There’s a lot of buzz and confusion around the term ‘digital workplace’. Many businesses make it a synonym of their collaboration tools, intranet software, and various network solutions.

But this is a shortsighted view of what a digital workplace can be. Leaders need to look beyond the past and into the future about how a digital workplace might really transform the entire ecosystem of work.

We interviewed business leaders around the world to see what they had to say about what a digital workplace is and what are the problems it will solve in 2020.

We asked, “How will a digital workplace help you at work in 2020?” Here are their most common responses.

Kill tab switching

“I think the biggest challenge of the digital workplace is that we all have like 20 applications and 100 tabs open at once, with Slack, email, and text notifications popping in overtop of it all. In 2020, I’ll be looking at any applications or systems that will help me avoid that kind of context switching so I can be more productive,” said Yaniv Masjedi, CMO at Nextiva.

Context switching is a real problem that most people do not think about. It is the new age equivalent of people dropping by your desk to discuss ‘work’, ‘not work’, and everything in between. It is affecting productivity in ways we don’t realise.

Data silos are the main reasons for tab switching. A classic example is the use of emails for ‘official’ internal communications and chats for all other communication.

Also read: Is technology killing workspace productivity? How to switch that around

Despite some clear differences, there aren’t standard rules in place for when to use each form. Thus, when its time to find the details of communication, you now have to search at least two places to find what you need.

API integrations can fetch data from different apps, and greatly reduce tab switching. However, it does not eliminate it. To have a higher impact on eliminating tab switching, transition your operations to multi-functional platforms from separate disparate tools.

Collaboration tools should work in tandem with projects

“The capabilities I want from a digital workplace are the following. First, I need a capable communication platform, which lets me send texts and make audio and video calls, as well as share my screen. Next, I need a feature that lets me manage my projects better. We built a tool that aims to blend these two together and I think it’s doing a good job so far,” says Dmytro Okunyev, founder at Chanty.

Many organisations are trying to build their own tools to bring their communication into their projects. Each project needs high-end analytics and reporting capabilities to really get control and insights over all the activities running within.

The next challenge is to take these insights into actions, to manage work, people, and their collaboration in one go. Many enterprises build their own tools for the purposes of customisability and data security. They cost a fortune, but get the job done in an efficient way.

However, there are some collaborative project management tools that SMBs and mid-markets could use to get the job done. They can still catch up with their enterprise giants if they realise this problem and start acting upon it.

Improved knowledge management

“We can also expect enterprises to pay greater attention to their employees’ competences and knowledge augmentation. In this context, digital workplaces could get expanded with previously unavailable knowledge management features.

I am looking forward to welcoming software solutions capable of sorting out batches of business content and capturing valuable knowledge that could be further automatically relocated to employees’ competence centres, as well as shared across teams and communities,” says Alex Paretski, Knowledge Manager at Itransition Group.

In today’s dynamic work environment, it is important to document and manage information that needs to be on common grounds for all-round access. Getting new employees up to speed is easier when they can find the resources by themselves and fill their knowledge gaps.

It also lightens the load on all teams when users can search for information right at their fingertips with ease- it simply gives a better experience for employees. With powerful search tools that can understand queries based on the context, a digital workplace should have knowledge management as a priority for every organisation.

Increased productivity with remote work

“As more people work from non-traditional locations (even within a traditional office), it’s critical for employees to provide tools to enable productivity while being mobile. The Capital One 2019 Work Environment Survey found that 61 percent of professionals expect their next employer to offer flexible hours, and 54 per cent expect the ability to work remotely.

To meet those expectations, business leaders and employees must make smart technology choices that allow for collaboration and seamless work/life integration,” says Christian Teismann, Senior VP and General Manager at Lenovo.

Also read: How I built business across three countries with only remote workers

Remote work has been on the rise over the last decade. It allows employees to work at their own time and place. Studies have shown that the performance of employees increases when they work remotely.

But how to make remote work a reality that works for both the organisation and employees?

The best way forward is to give employees the right digital tools to stay connected to work. It has to be the right mix of providing maximum functionality and flexibility along with data security.

To keep a tab on everything, it is also necessary to reduce the number of apps used by employees to get more visibility.

Employee-centric approach while adapting to new technology

While software applications are expected to become more intelligent, employees will need to be empowered to leverage these technologies to become more effective and productive.

Until now, the solution to any work problem is looking for digital tools. However, the biggest mistake is assuming that buying and implementing a tool will solve the problem automatically.

Make sure that employees adapt to a new work culture with those new tools. Only then will you see a significant change in ROI.

After all, employees are human beings with habits that are hard to change.

How to approach a digital workplace?

Digital workplace initiatives are bringing in a lot of benefits to businesses of all sizes. Even if the term ‘digital workplace’ is loosely defined, it is necessary for leaders to try and understand why people are talking about it.

The ideal approach to your digital workplace should be to identify the current needs of your business, get digital tools if required, and implement them in the system through people. The vision for a digital workplace is an ongoing wave. Better to ride it than be late to the party.

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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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What’s in a brand? It’s fundamentally so intangible but yet might just be the single most vital thing that draws loyalty and success for a business.

According to Steve Forbes, “Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business”. What does that mean for startups and how can founders start thinking about this when building a company?

We’ve been building Delegate for more than five years now and distinctly, it seems we have a brand. At the very basic, we have a brand identity — logo, colours, typography and the things that look great on paper.

We got many compliments on this and somehow have made it through the past few years with some consistency. Truth be told, I have no one else to thank but my Co-Founder for this — she has a great eye for detail and design.

As much as I loved our early days of picking colours and typography out of a catalogue, there comes a time in every startup’s lifecycle to connect the dots on what this all means. How does everything connect — our genesis, our values and where we want to be?

This is where we sought advice and guidance from the ecosystem. We had our core team sit through a half a day session with Peggy Wu from Monk’s Hill Ventures to understand how we can tie in branding with our growth.

Peggy has amassed years of experience consulting financial institutions and MNCs on their branding strategy. Since joining Monk’s Hill in 2019, she has shifted her attention to technology businesses and startups in Southeast Asia.

In my view, she’s bringing a wealth of professional strategy experience to the scrappy world of startups and doing us a huge favour!

Also read: From Kopi to a cool mil: Event marketplace Delegate raises US$1 million

The session, which is an adaptation of GV’s branding guide, has been tested and tried in Silicon Valley for startups. I found the session hugely impactful, which got me inspired to share some of our experiences and takeaways below.

20-year road map

Although we had the foresight to map out our vision from day one, it was ironically an exercise done in reverse. This means we came up with our product before we came up with the mission — no surprise, this is common in many other startups too.

As founders, we often need to do storytelling to stakeholders. We’ve always had a five to 10-year roadmap but never in my wildest dreams did I think we had to do this for 20 years. Let’s be real, the average lifespan of a tech startup is usually 3 to 5 years and 98% of startups are predicted to fail.

Hence, I never thought to even do this five years ago but since we’ve survived thus far, we decided it was time to start thinking further.

Think about Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and all the great companies had their own stories and have shifted focus on products. While understanding that the roadmap might change for the near and very far future (because all startups pivot at some point), what was interesting was not only about how our core team saw the future but also about how they saw the NOW.

The golden circle — Why, What and How?

We’ve all heard about Simon Sinek’s “Golden Circle” and how it should impact one’s purpose in life. I recently did an exercise on this during Founder’s Coaching Pause (FCP) on a personal basis and it was impactful. And yes, why not think about this from a company perspective?

A great example Peggy cited was Nike and how they wanted to inspire others through successful athletes — it made a lot of sense from all the ads they were putting out. But, how does that apply for a tech startup? How does that apply for Delegate?

Truthfully, many companies grow their businesses without the why — the why should be the purpose, cause and belief. It should be the reason why the company exists.

Then why should help convey a company’s passions that help drive emotions, trust and loyalty i.e. Why would someone want to work with your company? Why would investors want to be a part of this? Why would your customers be loyal to you?

The typical why any founder would put out would typically be a very specific problem statement and often falls in line with the start of their investor pitch. There’s nothing wrong with a specific problem statement but once you’ve done a 20-year plan, the why naturally becomes way bigger and a lot more visionary.

Within less than an hour, we came up with Delegate’s why. Our why is “To experience life better through connecting and celebrating memorable experiences”. The HOW and WHAT are naturally become things that are fairly obvious for a company but for definition sake, here goes:

HOW — The value proposition on what sets the company apart from its competitors

WHAT — The product

Truth be told, building a startup is tough work and sometimes, the regular notion of pivoting can allow you to lose track of the why. This is a great framework to get reminded of even if you’re pivoting. Don’t ever forget the WHY.

Cultural values

Being more data-driven in most of my decision making, cultural values are similarly intangible to me as to what branding is. We understand the culture and why it’s important especially for a startup. A loosely defined term I had in mind was this — we needed every one in our team to live and breathe these values in all aspects of operations and decision-making.

Here’s the caveat — I had no idea how it tied in with branding until Peggy connected the dots for me. Our 20-year plan and Golden Circle should in fact highlight our cultural values pretty evidently if we’re doing a good job at being authentic.

As our why tends to be the emotional connection to why the company exists, our culture values need to be how we live by this existence.

Top three audience

From a branding perspective, it’s pretty clear why we need to know our audience well. What the exercise helped us most with was aligning our core team’s perspective on our audience based on priority. It was exceptionally refreshing for me as a founder to hear how different team members trashed out discussions on why their priorities were different.

Also read: 6 tried-and-tested branding tips for your startup

As a company scales, more revenue channels come to surface and naturally, there’s a larger varied audience. The key takeaway here was to make sure everyone on the team was on the same page in terms of priorities.

What’s our personality?

As with what attracts us to friendships and relationships, we’re often drawn to brands of traits we can relate to. What’s in a brand? This is where all the tangible stuff is defined. Some things to think about:

• Why is Chanel seen as a luxury and elite brand? Is it just purely because of the cost?
• Google is seen to be a fun and playful company — their brand colours are vibrant.
• Why is Bloomberg seen as high authority as a financial resource above everyone else?

This was the most fun exercise for me especially because it was tangible and actual definitions could take place. Peggy made it fun by creating a personality slider for us to think about. Here are some examples. Whilst attempting to define this, think about the trait you are at now and where you’d like to to see yourself become as a company then, put a number to it.

• Elite Vs. Mass Appeal?
• Serious Vs. Playful?
• Conventional Vs. Rebel?
• Friend Vs. Authority?
• Mature/Classic Vs. Young/Innovative?

Thinking about these traits allow us to think of reasons related to our identity especially in design, marketing and communications. Think about why you would choose this font compared to another and why these colours make sense. Another level to think about things is to understand how you can use your traits to distinctly differentiate your brand.

The fun part is also having your core team deciding on this together.

Brand competition

There is much context around this that can be quite customised per every industry thus, with the interest to make this as generic as possible, a good way to think about this is brand positioning. Is your competitive landscape diluting or increasing your brand awareness? How can you leverage this as a brand and company?

Next steps

This is my favourite part — thinking deeper about how this could impact the company within each business unit especially in how we work and make decisions. This is a list I came up with — feel free to comment if you have more ideas on how branding the above might impact a startup effectively.

• Hiring decisions on who joins the company
• Product decisions on why we build and improve products
• Who we want to bring on board as an investor, advisor and board of directors
• Marketing decisions on who to market to and what we’re planning to convey
• Design decisions to convey the right brand identity
• General operations on how we make decisions as a team and how we work with each other internally and externally

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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

AI-powered healthtech Biofourmis’s remote monitoring platform supports Hong Kong in fighting COVID-19

Leveraging its wearable and Artificial Intelligence, Singapore-grown personalised digital therapeutics platform Biofourmis will deploy its remote monitoring platform to accelerate disease surveillance and interventions in Hong Kong.

It will remotely monitor coronavirus infected and suspected patients using its Biovitals Sentinel platform, a turn-key solution. It will provide clinical decision support for early identification of any physiological changes that could indicate deterioration, to enable earlier interventions for better outcomes.

The programme is administered by The University of Hong Kong and includes Hong Kong-based Harmony Medical, which is Biofourmis’s joint venture partner for the China region.

Prof. David Chung Wah Siu, MD, Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, said: “Patients with COVID-19 deterioration commonly exhibit symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath, all of which can be closely monitored through related physiological parameters via Biofourmis’s biosensor Everion, which is being worn on the arm by patients quarantined in their homes or clinical settings.”

Finance

Indian proptech investment platform Strata secures US$1.5M seed funding from SAIF Partners, others

Strata, a tech-enabled commercial real estate investment platform, has raised US$1.5 million in a seed round, led by SAIF Partners and Mayfield India. Real estate data analytics platform PropStack and three other angel investors also participated.

Also Read: Proptech is changing the face of real estate in Asia Pacific

The startup, which was incorporated in May 2019, plans to utilise the fresh raise to expand to other metro cities and strengthen its current tech stack.

The platform is designed with a three-pronged approach to help reduce the high capital requirement for investors, bring in expertise, and introduce liquidity to an otherwise rigid marketplace.

Strata aims to create new investment opportunities in premium commercial properties for the middle-class Indians who to date could only invest in low-yielding residential properties.

Currently operational in Bangalore (HQ) and Mumbai, Strata is hoping to double in team size this year to over 45 members, with a majority of hiring in roles related to technology and investor relations.

AI-powered conversation intelligence platform Salesken nabs US$8M in Series A funding from Sequoia India

Bangalore-based Salesken.ai has raised US$8 million in Series A funding from Sequoia India with participation from Unitus Ventures.

With this, existing investor Michael and Susan Dell Foundation made a partial exit.

The funds will be used for further development of Salesken’s AI-based conversation intelligence platform (Salesken.ai) and for expansion across the Asia Pacific and North America markets.

Inside sales is a rapidly growing industry worldwide with nearly 48 per cent of all sales teams now selling products over the phone or web conferencing tools.

Salesken helps these teams with real-time intelligence during their sales conversations to help them win more deals by receiving intelligence on various aspects of the sales pitch, from lead qualification to navigating pricing discussions and gauge the sentiments of their customers during the conversation.

People

Pomelo names Piyanuch Limapornvanitch new Chief People Officer

Pomelo, Asia-operated omnichannel fashion brand, announced today the appointment of Piyanuch Limapornvanitch as its new Chief People Officer.

Limapornvanitch brings over 15 years of experience in HR across a variety of companies and will oversee Pomelo’s human resources division, driving its people experience, development and operations, talent acquisition and strategy, and employee engagement initiatives as the company continue to scale at speed.

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

Limapornvanitch most recently served as the Head of HR at Accenture Thailand. Prior to Accenture, she led HR initiatives across Thailand and Vietnam at Christian Dior.

The announcement follows Pomelo’s recent appointment of Anders Heikenfeldt as Chief Retail Officer, as the company continues to expand its operations across Southeast Asia.
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Silicon Valley-based VC firm Sequoia Capital has warned its portfolio companies of the alarming situation as COVID-19 is spreading globally.

In a Medium article, titled “Coronavirus: The Black Swan of 2020“, the VC firm also provided guidance on how to ensure the health of their business while dealing with potential business consequences of the spreading effects of the coronavirus.

The warning comes as the disease paralysed cities and isolated millions around the world. It has taken a big toll on the startup industry and led numerous companies to lay off off employees and freeze salaries. It also influenced negative performance in stocks and affected the nonstop work culture, especially in startups.

Below is the note:

Dear Founders & CEOs,

Coronavirus is the black swan of 2020. Some of you (and some of us) have already been personally impacted by the virus. We know the stress you are under and are here to help. With lives at risk, we hope that conditions improve as quickly as possible. In the interim, we should brace ourselves for turbulence and have a prepared mindset for the scenarios that may play out.

All of you have been inundated by suggestions for precautions to take around COVID-19 to protect the health and welfare of you, your employees, and your families. Like many, we have studied the available information and would be happy to share our point of view — please let us know if that is of interest. This note is about something else: ensuring the health of your business while dealing with potential business consequences of the spreading effects of the virus.

Unfortunately, because of Sequoia’s presence in many regions around the world, we are gaining first-hand knowledge of coronavirus’ effects on global business. As with all crises, there are some businesses that stand to benefit. However, many companies in frontline countries are facing challenges as a result of the virus outbreak, including:

• Drop in business activity. Some companies have seen their growth rates drop sharply between December and February. Several companies that were on track are now at risk of missing their Q1–2020 plans as the effects of the virus ripple wider.
• Supply chain disruptions. The unprecedented lockdown in China is directly impacting global supply chains. Hardware, direct-to-consumer, and retailing companies may need to find alternative suppliers. Pure software companies are less exposed to supply chain disruptions, but remain at risk due to cascading economic effects.
• Curtailment of travel and canceled meetings. Many companies have banned all “non-essential” travel and some have banned all international travel. While travel companies are directly impacted, all companies that depend on in-person meetings to conduct sales, business development, or partnership discussions are being affected.

It will take considerable time — perhaps several quarters — before we can be confident that the virus has been contained. It will take even longer for the global economy to recover its footing. Some of you may experience softening demand; some of you may face supply challenges. While The Fed and other central banks can cut interest rates, monetary policy may prove a blunt tool in alleviating the economic ramifications of a global health crisis.

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Temasek Holdings, others, confirm salary freeze amidst COVID-19

We suggest you question every assumption about your business, including:

1. Cash runway. Do you really have as much runway as you think? Could you withstand a few poor quarters if the economy sputters? Have you made contingency plans? Where could you trim expenses without fundamentally hurting the business? Ask these questions now to avoid potentially painful future consequences.
2. Fundraising. Private financings could soften significantly, as happened in 2001 and 2009. What would you do if fundraising on attractive terms proves difficult in 2020 and 2021? Could you turn a challenging situation into an opportunity to set yourself up for enduring success? Many of the most iconic companies were forged and shaped during difficult times. We partnered with Cisco shortly after Black Monday in 1987. Google and PayPal soldiered through the aftermath of the dot-com bust. More recently, Airbnb, Square, and Stripe were founded in the midst of the Global Financial Crisis. Constraints focus the mind and provide fertile ground for creativity.
3. Sales forecasts. Even if you don’t see any direct or immediate exposure for your company, anticipate that your customers may revise their spending habits. Deals that seemed certain may not close. The key is to not be caught flat-footed.
4. Marketing. With softening sales, you might find that your customer lifetime values have declined, in turn suggesting the need to rein in customer acquisition spending to maintain consistent returns on marketing spending. With greater economic and fundraising uncertainty, you might even want to consider raising the bar on ROI for marketing spend.
5. Headcount. Given all of the above stress points on your finances, this might be a time to evaluate critically whether you can do more with less and raise productivity.
6. Capital spending. Until you have charted a course to financial independence, examine whether your capital spending plans are sensible in a more uncertain environment. Perhaps there is no reason to change plans and, for all you know, changing circumstances may even present opportunities to accelerate. But these are decisions that should be deliberate.

Having weathered every business downturn for nearly fifty years, we’ve learned an important lesson — nobody ever regrets making fast and decisive adjustments to changing circumstances. In downturns, revenue and cash levels always fall faster than expenses. In some ways, business mirrors biology. As Darwin surmised, those who survive “are not the strongest or the most intelligent, but the most adaptable to change.”

A distinctive feature of enduring companies is the way their leaders react to moments like these. Your employees are all aware of COVID-19 and are wondering how you will react and what it means for them. False optimism can easily lead you astray and prevent you from making contingency plans or taking bold action. Avoid this trap by being clinically realistic and acting decisively as circumstances change. Demonstrate the leadership your team needs during this stressful time.

Here is some perspective from our partner Alfred Lin, who lived through another black swan moment as an operating executive:

“I was serving as the COO/CFO of Zappos when I was summoned to Sequoia’s office for the infamous RIP. Good Times presentation in 2008, prior to the financial crisis. We didn’t know then, just like we don’t know now, how long or how sharp or shallow of a downturn we will face. What I can confirm is that the presentation made our team and our business stronger. Zappos emerged from the financial crisis ready to seize on opportunities after our competitors had been battered and bruised.”

Stay healthy, keep your company healthy, and put a dent in the world.

Best,

Team Sequoia

Equally as concerning for companies has been the spread of the virus beyond China to nearly every continent. Brazil, Italy, Nigeria, India, Europe and the US have all reported new cases last week.

Also Read: 7 Asian startups putting the spotlight on agriculture

During this time, the firm advises companies to ask key questions about cutting down on extra headcount and be more cautious about expenditures.

The company’s portfolio includes some of the world’s most successful venture capital firms including GitHub, Google, LinkedIn, Nvidia, Oracle, Square, YouTube and Zoom.

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Image Credit: Getty Images

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Singapore’s VC firm Monk’s Hill makes the final close of fund II at US$100M

Singapore-based VC firm Monk’s Hill Ventures (MHV) said that it has made the final close of its second fund at US$100 million.

Temasek, the anchor investor in the first fund, besides several unnamed US-based and international endowments, foundations, and family offices, also invested in Fund II.

“For Fund II, we will continue to invest in great founders, who are addressing sizeable market opportunities in tech at the early-stage, mainly Series A in Southeast Asia. We focus on investing in founders with a plan to scale up profitably in major economies, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines,” an MHV spokesperson told e27.

The VC firm has already made three investments from Fund II – Glints, STOQO and Padlet.

Online fashion company Koovs lays off a significant portion of its team 

Indian fashion startup has announced the lay-off of half of the buying and merchandising team, according to Economic Times.

The reports come two months after India’s central bank RBI rejected Kishore Biyani‘s investment proposal to throw a significant amount of capital into Koovs.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Strata, Salesken raise funding; Biofourmis to help Hong Kong fight COVID-19

“Koovs has successfully refinanced the business and refocused its business priorities, which included streamlining of some of its operations,” Mary Turner, CEO of Koovs, said without answering specifics on the sacking of employees.

Singapore’s startup Paktor cuts jobs amid market slump 

Singaporean startup Paktor has announced job cuts this year, compared to multiple layoffs since 2018, according to reports by Tech In Asia.

The company’s headcount has reportedly fallen from about 250 to 190 between 2018 and 2019, according to ex-staff.

Paktor’s CEO Shn Juay said that the startup now has around 200 employees. It makes job cuts every year as part of regular operational reviews, she adds.

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Image Credit: Monk Hill Venture’s 

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The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data. Since ‘The Economist’ published this ground-breaking truth in 2017, “Data, as the new oil,” has become a common refrain in business circles. But far from becoming a cliché, the weight of this statement is so heavy and profound that companies are taking heed.

With AI and ML making forays into several industries, we are coming to terms with making decisions based on petabytes of data.

Single-handedly, the data revolution has revamped the way in which most businesses today operate. It forms the backbone for customer-led innovation, business policies and practices, and even new product and service offerings.

For instance, companies like Amazon and Netflix that utilise customer data to provide customised user experiences have proven to be unstoppable.

In the financial services industry too, data plays a pivotal role in initiating positive changes across the board. Over the past few years, we’ve welcomed the emergence of challenger banks and mobile payment solutions that rely heavily on data.

Most notably, the far-encompassing definition of fintech, as a term that refers to the innovation that aims to improve and automate the delivery and use of traditional financial services, is now an everyday term that even the layperson can relate to.

Clearly, in this data-inundated marketplace, an organization’s winning edge will depend largely on how it is able to control its data. However, data supremacy is only one side of the coin. Equally important is its oft-overlooked flip side.

Consumer trust, the flip side of data overload

A recent study by the World Economic Forum and the University of Cambridge found that “trust and user adoption” of the latest technologies, such as AI, seemed to be the topmost hurdle faced by the financial industry today. Though technological improvements are indeed viewed positively, trust and buy-in from current and future customers will emerge as a key differentiator in the days to come.

Forbes noted that consumer trust directly impacts the bottom line.

Also read: Building trust in Machine Learning and AI in digital lending

Apparently, the average consumer today not only wants but demands to know all about a company before opening his/her wallet. More than 73 per cent consider transparency more important than price and 40 per cent say they will switch from their preferred brand to another that offers more transparency.

Clearly, the compulsion to base decisions on data runs both ways!

The cost of poorly handled data

In 2018, 500 million personal records were stolen. According to the RiskBased Data Breach QuickView Report at the end of September 2019, there were 5,183 breaches exposing 7.9 billion records. Compared to the 2018 report for the same period, the total number of breaches was up 33.3 per cent and the total number of records exposed more than doubled, up 112 per cent.

Another report from Norton reveals that there were 3,800 publicly disclosed breaches and 4.1 billion records exposed in the first half of 2019 alone.

All these data breaches affect companies in myriads of direct and indirect ways that we may not have completely fathomed as yet. Short-term direct losses—a drop in share price, revenue loss, and increased crisis management budget—are inevitable. In the ASEAN region, the average organizational cost of a data breach stands at about $3.6 million.

However, the indirect cost, often overlooked, is even more noxious—loss of reputation and customer trust. Data stewardship and protection or its lack thereof can directly impact your enterprise’s reputation, customer trust and overall business health for years to come.

Why data supremacy and trust must go hand-in-hand

How do these findings translate into the operational activities of a fintech? The Global FinTech Adoption Index 2019: notes that the ‘trust gap’ can create opportunities for both incumbent financial institutions and FinTech challengers.

“Even though non-financial services companies have led the way in deploying new technologies to deliver innovative services and have raised the bar on consumer expectations, they do not yet have the full confidence of consumers when it comes to providing financial services on their own.”

Fintech players must ensure that their offerings take heed of both the financial institutions’ need for data and the customers’ concerns for privacy. In May 2018, an EU regulation around data protection and privacy—the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)—came into effect.

Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information and California’s Consumer Privacy Act also steps in the right direction. All these regulations ensure that data regulators protect personal data and establish data privacy standards for their businesses across the globe.

Above all, it puts the power back into the hands of the consumer—ensuring they have the right to demand how their personal data is being used and requesting companies to delete it if required.

Though the Fintech industry is well-equipped with technologies, communicating this message to customers and winning their trust will need to be prioritised.

If businesses can showcase their ongoing effort to keep stakeholders constantly updated, we can reduce indirect costs and more importantly, build a community of trust that will propel the industry to greater heights.

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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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People who want to own their own business but are afraid to do it often produce similar excuses. Because of these excuses, many people cannot start their own business.

Of course, starting your own business is a challenging process and requires a lot of dedication to succeed in this field. Mohab Ayoub, Algedra Interior Design Company’s CEO says that ”The way to success is not easy, and even a person on the road to success may lose hope and motivation when facing obstacles.”

These difficult processes can intimidate many people and cause them to step back. These difficulties experienced by others can turn into excuses for entrepreneur candidates who are afraid to start their own business.

In this guide, we will focus on these excuses:

Being too old or too young

One of the biggest and most suggested excuses is the age problem. Many people avoid pursuing their own dreams, using their age as an excuse. This is because they are sometimes very old and sometimes too young.

Older people think that it is not possible to start something new after a certain age, it can be difficult to set up some things from scratch. Of course, while starting some things from scratch, some of the comforts obtained must be abandoned.

However, one of the things that should not be forgotten is that, although it reaches a certain age, it gives the opportunity to have many experiences both in business life and personally.

These experiences can be very useful when starting a business from scratch. While making business decisions, starting from these experiences, some problems can be prevented before they even surface.

It is thanks to these experiences that what kind of management is to be made or what kind of decisions are taken can be achieved faster and reaching a certain age gives you this opportunity.

There are also those who do not take some steps because they are very young. The disadvantage of young people is the lack of experience. However, being at a young age also has its advantages.

Also read: 5 excuses aspiring entrepreneurs use to put off starting up

You can follow many innovations more closely and adapt to them more easily. This is a good opportunity to do entirely young people; because you know their demands and wishes.

The first job you do doesn’t need to succeed. You can learn some lessons from this job and have experience. In this way, you can learn from your mistakes and sail to new ports.

My environment is not wide enough

Having a wide environment when you start a business will offer you some advantages. This can both open up some doors to invest in your business and allow you to promote your business more quickly.

However, the fact that your environment is not wide right now does not mean that this will be the case all the time. You can start to expand your environment and promote your business by participating in industry-related events, meeting people in the industry through social channels.

Unless you communicate, others will not try to reach you.

Not enough time

One of the excuses made by people who have a regular job right now is that they don’t have enough time. If you have the idea of starting your own business and you are excused about time; you probably do not fully believe this job and you do not want to waste your time because you do not believe it.

When you have complete faith in your job, you can create the time required. If this job excites you, you can create time and continue both jobs by sacrificing both your social environment and sleep. Lack of time is entirely up to you.

Fear of failure

Another excuse is the fear of failure in the work. Everyone is afraid to fail; however, the greatest experiences and life lessons come with failures. When you look at the lives of successful people, you see that these people face certain problems and that they have some successes after failing many times in life.

The reason for this is that failure comes with experience. The more experience you have, the more confident you can take your next step and you will make better decisions.

Therefore, do not view failure as a negative situation. Accept the mistakes you make and encourage yourself to open a new door.

I can’t leave my current job

You will need financial resources to continue your life, and therefore it is important to have a regular job. But if this is getting ahead of your dreams, you have started to make some excuses.

To start your own business, you need to devote yourself to this idea. When you dedicate yourself, the obstacles that you encounter will not be a problem for you.

I don’t have the money to start a business

Another of the biggest excuses is that there is not enough capital. This situation goes beyond excuse and in some cases has a share of reality. However, it is another problem not to start your project due to the shortcomings you have.

If you have a very good project, if this project will solve some problems in the lives of consumers and you really believe in this project, you can start your project and then knock on the investors’ door during the draft stage.

Investors support projects that require a lot of capital and are really ambitious.

Expecting to be perfect

It will not make any sense if you do not implement it after starting your project. Many people expect the job to be perfect at this stage. This is actually another excuse. Because there are some fears behind it.

With such a point of view, you can never make your job perfect; because you want to constantly improve. Instead, start your project as soon as possible and try to perfect your work on the go.

In this way, you can bring the project to a better place by taking the ideas of the end-user, apart from your own ideas. You will start your more important business and you will now have more responsibility.

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Finance

500 Startups invests in mobile-focussed Esports Players League

​Esports Players League​ (ESPL), a global e-sports tournament network and platform, has announced that it has secured an undisclosed investment from 500 Startups​ as a part of its seed round.

500 Startups said that it intended to support ESPL in executing its initial business objective of rolling out branded tournaments and platforms in ten countries in its first year of operation.

ESPL is a global e-sports tournament platform provider focussed on creating mobile ecosystems for amateur esports leagues globally. Through ESPL’s national franchise model, up-and-coming esports talents can easily participate in global competitions, all by facilitating grassroots participation.

ESPL was co-founded by former eSports.com CEO Michael Broda; Kin Wai Lau, Founder of ​iCandy Interactive Limited​; and Datuk Azrin Bin Mohd Noor of Sedania Innovator​.

According to the release, phase one of ESPL’s global roll-out has yielded franchise partnership agreements in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

ESPL also entered into its first media partnership with eGG Network, the largest esports TV network in Southeast Asia and Australia that reaches approximately 100 million TV viewers.

Indonesian AI-based NLP platform Datasaur snags US$1M funding from GDP Ventures

Datasaur, Indonesia-based NLP platform that categorises phrases to increase the understanding of computer system towards language and context, has raised US$1 million in extended investment from GDP Venture. The round was also joined by several angel investors like Calvin French-Owen, Co-founder and CTO of Segment.

Also Read: AI-powered data labeling startup Datasaur secures seed funding

As reported by DailySocial, the company will use the funding to strengthen the platform capability, minimise the bias in text-labelling, and increase privacy and data security, something that’s regarded as a crucial aspect of AI-based NLP and used to be outsourced.

“We basically handle all kinds of NLP, including entity recognition, parts of speech, document labeling, coreference resolution, and dependency parsing. We’ve built the intelligence into our system to make labeling more efficient and accurate, allowing companies to manage all their labeling systems in one easy platform,” said Founder and CEO Datasaur Ivan Lee.

Datasaur team is joining the Y Combinator accelerator batch Winter 2020 in San Francisco.

hoolah nabs Series A funding led by VC firm Allectus to accelerate expansion plans

hoolah, a Singapore-based company that provides interest-free payment installments by partnering with a variety of merchants, has announced the closure of Series A funding, led by VC firm Allectus.

Joining the round are Singapore-based iGlobe Ventures, who participated in hoolah’s seed round, and new investors including Genting Ventures; Max Bittner, former group CEO of Lazada; and Tim Neville, CEO of FNZ.

According to hoolah, the fundraise allows it to double down on their recently announced launch in Malaysia and fuel further expansion. It also plans to enable the team to build an omnichannel solution – enabling customers to shop online and in-store.

Business

Insurtech startup CXA Group shares profitability effort behind downsizing decision

Singapore’s insurtech startup CXA Group is releasing dozens of its staff despite having an ongoing US$50 million Series C funding round, says a TechInAsia’s article. According to another article by The Business Times, CXA’s decision was fueled by concerns from its investors, who want to see a “clear path to profitability”, as told by chief executive Rosaline Koo.

Also Read: AI-powered insurtech startup CXA Group to set up tech hub in Ho Chi Minh City

One source in the original report specified that the startup plans to retrench about 40 staff in the engineering, product development, and marketing departments. However, Koo said that only 12 staff in Singapore, out of a 319 regional team, have been laid off, mainly in marketing and other roles that involved “manual processing”, which have been automated, and there will be no further cuts.

The startup also states its effort in white-labelling its software that made the decision to let go some staff is to be expected, while other layoffs had to do with performance issues.

CXA so far has raised US$58 million from backers including HSBC, Singtel Innov8, the Singapore Economic Development Board’s investment arm EDBI, and B Capital Group. The startup is currently building up a tech hub in Vietnam and has hired 70 developers there.

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Picture Credit: hoolah

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Singaporean tech entertainment firm AnyMind raises US$26.4M Series B

AnyMind, a company started by Kosuke Sogo and Otohiko Kozutsumi, announced today it has secured US$26.4 million in Series B funding from Japan Post Capital and existing investors. The total capital raised to date is USD$62.3 million.

Already existing in 11 markets in Asia, the newly-raised capital will be used by the Singapore-based firm to scale its business and expand into India and the Middle East.

The group runs across three industries — entertainment technology, marketing technology and HR technology.

AnyMind Group is the parent company of AdAsia Holdings, TalentMind and CastingAsia.

Malaysia’s DoctorOnCall announces strategic partnership with Merchantrade Money

Malaysian digital health platform DoctorOnCall has partnered with money service business Merchantrade Money to expand user base, according to mobihealthnews.

Merchantrade Money application users simply have to click on “talk to a doctor” and “e-pharmacy,” to get a consultation.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: 500 Startups invests in e-sports platform ESPL; Indonesia’s Datasaur secures US$1M funding

“We believe this initiative will provide a growing number of our customers with better access to healthcare services and address any urgent medical needs conveniently and quickly. Our users could be overseas or in remote areas, therefore having DoctorOnCall directly on Merchantrade Money will give them the convenience and timely medical care they need, wherever they are,” said Ramasamy K. Veeran, Founder of Merchantrade Asia.

Oyo confirms 5000 layoffs globally as it aims to restructure 

Indian hospitality giant Oyo confirms layoffs of over 5000 employees globally, according to Kr Asia.

“The worldwide overhaul was in full swing. By the time our restructuring process is complete, OYO will have over 25,000 employees worldwide,” Founder Ritesh Agarwal told Bloomberg.

“In our previous phase, we added a lot of properties to our platform and built the brand and mindshare. Our first focus of 2020 is growth with profitability, ” he added.

The Gurugram-based startup claims to have 1.2 million rooms across 40,000 properties in over 80 countries.

 

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Image Credit:  Karla Rivera

 

 

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The good news is, they can be protected

We’ve all heard the worst of it: “WhatsApp hacked!” “Airline hacked!” “Bank fined!” Mobile app hacks are becoming increasingly common — it takes a hacker less than 5 minutes to break open a mobile app and get access to your source code, which can be used to launch attacks on your server infrastructure and on your ERP and databases, steal any intellectual property in the app itself, and also spread malware through fake apps pretending to be yours.

The good news is that your apps can be protected, even without dedicated security engineers in your team. Using the same technology as used by the world’s leading technology, banking, retail, and media companies, for services that go as low as $250 a month, you can equip your apps with formidable security.

The future may be mobile, but so are the threats

Most companies are going “mobile-first” for well-understood reasons. In several countries, a mobile device may be the first or only connection that an end-user has to the Internet. It’s not just consumer apps: the immediacy and pervasiveness of access to corporate information are driving enterprises to expose their operations through internal apps too, all of which make mobile apps a critical threat vector to your organization’s cybersecurity.

Particularly when it takes a hacker just 5 minutes (sometimes even less) to break open a mobile app and get access to the app’s source code. And, this bears repetition: once the hacker has access to your source code, they can use the knowledge of how your app works to attack the company’s servers, launch man-in-the-middle attacks, steal valuable intellectual property — especially critical for app-centric industries such as gaming, retail, and tech innovators —, copy your code to create derivatives of your app and your business, and even launch malware through your brand by pretending to be your app (this even happened to WhatsApp).

Digital security at the palm of your hands

Fortunately, the technology exists that can stop these attacks dead in their tracks by making it so exponentially hard for a hacker to reverse engineer your app that he moves on to a softer target equipped with a less secure system.

These technologies include strong obfuscation and anti-tampering, including the ability to optionally prevent an app from being run on jailbroken/rooted devices. If you have an in-house security team, they can use these technologies to protect your mobile apps, to protect libraries that you might be distributing, and even protect firmware on hardware devices, with a very fine level of control over how the security is targeted at different parts of your app. And if you do not have a security team, now you can use automated tools such as www.ProtectMyApp.com by Verimatrix that do all the heavy lifting for you for as little as $250 per month.

One of the globally leading companies in this space is the San Diego company Verimatrix, which helps keeps apps safe for world-leaders in the retail, banking, entertainment, automotive, and government sectors. In fact, Verimatrix currently protects over 2 billion apps and devices in 113 countries. To learn more, please reach out to Varun at varora@verimatrix.com and also download a whitepaper at www.verimatrix.com/downloads/whitepapers/the-wild-wild-west-of-mobile-security

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