With the global headlines embroiled in #BlackLivesMatter, it got me thinking whether such a thing exists in South and Southeast Asia too, and to be specific, within the tech community.

For racism, it’s a systemic thing that I believe exists in almost every nation. The global campaign sparked a similar one in my home country Indonesia, called #PapuanLivesMatter, and exposed the nation that itself has decade-long, inherent problems with racist treatment of the far-west Papuan tribes — just because of the colour of their skin and the stark physical difference they have with a typical Indonesian.

In India, Bollywood artists speaking up using the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag only reveals that it’s become rather easy to ignore the problems when it’s directly related to your upbringing and where you came from, especially when it doesn’t have any significance to your virtual presence. 

One Twitter handle pointed out the hypocrisy in supporting #BlackLivesMatter when you’re not black — especially when you can find the same, if not worse, problems in your country when it comes to religion and tribes.

So that’s the context on how easy it is to be tone-deaf when you’re not part of the community, and in our case, when you’re halfway across the world.

It is one thing to be moved to do what you can do in your place, and it is quite another to support for the sake of supporting without even the basic understanding of what happened, and worse, turning a blind eye to what’s going on right under your nose.

We’ve come across several campaigns around the world for equal opportunity, equal representation and equal pay for women in the tech industry, but they were mostly remained on paper. 

I did a little digging of whether racism, discrimination, bigotry — or what my teammate called ‘classism’ — is indeed existing in the tech community, and here are my findings:

There’s little finding on discrimination in tech workplace

I think there should be a broader look into the matter, and it’s now a perfect time to do so with, the discrimination being a hot topic everywhere. It’s hard not to be exposed to the topic nowadays, and I think that the harder it is to talk about, the more urgently it needs to be in the conversation.

Also Read: Diversity in the workforce: Where do we go from here?

As you typed in “Southeast Asia tech community discrimination” in Google, there’s not a light shining to the matter of race except for gender-related discrimination. It’s a widespread problem everywhere in the world, and we’ve got a long way to go when it comes to gender equality in the tech ecosystem. And we’re getting there.

In a “State of Asian Startups” survey done by TechInAsia, only 15 per cent of founders and employees were found to be facing discrimination in tech-related workplaces, with race and nationality coming on top, followed by age and gender. Prejudices are most likely to be faced by women than men, but this is another issue.

There’s a mention of racial discrimination rising due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as we are all well aware of what happened in the US and globally. The rest of the search didn’t indicate a strong finding of racial and class discrimination in the Southeast Asian tech community, which brings me to the next point.

Known or not, be prepared

In my previous startup company, for example, it was made clear from the get-go that one of the values that the company upheld is championing diversity. What exactly does it mean to champion diversity at the workplace?

In the past, if we look into how “championing diversity” worked in places like Silicon Valley, it meant giving equal opportunities to people from different backgrounds. In my previous company, it meant accepting employees solely based on their capabilities and not based on their religion or race.

I think that’s a good place to start. Reinforcing diversity as core values in how a company works and actively trying to apply that value in the hiring process are necessary steps to take. It’s definitely not enough to address the diversity through the prism of race but it also has to be done through the lens of gender and religion (still big issues in Asia), and class.

Social class is another thing. My previous workplace, strict as it can be on the diversity talk, was a bit laggard when it came to ‘class’ discrimination. I had seen a colleague of mine was being favoured over the others because she had a rich dad. But is it a wrong thing to do? After all, you need to leverage all connections you have to survive, and that’s been the game since day one.

What does it take for a tech community to take a stance

Besides reinforcing the company value of anti-discrimination and imposing sanction in place, what else can we do to hopefully maintain and eradicate the already low number of discrimination in tech workplaces?

Michael H. Lints, Partner at Golden Gate Ventures, and a black father of two, shares his insights and expresses frustration over the last few weeks’ events that unfolded right in front of his eyes in this Medium article.

Also Read: How the sharing economy is fighting racial discrimination

“I am emotionally tired. Institutional racism is so prevalent that people don’t even notice it. I, and my fellow black men and women, my friends, my family, had to deal with it since we were kids,” Lints remarked.

Lints says he’s been fed up being called the N-word, being looked over for a job despite his qualifications, and being given derogatory looks and nicknames all his life, even at the tech scene he’s been serving.

Learning from Lints, we can start by highlighting the matters using what platform we may possess. However, using your platform is interpreted vastly different for each person and these days, it’s really hard to see a genuine intention behind every social media’s noisy posts and viral attempt.

If we’re talking about a hit and miss of using your platform, then this LinkedIn post from an ex-employee of Facebookmay be a good example. He tried to use his voice, but can’t help but fall into the trap of generalisation.

I would assume he meant well by this, but it’s hard to look beyond how he uttered his intention, and it’s harder not to be cynical at it with what’s been going on. It easily made the person look like he’s trying to ride on the trend to get attention, and that’s what’s problematic.

There’s a word for this: performative allyship, which describes the situation pretty well. When coming from the privileged people, or dare I say race, it can become insincere rather easily to show up now when you’ve been living in a bubble, hence a performative term.

It is a disease raised by a culture of ignorance and a lack of inclusion. The conversation circles back to how important it is to have a good look at yourself before speaking out, to see where your intention points at.

With social media in our arsenal and the whole world watching, it’s easy to think that at least we contribute in speaking out, sometimes without context. It’s even easier for the tech community, with the access to connection and the whole community of the world just one click away.

If this is so systemic, it’s worth checking beyond the data. If you have the resources, it won’t kill you to learn the history and see if the same thing happens in your nation.

I, for one, have been finding out that the same thing happened in Indonesia, with the most oppressed tribe, the Papuans, coming out from the far-eastern part of the country. The island is so rich with gold that it caused bloodshed and industrial war among foreigners, with the most rightful and innocent victims trapped in between.

Closing with the words from Lints:

“So to the people replying to “Black Lives Matter” with “All Lives Matter”, to the people ignoring my experiences and the experiences of other black men and women, to the people denying the enduring prevalence of systemic racism, not just in the United States, but globally: I encourage you to think about the origins of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013. I ask that you look up Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. Try to understand how black people’s lives have been treated as expendable, and why black people are afraid for their lives.”

We all can use some learning. Learning tones down your need to speak out for the sake of joining the noises. It checks you out, so for now, just listen and learn.

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Wallex Technologies, a Singapore-headquartered fintech startup that seeks to serve FX and cross border payment needs of SMEs, has announced the closing of an undisclosed Series A funding led by Ant Financial-backed fund BAce Capital, SMDV, and Skystar Capital. Existing investors also participated in the funding.

The company said that the new funds will be directed towards entering new markets as well as scaling up in already existing markets, and enhancing the core products.

Hiroyuki Kiga, COO and Co-Founder, shared, “We’re excited to partner with our new investors as it gives us a foothold into the largest and exciting economies of the world. We will continue to drive on our mission to empower SMEs by providing them with the tools to grow their business.”

Wallex is a B2B-focused FX engine that allows customers to convert and pay in over 40 currencies, collect via virtual accounts, and hold funds in a wallet.

Also Read: Singapore cross-border payments startup Wallex raises Pre-Series A funding from BEENEXT

It consists of a team of more than 75 employees with deep domain experience. The company confirmed that it has already achieved US$1 billion of annualised GTV and has secured a money transfer license in Hong Kong in December 2019.

Jody Ong, CEO & Co-Founder, said, “Wallex is setting its sights on providing future-ready services like virtual receivable accounts and multi-currency wallets. This funding will help us build out more robust capabilities for our SME customers to manage their cash flow and hedge their forex risk within a single platform.”

Prior to this funding, Wallex raised a Pre-Series A funding led by BEENEXT in October 2018.

Other participating investors in the previous rounds included Central Capital Ventura (fintech investment arm of Bank Central Asia) and Indonusa Dwitama.

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2020 was supposed to be an exciting year for Southeast Asia’s thriving startup ecosystem. With strong economic growth, rising affluence, and growth capital strengthened, startups were entering into the region’s golden age.

But all that changed when the novel strain of coronavirus, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) coined as COVID-19, came into this world. And before you know it, face masks and toilet paper were sold out, oil prices went subzero, and the world continues to debate on whether barbers and bubble tea are considered essential services to continue operating in this current pandemic. Welcome to the new normal!

Most startups should be agile enough to adapt to all the “who moved my cheese” moments in what was destined to be a wicked roller coaster ride anyway. But this is an unprecedented global crisis where even the large corporations are taking a beating from. So here are four tips out of the playbook that might be useful for startups to rewire their culture, brave through this pandemic and emerge stronger than ever.

The ability to recruit exceptional tech talent

A bold vision must be accompanied by technology, as the key enabler for disruptive innovation, and the catalyst required for startups to grow and scale. It is an integral part of your internal operations, external communications, cross-border business activities, and the very foundation of the product/solution that would eventually be shipped to your customers.

Given the ever-rising expectations in today’s world, there is little or no room for a buggy UX and any half-decked features, even for the early adopters. That means no more cutting corners with your tech stack, and/or compromising on the quality of your tech team.

Also Read: ‘Our main barrier to growth is the status quo in retail sector’: KiotViet’s Deputy GM Tri Cao

The tech talent shortage is a global phenomenon, so it is even more pressing that founders and companies must now have the ability to attract tech talent and foster a healthy engineering culture within the firm.

Instead of competing with the FAANGs, the banks, and other large companies to vie for local hires, startups might be better served by tapping on overseas talent pools. Companies such as Sea Group, V-key, CXA, and Lazada, have done so by venturing offshore to build their software engineering teams and tech hubs in Vietnam.

Offshoring is the new market expansion

As a startup based in an ASEAN city, you almost always have to think regional from day one in order to reach a bigger market to grow the business. That usually means hiring across all teams and expanding into new markets once your startup achieves product-market fit and raised external funding.

There’s just one problem – the funds have to be shared amongst other forms of necessary spending in an effort to achieve the next set of milestones, and you probably don’t have enough cash to cover all the expenses of going abroad while focusing on the product at the same time.

Since you need to grow your tech capabilities and expand the business simultaneously, why not kill two birds with one stone by building your offshore tech team in the very geography that’s next on your hit list? This would act as a soft-landing for the business to gain initial exposure and establish an initial presence in the new market, before diving in deeper.

But don’t be a hero and do it all on your own. It is always recommended to work with a trusted partner to navigate the operational risks and administrative speed bumps along the way so that you can continue to focus on moving fast and breaking things.

At Tech JDI, we’ve worked with companies like ShopBack, Aspire, Oddle, and Minterest, to facilitate their market expansion into Vietnam.

Also Read: Can tech prevent the end of civilisation?

The consensus from the ecosystem now is for founders to re-strategise for a strong rebound in H2 2020, and this could be an approach for your startup moving forward.

Time to embrace remote working

In the tech startup world, where everyone ships code and claims to embrace the future of work, it still had to take a global crisis like this for us to get comfortable and embrace the likes of Zoom and Google Meet, amongst other digital tools to help facilitate communications and do our jobs better.

It’s not that we’re not tech-savvy enough or digitally ready yet. It was always about trust and execution. So maybe it’s a good thing that most of us were forced into lockdowns and work-from-home regulations with no time to think nor react. Founders now realise that:

(1) employees are able to get shit done remotely given the rights measures and policies in place to support this practice,

(2) there is a significant amount of time and monies saved from the reduced need for office rental and transport.

In the new normal, telecommuting will no longer be frowned upon as a last resort, and startups will have a newfound confidence and expertise to hire and manage teams remotely, even across geographical borders.

Also Read: How travel tech startup Travelhorse survives the pandemic by branching into new territory

Given this context, founders should now have a new perspective on Southeast Asia – not just as the promised land with a market of 655 million people, but also as an opportunity to also pursue a distributed team strategy to diversify cost and culture within the organisation.

Now, all we have to do is to keep our fingers crossed that COVID-19 is not just the MVP that forced the digital transformation of your company, but for your home’s wifi broadband and your local city’s digital infrastructure too.

Balancing growth, cost, and quality all at the same time

When tech startups became the modern-day kool-aid in this part of the world est. 2010, founders (and VCs) spent the better half of the decade in pursuit of a growth trajectory that was supposed to look like the first letter of Jesus’ name. More recently, the ecosystem realised that unicorn-ification in its initial form was not sustainable, and unit economics became the new holy grail.

Think of it as a hybrid between a unicorn and a cockroach, and that’s the beast mode that your startup has to escalate to. Moving fast and breaking things is still the name of the game, but no longer is it performed recklessly “at all costs”. Like the race to find a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2, the startup which manages to figure this out the fastest will find salvation.

It takes an ecosystem to raise a startup

More than ever before, the ecosystem must band together for all stakeholders involved to win the war against the invisible enemy.

At Tech JDI, we believe in global innovation for a better world. We understand startups and scaling, having started three years ago as a venture support services arm under TNF Ventures to help our own portfolio companies cross the chasm. Since then, we’ve supported more than 30 companies across southeast Asia to build-up their tech teams and establish a business presence in Vietnam.

If you’re keen to learn about how we can help you to expand your tech team and build a market presence in Vietnam, get in touch with us.

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On-demand video streaming platform under Indonesia’s gojek, GoPlay, has raised an undisclosed amount of capital in an independent funding round led by ZWC Partners and Golden Gate Ventures.

Other investors included Openspace Ventures, Ideosource Entertainment, and Redbadge Pacific.

The streaming service plans to use the cash to enhance its technology to help Indonesian filmmakers introduce and distribute their work to a larger audience, positioning itself as a medium of high quality locally produced movies and series.

Although American global streaming platforms have snowballed, the space has become more competitive in the past with addition from several new rivals.

However, taking the example of the liquidation streaming service Hooq, as well as Malaysia’s iflix, video streaming has always struggled to make an impact in local markets.

Edy Sulistyo, CEO of GoPlay, on the contrary, believes that Gojek massive regional footprint will give it an added advantage compared to the rest to come up with great local content to support and grow Indonesia’s creative industry.

Also Read: gojek names Facebook, PayPal as new investors in latest funding round

“GoPlay was launched to meet the fast-growing needs of Indonesia’s entertainment industry. Indonesia’s local pool of content creators needs more avenues to showcase their talent, while our growing pool of mobile consumers wants access to more local content at their fingertips,” he commented.

“By combining the resources and expertise of these partners with Gojek’s footprint in Indonesia, we are well-positioned to support and grow Indonesia’s creative industry, while continuing to reach more consumers with quality local content.”

Regionally speaking, even as Netflix and Amazon continue to dominate Hollywood content, there is still a lot of potentials when it comes to local content.

In a recent article by Kr-Asia, Iflix CEO Cam Walker said that because the target audience for local content providers is Indonesia’s middle-to-low income group, there is still a huge possibility of growth.

This class makes up a significant percentage of the country and increasingly turns towards the television to watch local dramas.

“Looking at the current growth and demand for content streaming, we believe that the Indonesian content market has the potential to reach US$1 billion within the next three years,” said Andi Boediman, CEO of Ideosource Entertainment.

“Hence, GoPlay plays a strategic role within the gojek ecosystem, in acquiring new users, increasing user engagement and retaining existing users through its quality on-demand content,” he added.

This news follows gojek’s recent funding news from high-profile technology firms including Google, Tencent and PayPal.

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Image Credit: Gojek

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Tiki, a Vietnam-based e-commerce startup, reportedly has received US$130 million in a new funding round led by Singapore-headquartered private equity firm Northstar Group.

e27 reached out to Tiki for the news but the representative declined to give any comment.

According to DealStreetAsia, the funding round may still continue until it raises up to US$150 million in funding.

Some names involved as investors on Tiki’s cap table include Vietnamese unicorn VNG, Japanese firms CyberAgent Capital and Sumitomo Corporation, Chinese retailer JD, Singapore’s EDBI, as well as South Korean funds SparkLabs Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, and STIC Investments.

Also Read: How Vietnam’s e-commerce firm Tiki is tiding over COVID-19 crisis

Tiki was founded in 2010 as a bookselling platform before growing into an online marketplace, fulfillment centres, and logistics network composed into one e-commerce platform.

When the company announced its Series C funding round in 2018, Chinese online retailed JD was said to be one of its largest shareholders. The company’s investment into Tiki is part of its strategy to enter the lucrative Southeast Asian market, after securing a presence in Indonesia and Thailand.

In 2019, as part of its effort to expand its vertical and become a one-stop platform, Tiki bought event ticketing startup Ticketbox for an undisclosed sum.

Just recently, it has been reported that Tiki and local rival Sendo have attempted to merge their businesses. DealStreetAsia reported that the two e-commerce players had reached an agreement on the merger with no updates on whether the transaction has been approved by the National Competition Committee.

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Image Credit: Tiki

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Singapore’s metal printing startup 3DInfra raises pre-Series A from SEEDS, M Venture

Singapore-based metal additive design and printing startup 3DInfra has raised an undisclosed sum in pre-Series A funding from MAS-licensed M Venture Partners and Enterprise Singapore’s investment arm SEEDS Capital.

The company said that the funding will be directed into driving 3D Metalforge’s technology development, establishing an Additive Manufacturing Center in Houston, Texas, and team development.

The company claimed that its Additive Manufacturing Center in Singapore is ISO-certified and is one of only 7 manufacturers globally certified by Lloyds Register to print marine parts.

According to Mena FN, the company is currently serving clients in the oil & gas, marine, and defense sectors, 3D Metalforge focusses on large format, high-value specialist metals for industry application. It leverages proprietary design processes and metal printer technologies that produce specialist parts faster, cheaper, and of higher quality than traditional manufacturing.

“3DInfra’s Additive Manufacturing solutions enable them to manufacture high-value parts with improved performance while reducing costs and production time. Such solutions strengthen our advanced manufacturing capabilities and encourage disruptive innovations in traditional sectors like the Marine, and Oil & Gas industry,” said Geoffrey Yeo, General Manager of SEEDS Capital.

Singapore earmarks US$285M fund for innovative startups

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said that Singapore would allocate US$285 million to help startups sustain innovation and entrepreneurship activities and gain access to credit, and bridge the financing gap they face amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as reported by The Straits Times.

The Special Situation Fund for Start-ups (SSFS) will be administered by the EDBI, the corporate investment arm of the Economic Development Board, and SEEDS Capital.

EDBI and SEEDS Capital will invest in selected startups with private sector co-investors in a one-to-one ratio and those that were incorporated as private limited companies with their headquarters and key value-added activities in Singapore.

Also Read: Singapore Budget 2020 and what it means for the tech ecosystem this year

The scheme will end when the funds are fully committed or by October 31, 2021. Involving the private sector, co-investors are said to plan to double the deployable capital, and the SSFS will enable these companies to continue their early product development and innovations to build a strong foundation for growth.

Interested early-stage start-ups can apply for the funding via ssfs@enterprisesg.gov.sg, while late-stage start-ups can apply via ssfs@edbi.com

OVO’s P2P lending arm Taralite gets licence from Indonesia Financial Services Authority

Taralite, Indonesian digital wallet OVO’s P2P lending arm, has attained a business license from the Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) as an IT-based Lending Provider.

With this license, OVO and Taralite plan to continue to support the government’s efforts to implement Indonesia’s digital vision and mission, particularly bringing people, especially in the MSMEs sector, closer to digital financial services.

OVO’s CEO Jason Thompson said that through these financial service innovations, users and MSMEs players will have expanded access to untapped services, including consumer and business lending. ​

Along with OVO, towards the beginning of 2020, Taralite has introduced OVO DanaTara as a cash flow management and additional business capital solution for Indonesian MSMEs. Also, Taralite provides online MSMEs access to financing of up to IDR 500 million (US$35,000) with the approval process around 1-3 working days and tenor up to 12 months.

To date, Taralite services are available for MSMEs who are members of prominent e-commerce platforms in Indonesia such as Tokopedia, Lazada, Shopee, and Bukalapak.

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Co-founder and Chief Culture Officer Miguel McKelvey quits WeWork

Miguel McKelvey, Co-founder and longtime Chief Culture Officer of WeWork, has announced that he is leaving the company by the end of this month.

McKelvey is also one of the last executives remaining at the global co-working space giant, after the recent departure of CTO Shiva Rajaraman, Head of Real Estate Aaron Ellison, and four other board members.

“After ten years, I’ve made one of the most difficult decisions of my life — one that I’m not even sure has sunk in just yet. But at the end of this month, I’ll be leaving WeWork. While it’s hard to leave, and I know there is a lot more work to be done, I could only make this decision knowing this company and our people are in good hands,” McKelvey wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Grab launches initiative to help SEA companies grow during COVID-19

Ride-hailing giant Grab has launched Small Business Booster Programme to help small businesses in Southeast Asia to grow during COVID-19, according to a statement.

The initiative will help companies pivot from offline to online and help build their visibility via the Grab app.

“COVID-19 has accelerated change. We have seen dependency on online services grow exponentially almost overnight. This is spurring innovation in Southeast Asia but also putting us at risk of widening the digital divide,” said Hooi Ling Tan, Co-founder of Grab.

“Small businesses make up the backbone of Southeast Asia’s economy, but the vast majority of these businesses are offline. They will need to embrace technology and digitalise or risk falling further behind.  Through our Small Business Booster Programme, we hope to help small businesses navigate this new normal. We will draw on our technology and reach to find new ways of doing business that can inclusively support everyone,” Tan commented.

India’s intercity bus travel startup YoloBus raises US$3.3M

Yolobus, an India-based startup, has raised US$3.3 million in funding led by Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from India Quotient.

This brings Yolobus’s total funds raised to date to US$4.1 million.

Bus travel has been one of the most common modes of transport in India. However, it has also suffered from the issue of hygiene, safety and congestion. Yolobus managed to identify this problem much before the wake of COVID-19, where hygiene is being majorly stressed upon.

“Bus transport in India has been a gruelling, unsafe, unhygienic, untimely experience for travellers. Apart from addressing all these issues, Yolobus will resume its operations with extensive precautionary measures for every trip,” said Founder Shailesh Gupta.

“Every passenger will be checked with infra-red temperature measuring guns before onboarding. Customers will be able to pre-order essential PPE kits and know the temperature of the bus crew members before boarding the bus,” he added.

Yolobus’s goal is to provide “airline-level services”-like bus captains, high-speed Wi-Fi, washrooms, food and beverages, device charging points, etc for buses. 

Singapore’s DocDoc partners with Kaitaiming to expand its services into China

Singapore’s DocDoc has announced a partnership with Kaitaiming Technology (KTM) today to strategically expand its services to China, according to a press statement.

Through this, DocDoc will add its doctor-discovery services to China’s insurance companies on the KTM platform and provide the latter’s insurance partners with access to medically trained concierge team.

Also Read: Tiki reportedly raises US$130M in funding led by Northstar Group

“China is the world’s most exciting insurance market,” said Cole Sirucek, Co-founder of DocDoc.

“DocDoc’s AI-powered doctor discovery service is ideally suited to serve China’s massive unmet need for consumers looking for high-quality, affordable care,” he added.

Tenopy partners with AMKFSC to provide underprivileged students with free online classes

Singaporean edutech company Tenopy has partnered with local charity organisation AMKFSC to provide underprivileged students with free online classes, according to a press statement.

This initiative will offer live online classes and personalised learning experiences to students from Primary three to Secondary two levels, along with free recorded lessons and homework materials to AMKFSC volunteer tutors.

“Our vision is to make the highest quality classes and learning accessible to the many students,” said Tenopy Founder Soh Chong Kian.

“This partnership with AMKFSC takes us further in realising this vision. We are offering free classes and content to students who need them the most in this difficult time,” Kian added.

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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Having seen and heard over 2,000 pitches in the last year alone, we dare say that 90 per cent of startup founders struggle to clearly define their problem statement.

Deceptively simple, a well-defined problem will not only capture an investor’s (limited) attention but keep it throughout your presentation.

Fifty per cent of the success of your first pitch is in your problem statement. Why? It sets the tone of the pitch and helps us understand the market size, the need for the solution, and who’s paying.

In this blog post, we shed light first on how founders can avoid the common pitfalls of crafting a problem statement then of course, on what investors look out for in one.

If you’re from a B2B (enterprise) or deep tech startup, this article is for you. For B2C startups, while important, the problem statement is trumped by your vision statement and identifying a need with consumers.

Also Read: 3 legal problems online marketers could run into

Common pitfalls

Focusing on the solution, not the problem

We understand your enthusiasm when it comes to your solution, in fact, we love it! However, the most common mistake a startup can make in its early stages is to fall in love with their product and not the problem.

If there’s one thing we are sure of, is that the solution will change as it evolves for product-market fit, growth and scale. A well-defined problem isn’t just for investors, it will act as a guiding principle as the company grows later on as well.

Take one of Cocoon’s portfolio companies, Hapz for example. The problem: Events organisers are not able to monetise events and have low margins. When we first invested in the company, their solution was to sell extra tickets for events.

However, they quickly realised that just selling tickets was only a small part of the event organisers’ problem. By providing a single events management platform to organisers, Hapz is now able to use the data to improve the efficiency of running the entire event, of which one part is improving ticket sales.

Thus by pivoting the solution to better solve the problem they achieved product-market fit. Had they focused on their first solution and not the problem, the opportunity for something much bigger would have been missed.

Also Read: Hidden reasons why VCs reject your startup for investment

Multiple problems

We at Cocoon are constantly on the lookout for founders who dare to change the world. Being a startup founder is tough enough, so let’s focus on solving one problem at a time, especially at the seed stage.

The classic example is defining the problem statement for a marketplace. The usual pitch focuses on both sides of the marketplace, usually with a statement similar to “customers want to have access to all alternatives, merchants want to reach consumers cheaply” – win-win for all, right? Maybe eventually.

However, as a startup it’s important to understand who will be paying for your service; that is who your problem statement should be focused on. Will the consumers be paying for the service with a fee for everything that they are buying? Or will the merchants pay to be onboarded?

Buzzwords don’t get us excited

This mistake is often closely related to the first mistake. The problem statement should never include phrases like “artificial intelligence”, “net neutrality”, “actionable analytics”, “data mining”, you get what we mean.

Buzzwords are often related to the solution which will change and adapt over time. When this happens, you may find yourself with a really awesome product or solution that is searching for a problem.

Also Read: Using design sprints to solve COVID-19 business problems

Creating a problem

Which brings us to the next point – is your product a need, or a nice to have? Businesses are presented with a multitude of options, but with a limited share of wallet. Think about it this way – in times of a downturn, would your solution be the first or last to go? If it’s the latter, the problem you’re solving is not mission-critical and should be revisited.

A well-defined problem isn’t rocket science.

Solve one problem

Solutions can cater to multiple beneficiaries but focus on the one stakeholder that you are solving the problem for. This is your immediate market size and go-to-market strategy, which will vary from institution to merchant to conglomerate, the stakeholder paying for your product.

Once you focus on who’s paying, it’ll be easier to identify what the problem is for them. They will be the ones driving your revenue.

Pain points

This is a big one. You have to identify the biggest pain points of the people who have the problem and where the problem is rooted. Who controls the budget for the solution to the problem? The pain point has to be so significant that the stakeholders are willing to part with their limited budget to purchase your solution.

Keep it short

The problem statement should not be longer than two sentences. It should easily fit on one pitch deck slide.

Also Read: Dealing with fundraising problems? These three startups may have the answer

Defining a problem is not a problem

Now that you’ve crafted your problem statement, think about the following questions: Does this problem keep directors and executives up at night? Is this problem a topic of board meeting discussions? If you took away your solution, would the problem still exist?

If the answers are a confident yes, yes and yes, then you’re on the right track. If not, don’t be afraid to recreate and reiterate until you get it right.

With a good problem statement in tow, investors can now clearly understand and get excited about the opportunity the problem presents, with a strategic overview of your company and how we can value-add to accelerate your growth.

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Indonesian ride-hailing giant gojek today named Facebook and PayPal as new investors in its latest funding round.

Existing investors Google and Tencent, who first made investments in the company in 2018, also made a comeback in this undisclosed funding round.

In a press statement, gojek stated that the participation of these global companies in their funding round is meant to support the company’s mission in supporting the growth of digital economy in Southeast Asia, particularly in payments and financial services.

It also stated that gojek is the first Indonesian company to raise an investment from Facebook. This investment is in line with the social media giant’s goal to “create opportunities” for businesses in Indonesia, particularly through its WhatsApp platform.

The investment will also see the integration of PayPal service onto the gojek platform. It will also enable access for GoPay users –gojek’s digital wallet service– to PayPal’s network of 25 million global merchants.

Also Read: Morning News Roundup: Fulldive partners gojek’s digital payment arm GoPay, launching its browser in Indonesia

“This is great validation that the world’s most innovative tech companies recognise the positive impact Gojek is making in Indonesia and the whole of Southeast Asia. By working together, we have the opportunity to achieve something truly unique as we aim to help more businesses to digitise and ensure that many millions more consumers are enjoying the benefits that the digital economy can bring,” said gojek Co-CEO Andre Soelistyo.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated issues have served as a tough reminder that if our economies are to be more resilient, they must be underpinned by digital infrastructure that diversifies the ways in which people can live and transact. We see our role as a convener of global tech expertise, facilitating collaboration that will ultimately lead to a better future for everyone in our region,” he continued.

Prior to this announcement, Bloomberg reported that gojek raised US$1.2 billion to support the company in its effort to compete with fellow Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab.

Starting off as a motorbike-based ride-hailing service, the company has branched into different services from different verticals within less than a decade.

It has also begun expanding beyond Indonesia in the recent years.

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Image Credit: gojek

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