Like any other business, Triip started the year with fresh positivity and a team huddle to discuss their plans for 2020. They brainstormed ways to encourage people to travel more sustainably, a value that’s at the core of their business. Hai Ho, the CEO and Co-Founder of Triip, was “ready to rock 2020” armed with exciting plans.

Then COVID-19 broke out and disrupted all of those plans. In its wake, Hai and his team found themselves navigating through unfamiliar territory – one where travelling was either restricted or totally banned.

I recently had a quick catch up with Hai, whose team we featured in one of our articles towards the end of last year.

In this conversation, he shares some of the lessons he and his team have learned along the arduous journey which they are still riding out together. The common denominator of these lessons? Choices.

Lesson 1: You can’t escape the laws of nature, but you can choose to adapt to the changes

“After going through different stages, worrying about all the plans changing, plus fearing the uncertainty for this industry, we realise this pandemic won’t end soon,” Hai shares.

Furthermore, they figured that the travel and tourism industry needs time to fully recover as it is one of the most impacted industries by COVID-19. “While we are not fighting back to get revenue, we still have to start doing something instead of waiting,” he continues.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, December 12, 2018: Vietnam-based travel company Triip now allows blockchain booking

For Triip, this meant embracing the challenges and adapting to the regulations, such as moving fully to remote working. To continue to have the atmosphere of togetherness, the Triip employees go into “biweekly Happiness Calls” where they share about what makes them happy both at work and outside of it.

“The pandemic isn’t in our plan. But looking on the bright side, this is a good opportunity to take a crash course on how to adapt to situations outside of our control on a scale that none of our team members has experienced before.”

Lesson 2: You can choose to work together as a team

“We decided to fight together amid insufficient resources,” Hai explains. His team members, all based in Vietnam, are of one mind to go through this together. When revenue came to a standstill, the employees agreed to be paid in stock options instead of cash to make sure the company would have enough runway to last for as long as possible.

Remaining intact amid the difficult situation enabled the team to spot an opportunity, work on it together as a team, and come out of it victorious. Right now, he says, he and his team “are like the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars. We train, we rest, and we will strike back.”

Strike back they did. This was how StayHome Heroes was born. When the call for #BuildforCOVID19 hackathon came in March, the team was quick to act. Within 72 hours, every Triip employee, from the product team to the growth team, from full-timers to interns, joined hands to brainstorm a worthy project. During the hackathon, they were one big team, not a group of smaller teams.

“We accomplished this as a team even without the assurance of winning,” Hai proudly shares.

Also Read: Vietnamese traveltech startup Triip raises new funding round, readies itself for ICO

The StayHome Heroes project did end up garnering a spot among the 89 global projects accepted, winning over a thousand other entries.

Lesson 3: Even if things initially go against your values, choose to step out of your comfort zone

“We have been motivating people to travel, and “sharing” happiness are our core values (SHARE – Sustainability – Happiness – Adventurer – Resilience – Excellence). However, what we can do at a time of social distancing seems to go against these values.”

Hai mused that if they were an e-commerce company, they could have ridden the waves. “But as a travel tech company, how can we deal with this tsunami?”

According to him, StayHome Heroes was ideated from changing their previous plan and their “stay now, travel later” perspective.

“We still do what we do best – inspire people. But now, we repurposed Proof of Travel to Proof of Stay. We call people joining this campaign – StayHome Heroes.” This project pays people for staying at home, reinforcing the implementation of social distancing.

Also Read: Vietnamese traveltech startup Triip raises new funding round, readies itself for ICO

“As a travel tech company, we adapt, we learn and change quickly. We joined a hackathon that specifically focused on finding solutions to fight COVID-19 and helping people during this tough time. We perform best when we don’t have much time, and under a lot of pressure.”

This too shall pass

Hai, who embodies the team’s core value of happiness, looks forward to the end of the pandemic. “Everyone will travel again and share memories together. We will meet again on a beautiful day. We will grow better and be more appreciative of each other.”

“Until the moment we can be travellers and allowed to have wanderlust again, we are StayHome Heroes, together,” he concludes.

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Nium, a Singapore-based startup that provides online cross-border money transfer services to individuals and businesses, has raised an undisclosed amount to close its Series C financing round.

Investors in the new tranche include BRI Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Bank BRI of Indonesia, and Visa.

The new funding will be used to improve and enhance Nium’s current product and payment infrastructure, which includes outreach to consumers, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises, banks and financial institutions.

A part of the money raised will also be used to “tuck-in acquisitions” and growth in markets such as Europe, India, the UK and the US.

The company started its US$45 million Series C fundraise in 2018 from new investors MDI Ventures, the VC arm of Indonesia’s Telkom, and Beacon Venture Capital, the VC arm of Thailand’s KASIKORNBANK.

“Nium and Visa’s collaboration began in early 2019 when Nium joined the Visa Fintech Fast Track programme in the Asia Pacific. We’ve worked together on new commerce experiences like instant remittances for consumers and businesses in Southeast Asia,” said Chris Clark, Regional President (Asia Pacific), Visa.

The road to open money

Formerly known as InstaReM, the company rebranded into Nium in October last year. Nium offers a multi-featured platform called MassPay that helps corporate and SME users manage and control high-volume remittances to multiple beneficiaries in multiple currencies. This, it claims, enables businesses to reduce cross-border money transfer costs by up to 80 per cent.

It also solves inefficiencies that plague traditional payment processes, such as payroll disbursement and travel and expenses management, at e-commerce firms, corporates and SMEs.

The company is currently licensed in Japan, Indonesia, EU, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, and Singapore, and claims to operate in over 90 countries, 65 in real-time, and in 63 currencies.

In an interview with e27 last year, the company said its mission is to “create a world of ‘Open Money‘ where everyone’s money is free for them to use — whenever, wherever and however they wish”.

Also Read: Singapore’s biotech firm RWDC bags US$133M to create a plastic-free world

“BRI Ventures always look to support developments in the banking and financial industry, especially for partners looking to provide digital financial care to customers in Indonesia,” said Nicko Widjaja, CEO of BRI Ventures.

“We have been working closely with Nium since their InstaReM days when they were processing consumer remittance, and are excited to witness their growth as they expand their service offerings to include financial institutions and corporates. The potential of financial technology is limitless, and we forward look to supporting Nium on their path of growth as they expand their presence into Indonesia and beyond,” Widjaja added.

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Five continents. Several roles. One company– Stephanie Davis has an illustrious career trajectory.

As Google’s Managing Director for Southeast Asia, she is currently responsible for business strategy and operations. As she moves from operational design to financial services and insurance sector, to publisher partnerships; Davis amassed a wealth of professional and management knowledge.

It is a widely known fact that the percentage of women shrinks as we go up the corporate ladder. From an entry-level executive to leadership, Davis has come a long way since she joined Google in 2006.

So we sat down with her to understand what enabled a non-techie’s career in a tech company and if being a woman in a corporate world was a boon or a blessing.

What has your career journey been like? Are any key challenges and learnings from their experience climbing the corporate ladder?

I would describe my experience as varied. There has been some luck along the way. I started out as an analyst, joined the news industry and then the tech industry– all with Google. I almost can’t believe it myself that I have been at Google for 13 years now. When I reflect on it, I feel like I have five different careers, since I have moved across roles and also continents. Along the way, I learnt that its great to be open to opportunities, to take creative risks and importantly chase butterflies. Do things that make you learn, stretch, and grow.

Did you face any challenges as a woman in the corporate world?

I have been fortunate that I was supported by incredible people in my career. But that’s not to say I didn’t face challenges. I was part of many leadership teams that were male-dominated. I had encounters where I did the analysis and presentation but the questions went to my male colleagues.

Also Read: Afternoon News Roundup: Japanese edutech startup Manabie eyes SEA expansion, Google partners Filipino AI company Senti

I remember, when we worked with a Hollywood actress on a project to deploy ML to analyse films, she said that there is no evil plot (against women) but there was bias– unconscious bias.

When there is a lack of diversity in the meeting room, these biases creep in. But thanks to one of the most successful programmes at Google to address these kinds of unconscious biases; we are able to become better leaders. It’s actually the most attended programme on a voluntary basis.

What would be your top tips for women starting their careers in technology/business today?

Write your story.

This came to light when a friend and colleague was interviewing for a director role. She chose to write a letter to the president of the company to tell him about what her team had achieved under her leadership. And I think that is such a powerful way of invoking self-confidence.

We can write letters to ourselves, or even to the women on our team or even our children about our goals. This open letter to ourselves can also work as a checking guide.

Stay put.

We need to move; we have to move to make our careers successful. But what I think happens sometimes, is that we are so focussed on what should we do next, we fail to take the time to learn and absorb everything we can learn in the current role.

And more often fail to develop a track record. So keep your eyes open but stay grounded.

Be wary of success.

It’s about the forward-looking view. As McKinsey says, most leadership programmes fail because of a lack of context. And this is the context we should be chasing. Be familiar with it and be willing to change if needed. It’s necessary to keep reflecting every now and then and orient ourselves closer to our goals if we may have strayed.

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

Is the tech industry nearly there yet when it comes to female leadership and representation, or is there still a glass ceiling?

We are not there in terms of equality. But I don’t think there is a glass ceiling either since there is progress. But that is not enough. Everyone needs to come together to address this- both men and women. Systematic change can be sustainable change.

Data can power this change, as we did with the Google Transparency report– it reports the percentage of women right from hiring to leadership to help us stay on track of our mission to make the organisation more equitable. It’s important for this change to take place at the leadership level and they need to be held accountable to achieve this.

I also think a lot of this equality has to be triggered when we are children. Young boys and girls need to be educated to embrace this thought for a big shift in our thinking.

What kind of practices can organisations in the tech startup world adopt to enhance inclusivity?

It is true that not all organisations can devote resources to enhance inclusivity. For example, I Am Remarkable– is a small programme we run at Google and it is centred around empowerment for women, and to break the imposter syndrome that many of us unconsciously sometimes harbour.

But tt doesn’t always have to be a fully built and well-funded programme, sometimes it is just these small things like getting women to talk to each other, share a community spirit, whilst also bringing men into these conversations.

Mentorships, or train the trainer, kinds of programmes help women recognise their voice and create a safe space for them. Sometimes, women are not as vocal about their needs as their male colleagues.

What can we do as a community to ensure more equal opportunity in the future?

Harnessing technology and the power of the internet can empower women. While the internet has become more affordable, it is not yet equitable. When it comes to SEA;  access, privacy and safety, agency constraints hinder their use of this resource.

For example, men being on their mobile device a lot during the day are seen differently as women on a mobile device. Then there is safety; women don’t share profile pictures.

Moreover, women in SEA don’t have the time as they have additional domestic responsibility. So as a community, we need to change this. Tech can be used to empower communities and not just companies.

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Image Credit: Google

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Korea International Trade Association recruits startups to testbed Indonesia market via shopping mall

The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) is reportedly recruiting companies to join the “Lotte Mart Testbed” in Jakarta, the first overseas testbed project for Korean startups looking to expand overseas.

According to Business Korea, the selected startups will be able to apply their technologies at Lotte Mart in Jakarta with the goals to “maximise customer shopping convenience, increase sales marketing effectiveness, and reduce facility operation costs”.

KITA also noted that there will be opportunities for the startups to verify products, services, and technologies for two months, and on-site meetings with local venture capital (VC) investors.

KITA plans to expand the “Startup Overseas Testbed” programme to landmark facilities in Europe, including Spain and Luxembourg, in the second half of this year.

Vietnam joins hands with VABIOTECH, Bristol University for COVID-19 vaccine tests

Vietnam is working alongside the UK’s Bristol University to test a potential coronavirus vaccine on mice at a laboratory in Khanh Hoa Province in central Vietnam, as reported by VNExpress.

The test will be conducted for two weeks before further evaluation and will be tested further in animals for safety and effectiveness before a manufacturing process is embarked on.

Also Read: How gamification is increasing productivity during COVID-19

Dr. Do Tuan Dat, President of the Company for Vaccine and Biological Production No.1 (VABIOTECH) in Hanoi said that the vaccine was developed after scientists successfully generated the novel coronavirus antigen in the lab. For vaccine production, antigen units are the most important ingredient that helps the body process antigens.

After testing the VABIOTECH vaccine in mice for two weeks, the scientists will conduct blood tests on the animal and send samples to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

According to the institute, it will take at least 12-18 months to develop the vaccine that can work safely on humans.

Serba Dinamik, MTDC partners for digital startup ecosystem development in Malaysia

Serba Dinamik Group has signed an MoU with the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) to foster the growth of the digital startup ecosystem in Malaysia by “providing guidance and mentoring to budding entrepreneurs for innovative transformation”, as reported by The Star.

Both parties said that the partnership seeks to assist the new-age technology startups in the country by focussing on areas such as Artificial Intelligence, 5G, Big Data, cybersecurity, blockchain, Internet of Things, and machine learning.

The parties also announced a US$1.4 million Innovative Transformation Seed Fund that will encourage new startups involved in digital or business innovation to commercialise their ideas via a clear business model.

MTDC CEO Norhalim Yunus said: “We will also design and develop programmes, including training, knowledge-sharing, developmental programmes and other programmes of similar nature that will benefit the cooperation besides providing knowledge transfer and expertise for the development of technology transfer, commercialisation, and entrepreneurship.”

Fintech platform Nium raises funding from Visa

Remittance platform Nium announced its latest fundraise today by Visa, with participation from existing investors and new investors such as BRI Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Bank BRI of Indonesia.

Also Read: BRI, Visa join remittance firm Nium’s Series C round to facilitate tuck-in acquisitions

Nium said it will use the funds to further build out its diversified payment infrastructure offering that includes outreach to consumers, SMEs, large enterprises as well as banks and financial institutions, product development, and tuck-in acquisitions that compress time to market.

Just before the funding announcement, the company has made news for two wins, one for the account of a large European marketplace payment provider to process a billion Euros annually, and the other for a large international bid for one of the world’s biggest maritime businesses to process crew payments via cards and collections for vessel management.

The company also has been working with a prominent Asian Neobank to help them expand overseas by providing international collections.

As part of their own consumer and SME remittance offering (InstaReM) and remittance- capabilities, Nium has reached millions of customers across 10 licensed jurisdictions through a fully micro-service driven model and offering services such as payroll disbursement to travel and expenses management.
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Photo by Al ghazali on Unsplash

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Vietnam’s e-commerce startup Leflair declares bankruptcy after facing capital crunch

Leflair, a premium e-commerce platform in Vietnam, has filed for bankruptcy,  according to DealstreetAsia.

The startup owes about US$2 million to 500 partners, according to several reports.

In February this year, Leflair, which deals in premium products, had  announced its decision to cease the local operations due to the fierce competition in the market.

In a latter to merchants, it had said said: “The changes in the investment landscape for startups have made Leflair’s current business strategy difficult to pursue. Under the capital crunch and requirements to cut costs, we had to make the tough decision to cease our operations in Vietnam.”

The company has revealed that it had suspended local operations due to “changes in the investment landscape for startups which caused operational inefficiencies”.

In 2018, the startup had raised US$7 million from private equity firm Belt Road Capital Management and South Korean retailer GS Shop in 2018.

Uber considers laying off up to 700 employees in India

Ride-hailing giant Uber is expected to lay off roughly 500 to 700 of its employees in India, according to TechInAsia.

This speculation comes in as many companies are forced to take harsh measures due to the ongoing pandemic, which has hit the region’s economy with a deathblow.

Also Read: Google SEAs MD on why women should be confident, speak up and contribute

In a recent article by The Report, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi cautioned its employees about the harsh measures Uber might take to ensure survival.

“Hope is not a strategy. We’re not going to avoid hard decisions,” he said.

Uber will most likely confirm the news and announce the layoffs when the lockdown is lifted, one of the sources close to the matter said.

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Image Credit:  Benedikt Geyer

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