of my job but I also know that whilst work is but one aspect of my life, the other vital part is my son and my precious family time. This has meant that in unsupportive work environments, I had to force myself and sacrifice my family time just to get ahead and be seen as a team player, something which I never had to do.

Has this made me happier and more fulfilled? The answer again is a deafening No.

A Kardashian saga?

So, while many companies may say that what you do matters more than whom you know, we all know that this is nothing but a sugar-coated version of an altered reality.

The Kool-aid is there to drink and everyone needs to drink it or else you’re gone. The inner-circle dramas can almost be compared to a Kardashian saga- where people are talked about behind their backs, where performers aren’t rewarded but sycophants are, where appraisals are a time to decide which among the popular, chosen ones will be climbing up the ladder and at whose expense.

For someone who was bullied in her childhood and also sometimes in some very toxic work environments, I’m particularly conscious of the way bullies work in the corporate world.

They have a ‘mean girls’ mentality, operate in cliques, target the most vulnerable and make no qualms about excluding you from key work and social events. Ghosting at its corporate worst.

Thriving, instead of surviving

So, how do we navigate these very complex, interpersonal dynamics at work and how do you manage to thrive, instead of just survive?

Have your support network: These are the people in your network who will uplift and support you when the going gets tough at work. They may or may not be at your current organisation but what they share in common is a genuine feeling to help you. I’m grateful to have a lot of these in my network and with whom I seek advice from regularly.

Communicate openly: The challenge in toxic work environments is staying true to yourself yet also adapting to the needs of the majority. But what trumps here is open and transparent communication.

If that means having that open conversation with a colleague who’s been spreading rumours about you or your work, then be open about it. Not aggressive but open and more importantly, document it.

Know your colleagues: Ask questions, be open with your life and respect each other. This has helped me in my career, especially when I needed to ask for help.

Know the office dynamics: Knowing the alliances at work is good but don’t let it affect your work performance or your need to ‘fit in’. This need to fit in becomes very strong especially when you join a new workplace but sometimes it distracts us from doing what’s right for our work for the fear of being excluded.

Don’t gossip: I’ve been at the tail end of being gossiped about in recent workplaces but invariably, it comes back to the person who does it. Nothing is ever a secret, so unless you have a really riveting reason to start a rumour, don’t.

Hopefully, this will help some of us navigate what are clearly uncertain times and places, and I wish you all the luck on this wonderful journey called life!

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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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Business-to-Business (B2B) marketplaces have become the next big thing that has taken over many procurement and retailing processes, and online transactions have evolved to enable businesses to procure almost anything in the market.

A 2019 B2B online report predicts that online marketplaces will account for 40% of the global online retail market. Gartner estimates that within the next 5 years, 75 per cent of B2B procurement spending will be done online.

Asia contains both the largest and fastest-growing eCommerce markets via China and India. The strong dynamism within Asia had prompted the rapid growth of eCommerce, especially in China as China’s share in global ecommerce retail transaction value to about 16 percent more than the United States.

However, other Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, having some of the largest shares of eCommerce retail sales, has also played a vital role in the rise of eCommerce.

Also, the prevalent rise in mobile commerce has been observed, which is likely due to digital penetration rapidly improving in Asia, thus, the mobile commerce landscape in Asia has also been growing faster than the rest of the world.

The beginnings of Asia’s B2B eCommerce started with a strong focus on wholesale and cross-border commerce or acting as a business directory. These B2B marketplaces are led by markets where the source of manufacturing happens to facilitate wholesale distribution to the region or world.

Many like Alibaba, Indiamart, Tradeindia, TradeWorld.Asia and Thaitrade offer wide category search across multiple industry sectors, more similar to the format of large online bazaar than the professional B2B marketplaces as seen in the US eCommerce landscape in healthcare (e.g., Zageno, Medinas and Vetcove), manufacturing or machinery (e.g., Big Rentz, Iron Planet and Asseta), for example. However, this is changing in Asia. 

Also read: The changes B2B marketing has felt over the past 5 years

We are witnessing the emergence of the next generation of B2B marketplaces in Asia where enterprises are developing a focus in specific niches or geographic distribution.

Examples include IndoTrading is a private marketplace dealing with construction and industrial supplies, supplybunny.com as a supply ordering platform for restaurants, bakeries, and cafes in Malaysia, and OfficeMate is an e-procurement site for office supplies in Thailand.

What do B2B Marketplaces in Asia look like? 

A few B2B marketplace business models in Asia have emerged over time. Some offer and sell a wide range of general products from multiple vendors and suppliers, while others could be niche and highly specialised in their industry sector.

Some could offer rental or professional services as a way to address the trend of sharing economy and how people source for service offerings respectively.

Noting that category boundaries are not always sharp and separated by profile characteristics, we currently see five main types of marketplace. Each is defined by the nature of its wares and services, as well as by who holds contractual and warranty responsibility for them.

For illustration, we include Asia-based marketplaces that are either seen as leaders or tend to be mentioned more frequently within the sector. 

• Product-focused marketplaces. Product-focused marketplaces are the most common marketplace – it focuses on marketing and distributing items or commodities such as general supplies, consumer goods, and electronics. Zillingo, a 4.5 year old eCommerce that started as an online retail marketplace, has expanded into a B2B platform Zilingo Asia Mall and website which targets fashion wholesalers in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and other ASEAN markets. 88Spares was launched in April 2017 as an online marketplace and startup to specialise in selling spare parts for machinery in the textile and garment industries, to help factories save operational costs by cutting down middlemen and simplifying the purchasing process.
• eProcurement marketplaces. A one-stop-shop that allows buying organisations and their suppliers to efficiently maintain a list of contracted goods and services with pre-negotiated prices, participate in electronic trading, to quickly order and buy the goods and services they need. Eezee.sg is a unified Singapore-based B2B marketplace for industrial goods and supplies. It offers B2B features such as instant quotation and product sourcing service, allowing buying companies to procure products and negotiate pricing with ease and efficiency while discovering products not readily available from its marketplace. Pantavanij, a leading Thailand-based online procurement and auction platform, services more than 20,000 B2B suppliers and $6 billion purchasing volume each year. Its platform streamlines the procurement processes via its source-to-pay software which connects sourcing, purchasing, invoicing, payment, and spend analysis, with added functionalities like electronic request form, Price per Performance auction and rRFX (electronic request for X services).
• Service-focused marketplaces. An online service marketplace initiates, facilitates, coordinates, and concludes hiring and selling of services between individuals or businesses.  In Asia, there seems to be more B2C or peer-to-peer service marketplaces such as Kaodim than B2B, but we are seeing more B2B entrants. CaterSpot is a digital B2B food catering platform, connects food caterers with businesses, offices, teams, events, and corporations, allowing them to easily source for food caterers to order large quantity of food or tailored meals for their employees. In Australia, Expert360 connects businesses with contracting and professional industry experts locally. In India, Sulekha links local service businesses to 30+ million consumers with 200k+ service professionals across 200 categories in about 40 cities. Both Expert360 and Sulekha serves both businesses and individuals.
• Time-based or Rental-focused marketplaces. Airbnb is likely the most well known online rental marketplace globally. GorillaSpace, which operates in both Singapore and Japan, is an online B2B office and workspace rental marketplace platform that enables businesses to find both long-term office spaces and flexible workspace options, or a hybrid of both, with lease flexibility and competitive prices. It seeks to address a need within the commercial property market that is experiencing a shift from multi-year office space leases to more flexible options. Headquartered in Japan, Nishio Rent All proves that even a traditional construction machinery leasing company can adapt to changing market demands. Nishio Rent All now operates a Singapore-based online B2B rental marketplace platform where it allows businesses to browse their rental offerings and request for quotation via their platform.
• Business catalogue or directory type of marketplaces. Business directory marketplace might seem like an odd one compared to the usual eCommerce marketplace platform. Fundamentally, the idea is pretty much the same with the exception that the platform serves to enable business connections, submit quotations but not spot transactions. Yellow Pages Singapore started as a traditional telephone book directory but re-innovate their business to yps.com.sg, an online business directory listing platform, driven by digital disruption and consumers’ transition towards online platforms. 

What is driving the growth of B2B marketplaces in Asia? 

Online B2B marketplaces offer several benefits. The users of B2B marketplaces enjoy a quicker product and brand discovery, greater transparency in product, service, and supplier availability — as well as in pricing and purchasing terms. The past barriers of time zones and geographical proximity have become irrelevant, making marketplaces truly global and year-round. 

Suppliers often enjoy better inventory management. Sellers of long-tail products would also benefit as marketplaces provide price transparency and detailed product information page which enables consumers to make a more informed purchase decision and comparison shop, solving headaches that are often linked to long-tail products such as scant pricing or product information.

Also read: A beginner’s guide to the B2B e-commerce business

Customers, on the other hand, receive more control over their transaction history, personal details, tracking of deliveries as well as a product catalogue. An online marketplace eliminates some of the redundant operations processes such as automating repeat orders and purchases, sending system-generated updates the order processing or inventory performance. 

Aside from the direct benefits to the marketplace users, the Asia general and eCommerce economy have also benefited tremendously from the growth of ecommerce and marketplaces.

1. Driving improved economic efficiency and job creation in developing countries and least developed countries, offering a chance for them to narrow development gaps and increase economic performance. 
2. Creating new investment opportunities as eCommerce offers new business opportunities, new distribution and delivery to access new markets and customers, therefore supporting investment. 
3. Enabling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to go global as SMEs make up more than 96% of all Asian businesses and eCommerce helps in levelling the playing field and enables these businesses to gain international reach and potentially compete on a global scale. 

What’s next for B2B marketplaces in Asia?  

We anticipate more businesses to engage themselves with B2B marketplaces, be it as a marketplace operator/owner, supplier, buyer or ecosystem participant of marketplaces.

Following similar trends in B2C retail and B2B marketplace developments in the US, we are seeing more new enterprise B2B marketplaces launched and operated by existing companies to increase market reach and distribution (aka B2B enterprise marketplaces).

More two-sided B2B eCommerce sites will innovate to explore expansion into multi-vendor marketplace platforms and augment their product portfolio for a more holistic and integrated product and service offering to their customers. 

If brands choose to engage as a first or third-party supplier on marketplaces, they need to actively build their branding and set up an official presence on marketplaces as an effective way to manage the customer experience and to improve the brand image.

Marketplaces bring new opportunities, but also greater risk exposure if branding is not managed properly on these platforms that draw buyers and consumers that are constantly being bombarded with competitive comparisons, inauthentic products, counterfeited brands, and even fake reviews.

We have also observed that more marketplaces and ecommerce platforms are following Amazon’s expansion into private label brands. This move is strategically useful for market operators looking to increase their margins. 

Especially, as they know exactly which products sell best in which region, given the fact that marketplaces have sufficient collected data from third-party brands. However, this trend may only impact the B2C or retail marketplaces in the near term and be a watch-out concern for those in the B2B marketplaces in time as the market matures.

As a marketplace grows, its evolution to a marketplace ecosystem presents tremendous opportunities to add and integrate complementary value chain services such as trade financing, affordable credit facilities, insurances, warehousing and logistics, digital marketing or software development services that will service and benefit both suppliers and buyers.

Marketplace capabilities can be significantly enhanced without the hefty investment of building out some of these complex offerings on your own, but by partnering with the appropriate experts in their fields.  

More B2B marketplaces are also demanding for a user experience that is above and beyond what buyers get from dealing with individual vendors.

This user experience translates to not only the scale of offerings or the range of amenities and features offered, but the total experience: how interactive it is; how easy or convenient buyers feel about their purchasing or buying process; how indispensable the marketplace becomes to them; and how valuable it is in helping them perform their daily work and accomplish their business and even personal goals. 

Powerful digital and advanced-analytics capabilities are imperative to gain customer insights and formulate order management tactics or sales and marketing strategies.

Customer’s purchase history, shopping or wish lists, and other preferences is not only convenient for customers; it also gives vendors and the marketplace valuable data to help improve customer experience.

Advanced IT and logistics capabilities help provide faster throughput times and help reduce costs, offer competitive pricing.

Asia is presenting exciting B2B marketplace opportunities to the rest of the world. With a strong growth target, brands and marketplaces are no longer just focused on the B2C model.

Instead, B2B channels are increasingly being developed to increase revenue and drive performance. 

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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.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page.

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Finance

Fintech, data science company Oriente secures US$20M from Silverhorn Group

Oriente, a tech and data science startup that seeks to create opportunity through financial access for Southeast Asia, announced today it has secured US$20 million debt funding from Silverhorn Group, a Hong Kong-based multi-asset investment firm.

The funding, which can increase up to US$50 million, will be used to grow Oriente’s loan book and extend the reach of its inclusive and affordable digital-credit and Pay Later solutions to the undervalued and credit-starved consumers and micro-enterprises in the Philippines.

Commenting on the deal, Geoffrey Prentice, Co-founder of Oriente, said: “As we enter the next stage of growth on our mission to helping ignite economic opportunity for tens of millions of consumers and micro-enterprises, the support we receive from our debt partners is critical.”

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Oriente is building solutions that provide real-time credit scoring, digital and O2O lending and other tailored financial services to millions in Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies. The company has two app-based ventures, Cashalo in the Philippines and Finmas in Indonesia.

Oriente is equity-funded by its founders and a group of family offices including members of the Berjaya Group, JG Summit Holdings, Inc., and Sinar Mas. To date, the company has raised over US$105 million in equity.

Quadria Capital announces US$595M second fund

Quadria Capital, an independent healthcare-focused private equity firm in Asia, has announced the closing of its latest fund, Quadria Capital Fund II, exceeding its US$400-million target.

Investors include leading global asset managers, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance, healthcare corporates, and development finance institutions across the US, Europe, and Asia.

As per a press note, the new fund has already invested in two companies — AKUMS Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, and the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, a gastric sciences hospital, in partnership with Mayo Clinic Network.

Business

Grab Ventures Velocity launches the third batch, adding BRI Ventures as a partner

Grab has kickstarted applications for the third batch of its startup scale-up programme Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) with the theme of “Enabling Micro-Entrepreneurs” with two new tracks — value-add services for restaurant businesses and B2B logistics.

The first track aims to engage startups that provide digital solutions to small and medium restaurant owners to help grow their business, reduce costs or simplify operations. The second track is targeted at startups disrupting the logistics industry with innovations in warehousing and trucking space.

This time, Grab Ventures has partnered with BRI Ventures, the VC arm of the country’s largest state-owned bank Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), seeking to elevate the startup ecosystem in Indonesia with new programmes.

Grab Ventures and BRI Ventures have signed a strategic MoU to create new joint initiatives to create unique growth opportunities for new-age Indonesian startups.

Following the success of Indonesian startups who were selected into GVV Batch 2 such as TaniHub and Qoala, GVV Batch 3 is inviting more such post-seed startups to develop through access to Grab’s ecosystem.

Also Read: Former Skype co-founder’s online lending startup Oriente raises US$105M funding

Grab Ventures Velocity (GVV) is the flagship scale-up programme for startups from Grab Ventures, which was established in 2018.

Registration for GVV Batch 3 is now open. All startups in Indonesia and Southeast Asia can apply. The chosen startups in batch three will earn mentorship from C-level experts in the industry as well as a pilot methodology to test startup offerings in the Grab platform and access to a broad Grab customer base.

gojek-owned on-demand service arm GET becomes one of the most used in Thailand

Thailand-based on-demand service that’s also owned by gojek, celebrated its first year anniversary on February 27.

GET was first launched in Bangkok last year with three main services: GET WIN for transportation service, GET FOOD for food delivery service, and GET DELIVERY for delivery service. GET also added digital payment service GET PAY in April 2019 in the beta version to support the in-app transaction.

GET claims that it managed to establish its position as one of the most used food delivery services in Bangkok just within its first year and recorded 10 million transactions in total.

GET is helmed by Pinya Nittayakasetwat, who explained that the name adjustment from gojek to GET is for memorable branding purposes. To date, GET FOOD by gojek has clocked more than 20,000 food merchants.

People

Regtech startup Tookitaki appoints Joe Friscia to lead US, APAC expansion

Tookitaki Holding Pte Ltd, a regtech company operating with compliance and reconciliation solutions, has appointed industry veteran Joe Friscia, who’s former President of NICE Actimize and BAE Systems, to the Company’s Advisory Board. Friscia is to bring 25 years’ experience in the financial crime and enterprise software space to help Tookitaki scale operations in the U.S. as well as advise on expansion into the Asia Pacific.

“As modern-day criminals thrive with the aid of new and advanced methods of conducting financial crimes, machine learning-based technology is rapidly gaining traction in helping future-proof and thwart these evolving threats. For this reason, I am both proud and excited to be part of the Tookitaki team and helping them make Sustainable Compliance a reality,” commented Joe Friscia.

Friscia will contribute to Tookitaki’s business and go-to-market strategy to help position Tookitaki as the regtech advisor helping banks detect sophisticated money laundering patterns with best-in-class enterprise software solutions.

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Picture Credit: Grab Velocity Ventures

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Singaporean logistics startup Moovaz raises Series A from SCangels, SGInnovate

Singapore-based logistics-tech startup Moovaz, has raised an undisclosed sum in Series A funding from Supply Chain Angels (SCAngels), the corporate venture arm of YCH Group, and co-investment partner SGInnovate.

The startup aims to use the funds to transform the global relocation industry with the support from its investors.

“As a leading corporate venture fund in Singapore, SCAngels stages the right conditions so startups can get into an iterative cycle of improvement and disruptive innovation. With their collaboration with SCAngels, they are given an advantage over their competitors in solving traditional challenges such as under-utilisation of capacities and information asymmetry, which have constantly plagued the relocation industry,” said James Ong, Partner of SCAngels and Chief Investment Officer of YCH Group.

As per Crunchbase, the company has so far raised a total of US$1 million.

Gaming startup PotatoPlay raises US$500K in new funding from PlayVentures

PotatoPlay, a gaming startup headquartered in Singapore, announced today it has secured US$500,000 in its first funding round, led by Play Ventures, an early-stage VC fund, according to Deal Street Asia.

The fresh funds will be used for marketing and operations. It also has partnerships plans in China, South Korea and Vietnam.

“Asian Games are dominating global top charts – more than half of the top 10 revenue grossing mobile games are made by established Asian developers. But startup studios in Asia face steep challenges in marketing and monetising them, even in their home countries,” said Potato Play CEO Vincent Low.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Oriente raises US$20M, Grab Ventures Velocity launches 3rd batch

Some of PotatoPlay’s top titles include Merge Quest, Crossing Gaps and Pocket Racing. Other than that, the company has deployed over 20 games in less than a year.

RTP Global announces US$650M to invest in early-stage tech companies in Southeast Asia

RTP Global, an early-stage VC firm based in Russia, has unveiled a US$650 million fund to continue investments in early-stage tech companies, according to Pymnts.

Founded by Leonid Boguslavsky, RTP Global reportedly intends to invest in early-stage technology firms in fintech, Artificial Intelligence and SaaS.

Also Read: Mastercard to lead Series B funding in Indonesian fintech company Digiasia

“Our investment focus is ​on early-stage technology companies,” said Boguslavsky. “The core is Series A, but we also consider late-Seed companies and Series B. The ticket size varies according to geography, though our initial ticket is usually in the US$2 million to US$7 million range.”

The VC firm is currently focussed toward startups in Europe, North America, Southeast Asia and India.

Leap Finance bags US$5.5 million to continue offering students financial services to study abroad

Indian fintech startup Leap Finance today received US$5.5 million in seed funding from Sequoia India according to Deal Street Asia.

The investment amount will be used by the startup to further develop the platform, hire for technology and capital markets roles in Bangalore and San Francisco, respectively, aiming to finance more than 1,000 students in the upcoming fall season.

“Indian students studying abroad today spend $15 billion annually and we estimate an annual credit need for more than $5 billion against this. This attractiveness of the market, strong founder-market fit and Leap’s mission-driven team is what led to our belief in an early partnership with them,” Ashish Agrawal, Principal, Sequoia Capital India LLP said.

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Image Credit: frank mckenna

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