Month: March 2020

Business

Funding for proptech in Southeast Asia holds strong at US$72.9M

Southeast Asia poses the second highest number of deals and undisclosed funding across of Asia Pacific in 2019, showing a strong focus in proptech since 2017, reveals a JLL-TechInAsia study.

This is despite an overall funding decline by 38.4 per cent in Asia Pacific last year after reaching a high of more than US$1 billion in disclosed funding in 2018.

“The demographic in Southeast Asia has favourable elements supporting investment into proptech. This includes a young and growing tech savvy population, urbanization and a growing real estate footprint fuelled by strong economic growth and higher market transparency. We expect investments to continue in the region and play an increasingly influential role in the way real estate is managed and transacted,” said Chris Fossick, CEO, JLL Southeast Asia.

Last year, proptech startups in the region raised US$625.9 million, out of which, Southeast Asia raised a total of US$72.9 million. Out of the 38 total deal counts in 2019, the region accounted for 11 of these deals, clocking in the second highest record of deals as well as funding across of Asia Pacific.

Jordan Kostelac, Director of Proptech, JLL Asia Pacific, explained: “These figures are only indicative of VC interest and they’re less reflective of what’s really happening in our industry. In our work with clients and fellow corporates, we are seeing that interest in proptech in Asia Pacific continues to grow, with traditional players taking a strategic, integrated approach with start-ups instead of the VC investment route.”

Funding

Early-stage VC investor Strive makes the final close of its third fund at over US$100M

Early-stage VC fund Strive (formerly known as Gree Ventures) has announced the closing of its third Asia fund at more than US$100 million.

The fund was launched in April 2019 and it’s being deployed into seed-stage opportunities in the B2B sector across Southeast Asia, India, and Japan, as reported by Tech In Asia.

Also Read: GREE Ventures rebrands to STRIVE, announces $130M

The new fund includes investors such as returning limited partners and government-backed SME Support Japan, social media company Gree, and Mizuho Financial Group members Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Capital.

The fund was first announced with US$130 million raised in May 2019 and was already being invested into edutech startup ClassPlus and Tokyo-based application programming interface for know-your-customer services, TrustDock.

With its third fund, the firm said it has also co-invested with other leading VCs such as Sequoia Capital, Monk’s Hill Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Accel Partners, so it can establish itself as a cross-border Asian fund with a presence in India, Southeast Asia, and Japan. Recently, Strive promoted Nikhil Kapur, who led the third fund invested into a dozen investments for four years, as a partner.

Social fans club platform Superfanz raises seed funding led by NXT Ventures

Superfanz, Asia-based social fan club platform for creators (KOL, Influencers, YouTubers, and similar), announced today that it has raised a seven-figure seed round of funding led by NXT Ventures after launching its platform.

According to an article by Asia One, the investment follows a six-figure angel round with a prominent investor and tech entrepreneur in July 2019.

Superfanz seeks to address the pain point in which over 90 per cent of the creators do not earn enough money from their social media accounts to make a living.

The startup launched its Android app at the end of last year and is officially soft-launching a Pan-Asian fan club platform for creators and special interest groups this year across Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

People

LinkAja CEO resigns to join MD of Good Doctor Indonesia

Danu Wicaksana, CEO of Indonesian e-wallet provider LinkAja has left the company to join healthtech company Good Doctor Technology Indonesia as its Managing Director. He will oversee the operation of Good Doctor Technology via Grab’s in-app health channel Grabhealth.

Wicaksana updated its personal LinkedIn profile to confirm the move that has taken place since February, as reported by TechInAsia.

Also Read: Together with Ping An, GrabHealth starts to show its teeth in Indonesia

Wicaksana has been CEO of LinkAja for three years, since it was still using the TCash brand, owned by Telkomsel). LinkAja itself is a product of several government-owned e-wallets that merged into one.

Good Doctor Technology that welcomes Wicaksana is a healthtech company formed by Grab and China-grown O2O healthcare Ping An Good Doctor.

Global investment firm KKR welcomes Chee-Wei Wong as Asia’s Head of Global Impact

KKR, a global investment firm, has announced the expansion of KKR’s Global Impact team by appointing Chee-Wei Wong as Head of Global Impact for Asia.

In the role, Wong, based in Singapore, is responsible for sourcing investment opportunities and supporting impact-related portfolio companies across Asia Pacific. Wong will also serve as a member of the firm’s Global Impact Investment Committee.

Prior to joining KKR, Wong was a MD at Tailwind Capital in New York and spent nine years at EQT in New York and Singapore, where he was an investor and board member of sustainability-focused technology enterprises and healthcare companies. Before that, he was a consultant at Bain & Company and a Justices’ Law Clerk in the Supreme Court of Singapore.

Focussing on identifying and investing behind global opportunities where financial performance and societal impact are intrinsically aligned, the firm’s business specifically lays eyes on companies whose core business models provide commercial solutions that contribute measurable progress toward one or more of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The addition of Wong follows KKR Global Impact’s recent international expansion with the appointments of Stanislas de Joussineau as Head of Global Impact for Europe and Sharon Yang as a senior investor for KKR Global Impact in Asia.
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Picture Credit: Strive

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Sales automation firm Novocall lands US$500K from 500 Durians, others

Novocall, a Singaporean startup that automates sales processes for agents, has raised US$500,000 in a round led by 500 Durians, the Southeast Asia-focussed fund of 500 Startups.

Other participants in this round include 500 Startups Thailand, Expara Asia Ventures, and Exabytes founder and CEO Chan Kee Siak.

The funding will be used to support the company’s expansion plan, according to a press statement. While Novocall already has clients in Singapore and Malaysia, it is looking forward to expanding to Indonesia and Thailand.

The B2B SaaS platform claimed that its services are currently used by over 2,000 businesses across 42 countries, more popularly among small- and medium-sized enterprises in the education and travel sectors.

Honestbee slashes a big chunk of its staff yet again

Singaporean delivery startup Honestbee is laying off around 100 employees which make 80 per cent of its workforce, according to a Deal Street Asia report. The exact number of layoff remains undisclosed.

Also Read: honestbee to get US$7M to repay its creditors: Report

“Due to several external commercial pressures that have resulted in the closure of habitat by Honestbee, the company has made the strategic decision to reduce its staff force. As a result, the company has decided to reduce its non-core staff as it does not foresee operating habitat in its full strength over the next few weeks,” said an Honestbee spokesperson.

Honestbee’s court hearing on restructuring itself will be held on March 26.

Singaporean healthcare venture fund invests in lung cancer detection company Breath Diagnostics

Breath Diagnostics announced today that it has raised a “significant” amount of capital from Singaporean healthcare venture fund HealthXCapital, according to a press statement.

The two organisations plan to collaborate to pursue pan-Asian investment, conduct clinical studies, and execute market penetration strategies across the US and Asia.

“Despite the region’s dramatic growth in recent decades, cancer screening in Asia is still a challenge thus exposing the vast majority of the population to cancer risks,” said Seemant Jauhari, Partner at HealthXCapital.

Revolut introduces new countries for currency transfer across Southeast Asia

Revolut will be launching new and direct remittance routes to major countries across Southeast Asia, including India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, according to the company statement. The exact date of the launch has not been confirmed yet, and the feature will be available for all cards.

The fintech company will also be offering other perks like one per cent cashback in 28 currencies, on domestic and international transactions, however, this will only be available for metal card users.

Also Read: Following its recent debut in Singapore, Revolut launches Metal Visa card in the market

“Since Revolut launched in Singapore in October 2019, we have understood this nation’s rich cultural and demographic mix, making cross-border transfers one of the most valuable features to our customers. We’ve only just begun – these new routes demonstrate our commitment to put our customers first and indicate our next steps towards breaking down financial borders,” said Eddie Lee, APAC Regional Director of Operations at Revolut.

India’s Unbox Robotics secures US$500K to bring parcel sorting solutions for logistics providers

Bangalore-based startup Unbox Robotics has raised US$500,000 from Arali Ventures & CIIE.CO, The Innovation Continuum at IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Ahmedabad today, according to a press statement.

Founded by ex-Flipkart employee Pramod Ghadge the business aims to eliminate the inefficiencies in current warehouse automation solutions like space utilisation, installation time, and capital involved.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Proptech investments in Southeast Asia grew to US$72.9M in 2019, says study

“The leading e-commerce players across the globe compete to draw in demanding customers with same-day deliveries, discounts, and simplified returns. Warehouse efficiency and lowered costs could prove to be key enablers for the growth of robotics and AI in the logistics sector. Unbox’s space-efficient robots and AI software will make the warehouse powerful and smaller, bringing them closer to customers to offer faster deliveries,” said Vipul Patel, Partner – Seed Investing at CIIE.CO.

Trax closes retail service platform Survey acquisition

Singapore-based retail tech unicorn Trax announced that it has acquired mobile data collection technology for retail, Survey.com at an undisclosed amount according to Tech in Asia.

The startup has made acquisitions all across China, Europe, and North America with Paris based Qopiuss being the most recent one.

Trax aims to create a “closed-loop merchandising system for physical retail,” according to a statement. With the acquisition, the company targets wider reach across CPG (consumer package goods) brands

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Image Credit: Novocall

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Manila-based accelerator programme IdeaSpace announced today the launch of Opportunity Fund, which aims to invest in startups within and outside of the company’s portfolio.

According to a press statement, the fund aims to cater to early-stage to pre-Series A startups, particularly founders who may be looking for funding to help make key business and strategic decisions.

The size of the fund was undisclosed.

IdeaSpace further explained about its PHP1 million (US$20,000) investment into Coins.ph. When the startup was acquired by Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek in January 2019, IdeaSpace said that they netted a five-times return.

The accelerator has since invested in companies such as 1Export, Experience Philippines, Cocotel, Airship, TimeFree Innovations, and to startups outside of the IdeaSpace network such as Acudeen and Qwikwire.

Also Read: Philippines’ IdeaSpace preps for ASEAN integration

“Our initial investment in Coins.ph showed us that there is another way for us to potentially support startups in their entrepreneurial journey,” noted IdeaSpace Executive Director Diane Eustaquio.

“Not all founders go into our acceleration programme and there’s still a lot of talent and leadership potential in the ecosystem. The Opportunity Fund is a way for us to support those founders and through our investment, show them that they’re on the right track,” she continued.

e27 has reached out to IdeaSpace to find out more details about their plan with the fund.

As a non-profit organisation, IdeaSpace has mentored and supported 91 startups under its incubation and acceleration programme. It has invested over PHP200 million (US$3.9 million) worth of support into the Philippine startup ecosystem.

IdeaSpace is supported by First Pacific, First Pacific Leadership Academy, Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), Metro Pacific Hospital, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), Meralco, Smart Communications, Inc (Smart), Indofood, Philex Mining, Maynilad, and TV5.

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Image Credit: Yannes Kiefer on Unsplash

 

 

 

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Singapore-based Credence Partners has announced the launch of its first venture capital fund and has made the first close at US$50 million.

The VC firm targets the final close at US$100 million.

Credence will invest mainly in Series A and B companies in Southeast Asia. It looks to invest in defensible businesses solving real problems, led by robust and thoughtful founders leading high-performing teams.

The fund has a preference for investing in the enterprise, B2B and B2B2C business models in industries such as fintech, deeptech, consumer, logistics & mobility and tech-enabled businesses.

Also Read: IdeaSpace launches new fund for early-stage startups in the Philippines

Founded in 2006 by Koh Boon Hwee, Tan Chow Boon and Seow Kiat Wang, Credence believes in building portfolio value by applying a private equity mindset to early-stage companies.

“Applying the PE mindset means we will guide and focus the startups on leadership and talent management, on operational fundamentals, with a strong focus on building out commercialisation and business development growth engines,” said Chairman Hwee.

Since its first close, the fund has committed to three investments — a deeptech software company that identifies and quantifies cognitive states wirelessly, a pure-play digital bank, and a mobile-only micro-lending company.

Hwee is a well-known figure in the tech and startup ecosystem in Singapore. As per Crunchbase, he has so far made 28 investments in his personal capacity in companies, including Zookal, Igloohome, Solarhome, Shohos and Square Yards. He also has two exits to his name — Pie and CombineSell.

In the past, he has held key positions in SingTel, Singapore Airlines, DBS Bank, and Temasek, among many others.

The post Koh Boon Hwee’s new US$100M VC fund Credence Partners to invest in Series A, B firms in Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.

When fintech first came on the scene, the term was generally applied to the technology used in the back-end of financial institutions.

Nowadays, fintech is at the forefront of banking, giving rise to completely automated financial services with peer-to-peer lending platforms, cryptocurrency and internet banking revolutionising the way people bank, borrow and invest. 

These innovations in technology are making way for a financial and technology crossover space, where fintech and big banks are being forced to either compete or collaborate.

Big banks resistant to change

Big banks have been under increased pressure from fintech startups, particularly when this current tech-savvy generation is finding the offerings of internet banking and peer-to-peer services more enticing. 

Many argue that big banks are designed to resist change, and instead of undergoing a digital transformation, these establishments are setting out to compete against fintech to kill change. 

A lot of systems inside a bank, such as risk and compliance functions, are in place to stop such changes from happening. The main argument big banks have against collaborating with fintech is that it creates risk. 

In the UK, the Bank of England admitted that fintech could disrupt the stability of funding of incumbent banks. There is fear that in this ever-changing landscape, fintech’s lucrative services could drive consumers away from the big banks. 

On an existential level, fintech is raising the bar on how consumers think about banking. Not only do fintech’s provide great products, offers, and transparency, but they also provide a very high standard of customer care, despite not having the same level of human interaction as traditional banks do.

Also Read: Trust before technology: Why fintechs need to put more emphasis on trust

Partnerships driving fintech sector

Naturally, some big banks have begun to reposition this threat that fintech brings as an opportunity to take partnership.

By partnering and collaborating with smaller fintech startups, big banks are finding that they have the opportunity to further accelerate industry growth. 

Many can argue that banking has always been about technology and that fintech’s rise represents an evolution for traditional banking. 

Online banking platforms such as peer-to-peer lending platforms are complements to banks since they can help to improve financial inclusion.

Where banks thrive on a loyal customer-base, P2P platforms expand access to credit to borrowers underserved by the traditional banking system. In the same way, fintech’s help to fill in the gaps that traditional banks lack and help to expand markets. 

Specific fintech solutions can help to provide superior solutions for banks, giving them the opportunity to keep up with consumer demands and open up a larger customer base. 

There are some good examples of big banks complementing rather than competing with fintech. 

Some recent events proving that fintech is entering mainstream banking in a positive way include:

ANZ, Commonwealth and NAB banks with Fitbit

By leveraging existing wearable technology, Fitbit has partnered with big banks allowing them further growth and development, increasing the mobility of payments.

Also Read: How fintech is disrupting the Southeast Asian payments market

Visa and Plaid

Credit card giant Visa has recently announced its partnership with Plaid, a platform that provides digital finance products. Plaid’s products provide consumers with a convenient way to share their financial information with a variety of apps. Visa’s partnership with Plaid has seen one in four of its users using Plaid to make the connection to its mobile banking app, amounting to more than 200 million user accounts. 

Intuit and Credit Karma

American business and financial software company Intuit confirmed that it will acquire Credit Karma. The personal finance company offers consumers free access to their credit score, helps them to file taxes, shop for loans, and more. It boasts “the largest engaged member base in consumer digital finance with more than 100 million members, with 37 million monthly active users.”

The key takeaway from these examples is that fintech isn’t something Big Banks necessarily have to fear or compete with. The rise of fintech has merely opened doors by helping financial institutions to grow and expand, making it more cheaper and convenient for the average person to complete financial tasks. 

Summing up

While rumours remain high in regard to there being a growing competition between big banks and fintech startups, both have proven to be diverse enough on their own to be able to crossover and complement one another without implication. 

Many big banks hold the view that fintech can cause disruption to traditional institutions, and that they bring with them the threat of risk. Yet while fintech’s aren’t necessarily crucial to the growth and success of a bank, the collaboration between the two can bring about a competitive edge. 

Globally, there has been a rise in big banks successfully partnering with fintech’s, and both are reaping the benefits of this collaboration. 

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Kickstart Ventures has lately been in the news for its US$200 million funds deployment plans in the Philippines. For the country’s startup scene, which is believed to be lagging behind other countries in the region despite a mature infrastructure, it’s an encouraging sign.

It established itself as one of the most active VC firms in the Philippines with a total of three funds deployed since its incorporation in 2012. 

Kickstart was started with a US$2.4 million fund with the mandate to source innovation by nurturing early-stage (pre-Seed to Series A) startups to scale.

According to Co-founder and President Minette Navarrete, Kickstart’s grassroots approach allows it to fully integrate into the country’s startup ecosystem, build relationships across geographical and corporate borders, and invest in some of the most promising, innovative local startups.

Its success was followed by the creation of its second fund worth US$50 million in 2015. This fund provided Kickstart wth the ability to engage with and support early-growth stage (Series A to C) tech startups in the Philippines and beyond.

“In the early days, Kickstart focussed on startups, which have reached the early growth stages with the normally established product-market fit and with a focus on increasing traction and rapid scaling. As a corporate VC, we believe that Kickstart is best-positioned to support the needs of these early-growth stage startups by making available the scale, expertise, and experience of Globe Telecom and the Ayala Corporation,” said Navarette.

Also Read: Kickstart Ventures to manage Ayala’s US$150M Corporate VC fund in Philippines

“By facilitating these opportunities, Kickstart can co-create a more mature and enabling innovation ecosystem where innovators can thrive, and innovation is sustained, and tech startups and large enterprises are supportive of each other,” she continued.

The firm itself is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom, which counts Ayala Corporation and Singtel among its shareholders.

e27sat with Navarrete for an interview. She explained that while the VC firm operates independently, it collaborates closely with colleagues in Globe Telecom, Ayala, and Singtel to ensure that the deals made are strategically aligned, in addition to offering financial returns as investments.

Can you explain the reasons and expectations behind focusing on early to early-growth stage tech startups investment for the latest fund?

Minette Navarrete (MN): For our third fund in 2019, the US$195M Ayala ACTIVE Fund was announced and that Kickstart would manage it. The focus of the second fund will continue to be early to growth-stage startups, but broadens the investment scope to include early-growth stage tech startups in the various industries that the Ayala has interests in. They include property and construction, banking, utilities, manufacturing, education, healthcare, and of course, telco.

As a corporate VC that is future-forward in its vision, we ensure that we provide the startups we invest in with enough support to succeed. This means that beyond putting in capital, we also provide them with market access and connections as well as mentorship opportunities that can help them grow positively.

Can you share more details on the four different investment themes: A Frictionless Future, From Automation to Augmentation, Smarter Living, and A World of Plenty. How Kickstart plans to make it work on the larger goal of “leveraging on tech to transform lives and communities”?

MN: Nation building is at the forefront of Ayala’s list of responsibilities for their fund. In line with this, the Ayala Corporation decided to invest in the future through these four investment themes.

A Frictionless Future explores the integration of offline and online lives by merging digital and traditional channels that can improve equality and inclusivity in societies.

This is something we’ve seen with fintech companies such as GCash that are helping to fill gaps that build barriers for the general population who want to utilise e-commerce services but are unable to do so due to a lack of bank accounts or credit cards.

Also Read: Kickstart Ventures and Tencent jointly invest in Canadian media company Wattpad

Automation to Augmentation looks at the technologies that enhance human capital and improves our ways of working. These are innovations that can make work less dangerous, less repetitive, more productive, and more engaging and meaningful.

This includes innovations in data science and Big Data, leading us to make better decisions, applications of AI, and machine learning that complement and enhance human capabilities, and applications of augmented and virtual reality that offer new ways of presenting the information.

Smarter Livinglooks at improving the quality of life in the spaces that we interact and engage with, that we live in.

This includes IoT applications for smart homes and smart communities. It includes city management, making the city better and safer, and property and construction tech, making building and construction faster, safer, and more efficient.

A World of Plenty looks to address the many gaps and inefficiencies in the world that contribute to inequality and scarcity.

This involves improvements in the discovery, collection, and distribution of utilities such as water and energy, and it also includes ensuring access to basic needs such as healthcare and education.

Can you tell us about Kickstart’s support for Singapore based/founded companies like igloohome and yup.gg?

MN: The four themes mentioned before will touch on some areas of interest that Kickstart has already invested in. Igloohome is a smart access startup that envisions “a world without keys”. It speaks to the theme of Smarter Living. 

Yup.gg is an e-sports and gaming company that aims to better connect gaming content creators with brands and advertisers looking to engage with consumers in new and more authentic ways. It speaks to the theme of a Frictionless Future.

Singapore is still widely considered as a hub for businesses that aim to have a regional presence in Southeast Asia. It also serves as a launching pad for many ASEAN startups with global ambitions.

For startups founded in the Philippines, we offer guidance about how they may be able to future-proof their corporate structures, and this frequently includes setting up a Singapore entity while maintaining a local operating entity. 

In the case of Lifetrack Medical Systems, this allowed them to more easily establish a presence in Singapore and eventually move their headquarters there to aid in the expansion of their international operations.

For startups that originate in Singapore or other markets outside of the Philippines, we’re able to provide them with the support to enter the Philippine market and to establish a presence here as needed. 

With the rapidly growing internet and connected device penetration and a growing young consumer population, the Philippine market is proving to be attractive startups, such as igloohome in the smart home space and yup.gg in the eSports and gaming space.

Can you share about Kickstart’s future plan and ongoing innovation?

MN: Kickstart acts as the innovation scout of Globe Telecom. We search for tech startups whose innovations align with the strategic interests of the Globe while enriching the local startup ecosystem.

Through our work with Funds 1 and 2 with Globe over the past eight years, we’ve been given the opportunity to extend this mission on behalf of Ayala with the Ayala ACTIVE Fund.

Whereas with Globe, we focussed on digital tech startups, we now have the mandate to broaden our reach across all of the entire Ayala’s broad interests.

Also Read: Kickstart Ventures makes investment in cloud-based networking company Teridion

Kickstart will contribute to Ayala’s mission of innovation towards nation building by investing in the future we believe in. This future is defined by the Ayala ACTIVE Fund’s four investment themes.

Can you weigh in on what will Southeast Asia, especially the Philippines’s future become in tech investment?

MN: Collectively, Southeast Asia represents one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Driven by rapidly increasing connected devices and Internet penetration, and a large emerging middle class, the region is abundant with opportunity for its startup ecosystems.

Despite being a region of geographically distributed and culturally unique markets, we’re starting to see more and more inter-country collaboration and investing over the past few years. With a total population of more than 650 million — twice that of the US — there is still a lot of potentials that can be unlocked.

We believe that the Philippines is a key market for any aspiring unicorn in Southeast Asia.

While Singapore remains the financial hub of the region, and Indonesia is the most populous market (250 million-plus people), the Philippines has the second largest population of the region (100 million-plus people) and can be an effective entry point into the region for new products and services.

While the Philippines startup ecosystem has not matured at the same rate as some of its ASEAN peers, there are reasons to believe that this will change soon. Government support is increasing with recent legislation enacted such as the Philippine Innovation Act and the Innovative Startup Act while the availability of private capital and support for tech startups has increased significantly with many Philippine conglomerates recently establishing CVC funds (for example, JGDev from JG Summit, UBX from UnionBank, and of course, Ayala ACTIVE Fund from Ayala Corporation). We’re optimistic that it’s an uphill climb from here onwards for the Philippines.

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Picture Credit: Kickstart Ventures

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Fashion tech VC firm Lyra Ventures announces new Japan-backed global fund

Fashion tech VC firm Lyra Ventures, which was formerly known as Start Today Ventures, announced the launch of their second fund with investment from TSI Holdings, one of Japan’s largest fashion conglomerates.

This announcement follows Lyra Ventures’ recent investment into the US retail platform Neighborhood Goods, a move that has been heralded as “the reinvention of the department store.”

The investment from TSI Holdings complements Lyra Ventures’ existing partnership with ZOZO Co. Ltd, Japanese fashion e-commerce operator.

The new fund, Lyra Ventures said, allows it to focus exclusively on global opportunities. In particular, the experience and international operating expertise of Lyra Ventures’ team and advisors in providing a strategic platform for companies that are ready to expand to Japan and Southeast Asia.

Lyra Ventures’ earlier investments include Syte AI —a visual AI technology provider whose clients include Farfetch, Marks & Spencer, Boohoo, and ZOZO, and UK-based customer engagement SaaS solution Mercaux.

Indonesian waste management startup Waste4Change gets funding from three VCs

Bekasi-based waste management startup Waste4Change received an undisclosed amount of funding from Agaeti Ventures, East Ventures, and SMDV, Tech In Asia reported.

Waste4Change said it plans to use the funding to increase its waste management capacity, targeting to contain at least 2,000 tonnes of waste per day in 2024. The startup also plans to launch an integrated smart city management platform in collaboration with other waste management system provider Sampah Muda from Semarang.

Waste4Change was established in 2014 by Environmental Engineering graduate Mohamad Bijaksana Junerosano. In addition to offering waste collection and management service, the startup also offers consultancy, education, and environmental campaign.

Global student support platform Zookal raises US$9.8M to set foot in Southeast Asia

Australian edutech startup Zookal, which provides a variety of services and products, announces that it has raised US$9.8 million in equity funding, looking to accelerate the company’s growth in Southeast Asia.

Existing investors Koh Boon Hwee (former Chairman of Singapore Airlines and technology investor) and Bernard Sabrier (Chairman of USD$26 billion funds, Unigestion) led the round with participation from Wee Hur Holdings Ltd, a publicly listed Singaporean construction and property development company that has a portfolio of purpose-built student accommodation.

Also Read: Zookal raises US$550K for student textbook rental portal, eyes SEA

The capital raised will support the company’s growth in Southeast Asia by allowing Zookal to triple the size of its engineering team and make strategic hires. The hiring includes its recently appointed VP of engineering Manuel Silva, who was the former director of engineering and consumer product of The Iconic.

Ahmed Haider, Co-founder, and CEO of Zookal said, “Southeast Asia is a very attractive market with our digital users growing to 300,000 in just eight months. Our goal is to reach 10 million students in the coming years as Asia comes online by making education more affordable and accessible to them.”

Moovaz secures Series A funding from supply chain company YCH Group’s venture arm SCAngels

Moovaz, Singapore-based relocation solution startup, announces an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from YCH Group, the supply chain solutions company, through its corporate venture arm SCAngels.

According to Tech In Asia, Moovaz said it will use the funding to develop features that will simplify processes in the global relocation industry.

Went online just a year ago, Moovaz works with its global network of more than 2,000 certified moving service providers as partners.

As a co-investment partner of SCAngels, SGInnovate will also contribute to the funding.

Medtech startup Cardiotrack gets funding from Singapore-based Frontline Strategy Funds

Singapore-based private equity platform Frontline Strategy Funds announces that it has led an investment in the Singapore-headquartered medtech startup Cardiotrack, along with other angel investors. According to an article by YourStory, Cardiotrack will use the funds to grow its customer base in India and international markets.

Cardiotrack was founded by Avin Agarwal and Ashim Roy. It aims to bridge the gap between healthcare providers and chronic patients for affordable access to healthcare and better disease management. The platform has an end-to-end disease management platform with diagnostic-grade medical devices connected to the mobile, cloud, and AI technology.

It includes 12-channel portable ECG and remote medical consultation services through its network of trained and certified medical professionals. In more than 16 countries where it has presences, it offers portable medical devices, report interpretation, and medical consultation for home screening, corporate wellness screening, and health camps to support chronic patients anywhere and anytime.

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Image Credit: Lyra Ventures

 

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Personalised customer experience is now possible at better values. With a filtered, informed insight on consumer demands, companies may also tailor-fit their inventories, saving wasteful production costs. Efforts are optimised, and
customers are satisfied. Both parties win.

Nike, the world’s biggest and most prolific sports retail brand, has taken this personalised customer experience offering a notch higher by combining its recommendation tool with augmented reality tech. In select markets, customers may determine their shoe sizes by simply taking a photo of their feet through its mobile app. The sizes are even optimised per shoe type. A customer’s best fit may be a size nine for a Nike Pegasus but a size 8.5 for a Nike Cortez, since running shoes need more space for better cushioning.

The company’s execs say the app can determine the shoe size of a customer better as it learns over time, so if a customer buys more shoes, the app will get better in the long run. That may be more of a marketing tactic to get you to buy more shoes, but I would bet that it works.

This is just the beginning of the transformational effects of AI on businesses. According to the latest IDC survey in 2018, only 14 per cent of businesses in Southeast Asia have adopted the technology. With more embracing the tech, artificial intelligence is set to transform not just board rooms but production lines too.

In the Philippines, AI is already threatening to massively upend an entire industry—business process outsourcing. Chatbots or AI-operated assistants have proven to be the quicker and more cost-efficient responder to customer inquiries, replacing human call centre agents altogether.

Also Read: How not to build a bot: 3 steps to a cringeworthy chatbot experience

Conversational commerce

Commerce is perhaps one area where AI seems to be making the most noticeable leaps and bounds. When Siri was introduced by Apple in 2011, retailers thought customers would eventually shop for their favourite clothes or their pantry needs as easily as calling a friend through voice assistants. Almost a decade since though, the market, especially in emerging countries, is yet to embrace voice commerce. But they’ve turned to another force of conversations today to do the shopping in their stead: chat assistants.

In the Philippines, the third most visited platform is Facebook Messenger, with nine out of 10 internet users in the country utilizing the service regularly. Aware of Filipinos’ love for chat, some consumer brands, including financial services such as banks and e-wallets, have deployed highly interactive chatbots on its Facebook pages to engage with customers.

Philippine startup Aiah is one of the leading startups in the Philippines to develop interactive bots for select brands that want to participate in conversational commerce. It has automated chat conversations for brands to help them with leads generation or customer service. “For one of our clients, we have automated how the page will respond when a user clicks on their ad on Facebook, which fast-tracked the application process for the service o$ered,” Aiah co-founder Gian Paulo dela Rama said.

The chatbot, instead of just forwarding the inquiry to a human customer service officer, interacts with the user instead, asking standard questions, from requesting the applicant’s name to requesting their identification documents.

At the backend, the chatbot also simultaneously checks if that specific user’s location can be catered to by the specific service offered by Aiah’s client since it’s site-sensitive. That mere process alone has optimised the application process, enabling the company to cut it down from two weeks to two days.

Also Read: Ways to improve your brand awareness with chatbots

And this is just the beginning of the chatbots’ takeover. Gian has shared that in a few years’ time, chatbots will also get better at identifying the tone of the customer, so the bot can anticipate negative emotions and have better responses to prevent dissatisfaction. Chatbots can help brands provide a drastically better customer experience. Empathy can even be taught to machines.

Already, chatbots are cheaper, faster and sometimes more effective than their human counterparts. After all, chatbots don’t get exhausted from hours of responding to human inquiries. The exciting part is, chatbots are just one level of automation. The more labour-extensive work happens at the backend, which
involves another type of AI—robot process automation.

If chatbots automate responses on any messaging service, RPA (robot process automation) automates any manual work with a computer. Think of any job that involves paper, forms, or interactions. Soon, encoding work will be done by computers alone. There are computers today that can scan hundreds and thousands of forms in 24 hours. Imagine how transformative that can be to companies that still rely on human agents to manually type out written text, and encoders who sit day in and day out just transferring written text to the screen.

In the insurance technology or insurtech space, Saphron, has found a way to make the lives of their agents easier by giving them an AI-powered assistant called NAN.AI. A bot on Messenger, NAN.AI allows agents to simply upload the photo of application forms online, which then identifies the written text and enters it into the system as fully-parsed data. This cuts the onboarding process from days to mere minutes, transferring the manual work of typing out thousands of text “fields to the machine. With a faster process, Saphron is able to provide more in less time, helping not just the agent but the insured customers as well.

AI is set up to complement human work, freeing humans from simple, routine jobs, and allowing people to do more creative, stimulating tasks. Technology has always been adapted to humans, not the other way around. AI’s ability to do simple tasks at scale has also made deployment of seemingly sophisticated tasks
easier, allowing more markets to have access to better opportunities.

Also Read: Ways to improve your brand awareness with chatbots

That immense impact to markets is already felt in the fintech scene, where startups are utilising machine learning to reach unserved and underserved markets more efficiently.

The country’s leading microinsurance provider, CARD MRI, for example, now employs AI to develop a credit scoring scheme for the masses. The company feels it could provide affordable, formal loans to those at the bottom of the pyramid, where the majority of their five-million large customer base doesn’t have the documents for a traditional bank.

To do this, they are filtering their current customer dataset based on a set of criteria. The criteria would allow them to see the customers who are diligent payors, those who have good credit history and even the amounts they are paying. From just their dataset alone, CARD MRI already knows who will most likely be the best customers to provide better loan packages, without checking their documents. Suddenly, the five million customer base is down to a few hundred thousand —a customer base their agents could better focus their efforts on and help with their financial needs.

That effort would have taken months, even years, if done by a few hundred agents who will assess each loan applicant’s documents. It frees up both the company from laborious work and the customer from going through rigorous effort just to complete requirements. It all seems beneficial on paper to the loan provider, but with this kind of process, the customer is also given access to better packages with less waiting time.

That could be life-changing for the market CARD wants to serve, especially when chances are, their lives are a race against time. It could mean a student gets to pay tuition on time, or a farmer can buy the proper fertilisers for richer harvests next season. AI is now increasingly affecting everyday customers, even without their knowing.

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This story has been excerpted by courtesy of the publisher from Ready or Not 2020: The 5 Trends Changing the Landscape of Business by Winston Damarillo (Talino Venture Labs, 2020).

To purchase the book, please visit this site.

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Quona Capital closes US$203M round to focus on fintech companies in emerging markets

American VC firm Quona Capital, which focussed in growth-stage fintech companies in emerging markets such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America, announced the close of its second fund at US$203 million, according to Tech in Asia.

The fund has been said to exceed its US$150 million target, and receives support from various global asset managers, insurance companies, banks, university endowments, family offices, and development finance institutions.

Some of the firm’s investments in Southeast Asia include Koinworks, Julo, Sunday, and Ula.

Frogs Indonesia carries out flying taxi test flight in Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta-based startup Frogs Indonesia has carried out test flights of its two-seater all-electric taxi Frogs 282 at Gading Airport in Gunung Kidul regency on Saturday, according to Asiaone.

Developed over the past two years, the taxi floated a few centimetres above the ground during a series of trials and was examined by technicians after it landed. However, Frogs Indonesia CTO Dedi Satria Maulana expressed his dissatisfaction of the prototype.

According to him, improvements need to be done to the machine to cope with the “rather heavy” air density in the regency.

The test was conducted to prepare for the upcoming 2020 Hannover Messe technology exhibition in Germany.

2C2P adds Eva Weber as investment director to accelerate growth

Payment services company 2C2P announced today that it has appointed Eva Weber as its Investment Director.

With experience in the financial services industry, Weber will be responsible for future investments as well as investor relations.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Fashion tech VC firm Lyra Ventures launches new fund

Most recently, Weber led financial planning and investor relations at Adyen, a global payment company headquartered in the Netherlands.

Undeterred by COVID-19, Hong Kong’s Omnichat lands US$800K seed fund from AppWorks

Hong Kong-based e-commerce messaging platform Omnichat announced that it has raised NT$24 million (US$800,000) seed funding round led by AppWorks. Joining the round was Aria Group and other undisclosed investors.

The proceeds will be used for customer acquisition and expansion within and outside of Taiwan, with plans to launch in Singapore and Malaysia in 2021.

The Hong Kong startup has recently worked with brands including HH Herbal, TOYSELECT, and Moët Hennessy.

By the end of 2019, Omnichat claims to have 3,600 new customers, of which more than 70 per cent were from Taiwan.

India’s Paytm Mall Executive Director Rudra Dalmia quits after promotion

Paytm Executive Director Rudra Dalmia has quit the company only less than a year since his promotion, according to a report by Entrackr.

Paytm Mall is the online consumer marketplace division of the Paytm brand, one of the largest digital payment services in India.

Also Read: Owning your data is a basic human right, says blockchain-based startup Credifys Rasmus Kütt

“Dalmia resigned last month and is currently serving his notice period. His abrupt departure from the company raises questions on the coherence and longevity of Paytm Mall’s strategy,” the report quoted.

Indonesia mulls 2032 Olympics bid with SoftBank backing

Indonesian President Joko Widodo is considering to enter the bid for 2032 Olympics with potential financial support from SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son and other investors, Reuters wrote.

The plan centered around the country’s up-and-coming new capital in Borneo, which SoftBank had expressed interests to invest in.

Bahlil Lahadalia, chief of the country’s investment coordinating board (BKPM), stated that the government has submitted a bid for Jakarta.

Representatives of Grab and SoftBank have declined to comment.

–

Anisa Menur Maulani also contributed to the writing of this article.

Image Credit: Quona Capital

The post Afternoon News Roundup: Quona Capital closes US$203M to focus on fintech companies in emerging markets appeared first on e27.

Coined in the 2010s, in response to a surge in high-profile closures of brick-and-mortar retail stores in the US, the term “retail apocalypse” supposedly heralded the end of physical retail.

While the situation in Malaysia is not yet as dire, the retail landscape has changed, and the outlook for traditional retail in Malaysia is gloomy.

Just last year, Parkson Corp Sdn Bhd shuttered its department store outlet in Suria KLCC, where it had been since 1998; and, as footfall into shopping malls continues to dwindle, more closures could be on the horizon. 

However, it may not be the end of days for physical retail. In China, malls and traditional retailers are seeing a resurgence as they adopt technologies that give them a better understanding of their customers, enabling them to deliver a better experience and value.

Furthermore, they have also invested in converging the online and offline experience for their shoppers, giving them seamless experiences between their online and offline stores. 

It is unlikely that physical retail will completely die out; if anything, the movement of e-commerce retailers into the brick-and-mortar landscapes shows that consumers still have some preference for sampling products in real life before purchasing them.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Vietnam’s e-commerce startup Leflair accused of owing US$2M to suppliers

However, in order to stay abreast of the changing retail landscape, brick-and-mortar retailers must adapt to customers’ changing expectations. This includes adopting the latest trends and technologies such as experiential retail, mobile payments, and big data. 

Bringing small retailers up to speed

What are the challenges they face?

That said, this solution may come easier to some businesses than others. Big data, analytics, market research, and even large-scale experiential retail employed by brands like Sephora, have traditionally been seen as capital- and labour-intensive solutions available only to big players; for SMEs with limited funding and technological know-how, these solutions seem out of reach. 

According to a study, 69 per cent of SMEs have incorporated Industry 4.0 technologies into their operations, which is certainly a figure to be optimistic about. However, obstacles remain in the adoption of the latest technologies, in the form of insufficient finances, knowledge, or workforce talent. 

This is something we at Innergia Labs have realised first-hand while communicating with retailers: Some retailers lack awareness of the benefits of data, and how understanding customers through data can drive revenue; some retailers hesitate to adopt new systems out of a fear that they lack the manpower and expertise to use the tools effectively; others believe that adopting new technology is an expensive affair with an unclear return on their investment. 

The troubles facing small retailers only deepens when online retailers are included in the equation. In contrast to the struggling physical retail sector, ecommerce seems to be on the up-and-up, with online retail in Southeast Asia predicted to grow from $19 billion in 2018, to $53 billion in 2023.

Increasingly, consumers are turning to large online marketplace platforms, like Lazada and Shoppee, who are able to provide products at competitive prices and deliver them at convenience. Already, 80 per cent of Malaysian internet users are shopping online. 

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Malaysian e-commerce aggregator iPrice raises US$10M Series B financing

In order to remain competitive, retailers — big or small — must adapt. However, there is a significant gap in the adoption of beneficial technologies between big businesses and SMEs. When considering that 98.5 per cent of Malaysia’s business establishments are SMEs, this is something that requires immediate attention. 

How can these issues be addressed?

As the saying goes, “if you can’t beat them, join them.” For small retailers to thrive, they must get on board with the sort of technologies that their competitors are using. 

When devising solutions for small retailers, the constraints that SMEs face must be taken into consideration. To address the lack of capital that most SMEs have, the solutions offered must be priced fairly.

To address the manpower and knowledge shortage SMEs deal with, these tools must be easily implemented: the amount of resources required to start utilising them must be kept to a minimum — they should require as little extra hands, and extra knowledge as possible.

Of course, education is also paramount. More efforts must be made in reaching out to small retailers: They need to know that there are tangible benefits to adopting these tools, and that solutions they can afford exist in the market. 

An example of this is retail business analytics. With retail business intelligence software, data is no longer solely the domain of ecommerce and big businesses.

It is now possible for small retailers to gather data, to personalise their customers’ shopping experiences, craft sales strategies, and address the pain points of physical retail. 

Also Read: E-commerce trends: What to expect in 2020

Data collection addresses some of the unique pain points and challenges that small physical retailers face. These are the time and costs of manually collecting and managing sales data — which can take up to three days, or even more, when done traditionally — and shrinkage and pilferage by staff.

These problems are further exacerbated when expanding into multiple outlets as resources are spread thinner, resulting in a drain on revenue. With point-of-sale data analytics, managers can cut down on time spent rifling through and organizing sales data, and can quickly catch anomalies in sales records to nip pilferage at the bud. 

Furthermore, collecting data enables these small businesses to remain competitive by employing tailored sales strategies e-commerce-style. Just as most e-commerce websites gather data on consumers to personalise their shopping experience and thus drive sales, with the proper use of retail analytics, small businesses can identify sales patterns in the data they have retrieved and visualised, in order to craft sales strategies.

In the case of an F&B outlet, this could mean using retail analytics software to collect data on what their best-selling products are, what other products are bought alongside them, and what the average expenditure of each customer is. With this knowledge in hand, they can design a set meal that fits not just their customers’ tastes, but also their wallet size. 

In conclusion

Reports of physical retail’s death may have been greatly exaggerated, but it remains true that physical retailers must continually adapt in order to stay ahead of the game in the rapidly-changing retail landscape.

As SMEs form the backbone of Malaysia’s business establishments, it is imperative that they are not left behind. Now, there are more solutions available on the market that physical retailers — even those with limited capital — can utilise to give themselves that much-needed edge on the rocky road ahead.

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