Day: April 18, 2020

As people stay at home due to quarantines and social distancing measures, one unsung hero has been busy crossing empty streets to fulfil society’s needs: delivery drivers.

Though going out is heavily discouraged, people still have demands to be fulfilled such as getting food, delivering packages, and stocking up on household goods. The conflation of e-commerce, technology and virus fears have birthed what could be a new normal of last-mile services: contactless delivery.

Google searches for Uber Eats, Door Dash, Postmates and Grubhub jumped 53 per cent on a month to month basis, with home delivery rates doubling since the outbreak announcement in the US. Data in France shows that e-commerce purchases in Q1 20202 are 15 per cent higher compared to the previous quarter, and supermarkets such as Roth’s Fresh Markets overburdened by a 700 per cent increase of their grocery delivery services.

Contactless delivery allows couriers and recipients to complete deliveries without having to interact –reducing the likelihood of infection. Contactless delivery is not new, but since the outbreak, companies around the world have quickly been implementing them to their systems. Gojek, Grab, UberEats, Meituan and Postmates are a few names among many that have added contactless delivery options on their platforms.

Also Read: News Roundup: RaRa Delivery raises over US$800K funding; Nusantics completes COVID-19 test kit prototype

The most popular form of contactless delivery is what is termed as “curb-side delivery” and many food delivery services now include a “leave the order at my door” option.

Indeed, the reception of contactless delivery has been tremendous; Chinese delivery provider giant Meituan found that between January 26 and February 8, more than 80 per cent of their orders nation-wide were requested with a contactless delivery option. Delivery data from Wuhan– revealed that 95.1 per cent of orders requested a contactless option.

Consumers are adapting behaviour to suit; many residential compounds and buildings around the world are limiting access for couriers and having them leave the package in a designated area to minimise contact between persons whilst ensuring package security.

Aside from eliminating physical interaction, many customers are increasingly turning to cashless payment options such as e-wallets instead of conventional Cash on Delivery. This change is evidently motivated by current global circumstances; however, if this does prove to be a safer, more secure and more efficient business model, why would it not persist when the outbreak ends?

The most interesting implication of this evolution of consumer preference reaches a delivery model once reserved for sci-fi movies: complete automation. A behaviour revolution of contactless delivery could tip the scale towards adoption of delivery by autonomous vehicle – instead of having drivers at all, why not take to the sky using drones that know where and when exactly to drop your package?

Also Read: As Malaysia closes borders, travel and delivery startups share responses to the current crisis

JD.com has started conducting deliveries in Wuhan using its autonomous robot delivery to reduce human to human contact. Meituan meanwhile is piloting autonomous delivery vehicle in Beijing for contactless delivery initiatives and has delivered over 600,000 times last year in Beijing and Shenzhen.

Even today, Chinese food delivery service giant Ele.me has already deployed delivery robots to send meals to rooms in a quarantined hotel over at the city of Wenzhou.

Contactless delivery is quickly sweeping the last-mile delivery industry because of pressing virus fears, with an unexpected development from this being the rise of completely automated models of delivery.

Many facets of business and society will be reoriented in a post-Coronavirus world, and it is likely how we think about deliveries will be one of the major ones.

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For more insights by RHL Ventures on COVID-19’s impact on the transportation industry and various other sectors, please visit this link.

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Buying home is still a distant dream for many millennials. The fast-increasing prices make home buying an unaffordable and expensive affair.

Although the advent of new technologies has made home buying a bit easier in Southeast Asia, it still still has not addressed the root of the problem, especially in Vietnam.

In Ho Chi Minh City, the prices of apartments jumped 22.7 per cent in 2019 over 2018, according to international real estate advisory firm Jones Lang LaSalle. This has deterred many from buying homes.

The arrival of Homebase has changed things for the better in the country. The startup offers an innovative solution — it helps you own a house by becoming a co-investor in purchasing the house.

In other words, Homebase offers a path to homeownership by allowing millennials to buy a portion of a property and move in on the first day, with the option to buy out more equity over time.

To make investment decisions, the company utilises a combination of Big Data, asset valuation models and financial engineering.

A few days ago, Homebase raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding from investors including Antler and Iterative to help more people achieve their dream of homeownership.

According to Homebase’s Co-founder JunYuan Tan, the problem in the property market today is caused by fast increasing prices and a high appetite for home-ownership, yet a stark lack of financing options.

“The traditional pathway to homeownership has not evolved to match the economic pathways that millennials have embarked on. We see an opportunity to develop a new homeownership journey that works for those of us who want flexibility and assurance as we work towards owning our dream homes,” he says.

In the interview, Tan shares his take on how the local market is primed with a young, educated middle-class that is growing rapidly, and the ever-increasing number of tourists, who discover the real estate market in the country every year.

Edited excerpts:

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

What do you think is the biggest problem facing the proptech industry in Southeast Asia?

Proptech in the region is fairly fragmented and still in its early stages. It’s been observed, not just in Southeast Asia but also in other parts of the world, that the real estate space is fairly slow to adopt new technologies, and this is partly due to the fact that real estate is ultimately a business that requires a lot of human touches.

How does Homebase work for a homeowner wannabe? Please walk us through the user journey.

The notion is fairly simple: Choose your dream home and we (Homebase and customer) buy it together.

Customers work with Homebase to find any home on the market, pay the portion that they can afford, and Homebase will put up the remaining amount.

Homebase then allows customers to determine when they want to buy, whenever they’re ready. They can buy out all or part of Homebase’s stake at any time. In the meantime, they’ll pay rent for the portion that Homebase helped them pay.

The setting will last for several years. After that, Homebase only takes a portion of the capital appreciation if the home appreciates in value. Other than this, we don’t charge any other recurring interest or fees.

Also Read: How proptech is set to empower the Southeast Asian property market

What was the inspiration to start Homebase? Who are your co-founders?

My co-founders are Phillip An, Hung Doan, and Hai Vu. We were inspired to start Homebase after seeing the struggles of many of our local friends to own a home. Very quickly, we realised that the nemesis was a broken home-financing system.

Phillip is from San Francisco and realised that a few highly successful solutions/models in the US, such as Divvy Homes and ZeroDown, can be applied to Southeast Asia.

Very quickly, we interviewed more than 70 customers, and adapted the model to fit the local Vietnamese market; thus, Homebase was founded.

Can you tell us more about your team’s background?

I have previously founded two venture-backed startups in Vietnam, a software startup and a B2B Saas startup. I went to Manchester Business School, CFA.

Phillip An comes with an experience in consulting at McKinsey and investment banking at Goldman Sachs, with degrees from Caltech and Harvard.

Hai Vu was an engineer at Cisco. He has a PhD from the University of Texas, Dallas.

Doan was a Computer Science lecturer at a top university in Vietnam. He is also a Fulbright Scholar going to Harvard Kennedy School of Public Policy & University of Economics.

In the past, he has personally transacted 100-plus real estate properties

What are the challenges in introducing this concept to attract potential homeowners?

Home buying is an incredibly emotional decision involving huge sums of money, especially for first-time buyers. Naturally, it takes a little more effort to convince people to try a new product. But with patience, we’ve proven that it is surmountable.

What was it like joining Antler’s accelerator programme for a proptech company? Can you share with us your experience?

Antler is an amazing programme with an incredible management team behind it. Antler has been super helpful throughout our journey by guiding us from idea generation and validation, all the way to even pitching and fundraising.

They also connected us with plenty of mentors and investors. I cannot imagine coming this far and this quickly without the support of Antler.

Also Read: tryb Group invests in Indonesian proptech startup Gradana

DivvyHome‘s co-founder Brian Ma is one of your investors. Can you share with us how you first connected with DivvyHomes?

Our co-founder Phillip has a mutual friend with Brian Ma in San Francisco. So we thought it would be great to connect and learn from them. That’s how it started.

We choose to think that Brian investing in us is a testament, not only to the soundness of the idea but also to the quality of our team.

What is the success rate of the business approach done by Homebase so far?

Even though we’ve only set foot in Vietnam for a few months, we’ve already done a few property transactions. We have a huge pipeline of customers who are eager to use our solution.

Homebase was recently named as one of the World’s Top 50 Most Promising PropTech Startups by Plug and Play, the renowned US-based venture firm.

Although still in its nascent phase, our one-year-old company is determined to tackle the millennial homeownership crisis across Southeast Asia, one homeownership at a time.

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Picture Credit: Homebase

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Singapore-based VC firm Quest Ventures has announced the first close of its second fund at US$50 million.

As per a press note, this represents more than half of Quest’s fund target for the second fund, called Quest Ventures Asia Fund II.

Two institutional investors, which participated in this investment, are Pavilion Capital from Singapore and QazTech Ventures from Kazakhstan.

The fund II will invest in startups across Southeast Asia and emerging Asia at the post-seed and Series A stages.

Additionally, Quest Ventures said it will expand its footprint to countries, such as Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines. It already has a presence in fast-growing economies such as Vietnam.

“We were deliberate in selecting our investors as we value both financial and operational contributions. As operators ourselves before becoming investors, we appreciate what a diverse team can bring to the table. With this fund, we hope to bring different skill sets, domain experience and connections to help our companies,” said Goh Yiping, Partner at Quest Ventures.

“We encourage established businesses to partner with startups beyond proofs-of-concept. Although the starting points may be different, the common objective is survivability, and sustainable business models that can scale. We are encouraged that numerous C-suites and Asian family businesses have joined us as investors — for both financial and business-transformation returns in an increasingly complex and turbulent business world,” said Jeffrey Seah, Partner at Quest Ventures.

In addition to this announcement, Quest also said it will launch an accelerator in Kazakhstan to jumpstart the region’s digital economy.

Kazakhstan’s national economic initiatives have seen increased business activities between Central Asia and Southeast Asia. This is its sovereign wealth fund Qaztech’s first investment in a VC fund in Asia, and is widely seen to be tapping into Quest’s experience in emerging Asia and in developing innovation ecosystems.

“The cooperation of Kazakhstan with Singapore’s leading venture fund is an important step in bringing together the innovative ecosystems of Southeast Asia and Central Asia. This partnership with Quest and Pavilion will enable Kazakhstani startups to secure important investments, improve competencies, and gain access to global markets,” said Adil Nurgozhin, Chairman of the Board of Directors at QazTech Ventures.

Quest is an active VC fir which has to date invested in 50-plus companies, including Carousell, ShopBack, 99.co, Carro, StyleTheory, SGAG/ MGAG/PGAG, Glife, and Xfers.

The VC firm’s first fund was invested out of the personal capital of its Managing Partner James Tan.

“As the digital economy matures across the world, the venture capital industry in Asia is now poised to play a mainstream role to bring the public and private markets closer. Besides robust financial returns, investors look for value creation derived from business models built on strong fundamentals. Our approach has been validated by more than 50 portfolio companies in the first fund. We are humbled by the belief that our investors have in us,” said Tan.

QazTech Ventures Joint Stock Company is a development institution owned by Baiterek National Managing Holding. The core mission of QazTech Ventures is the promotion of technological entrepreneurship realised through the development of venture capital funding, business incubation and technological consulting services.

Pavilion Capital, a subsidiary of Temasek, has backed funds in North Asia and Southeast Asia.

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Image Credit Quest Ventures

 

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Facebook partners with Singapore Tourism Board, Enterprise Singapore to launch training for COVID-19-hit businesses

Facebook Singapore, in partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) Marketing College and Enterprise Singapore (ESG), will launch a series of training sessions via webinars to help small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, pivot their business operations and upskill workers to prepare for recovery.

Also Read: Facebook partners IMDA to launch Facebook Accelerator Singapore, welcoming applications for second edition

The webinars will be targeted at sectors most impacted by the pandemic — travel, hospitality, retail & BTMICE (business travel and meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and exhibitions) Events.

This is also in line with IMDA’s ‘Stay Healthy, Go Digital’ campaign, calling on businesses to embrace digitisation, so that they can continue to run their business online as much as possible, to help flatten the curve of infections.

The first webinar will air on April 30 at 10 AM SGT and will share insights on the impact of COVID-19 in Singapore and APAC, along with an interview of a Singapore-based business on how they’ve adapted to the situation.

Other webinars will include best practices for businesses to stay connected to consumers during this challenging time, dialogues with local businesses on how they pivoted to ensure the proper roll-out of the COVID-19 safe distancing measures, and training on tools across the Facebook platform.

Registration for the various sessions is open here. Facebook also launched a Business Resource Hub offering tools and guidance to help businesses manage and build resilience during the COVID-19 outbreak.

More than 90 startups join hands to fight against COVID-19 in Vietnam

Ninety-three projects and startups are ready to provide technological solutions to help solve problems and assist frontline workers, isolated communities and indirectly affected people.

The School of Biotechnology and Food Technology at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology has created a toolkit to quickly detect nCoV within 70 minutes.

Got It, a technology startup founded by Hung Tran, has introduced a trial version of COVID-19 Check, a service that helps users check the possibility of infection with coronavirus, classified from F0 to F5.

Vulcan Augmetics, a HCM City-based company specialising in 3D printing technology, which is famous for its removable robotic arms to support disable people, now gathers strength to produce anti-virus transparent covers, medical masks, breathing machines and medical equipment.

Digital therapeutics startup Biofourmis acquires Takeda Digital Venture’s Gaudo Health

Biofourmis, a digital therapeutics startup that focusses on personalised predictive care, announced today that it has acquired Gaido Health from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, which expands Biofourmis’ portfolio in the oncology space.

Also Read: Singapore healthtech startup Biofourmis inks deal with Mayo Clinic, raises US$5M Series A

Gaido Health is a Los Angeles-based digital therapeutics company focussed on the oncology market and is a part of Takeda Digital Ventures, Takeda’s corporate technology investment, and incubation arm.

The acquisition seeks to address a disconnected oncology care pathway that has led to more than 30 per cent of patients on chemotherapy being readmitted to the hospital or requiring a visit to the emergency department.

In the US alone, 1.6 million patients are diagnosed with cancer each year, and the total cost of care is expected to rise to US$170 billion in 2020.

Gaido Health’s solution, which will be supported by Biofourmis’s existing Biovitals platform, combines information on vital signs collected via remote monitoring in the home, patient surveys, and analytics to detect early signs of complications in patients with cancer who have been recently discharged from the hospital. Gaido Health’s AI-based algorithms detect signs of complications to inform the clinician, enabling earlier interventions.

The Gaido Health platform also will be combined with Biovitals platform to manage toxicities in patients undergoing CAR T-Cell Therapy, a form of immunotherapy that uses specially altered T cells—a part of the immune system—to fight cancer.

With the acquisition, Gaido Health’s CEO Gary Manning will be joining Biofourmis as senior vice president of corporate development.

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Picture Credit: Quest Ventures

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Vietnamese accelerator ThinkZone announces its latest cohort 

Vietnam’s accelerator ThinkZone has announced five startups that will attend its latest cohort.

As part of the three-month programme, the startups will receive investments and support packages from corporates, including US$50,000 each. Other perks include US$15,000 Wifi & DOOH marketing support from Goldsun Media Group, US$10,000 cloud computing services from Amazon, and US$5,000 TVC marketing support from FPT Play, three months’ workspace at Toong Coworking space, and 2000 credits for recruiting support from TopCV. 

During the programme, ThinkZone will also connect the startups with mentors and successful founders from Silicon Valley.

The 5 startups are –

iSalon: An app for spa scheduling, hair care, hair advice and discounts for customers. It also helps spas optimise the number of customers, analyse customers characteristics and come up with marketing strategies.

Bluecare: An online platform that allows users to schedule healthcare services for babies, postpartum women, the elderly, and family members at the hospital with trained and qualified experts.

Housecare: A platform that allows users to find support for household tasks quickly.

Hachium: An education-based SaaS platform that helps professionals, teachers and schools create an online training system in just 10 minutes with features like student management, curriculum management, interactive communication and exercise assignment.

Airiot: A compact IoT product that applies Big Data to sensor and analyse data of electricity consumption in home appliances

Singaporean P2P lending platform Funding Societies secures US$40M Series C

Funding Societies, a P2P lending platform, has raised US$40 million in a Series C round of funding, says a TechInAsia report.

The round was led by new and existing investors, along with an unnamed bank.

The platform, also known as Modalku in Indonesia, originally intended to utilise the fresh funds in new initiatives, however, due to market uncertainty caused by COVID-19, the original plans have now been scaled down.

Also Read: News Roundup: Facebook, Singapore Tourism Board, Enterprise SG to launch training for COVID-19-affected businesses

“We realised that with COVID-19 on the horizon and with quite a bit of work we have to do to bring [the platform] to profitability, it wasn’t something that we could invest resources on,” Funding Societies’s Co-founder Kelvin Teo said.

Lightspeed raises over US$4B to support early-stage startups

Lightspeed Venture Partners has raised over US$4 billion for its three new funds to support early-stage companies, according to YourStory.

The three funds, Lightspeed Venture Partners XIII, was closed with US$890 million, Lightspeed Venture Partners Select IV with US$1.83 billion, and Lightspeed Opportunity Fund with US$1.5 billion.

“Our global portfolio, which spans China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US, gives us a view on everything that affects startups, ranging from early regional economic trends to spotting similar opportunities and enterprises seeking new product needs across geographies,” said Ravi Mhatre, Partner at Lightspeed Venture.

Mhatre added the company will support startups and entrepreneurs in its seed, Series A and growth stage.

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Image Credit: ThinkZone

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